Brand communications and optics services from Loren Weisman. A third party strategic eye on what you are being told, what you are being sold, and what you are about to build.
Service Offerings and Options
from Brand Communications and Optics Strategist Loren Weisman
Start Here: The Run Through Session
The most common place people start is also the simplest. A run through session, or a series of them, where a third party strategist looks at what you are being told by others.
You are getting advice. From an agency, a consultant, a marketing hire, a designer, a publisher, a partner, a platform, a course, a friend who read something. Some of it is sound. Some of it is a template with your name dropped into it. Some of it is being sold to you by the person who benefits from you buying it.
A run through session puts a seasoned strategic eye on all of it and advises you on what you are being advised.
What Happens in a Run Through
- You bring what you have been told, quoted, pitched, or handed. Proposals, plans, decks, contracts, messaging drafts, marketing recommendations, budgets.
- It gets read the way someone outside the sale reads it.
- The parts that hold up get named as parts that hold up.
- The parts that do not get named too, along with what is missing, what is assumed, and what is being charged for that you may already have.
- You leave with your own questions to take back to whoever gave you the advice.
Who It Is For
- Anyone about to sign, hire, or spend on the strength of someone else’s recommendation.
- Anyone who has been handed a plan they cannot fully evaluate and does not want to nod along.
- Anyone who has been burned once and would rather check first this time.
What It Is Not
It is not a pitch to replace the people advising you. Plenty of run throughs end with confirmation that the advice you are getting is solid, and that is a useful outcome. It is not legal, financial, or accounting advice. For those, use a licensed professional in your jurisdiction. It is one more set of eyes, from outside the transaction, before you commit.
Formats
- A single session.
- A short series, where each session takes a different piece.
- An ongoing check in, where things get run past a second opinion before they go out.
Ask about a run through session.
The Seven Primary Service Options
1. Single or Multiple Sessions for Review, Clean Up or Reset
Short term or one time work. This is where the run through session above sits, along with cleaning up what is already out there and resetting what is not working.
2. Creative Brand Development, Direction and Distribution
Taking the next steps or next stages for a brand, its communication, optics and budgets. This includes recording budgets and releases, books, speaking packages, prospectuses and business plans.
3. A La Carte Strategic Consulting and Planning
Laying out a menu of options and picking what a client or a team wants or needs, rather than buying a package built for someone else.
4. Short Term Messaging Work, On and Offline
Focused work on specific hit points of communication, optics and presence.
5. From Scratch Brand Concepts to Full Communication Blueprints
Complete layouts for building, financing or pre marketing stages.
6. Crisis Communication, Response Prep and Optics Corrections
Getting a story aligned, defined or refined for media and reputation situations.
7. Exit Strategies
Closing up a shop, and strengthening or updating the brand for a sale.
The Detailed Menu
Brand and Communication Discovery and Development
- Abbreviated discovery of an existing project
- Abbreviated discovery for a new project
- Full discovery of an existing project
- Full discovery for a new project
- Due diligence discoveries
- Brand and communications repair, renewal or reset
Messaging
- Brand messaging plans
- Brand communication and compliance checks
- Messaging audits and revamps
- Messaging co creation
- Graphic co creation
Restoration, Revisit, Review and Reset
- Branding
- Primary content
- Marketing plans, built before you go to marketing
- Social, marketing or ad reviews and resets, before you hire social media people
- Budgets
- Messaging
Liability Reviews and Resets
- Negative sweeps, perception and connotative reviews
- Crisis management media planning
- Preemptive crisis management messaging
Promotional Plans and Strategies
- Earned media strategies
- Social media strategies
- Influencer strategies
- Print media strategies
- Placement strategies
- Sponsorship and endorsement strategies
Architecture Strategies
- Blueprint strategic layouts and action plans
- Author and book plans and budgets
- Documentary and film plans and budgets
- Artist and musician plans and budgets
- Restaurant or cafe initial plans and budgets
- Product protection and AI protection
- Initial investor and partnering layouts
Speaking
Options for having Loren Weisman speak at an event, conference or convention are decided with each client individually. More on the speaking page.
Talks on These Subjects
Most of the services above have also been the subject of a talk given to a room. Same material, presented rather than consulted on. They are listed here because a subject someone will stand up and defend in front of an audience is a different thing from a service listed on a page.
- Brand messaging blueprint strategies for creative careers, which pairs with the blueprint work above.
- Authentic messaging strategies for transitioning businesses, which pairs with the short term messaging work.
- Strategizing a book creation plan with a sound blueprint, which pairs with creative brand development for authors.
- Compliant and amplified messaging strategies, which pairs with the compliance checks in the menu.
- Compliant messaging presence online, which pairs with the liability reviews and resets.
- Stability and security tactics for your product messaging, which pairs with crisis communication and optics.
Booking details, formats and travel are on the speaking page, and the speaker one sheet is there for event organizers.
Time Frames
- Hourly meetings, online, by phone or in person, available in one to five session packages
- Weekly meetings, online, by phone or in person
- Blocks of time by the hour, the week or the month
- Retainer
- Full extended projects
Pricing and Fees
Pricing starts with a conversation. Where you stand, what you have, what you need, what is missing, and what the work requires. A quote that arrives before that conversation is a quote for somebody else’s project.
Documentation
Engagements are set out in writing. The terms covering supply, delivery and returns are on the Conditions of Supply page, and the site terms are on the Terms and Conditions page. Sample strategy and consulting documents are outlined in strategy and consulting documents.
Getting Started
The first step is a conversation, not a contract. Bring what you have been told and what you are weighing. From there it is clear whether a single run through covers it, whether a series makes more sense, or whether what you need is something other than what is listed here.