About

25 years online. Now planted in Fredericksburg.

Fresh Starts is Mike Thomson: advertiser, analyst, and operator since the dial-up days, now doing one thing for Texas wine country.

The Story

I've spent 25 years running online advertising, marketing, and analytics. I helped take one direct-to-consumer brand from a standing start to $112M in lifetime revenue, and I still manage paid media for a client I've served for almost two decades. The lesson from all of it: tools change constantly, and the businesses that win are the ones that know which changes to ignore.

Then AI arrived, and every business owner I know started getting pitched the same thing. Chatbots. Agents. Automation platforms. Mostly by people who have never run an ad budget, closed a sale, or answered a customer complaint. The tools are real. The prescriptions are mostly junk.

So I built a practice around the missing step: diagnosis. I call it Business Reframing™. We look at how your business actually runs, decide together where AI genuinely helps, and say plainly where it doesn't. Sometimes the answer is a $10K build. Sometimes it's a checklist. You get the honest one.

In 2026 my wife and I moved to Fredericksburg, Texas. This practice is built for our neighbors: the wineries, breweries, distilleries, and hospitality businesses that make the Hill Country what it is. We work where we live, and around here your name is worth more than your ad budget. That keeps us grounded.

Operating Principles

What We Believe

The rules that survive contact with every engagement.

Diagnose Before Prescribing

No fix gets proposed before we understand how the work actually happens. Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice in every other profession. Ours too.

The Right Tool, Not the Shiny One

AI when it genuinely helps. A plain workflow when it does not. A one-page SOP when that is honestly enough. The answer is never "more software" by default.

Security, Ethics, Privacy. Designed In.

Every proposal passes all three lenses at the drawing board, or it is not done. Not a compliance checkbox. The actual discipline.

You Own What We Build

Code, docs, accounts, credentials. If your team cannot run it without us, we are not finished. No hostage-taking dressed up as a retainer.

Start with a conversation

A free 30-minute intro call. No charge, no pitch. And when you're ready, the $250 Setup Session credits toward a Business Reframe if you climb.