How it works
No agency. No account manager. You and the person doing the work, across a table in Chicago. Here is everything that happens from there, start to finish.
The first step of the work
Most projects start with a discovery call. Two hours on a screen, a questionnaire, and everyone waiting for it to end. I skip that.
The work starts face to face over a meal in Chicago. I pick the place and I pay. You talk about your business the way you would to a friend, not the way you would in a pitch. That version is the one your customers need to hear, and it almost never makes it onto the website.
An agency cannot offer this without changing what it is. The person at the table is the person doing the work. Nothing gets handed off after dessert.
Not in Chicago? Then the kickoff happens over Zoom, and everything after it runs exactly the same way.
Start to finish
It is free. I read your site beforehand, so none of the call is spent catching me up. You get the words that could be working harder, and changes you can make this week.
If there is a fit, I will say so. If there is not, I will say that too.
What I need from you: your website address and one line about what is bothering you.
You get one page. It names the single outcome the six weeks are for, what it costs, and the date the work starts. Nothing starts until you have read it and said yes.
Work begins at the start of a cycle. Sign before it and you are in it. Sign after and you start with the next one. That rule is why the work already on my desk finishes on time, and it is why yours will.
The first thing that happens once you sign. I reach out to find a night that works, and the work starts there.
What I need from you: an appetite, and the story of how your best customer found you.
Everything gets built on a private preview site you can open any time. Short check-ins every week or two, while the work can still change. Your opinion is worth the most before anything is finished, so that is when I ask for it.
Research, the words, and the build if you want one. You get the words whether or not I build the site. Plenty of people take them to whoever built theirs.
What I need from you: access to your domain, your current host and your analytics, and real photos if you have them.
At the end of the cycle something is live. You get a one page close: what shipped, what the numbers say, what went well, what did not, and what I would do next.
Then you decide. Run another cycle, keep the site cared for month to month, or stop. All three are good outcomes.
What gets measured
Not traffic, and not how it looks. How many people land on the site, how many of them reach out, and how many of those become customers.
Most owners have never worked that percentage out. It is the first number I look at, and it is the one the close reports back on.
Visits, inquiries, customers. Rough is fine. If you do not have any, getting them is part of the first cycle.
Test your homepage firstBefore you ask
No. If you are not in Chicago the kickoff happens over Zoom and everything after it runs the same way.
I do. It is the start of the work, not a sales meal.
It depends on what the six weeks are for. You get the number in writing before anything starts, and the brainstorm call is free.
No. Work starts at the beginning of a cycle. It is the reason work already underway finishes on time, and it will be the reason yours does too.
More on the kinds of work a cycle can hold is on the engage page.
Set up a call and let’s go look for the language on your site that could be working harder. You will leave with something useful whether or not we go further.