This isn’t branding fluff or tone-of-voice guesswork. It’s structured clarity care for founders, teams, and experts who want to be understood as clearly as they think. Each step brings your message into sharper focus—until you and your audience see the same thing.
Powerful messaging that’s as easy as:
1. Vision Scan
When all you see are trunks, you can’t tell a forest from an elephant stampede.
Outcome: Gaps and opportunities for effective market messaging.
This foundational phase provides a fresh, strategic perspective. Through guided discovery and audit, we help you identify:
- Whether your messaging is too technical or just off-target
- What quick wins can amplify your current efforts
- Whether your lead-gen ecosystem is ready to scale
Deliverable: A Messaging Insight Report — complete with priority recommendations and a roadmap for future messaging success.
2. Clarity Calibration
This is the live reframing lab—the moment when the fog lifts.
Outcome: Team alignment, messaging inventory and system
In a structured, interactive workshop, we test your messaging through three primary lenses—Emotion, Logic, and Credibility—to see which combination lands cleanly with your audience.
It’s your “better one, better two” experience: we swap perspectives until your positioning snaps into focus.
The workshop can be delivered virtually or in-person, as a half-day session or two shorter engagements.
Deliverable: Calibration Notes capturing breakthrough frames, audience reactions, and your strongest clarity anchors
3. Prescribed Messages
This is the heart of the process—the system everything else connects to.
Outcome: Consistent go-to messaging that scales with you
The MessageSpecs Prescription translates your insights and discoveries into a structured messaging framework: your master reference for every future campaign, presentation, and piece of content. It defines your Big Idea, Core Stories, Value Propositions, and other aspects of messaging, so every word your team produces reflects the same focus and intent.
Once calibrated, everything you write, say, or publish comes through in perfect clarity.
Deliverable: Messaging Framework, designed to guide every touchpoint and go-to-market activity. Think of it as your brand’s decision-making compass.
4. Frame Selection
Choose how you’ll wear your new message
Outcome: Targeted messaging implementation guides
Every context—sales call, keynote, investor pitch, website—needs its own style of delivery, built on the same clear foundation.
Frame Selection helps you pick the right Message Playbooks for each moment, ensuring your story looks and feels exactly right, wherever it’s seen.
Popular Messaging Frames include:
- Employer Brand & Talent Messaging
- Webpage Content Architecture Plans
- Persona Playbooks
- Product Marke-tech-tures
Deliverable: Targeted documents, guides, and other materials that will sharpen your new unified messages for unique needs.
Follow-On Options
Specs-as-a-Service (SpaaS)
Message Mentor
Specs-as-a-Service (SpaaS)
(Retainer)
🤖 Because Let-Joel-Do-the-Hard-Stuff-for-You-as-a-Service (LJDtHSfYaaS) was a bit clunky.
Build a custom package of deliverables each month to execute the awesome messaging we’ve built together, including content strategy, message tailoring, content generation, event planning, story gamification, social media strategy, and more.
This model is designed to provide strategy and guidance for a regular cadence and minimally-viable marketing program through the coordination of various freelance or agency partners. The intent is to help you set your program up and stand on your own (when you’re ready), with an expert in the wings to assist when needed.
Pricing is typically a monthly retainer with a set number of hours and is available in a variety of scoping and engagement options.
MessageMentor
(Coaching/Advising)
Need an on-call “Message Optometrist” to get you or your team unstuck? Unsure why your copy isn’t converting? Want to improve your personal messaging?
MessageMentor is an advisory and coaching package for small teams or individuals who are looking for a nudge in the right direction with their messaging, marketing, or other communications.
Perfect for
Startups and Scaleups
On-demand access to industry insights and perspective, without giving away equity or selling your soul to pay out marketing agency rates.
Practitioners or Leadership
Hone your communication and presentation skills with the outside guidance of a “devil’s advocate” on your shoulder.
What’s included?
- Personalized One-on-One Calls – Bi-weekly scheduled calls to discuss your goals, progress, and questions
- References and Resources – Access to guidance, templates and resources to help you execute your messaging
- Unlimited “Ask joel Anything” – Between-call access to Joel via email and asynchronous video messaging system
- Immediate Value – My goal is to provide advice and guidance that you can implement straight away, and build on as we work together.
Wondering where to start?
Check out this quick five-question quiz to figure out where to start with your messaging.