How we work
Strategy first. Then we get it done alongside your team.
Every engagement starts the same way: we find out where your organization still depends on you. Then we build the team, systems, and growth engine that carry it past you, one clear step at a time.
Soil Test
2–3 weeks
Your Founder Dependency Map
90-Day Growth Sprint
3 months
Your Growth Playbook, and a team that knows how to use it
Growth Consulting
Ongoing, reviewed quarterly
A partner in the room while the Playbook becomes how you run
Growth Execution
Alongside Growth Consulting
The marketing work itself, shipped
You can stop after any stage and keep everything we built together. Most clients don’t, but that’s always your call.
Also available à la carte.
A one-day workshop
One focused day with your leadership team, built around the thing most in the way right now — priorities, meetings, roles, or how you grow.
A two-day offsite
Two days out of the day-to-day with your exec team: honest assessment, real debate, and a short list of priorities everyone owns. We prep it and lead it.
A custom growth sprint
The Growth Sprint, shaped to fit — your timeline, your focus areas, and the parts of the tree that need it most.
Stage 1 · 2–3 weeks · $3,500
Test the soil before you plant anything.
Before we recommend a single change, we find out where your organization still runs through you. The Soil Test shows you exactly that, and what it would take to change it.
It starts with a free intro call. Thirty minutes to see if we’re a fit. We’ll ask about your organization and where it feels stuck. If a Soil Test makes sense, we’ll say so. If it doesn’t, we’ll say that too.
How it runs
What you walk away with: your Founder Dependency Map. One page that scores your organization across Roots (the team), Trunk (the systems), and Branches (the growth engine); names the three highest-leverage changes; and offers a first look at your organization’s unique potential.
If the honest answer is “you don’t need us yet,” we’ll tell you. The Map is yours either way.
Stage 2 · 3 months · $10,000/month
Build the tree, from the roots up.
Good growth isn’t one-dimensional. In 90 days, we work alongside your founder and executive team to build all three parts, in order: the team, then the systems, then the growth engine. It starts by naming your organization’s unique potential. Not growth for growth’s sake. The specific thing only your organization can become.
Month by month
Roots: the team
The big sessionA 2-day leadership offsite to define your unique potential, debrief your team assessment, and set priorities
What gets builtClear roles and decision rights, a shared set of priorities, and a leadership team that owns them
Trunk: the systems
The big sessionA full working day with the exec team
What gets builtYour operating rhythm (weekly, monthly, quarterly), a leadership scorecard, and the systems that stop routing everything through the founder
Branches: the growth engine
The big sessionA full working day with the exec team, then the company-wide workshop
What gets builtPositioning and messaging recommendations, and a growth-engine plan for turning your audience into revenue, including its first 90 days
Every two weeks, all sprint long: coaching for the founder and your integrator or second-in-command, so the changes hold between sessions.
Breaking the surface: Growing a Greener Thumb. The sprint ends with a workshop for your whole company. Everything your exec team built comes out of the leadership room and into the organization, so your people understand how you grow and what their part is.
What you walk away with: your Growth Playbook. A written plan across the team, the systems, and the growth engine, with owners and dates. It’s written so your team could run it without us.
At day 90, we decide together. You’ll have what you need to grow. Some clients take the Playbook and run. Others want us in the room while it becomes how they operate. Either answer is a good one.
Stage 3 · ongoing
Then we get it done alongside your team.
A plan on a shelf changes nothing. After the sprint, we stay in the room while the Playbook becomes how your organization runs, and if you want, we build the marketing it calls for.
Growth Consulting · $7,500/month
- A 2-day offsite with your exec team every quarter. We lead and prep it.
- A monthly strategy session to solve problems, seize opportunities, and update the Playbook.
- A weekly tactical meeting to keep priorities moving.
- Bi-weekly coaching for the founder and your integrator or second-in-command.
- A monthly scorecard review: performance, return on investment, and the next opportunity worth going after.
- Ad hoc access between meetings, and training for your team so this outlasts us.
Growth Execution · $7,500/month, for Growth Consulting clients
The work your growth engine depends on, shipped by our team. A typical month:
We run a monthly content calendar across social, email, web, and campaigns, with a weekly production check-in. First drafts arrive a week early, revisions within 48 hours, two rounds standard. On-site content capture is available at $150/hour.
We don’t take marketing-only work. Execution without strategy is how organizations end up busy instead of growing.
And then we leave. The goal is more green thumbs in your organization, not a longer contract. Scope is reviewed every quarter, with a 60-day out anytime. When it’s time, a 60-day Graduation Sprint trains your team, hands over the tools, and helps you hire the in-house and outside mix that replaces us.
The rhythm, at a glance.
Growth that doesn’t depend on the founder runs on a rhythm. Here’s ours, and by the end, it’s yours.
| Meeting | Who | Soil Test | Sprint | Consulting | Execution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founder interview and readout | Founder | Once each | — | — | — |
| Leadership offsite (2 days) | Founder + exec team | — | Month 1 | Quarterly | — |
| Working day | Founder + exec team | — | Months 2 and 3 | — | — |
| Coaching | Founder + integrator | — | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 weeks | — |
| Strategy session | Founder + exec team | — | — | Monthly | — |
| Tactical meeting | Exec team | — | — | Weekly | — |
| Scorecard review | Founder + exec team | — | — | Monthly | — |
| The soil line · below: with the founder & exec team · above: seen by the whole company & your audience | |||||
| Growing a Greener Thumb workshop | Whole company | — | End of Month 3 | As needed | — |
| Content planning | Marketing lead | — | — | — | Monthly calendar |
| Production check-in | Marketing lead | — | — | — | Weekly |
What we bring to the work.
Our own frameworks come first. We draw on proven tools when they help, and we never force a system onto your organization.
The Green Thumb frameworks
The Tree: Roots, Trunk, Branches
The order good growth is built in: the team, then the systems, then the growth engine. Each part depends on the one below it.
Unique potential
Defines the specific thing only your organization can become, so growth has a direction and not just a number.
The Founder Dependency Map
Scores where your organization still runs through the founder, across all three parts of the tree.
The soil line
Separates the work the exec team does together from the work that reaches the whole company, so changes land in the right order.
The Growth Playbook
Your written plan: owners, dates, rhythms, and the growth engine, built to run without us.
Proven tools we use when they help
- Team health and working-style assessments for your leadership team
- A founder and integrator structure that clarifies who leads the vision and who runs the organization
- Leadership scorecards and KPI dashboards
- A messaging framework, content pillars, and a monthly content calendar
- Custom dashboards for fundraising, marketing, and team health
Questions founders ask
Can we skip the Soil Test and start with the sprint?
No. The Soil Test is how we make sure the sprint works on the right things. It’s also how you find out how we think before you commit to more.
Can we hire you just for marketing?
No. We only run marketing for organizations we’re also advising, because execution without strategy is how organizations end up busy instead of growing.
Do we have to continue after the sprint?
No. The Growth Playbook is written so your team can run it without us. Either way, you’ll know exactly what to do next, whoever does it.
Do you work with nonprofits?
Yes. Many of our clients are founder-led nonprofits, and the same tree applies: team, systems, and a growth engine for donors instead of customers.
Do you work in person?
Offsites and the Growing a Greener Thumb workshop are best in person, and we travel for them. Everything else runs well remotely.
Who does the work?
Craig leads every engagement personally. Our production team ships the Growth Execution work.
Start with a Soil Test.
In two to three weeks, you’ll know where your organization still depends on you, and what it would take to change that.
Someone with an unusual ability for growth. Adept at growing and making healthy. A natural talent for growth.