The Engagement
See how to start
Read the method
Why this method exists
That’s not a design problem. It’s a positioning problem dressed up as a design problem. The Engagement exists to fix the order, not the typography.
Phase 01 / 04
Before we design anything, we tell you what’s actually broken.
Most advisor brands fail the Cover Your Logo test before the meeting starts. The homepage describes financial planning. The about page describes the team. The services page describes the services. None of it describes the firm. Phase 01 produces a written verdict — what’s recoverable, what isn’t, and what the firm is actually competing on whether it knows it or not.
You walk away with
A Brand Strategy Roadmap and a 3-month Action Plan — not a workshop summary.
Capabilities
Cover Your Logo Audit
Competitive Landscape Map
Stakeholder Interviews
Brand & Web Teardown
Target Client Pattern Analysis
Positioning Pressure Test
The Five-Week Breakdown
Week 1
Prep + Audit
Before we meet for the workshop, we’d like to review:
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Your business plan
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Any current marketing, sales, products, or other customer touchpoints, including links to your podcast, social media accounts, and website
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Testimonials or reviews of your current products
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Access to Google Analytics, if you have it
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Any other data you track
Week 2
Strategic Facilitated Workshop
This is a live workshop with our team and all of your decision makers. Our time together will be a mix of discussion and group exercises. We’ll be diving deep to uncover insights about your ideal customers and your brand. We’ll end by outlining an action plan to implement the strategy.
Here’s what we’ll focus on in detail:
🎯 Super Fan
We will identify your ideal customer, your super fan, so we know who we want to attract. We will surface their wants, challenges, pain points, and reasons for buying into your brand.
⚡ Brand
We will uncover who you are as a brand and what makes you attractive to your super fan. We will define your brand, your why, backstory, brand archetype, and analyze your competition.
🚦 Customer Journey
We will define the relationship your customer has with your business: who they follow, how they find you, and why they refer your brand to others.
🎬 Action Plan
Based on all the information we uncovered about your brand and your customers, we will create a rough action plan of what to do next.
Weeks 3–4
Research
My team and I will gather all the information from our workshop and take a deep dive into your competition, market, industry, and ideal customer. We will also interview three to five current and ideal customers and refine the information gathered in our workshop.
Week 4
Brand Roadmap Check-in
1-hour Zoom meeting
We will review the working Brand Strategy Roadmap and make sure we are all aligned with the direction, course-correcting as needed.
Week 5
Brand Roadmap Delivery
1-hour Zoom meeting, if needed
We will review the updated Brand Strategy Roadmap as well as the refined three-month Action Plan and deliver the document once all decision makers approve.
Phase 02 / 04
Strategy isn’t a deck. It’s a decision the firm has to be willing to make.
Phase 02 produces a one-page Positioning Brief. Who the firm is for. Who it isn’t for. What it stands for. How it talks. Every word that lands on a homepage, a pitch deck, or a LinkedIn bio gets traced back to this document. If leadership cannot agree on the contents of this page, no design work is going to fix that. So we don’t start design work until they can.
You walk away with
A signed Positioning Brief — the contract for everything that follows.
Capabilities
Positioning Statement
Messaging Architecture
Target Client Definition
Voice & Tone Principles
Named Methodology
Naming (where applicable)
Phase 03 / 04
The strategy becomes a system. Built by specialists. Directed by one strategist.
Phase 03 is where the visual identity, the website, and the messaging assets get made. I direct the work. I write the strategy that every decision answers to. Execution happens with named partners on the bench — Framer specialists, content collaborators, motion designers — vetted, trusted, named on this page. You get one point of contact. You get a system that doesn’t fall apart at the seams. You get a website that ships.
You walk away with
A complete brand system and a Framer site that converts.
Capabilities
Visual Identity System
Logo & Wordmark
Typography & Color
Website Copy
Framer Website Build
Brand Guidelines
Phase 04 / 04
A brand is a decision. Operating it is a discipline.
Most studios disappear at launch. That’s where the brand starts decaying. Phase 04 is the ongoing partnership: quarterly brand reviews, conversion audits, content systems, lead-capture architecture, and the marketing operations that keep the system performing. This is where fractional CMO oversight, funnels, and analytics live — as operations of the system you already built. Not as new services.
You walk away with
A brand that compounds — instead of one that fades after launch.
Capabilities
Quarterly Brand Reviews
Conversion & Web Audits
Content System Operations
Lead Capture Architecture
Funnel & Channel Oversight
Fractional CMO Direction
Four ways in
Scope and investment are decided after the diagnostic — not before.
(01)
The Diagnostic
A two-week Cover Your Logo audit and positioning interrogation. For firms not yet sure whether they need a brand engagement at all. Often becomes the foundation for a full one.
(02)
Strategic Foundation
Diagnostic, positioning, and visual identity system. No website. For firms whose site is fine, but the brand and messaging underneath it are the problem.
(03)
Full Engagement
Diagnostic, positioning, identity, copy, and a complete Framer website. The most common engagement. Three to four months from kickoff to launch.
(04)
The Re-Founding
Naming, full brand, website, launch strategy, and post-launch oversight. For successions, breakaways, and firms re-founding under new leadership. Includes a Phase 04 retainer.
I’ll tell you on the call whether the engagement is right for you, or whether you need someone else. Either answer is honest.