“Before we build anything, we get honest about where you're starting. Brands get an audit before a strategy. So do you.”

You complete the Baseline Read: write your bio as it stands (two sentences, no hedging), record a timed sixty-second answer to “what are you best at,” inventory your current state, title ten stories from your own record, and rate one statement — if a stranger challenged me to say what I'm best at, and prove it, I could.

Then it's sealed. You won't see it again until the end. It's the before-photo, and nobody gets to retouch it.

You'll hold: the Baseline Read — versioned, dated, sealed.

“You don't take a quiz. You tell me twelve stories. The patterns are already in them — my job is to find what repeats.”

Roughly two stories a week, typed or spoken, in your own words: moments you were routed the hard problem, things you fixed that nobody asked you to fix, rooms you changed. I read the corpus the way I read consumer research and draft the patterns — always pattern first, then proof: “Three different stories, same move. (Stories 2, 7, 11.)” You confirm, reject, or rewrite every one.

You'll hold: the Evidence File — your full story corpus plus every verified pattern, each with at least three citations from your own life.

“Now we name it — in language that sounds like you — and we build the case.”

We name three to five strengths against one gate: would you say this at a dinner table without flinching? The generic words die in that room; the true ones live. Then I write your Brief — the named strengths with their receipts, and one claim: your answer to what are you the obvious choice for? — and I read it to you out loud. Every line carries evidence, which is why it lands.

You'll hold: the Brief, version one — plus your deployment objective, chosen and committed in writing.

“One objective. Real stakes. We architect backwards from the win and then we go get it — the role, the rate, the venture, the room.”

The live work: the repositioned bio, shipped. The rate email, sent. The offer page, published. The talk, pitched. Five working sessions on the work itself — I review the ask before it sends, red-team the negotiation, rehearse the room — and between sessions I'm on call for the in-the-moment moves. These ten weeks are the reason the engagement exists.

You'll hold: the Deployment Record — the built outcome, documented with primary evidence. Screenshots, numbers, dates. Not a reflection on the outcome; the outcome.

“The strengths don't change. The targets do. Before we're done, you learn to run the next deployment without me.”

You write your next deployment plan entirely solo — I check that it exists and points at action; I don't draft it and I don't grade it. Then we unseal your Baseline and read it next to the present: old bio beside new, old sixty seconds beside the new ten. The last question of the engagement is the first question of everything after: what are you the obvious choice for next?

You'll hold: the Brief, version two — yours now, built to be rewritten every ninety days — plus the Exit Read: your before and after, side by side.