Is TELL ME MORE® a marketing agency? Not really. We’re more like a strategic scaling partner that happens to have a marketing focus. We only want relationships that last for years… (in fact, forever!)
For us to consider a new relationship, potential clients must be well-established with ambitions of logarithmic growth… and a realistic idea of how to get there.
To serve as an example, these are the real deliverables for one of TMM’s new clients:
- Helping the company scale from 400 employees to 1,500+ employees in 2 years while preserving its culture.
- Strategically positioning the brand to attract the right employees, acquisition opportunities, and partners.
- Developing internal marketing capability and leadership.
- Providing Joel’s support as a fractional CMO and strategic advisor.
- Creating clarity around what makes the company unique and translating that into systems, messaging, recruiting, onboarding, sales strategy, and marketing materials.
- Capturing what exists in the minds of core leadership and turning it into a scalable foundation for future growth
Inside-Out Marketing
TMM approaches marketing as an inside-out discipline. Rather than starting with tactics, we begin by establishing clarity:
- Values (Why) — what the company stands for and refuses to compromise
- Positioning (What) — how the company is meaningfully different, and for whom
- Articulation (How) — shared language leaders and teams can actually use
- Execution (Where) — website, app, social media, PR, hiring, and outreach
When positioning and articulation are clear internally, execution becomes faster, more consistent, less dependent on any single individual or vendor, and easier to scale across teams and geographies.
What Success Looks Like
In the first 90 days, at the end of phase I, clients experience more clarity and alignment. Specifically:
- Leadership has shared language for what the company stands for, how it is different, and why that matters—internally and externally.
- Positioning no longer lives primarily the heads of the founders or core leadership. It is articulated in a form leaders and teams can actually use.
- Internal marketing teams have clearer structure, priorities, and operating rhythm, with less guesswork and fewer reactive decisions.
- Recruiting, and onboarding efforts are aligned around an authentic, coherent narrative to attract the best talent and reduce turnover.
- The business has a durable foundation that allows execution to scale without introducing stress, dependency, or cultural drift.
Phase 1 is successful if it makes future decisions easier, faster, and more consistent—while protecting the culture that made the business successful in the first place.
Phase 1 Scope
Before even beginning an engagement, TMM does a huge amount of due diligence involving weeks of effort to deeply understand a company’s immediate needs and frames the overarching strategy.
As we begin working together—particularly through leadership and stakeholder input—it’s likely we will uncover additional opportunities or refine priorities.
Phase 1 is designed to be directionally clear but adaptable, allowing the work to evolve as deeper insights emerge, while remaining grounded in the company’s values, positioning, and growth goals.
Here are the specific deliverables for the client I mentioned earlier.
Month 1: Alignment & Positioning
Primary focus: establish shared clarity and reduce early friction.
- Review and audit the newly launched website for early optimization opportunities and positioning alignment.
- Review current social media presence and outline initial planning frameworks.
- Conduct needs analysis for internal training, tools, and systems (including the company app).
- Gather, organize, and synthesize existing internal materials into a foundational positioning and messaging architecture.
- Capture leadership intent and translate it into clear, usable language.
- Support the internal team with structure, prioritization, and a sustainable weekly operating rhythm.
Month 2: Articulation & Early Execution
Primary focus: translate positioning into practical use and early momentum.
- Develop short- and long-term website recommendations; initiate early UX and SEO enhancements as appropriate.
- Capture field, customer, and partner perspectives and integrate them into the positioning framework.
- Evaluate internal processes related to hiring, acquisitions, and proposals through a positioning lens.
- Translate positioning into Phase 1 plans for content, video, PR, and social media.
- Establish early marketing operations guardrails (what happens when, by whom).
Month 3 & Beyond: Systemization and Momentum
Primary focus: make clarity repeatable and scalable.
- Initiate a centralized brand and messaging resource library to support ongoing production.
- Conduct app and/or internal systems UX sprint if needed.
- Initiate hiring support across priority channels (e.g., LinkedIn).
- Refine positioning and articulation based on real-world usage and feedback.
- Establish repeatable processes for content, social media, and hiring support.
No Contract Lock-ins
All of TMM’s engagements are structured to support a company’s current rate of growth and hiring projections—without requiring leadership to slow decisions, dilute culture, or absorb marketing risk internally.
Each engagement is intentionally flexible. There are no long-term contracts; either party may exit with 30 days’ notice.
The engagement is designed to be adaptive. As clarity increases and priorities sharpen, emphasis may shift between strategy, execution, and internal enablement—without changing the underlying partnership structure.
TMM operates as an integrated partner, not a rotating cast of contributors. Clients have clear leadership, clear points of contact, and a stable operating rhythm. Learn more about our team of experts to understand the depth of capability available.
Closing Thoughts
TMM’s ideal clients are companies that have grown by doing something rare: pairing operational excellence with integrity, trust, and restraint. That combination is difficult to manufacture and easy to dilute if growth outpaces clarity.
Our ideal engagements are not about changing what the business is. It is about making what already works easier to carry forward—across leaders, teams, markets, and time.
Our engagements are designed to help a client scale its positioning, culture, and momentum intentionally, without introducing unnecessary stress or dependency.
If successful, it becomes the foundation for everything that follows.