FOR FOUNDER-LED BRANDS READY FOR ONGOING STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
Ongoing strategic partnership for founder-led brands that scales without the founder becoming the operational ceiling.
A competitor dropped their price last week. You still haven't decided what to do about it.
Not because you don't have opinions. You have three, and they contradict each other, and there's no one to argue it out with who already knows enough about your business to make the conversation short. So it sits, next to the decision about whether the new hire is actually working out, next to the question of whether last quarter's visibility plan still makes sense now that the market's shifted.
Three months ago you finished a strategy engagement and felt genuinely clear. The clarity was real. It just wasn't built to survive contact with a competitor's Tuesday afternoon price change.
The actual constraint isn't that you're bad at these decisions. It's that you're the only strategic thinking happening in the business, and there's no one who already has the context to help you decide faster.
The Partnership is built for founders who need a strategic partner close to the business, not another contractor.
This is for you if:
You've completed the Intensive, or you've already built real clarity on your own, and what's missing now is someone accountable to the work month over month.
You've carried multiple specialized advisors who don't coordinate, or you've carried the coordination yourself, and either way the strategic dots aren't connecting.
You've outgrown project-based engagements. The momentum from a single deliverable fades in 60-90 days, and the decisions that need to build on each other across months don't get solved in a project.
You want strategy and execution living in the same relationship instead of split across a coach, an OBM, and an ad contractor who've never spoken to each other.
This is not for you if:
You want a fractional CMO or just another contractor to execute. This is one strategic relationship with selective execution, not a team model.
You want day-to-day operations support. The Partnership works at the strategic and marketing-execution layer, not general OBM work.
You want coaching on mindset or personal habits. The work is on your business architecture.
You're not ready for a 4-month minimum commitment. This is built for sustained strategic work, not a trial.
What's included
Strategic counsel
Ongoing strategic guidance with regular check-ins, a monthly strategic brief written for your business, and a quarterly strategic review.
10 implementation hours
My time, spent on strategic review of your work, team training on operating from the architecture, or execution tied directly to the plan.
One channel of marketing execution
Digital ad management on one platform, or ongoing SEO and AI search optimization. Your choice, included at no additional charge.
Phase 1 Architecture
If you're coming in without a prior Intensive, your first month builds the same four documents (Visibility, Offer, Operational, 90-Day Execution Priority Map) before execution begins.
Why this works
Context compounds
Every new consultant starts with a catch-up period. By month two of a partnership, that phase is permanently behind you. Strategic decisions in month four happen faster than decisions in month one, because the context is already built in.
It's real-time, not scoped in advance
A project engagement is scoped before it starts. When something new shows up mid-stream, a competitor move, a hiring opportunity, a contract falling through, there's no mechanism inside a finished project to deal with it. Partnership is built for strategic decisions that don't wait for a project timeline.
One advisor across the whole business
Most founders at this stage are juggling a marketing consultant, a coach, maybe an OBM
How the partnership runs
Once you're in, the rhythm is built around regular strategic check-ins, a written brief every month so nothing has to wait for a call to move forward, and quarterly reviews to step back and look at the whole picture. If you're coming in fresh, your first month goes toward building the architecture; from there, we're working the plan together.
Real capacity, real numbers
I work with a maximum number of strategic clients at any given time. This is deep work that requires our time and attention to deliver. If capacity is full when you reach out, we’ll give you a projected start date rather than squeezing you into a calendar that's already full.
So how much is it, Exactly?
$4,000/month, 4-month minimum
What it costs: $4,000/month. A 4-month minimum commitment, then month-to-month with 30-day cancellation notice.
What's included: strategic counsel, 10 implementation hours per month, and one channel of marketing execution, bundled in at no extra charge.
A fractional CMO retainer alone typically runs $5,000 to $15,000 a month, usually focused on campaigns rather than the whole business. An in-house strategy hire runs $120,000 to $180,000 a year before benefits, plus a ramp-up period before they produce anything usable. Piecing together a strategist, an operations consultant, and a marketing contractor separately tends to land between $15,000 and $25,000 a month, with nobody coordinating across them. $4,000 a month for one advisor who already knows your business, plus a full visibility channel included, is priced to be the more obvious version of what many founders are already cobbling together piecemeal.
What it costs you to wait: every month you stay the operational ceiling is a month the business grows in spite of you instead of because of a plan. The founders who wait longest to bring in a strategic partner are usually the ones who've spent the most on advisors who didn't stick around long enough to see anything through.
Need more than one channel of execution, or full-service support across your marketing? That's a Custom Proposal, scoped to your specific needs on the fit call.
Need more than one channel of execution, or full-service support across your marketing? That's a Custom Proposal, scoped to your specific needs on the fit call.
Helping businesses grow for over 10 years
"What I appreciated most was that she didn't just execute. She looked at how everything fit together and helped us make smarter marketing decisions across the board."
– Don Owens
"Their data-driven paid search strategies, tailored to our business, have provided solid increases in qualified traffic, conversions, and sales, delivering impressive ROI."
– Dave Renfro
"Sam has a great way of looking at the whole picture and outlining how the strategy should support the higher-level goals of a client. They're always on top of deadlines and quick to communicate updates or changes."
– Sonya Schweitzer
Do you have any questions?
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The Intensive is a one-time, 4 week build that hands you four documents. The Partnership is ongoing: strategic counsel, implementation hours, and execution, month over month.
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No. If you come in without one, your first month builds the same four architecture documents before execution begins. If you've already done the Intensive, that work carries forward and your $2,997 credits toward Month 1.
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Project work resets. Every new engagement starts with a catch-up period, and momentum from a single deliverable tends to fade within 60-90 days. A retainer means the context stays built in, so month four is faster and sharper than month one, and decisions that don't wait for a project timeline (a competitor move, a hiring question, a market shift) have somewhere to go in real time instead of sitting until the next engagement gets scoped.
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That routes to a Custom Proposal, scoped to your specific needs at the fit call.
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They don't roll over. In practice, most Partnership clients use all 10 hours because the work moves quickly.
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4 months, then month-to-month with 30-day notice. But know that most Partnership clients find the work so valuable, they continue working with us for years.
The business already proved it can grow. Now it needs a partner who won't let you carry all of it alone.
PS. If four months feels like a long commitment to make to someone you just met, that's a fair read of a first date. The fit call is that first date. Nobody's signing anything on it.