Not quite. Try again.
Amy and Keith have the passphrase. If you need it again, email chris@innovativedesign.us.
Everything from the August agreement, delivered. The words are at the top of this page, the agreement and its status is below them, and the three things we need from you are at the bottom.
The question this section answers: when somebody asks what CKD does, what do we say?
Every line here is now settled. Other wording we considered is kept in a Repository on the brand platform page, so nothing is thrown away.
The full brand platform and voice guide, plus the Repository →
The question this section answers: what did we agree to in August, and how much of it is done?
The four work streams you signed, broken into the actual items, with a status against each one so nothing is hidden behind a percentage.
The question this section answers: what happens between now and the end of the year?
Every section now has one locked version. Read it before the call if you can. If not, we’ll walk you through it.
We check the touch-ups together and go through the team session plan.
If it suits you, you two share the platform at your regular Friday meeting, so the team knows what’s coming before the 23rd.
One session with the whole studio, so the words become theirs rather than something they were sent. See the proposed plan.
Once you’ve talked with Candice about what she’d like to keep doing, tell us how you want to handle the website and SEO work. We’re taking the unclear “out of scope” sentence out of the agreement first.
ASLA opens its call in January and both national and chapter close in late February. That means project selection has to happen before the holidays, which is nearer than it sounds.
The question this section answers: why do these words matter beyond the website?
Worth saying plainly, because it changes how urgent this is. Everything on this page is the groundwork for the thing Keith asked for on our first call: walking into a pitch as the most prepared firm in the room rather than one of three competing on price.
The explainer you sign off becomes the opening of a presentation. The positioning line becomes the cover of an SOQ. The project write-ups become award submissions. None of that can be built until the words are settled, and ASLA closes in late February.
Which means the useful version of this is not "thanks, we will think about it and come back in a few months." It is a reaction on the 15th, even a negative one. Arguing with these lines is more useful to us than approving them.
We have views on what comes after this project: lifting the win rate on the submissions you already chase, getting award entries in before February, the anniversary campaign, and reaching developers directly. Some of it is worth doing and some is not. We will lay it out honestly in October and you can decide.
The question this section answers: where is everything else, if I want to see it?
None of this is required reading. It is here so nothing is hidden and so you can see where any conclusion came from.
The question this section answers: what do you actually need from us?
Repeated here at the end so it is easy to find when you come back looking for it. Each one unblocks something that is otherwise finished and waiting.
Which exercise (A, or A plus B) and which level of team involvement. It’s all on the team session plan.
Not testimonials. The thing a client said on a call that stuck with you, or the reason somebody gave for choosing CKD. Two lines each is plenty. It is the only input we have none of, and it is half the anniversary kit.
“Woman-owned” stays for now. If you’d rather lead with SLEB-certified, award-winning, employee-owned, or something else, tell us and we’ll update every place it appears at once.
Reply to this however is easiest, or just tell us on the 15th. If it is quicker to talk any of it through, we will make the time.
Short version: we walk you through the words, you tell us what is right and what is not, and we agree three things before we hang up. Everything we show lives on the other tab, so nothing here needs to be remembered.
The question this section answers: how are we going to spend the forty five minutes?
What came out of 3 September, in about two minutes. Then straight into the words.
Mission, vision, belief, positioning, explainer, descriptor. Two of them have two versions side by side and those are the ones worth the time.
This is the bulk of the call and the part we actually need. Disagreeing is more useful to us than approving.
Website and LinkedIn, the 40th kit, and the 90-day roadmap. Where each stands, what is waiting on you, and what is deliberately held.
Not a walkthrough. They are on the other tab, written to be read on your own time, and we would rather spend the minutes on the words.
Three asks from us, then the floor is yours. Including when to start the anniversary work, which we would like to agree with you rather than guess.
The question this section answers: should I read anything first?
If you only open one thing, open the first.
The question this section answers: what are we trying to settle before we hang up?
Whether "sustainably" stays in the positioning line. It is a values question as much as a wording one, and it is the only item on this page that genuinely cannot move without Amy.
ASLA opens its award call in January and both national and chapter close in late February. The projects have to be chosen before the holidays. If awards matter to you for 2027, this is the meeting where that clock starts.
The question this section answers: what do you want to talk about?
Open floor, and we mean it. Some things we would genuinely like to hear about, none of them obligatory:
How the ASLA conference went, and whether it changed anything you want us to know. What the pipeline looks like heading into the winter, if you want to talk about it. Whether the studio has asked about any of this since 3 September. Anything about the work that is not sitting right.
If there is something you want from us that is not on this page, this is the moment to say it. It is easier to change scope now than in October.
We send a short note the same day with whatever was decided, update this portal to match, and come back in early October with one session for the whole studio so the words become theirs rather than something they were sent. Then mid October we talk about what, if anything, comes next.
