Brand Messaging GUIDES for coaches, creatives & solo service providers
Go from
'What are we trying to say?'
to
'This is who we are'
Your roadmap to messaging that's unshakeably, unmistakably you
Selling the thing you're good at should be simple (laughs in rsd)
You know your work is good. You’ve watched it change people. But sit down to write about it and the best you can manage some days is a version of “hello, please buy my thing, I’m good at my job.”
It’s not that you can’t write (some of the people who come to me for this are copywriters themselves). But the moment it’s your own business, your vision goes cloudy, and you lose all perspective.
Maybe your brand’s mid-shift, the way one client’s was before we worked together: “I know who I work with and what I stand for, but my message hasn’t caught up.”
Somewhere in there is a version of you that can say, in one line, who you help and why it matters. Right now, from the inside, you can’t quite see it.
Time to press pause
When you’re stuck like this, the instinct is to do more: post more, pitch harder, fiddle with the bio again.
Can we pause on that for a second?
If your message isn’t clear, then throwing out more content won’t fix it. It’ll just put unclear and ineffective messaging in front of more people.
Which is a terrible idea.
You need a proper look at what makes you different and what your audience needs to hear, not five minutes of tinkering with a tagline. Without any of the icky tactics or overpromising that would make your own skin crawl to write.
You need a blueprint. Not a tagline brainstorm in a Google Doc. A fathoms-deep dive into what actually makes you different, and what your audience needs to hear.
So why will this work when nothing else has?
Most brand messaging frameworks (StoryBrand and all the free downloads stemming from it) run on the Hero’s Journey: one person alone, facing a problem, who finds a guide, gets the magic tool, and conquers.
Your work doesn’t run on that shape. If it’s relational, or built with the people around you rather than against a dragon, forcing it into that structure is just going to make your messaging sound nothing like you.
So the Guide runs on something else instead: the Heroine’s Journey, a story shape that’s networked and cyclical. The Hero gets stronger by going it alone. The Heroine gets stronger with every person she gathers.
I’ve written the fuller case for this, why the standard model doesn’t fit values-led work, if you want to go further down that rabbit hole.
Great, but what is this Guide you speak of?
An easy-to-use document, built around you and your audience:
- 1. Your brand’s core: Digging into your mission, values, and unique positioning to unearth what truly makes you special.
- 2. Audience insights: No longer guessing what your audience wants – but asking them, analysing their behaviour, and translating their needs into messaging that actually resonates.
- 3. Key messages: Building those core ideas that will turn heads, open hearts, and loosen purse strings (although my purse has a zip, so…).
- 4. A brand voice and tone: Developing a consistent way of speaking that feels authentically ‘you’ across all platforms, no matter who’s creating the content.
- 5. A communication strategy: Knowing exactly how to adapt your message for different channels and stages of the customer journey, so you can nurture people in just the right way.
Don't just take my word for it
Fancy reclaiming 10 hours a week to actually grow your business? Or having a goldmine of integrity-filled messaging at your fingertips whenever you need to write something?
That’s exactly what happened for these clients after we worked together.
Susan Sutherland
Executive Coach
- → Before: Three decades in corporate leadership behind her, and still couldn’t explain why someone should choose her over any other coach. “I can describe what I do,” she said, “but not why someone should choose me.”
- → After: Susan had structure and clarity to what she already knew intuitively. And a clear, differentiated message that she could apply across every part of her business.
“It gave me permission to sound like myself. Before, I kept wondering if I should be more corporate or more spiritual. Now I don’t have to choose. It finally gave me the language I’d been reaching for.”
Debbie Danon,
Founder of Rebel Leadership
- → Before: Debbie was struggling to condense her complex ideas and maintain brand consistency across a growing team.
- → After: Now she has a daily-use guide that sharpens proposals, inspires content, and articulates her unique mission.
“I now use the Guide Peta produced for me every day in my work. It’s a goldmine of messaging that glows with integrity.”
Ready to join them?
Right, how does working with you work?
Brand Messaging Guide
What You Get:
- – Brand discovery & strategy session
- – Client interviews
- – Competitor analysis
- – Mission, vision, values & unique value proposition
- – Audience personas & customer-journey mapping
- – Messaging pillars, key stories & a messaging matrix
- – Brand voice guide
The Process:
- 1. Brand discovery questionnaire and strategy session
- 2. A thorough look at your existing content and where you sit in your market
- 3. Client and stakeholder interviews
- 4. Competitor analysis
- 5. Message refinement
- 6. Creation and presentation of your Guide
- 7. Two rounds of revisions, so it actually fits
What you really get
- Clarity on who you are and what you stand for
- A deeper connection with your audience
- Content that converts, not just educates
- No icky tactics, no overpromising, ever
- A plan for creating content - no more blank page cold sweats!
Investment: $1,350–$3,450, scoped to the depth you need.
We work out which level of Guide is right for where your business actually is on our call, not before.
But isn’t a Brand Messaging Guide just a glorified mission statement?
(And some other questions)
Q: Isn’t a Brand Messaging Guide just a glorified mission statement? Do I really need one?
A: Umm…no. While a mission statement might tell you where you’re going, a Brand Messaging Guide is like having a GPS with real-time traffic updates and a built-in karaoke machine. It’s a comprehensive blueprint for your brand’s communication strategy, showing you how to get there, who to talk to along the way, and what to say when you arrive. You know, for those long journeys to market domination.
Q: Is this Heroine’s Journey thing just a rebrand, or does it actually change what ends up in my Guide?
A: It changes the actual output. Build a guide on the usual seven-stage Hero framework and it nudges you toward a solo “I solved it, here’s my solution” narrative, even if that’s nothing like how your work operates. Build the same guide on the Heroine’s Journey instead, and the audience research, the story arc, and the language you end up with reflect work that’s actually built alongside people. You don’t need to know anything about story theory yourself. That thinking is baked into how the Guide gets made, before you ever see a page of it.
Q: My business is still evolving. Won’t we outgrow the guide quickly?
A: Unless you’re planning a complete personality transplant, I think we’re safe. The Guide is built around your core values and your audience’s real needs, and those tend to hold steady even as everything else shifts, whether you’re growing from “working from the kitchen table” to “wait, I can afford an office now?” or just finding your feet in a new offer.
Q: It’s just me (or me and one other person). Can’t I create this myself?
A: You could. You could also cut your own hair, and we all remember how that went during lockdown. Sometimes it’s worth calling in someone who can see your brand the way your audience does, spot what you can’t from the inside, and bring proper research and interviews to the table. I promise not to give your brand a mullet.
Q: This seems like a big investment. How do I know it will pay off?
A: It is an investment, and like any good one, it should pay for itself faster than you can say “should I change my CRM.” My clients save hours they used to spend staring at a blank page, get messaging that actually turns interest into bookings, and stop dreading the “so what do you do?” question. The real question is whether you can afford to keep talking past the people you’re trying to reach.
Q: I should focus on my launch first. Shouldn’t messaging wait?
A: That’s a bit like saying you’ll explain the rules once the game’s already started. Your messaging is the foundation everything else gets built on, your offer, your website, your launch. Get it right first and the rest gets easier, not harder. Waiting usually just means rebuilding it all twice. Yes – 2 sales pages – doesn’t sound like fun, does it?
I’m in! What now?
Now, we talk. Press the lovely button below, and choose a time for a chat.
We’ll talk about your business, what you’re struggling with, and how I can help. And we’ll see if we’re a good fit – with absolutely no pressure.
See you there!