Book TIME WITH ME

On-the-spot brainstorm ideation and strategy you can take back to your team.

Spend a few hours with me before you spend thousands with an agency.

I realized from working with both agencies and internally with brands, good ideas and having a process for yielding strategy was the most valuable part of any execution.

A traditional consultant or agency’s own process gets in the way of creativity because they want to put you on retainer. And because they need to retain your business, they lack candor. And candid thinking leads to great ideas.

But what if we could eliminate anything from the process that inhibits creativity and keep only what’s essential the way art and science does.

That’s what this is.

Why would you do this?

Because you’re tired of the status quo of working with agencies or consultants. ie: It’s expensive and takes too long.

Because you don’t feel like the plans in place are working.

Because you want a second opinion that’s not going to be costly or a conflict of interest.  

Because the whole idea of sitting down with another creative mind and eliminating all other bullshit appeals to you the same way it does to me.

More on the who, what, when, where, and how…

Who.

You, one other principle if you'd like, and myself only. The more focused the attention is the better.

What.

Private ad-hoc consulting with on-the-spot ideation and strategy guaranteed. In person or virtual. No more than 2-4 hours needed. Ideal for the examples and cases below.

When.

Morning or Afternoon. When are brains work best.

Morning Coffee. 7-10am. A time of understanding and discovery when you’re most alert and equipped for analytical work.

Cocktail Hour. 3-6pm. An ideal time for brainstorming and envisioning paths forward.

No more than 1-2 hours at either times. Both a morning and afternoon session might be ideal depending on the problem or goal.

Where.

Virtual or Physical. Ideally in an out-of-office location so you’re not thinking in a business-as-usual setting. Booths at restaurants, bars or diners are designed for this.

How.

You’ll tell me the singular central problem or situation. I will lead us through a series of brief questions.

No special materials or documents needed. The information is already in your head.

Format and methods are meant to provide a way to access a higher level of creativity and “get there” quickly.

Ideation will happen on the spot.

You may take notes and also audio/video recordings are encouraged so attention can be sustained and undivided.

A post-meeting write up of the idea/strategy will be provided within 24 hours of meeting so it can serve as an action plan for you and your team.

No “problem” or “goal” should require more than a few hours.

Another session could be booked for a different problem, goal, or aspect of your business.

No contracts. No retainers, but open to regular sessions.

NDAs [non-disclosure agreements] welcomed.

No transactions needed on your part at the time of the session. Please relax and just bring your problems or goals.

If upon the end of a session, a party feels nothing of value was created to their benefit, all fees are waived or refunded. No questions asked.

What else.

Pro Bono and Nonprofit queries welcomed.

Supporter of black owned businesses and entrepreneurs.

White label service OK for agencies or firms in need of outside or extra ideation.

START.

Inquire a little further if you’d like, or begin booking a session. Summarize the problem or goal or both. I’ll review your query so I can accept with confidence or follow up for more info.

Examples of good cases [problems or goals].

No one knows who we are.

We're not sure what we’re actually selling.

We’d like some fresh perspective from someone who’s not afraid to tell us the truth.

We’re a start up just beginning to allocate marketing dollars and would like thoughts on what to put where.

We’d like an outlier point of view on our product offering and how we are positioning it.

Just breakdown a few things for us about creative, branding, and general marketing strategy without trying to sell us.

We just want to kickstart a brainstorming session with you or have you lead us through one.

We're questioning our agencies current strategy and want a second opinion.

Our product is ready and now we need an audience [ie. customers].

We're stuck and the usual marketing tactics don't seem to be working.

We're spending too much time telling people about our product.

We think we're paying too much for certain [marketing, branding, creative] services and want options.

We want to find a good agency or hire in house but aren't sure how to.

Our logo/branding sucks and we have a bunch of quotes from agencies or designers but don't feel good about any of the options.

Do I need a “creative” agency, a “marketing” agency, or an “advertising” agency, and honestly what's the difference these days?

We’d like to get a better idea of what a brand book is before we pay an agency $5000 to produce one.

We don’t need any ideas, we just have a list of high level “stupid” questions we wanna discuss and don’t feel comfortable doing it with an/our agency.