“Ambition” isn’t just our name. It’s a personal creed born from fire. You can be knocked down. You never have to stay down.
Cincinnati roots, blue-collar standards
I’m Cincinnati born and Taylor Mill based. I grew up between two worlds: my mom in healthcare and my dad a blue-collar contractor. From them I learned that the people who do the real work, who keep their word and show up at 6 AM, deserve marketing that does the same.
From Fortune 500 recruiting to search
My career started in technical recruiting at Fortune 500s, which sounds like a different world from marketing but isn’t. Every role I filled was a product I had to sell. I wrote job descriptions like landing pages, built audiences of qualified candidates, and ran targeted email campaigns to reach them. I lived inside Boolean search syntax for years, the same query logic search engines use today.
- Technical Recruiter at Amazon on the data and search infrastructure teams
- Technical Gatekeeper for Disney through Robert Half Technology
- Global hiring practices at Verisk Analytics through major acquisitions
The systems thinking that scales hiring for a Fortune 500 scales marketing for a growing business. That’s the lens I brought to this work.
Why I built Ambition
But credentials aren’t why I built this agency. I survived assault. I survived sexual harassment in corporate environments. Both experiences taught me what it means to be overlooked, silenced, and dismissed. Building Ambition was about refusing to let that happen to anyone else.
The first version of that wasn’t an agency. It was a lifestyle brand. AmbitionMama was supposed to be a content platform about resilience, motherhood, and figuring out how to make life work after hard chapters. I poured myself into the brand and learned the lesson every founder eventually learns: a beautiful brand without a marketing engine is just a hobby.
Going back to school: Google’s version
So I went to school again. Not a graduate program. The classroom was Google’s training library. I spent years working through certifications in Digital Marketing, Analytics, Google Ads, and SEO. I followed every algorithm change Google shipped. Then ChatGPT happened, and I started over on the AI search side: AEO, GEO, llms.txt, schema for generative engines. I read patents. I tested everything. I tracked what worked across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Grok.
When AI search arrived, I kept going. In June 2026 I completed the AI Empowered Leader program at Cincy AI Week in Cincinnati: more than eight hours of AI training and workshops on AI strategy, ethics and real-world implementation, issued by the Enterprise Technology Association as part of JobsOhio’s AI Ready Ohio program.
That’s when it clicked. The small and growing businesses I’d seen my dad work alongside my whole life were getting buried by the same algorithms I’d just spent years studying. They didn’t need another agency promising the world. They needed someone who actually understood how these systems work, and who would protect them from being overlooked the way I’d been overlooked. That’s the role I take seriously.
How we work together
You work with me directly. Sometimes with my assistant alongside, depending on the call. I’ll always tell you up front. Never a handoff to a junior at a 50-person agency. Small team. High access. Real accountability.
Off the clock
When I’m not running campaigns, I’m a Top-Rated Google Local Guide reviewing the best of Greater Cincinnati. I’m @AmbitionMama on TikTok, where the lifestyle brand evolved into a place I share what I’m building. I plan our family’s adventures around bucket-list moments: the longest zipline, the tallest waterslide, the local restaurants you’d never find on a chain map. Life’s too short for ordinary marketing. It’s too short for ordinary memories.
Let’s talk
If you’re tired of being invisible, book a strategy call. I’ll audit where you stand, name the right plan for your business, and never push an upsell that doesn’t earn its budget.
Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn →
Michelle
