Work with Steve
Trusted Brand, Culture and Business Advisor
I’ve taken brands from start-up to successful public offerings, evolved a regional municipality to become a nationally recognized brand, helped global brands launch new products and thrive in new markets, worked with leadership teams to shape the vision for their next 50 years, partnered with C-Suite leaders to build and improve employer brand reputation amidst the Pandemic. And so much more.
Having founded, built, run, and sold businesses I know first-hand how challenging and complex running and growing a business can be.
I bring my hard-earned and real-world experience to each of my client-partner relationships. As a seasoned and experienced business leader, I earn the trust of your team and help your company earn greater trust from your customers, employees, investors, donors, partners, and communities.
My promise and purpose: There’s nothing more powerful than a united group of souls ignited in a common cause with love at the core.
For Organizations
I work with business leaders to define and activate their business drivers through Brand and Culture Evolution programs and workshops.
1:1 Guidance for Leaders
I help business leaders evolve, transition, individuate, and realize their “genius” through whole-person guidance (aka coaching).
How we can work together
I believe that your brand and your people (including you, the leader) are your two most valuable business assets. My 25+ years of expertise is in helping leaders build belief-driven brands and cultures in the following ways:
- Brand evolution programs cultivate and align your strategic business drivers into all aspects of your organization so your brand becomes unignorable.
- Culture evolution programs that tap into the intrinsic motivations of your team so your culture becomes a unified force that is integrated with your brand.
- Brand-Culture integration that fuses your business strategy with your brand and culture.
- Strategic planning for businesses, including workshops and retreats, to create your business trajectory.
- Strategic marketing and brand guidance, including fractional CMO duties to help businesses attract more of the right loyal customers.
- One-on-one leadership guidance and mastermind groups for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Working with Me
- You work with me and get my expertise; not an agency of creatives who don’t do strategy for a living or a junior member of a consulting firm. (And, yes, I have creative partners I work with to implement your brand expression)
- My work is customized for you; while I have proven and time-tested frameworks, I don’t use a one-size-fits-all process.
- I’ll work with you until it’s right; I don’t withhold access, insight, strategies, or a set number of meeting limitations.
- I’ll bring 25+ years of real-world insights and learnings from other client-partners and industry sectors to our relationship.
- I take the complex and simplify it; then help you activate it. I provide you with an outcome set that is clear and actionable for your team.
- I get results and drive outcomes. While much of brand and culture work deals with ideas, beliefs, soft skills, and behaviors; my work is highly pragmatic and results-driven.
My Outcome-Driven Approach
Having worked with more than 250 regional and global brands, I know that achieving results is why I’m hired. My branded business approach creates organizational integrity between your brand, culture, and business strategy.
Typical engagement outcomes include:
- Attracting and retaining more of the right customers because your brand position and offerings are built to deliver on promises.
- Increasing competitive advantage and high-ground positioning by shaping the right branded business strategy that improves market relevance and brand differentiation.
- Creating a value-based through-line that tethers your Employee Experience (EX) with your Customer Experience (CX) which builds deeper trust and greater market resilience.
- Building a people-first employee brand that attracts, invites, engages, and retains more of the right employees, increases productivity, collaboration, and innovation, and reduces unwanted turnover.
- Casting a fresh vision for your organization that enables your company to achieve long-term business success, all while building on your organizational heritage.
Considerations for Historically Marginalized Populations
Please note that I offer pricing concessions for businesses and their leaders who come from historically marginalized populations. If you or your business falls within this category, please contact me directly to discuss how I can serve you and your organization.
- “Steve is a best-in-class advisor and consultant. We needed someone that was smart, experienced, organizationally-fluent who could work with the complexities of our teams. Steve exceeded our teams’ very high expectations. He gets business and brand, and I trust him implicitly.”
– Joe Stinziano, President, Samsung North American - “We truly appreciate all of the guidance and insight you provided. Steve’s presentation to the board was pivotal for our brand’s success. You had a lot of passion for this project, and it showed in the beautiful work that you did.”
– Wendy Grant, Director of Marketing & Communications, Fleet Science Center - “The impact of our work with Steve is beyond measure. Everyone seemed to double down on their commitment to our mission and vision once we’d grounded it in “Our Why,” and every staff member is 100% committed to delivering on our brand promise in every aspect of our work. We’ve even been able to increase employee engagement by working intentionally to ensure or promise of “creating experiences that transform the heart, mind, and practice” applies within our walls – this promise now drives our interactions with our partners as well as with our staff.”
– Jennifer Tucker-Tatlow, CEO of The Academy for Professional Excellence - “The campaign strategy you created doubled product sales over same quarter last year. Great job, great results!”
– Brian Pancarik. Sr. Manager, Corporate Marketing, Sony Electronics - “We needed an advisor who could be smart and creative, while understanding how to help us navigate a complex marketplace. Steve was that and so much more.”
– Linda Mignone, Vice President Marketing, Bridgepoint Education - “Steve delivered outstanding strategic and creative work. He got our business and reached our fans. What impressed me more was how well the process was managed. Steve is a strong strategic partner — always thoughtful, always dependable. He is an excellent communicator and have an unflappable service mentality. I would not hesitate to work with Steve again.”
– Dave Dresden, Director of Marketing, ESPN - “Over the years, my Sony team and I used the strategic services of Steve many times. He is the partner-of-choice for several mission-critical projects. His thinking and work is always focused on the brand strategy and the ultimate take-aways for the audience.”
– Linda Vuolo, Sr. Product Manager, Sony - “Steve did a masterful job in strategizing and expressing the Chargers brand across all areas and developing a campaign that was unique and met with great public acceptance. His efforts have been instrumental in the success the team.”
– Jim Steeg, former COO, San Diego Chargers, VP of NFL Special Events (including the Super Bowl) and President of the Miami Dolphins - “Steve Morris is a creative visionary, marketing guru and inspirational leader. He empowers and inspires every team member to reach their personal best and brings out the wisdom of any crowd. His centered demeanor brings calm to every project and instills the utmost confidence from stakeholders at all levels. He distills a brand promise to reach the greatest impact, leaving a lasting impressions that moves people to action.”
– Heather Back, Communications and Policy, Metro, San Diego Community Foundation - “The work you did in bringing civic pride into San Diego through the Padres brand is terrific. I appreciate your innovative and strategic work in bringing this to life.”
– Tom Garfinkel, (past) President, San Diego Padres (currently CEO, Miami Dolphins) - “Steve has been an outstanding partner. He effectively managed all aspects of our brand development and was instrumental in working with dozens of key stakeholders to fully execute our regional initiative. Steve provided strategic leadership and creative vision that were integral in achieving our organizational goals.”
– Anna-Marie Rooney, former VP of Marketing and External Relations, The San Diego Foundation
