Origin·
Your AI brand director · Building your business 24/7

Not invented.
Excavated.

Six phases. Twenty-six questions. By the end, you have a brand foundation that wasn't manufactured. It was unearthed.

Before you start

This is not a survey. It's an excavation.

Your brand is already inside you. The story, the voice, the conviction, the edge. It is there. You have just been too busy running your business to sit down and pull it out in a way that turns into a real document.

That is what this is.

The Excavation 0%
Phase 0 · The Surface
The basics.

Who you are and how we reach you. This is the only part that is not excavation.

If your brand is your personal name, just write that.
Without this, we'll generate your brand using your personal name.
Plain English. Do not overthink this one.
Without this, your generated tagline starts from a blank page.
Phase 0.5 · Practical Details
The boring but useful stuff.

Where your brand will live in the real world. Phone numbers, social handles, your existing website. Everything required for compliance (brokerage, license) and everything we need to render real touchpoints in your marketing suite. Anything you don't have yet, leave blank.

Goes on every marketing piece — yard signs, cards, ads.
If you already have one, paste the URL. If you don't, tell us the URL you'd want — we can render it on your brand bible and mockup as a placeholder.
Where you primarily work.
Without this, yard sign and area-localized templates stay blank.
So we send things at the right time of day.
Only used on direct mail you approve. Never published online. Leave blank if you'd rather keep it private.
Real Estate Disclosures

Brokerage name is required on most real-estate marketing pieces. License number is optional — we'll include it on assets that need it if you provide it. If you don't know your exact license number, it's on your wallet card or in your brokerage portal.

Reviews & Listings

Where buyers and sellers vet you. We link these prominently on your brand bible.

Where most of your reviews live. Paste the URL or your Zillow username.
Local search depends on this. Paste the public URL or your Google Maps listing.
Social Handles

Include the @ or the full URL — either works. Without at least one social handle, your marketing mockup's social grid renders empty.

Phase 1 · Origin & Conviction
Where this all started.

This is the foundation. The more honest and specific you get here, the more powerful everything downstream becomes. Take your time. This is the phase we spend the most time on.

Why we're asking

Brands without an origin story feel generic. The specific moment is what makes your story real instead of manufactured. It gives the brand emotional weight.

Stuck? Try this.

Think back to the last 12 to 24 months of your business. When did you last get angry about how things were being done? Frustrated with a client, a coworker, an industry practice? Proud of something you built? The moment does not have to be dramatic. It might be small. Write that one.

2 to 4 paragraphs. A specific story, not a summary.
What we're looking for I was sitting in my old office at 9pm on a Tuesday watching another good agent cry in her car in the parking lot. She had just spent twelve thousand dollars on a coaching program that delivered a call script. That was the night I decided I was going to build something different.

Why we're asking

The "before" state is what makes the "after" feel meaningful. Your previous life or identity is part of what gives you authority now. It shows you earned this, not inherited it.

Stuck? Try this.

Think about what your life looked like 2, 5, or 10 years ago. What job? What role? What were you chasing or frustrated by? Even three sentences works.

"I was a teacher for 8 years. I was good at it but felt boxed in by the pay. I wanted to build something of my own where the ceiling was not set by someone else."

What life, job, or identity were you in before you started this?

Why we're asking

Most strong brands are born from a moment of pain, failure, or reckoning. Not a gradual realization. A specific moment. This is what gives your story emotional weight.

Stuck? Try this.

Not every brand has a dramatic dark night. If yours does not, write about the hardest week you can remember in your business. What was happening? What were you thinking? What did it feel like to go home at the end of those days? If you almost quit, what pulled you back?

A specific scene. Where were you? What were you thinking? If you almost quit, what pulled you back?

Why we're asking

What you disagree with defines your brand's edge. Without a point of view, your brand becomes vanilla. This is the thing that repels the wrong people and magnetizes the right ones.

Stuck? Try this.

Finish one of these:

"The industry thinks ___ but I know ___"

"Most people do ___ but I don't because ___"

"Everyone says ___ but that's not true because ___"

You are not trying to be controversial. You are just being honest about what you have seen.

The opinion that gets you in trouble. The one you would say at a dinner but not on a stage.

Why we're asking

This is your social tension. Every strong brand has something it stands against. When you name what makes you angry, you magnetize the people who feel the same way and repel the ones who do not.

Stuck? Try this.

Picture one scene from your industry that raises your blood pressure. Who is doing what? Why does it bother you? Write the scene, not the general complaint.

"I got tired of watching agents sell houses they would never buy themselves."

"I got tired of watching coaches charge $15K to teach cold calling."

This is the social tension. What makes you angry about how things are done?

Why we're asking

This is the shift from victim to builder. Victims attract sympathy. Builders attract followership. Your brand needs to be built on what you decided, not what happened to you.

Stuck? Try this.

Take your previous answers and rewrite them in active voice. Instead of "I was burned by a coach" write "I decided nobody I worked with would ever be burned like that." Instead of "the industry is broken" write "I decided to build the thing the industry refuses to build."

What is the "I decided ___" sentence for you?

Do not tell me what happened TO you. Tell me what you decided. This is the shift from victim to builder.
Phase 2 · Archetype & Energy
How you show up.

Not what you do. How you feel. This is the energy people experience when they encounter you.

Why we're asking

Your clients describe you in ways you would never describe yourself. Those words are what your brand actually sounds like in the wild. We want the in-the-wild version.

Stuck? Try this.

Pull up testimonials, Google reviews, or happy-client texts. What words keep showing up? Or ask a recent client directly: "How would you describe what I do if you were telling a friend about me?" Paste what they say.

Pretend you are eavesdropping. What do they really say?

Why we're asking

Brands that try to attract everyone attract nobody. Knowing your wrong-fit is as valuable as knowing your right-fit. It lets us write copy that repels the wrong people before they ever get on your calendar.

Stuck? Try this.

Think about the worst client you ever had. Not mean, just a bad fit. What did they expect that you could not give them? How did they think about money, time, effort, feedback? What pattern did they share with other bad-fit clients? Be specific.

Describe the wrong-fit client. What makes you think "this is not going to work"?

Why we're asking

Different trust sources build different brands. Story-based trust feels earned. Expertise-based trust feels credentialed. Directness-based trust feels fearless. Knowing your primary source shapes every piece of content we write for you.

Stuck? Try this.

Think about the moment a skeptical client decided to trust you. What did you say or do that turned them? Was it your backstory? A piece of proof? The way you pushed back on them? Something specific you taught? That moment is the signal. Pick your top two.

It might be more than one. Rank them in order.

Why we're asking

What people say behind your back is your actual brand. Not the one you wish you had. The one that is already running without you.

Stuck? Try this.

Think about compliments people give you that you did not fish for. Think about how a friend introduces you to someone new. Think about what your top clients might say at a dinner where you are not there. If you have to guess, guess based on behavior, not social posts.

Not what you hope they say. What they actually say.

Why we're asking

This reveals your brand's natural energy. Different energies attract different people. Knowing yours makes every piece of content feel aligned.

Stuck? Try this.

Picture 6 people at a dinner:

The storyteller who keeps everyone laughing with stories

The challenger who pushes back on every lazy idea

The quiet authority everyone turns to when it gets serious

The nurturer who makes sure everyone feels seen

The pioneer who is always talking about what is next

The teacher who breaks complex things into simple ones

Which one is you? Pick the strongest match, and the runner-up.

Phase 3 · Audience & Ego
Who you are built to serve.

Not everyone. The specific person who needs exactly what you offer.

Why we're asking

Your best client is a pattern. Once you see them clearly, we can point every piece of marketing at finding more of them.

Stuck? Try this.

Think about the client who got the most change, not the biggest invoice. What did they come in with? What did they leave with? What did they say along the way that stuck with you? What made them different from clients who stalled or quit? Paint the picture.

What were they like before? What were they like after?

Why we're asking

The common thread is your qualification filter. It is what makes some people thrive with you and others flame out. When you name it, we can write messaging that attracts the right ones and screens out the rest.

Stuck? Try this.

List your last 5 successful clients. Not the biggest deals, the biggest transformations. What did they have in common? Were they coachable? Driven? Humble? Already building? Willing to do the work before you gave them permission to quit? Pick the 2 or 3 traits that keep showing up.

Why we're asking

Your anti-audience is the clearest way to signal who your real audience is. When people see themselves in the wrong-fit description, they self-select out. When they see themselves in the gap, they lean in.

Stuck? Try this.

Describe the person you would turn down even if they had cash in hand. What are they looking for that you cannot give them? What do they believe that makes working with you impossible? Get specific. Habits, expectations, beliefs.

Why we're asking

If you can describe their 11pm feeling, your marketing stops everything. It feels like you are reading their mind. That is how brands earn trust before they earn a dollar.

Stuck? Try this.

Think about the last 3 people who became clients. On your first call with each of them, what did they say in the first 5 minutes? What pain did they lead with? What sentence did they say that made you think this person is ready?

Write it the way they would say it. Use their words, not yours.

What are they feeling at 11pm when they cannot sleep? What are they scared of? What did they just try that did not work?

Why we're asking

Proud audiences need to feel recognized and equipped, never corrected. Humble audiences can handle direct teaching. Get this wrong and the messaging feels off to the exact people it is trying to reach.

Stuck? Try this.

Imagine correcting your ideal client on something they are doing wrong. Which reaction would you get?

(A) They get defensive, maybe shut down → they are proud

(B) They pause, then say "tell me more" → they are open

(C) They thank you, maybe apologize → they are humble

Most audiences are a mix. Write what dominates.

This changes everything about how your messaging is written.
Phase 4 · Positioning & Offers
What you actually sell.

What you sell, how it fits together, and what makes it different from everyone else.

Why we're asking

We need to see the full map before we can organize it into a journey. Include the stuff you are not sure counts. The free newsletter. The side consulting. The referral program. All of it.

Stuck? Try this.

Walk through each of these buckets and list what you have in each. Write "none" if a bucket is empty.

Free (YouTube, blog, newsletter, free workshops)

Lead magnets (PDFs, checklists, opt-ins)

Low-ticket ($0 to $200)

Mid-ticket ($200 to $2,000)

High-ticket ($2,000+)

Recurring (memberships, retainers, subscriptions)

List all of it. Free stuff, low-ticket, mid-ticket, premium.

Why we're asking

Your offers are not a product list. They are stages of transformation. This is what separates a business from a brand.

Stuck? Try this.

Forget your products for a minute. Describe your ideal client on two days:

Day One: Before they ever met you. What are they struggling with? What do they not know?

Day 365: After working with you for a year. What has changed? What can they now do that they could not before?

Now map the stages between those two days. What is Stage 1 (free content), Stage 2 (entry offer), Stage 3 (core offer), Stage 4 (premium)? What do they experience at each stage?

Stage 1: They first experience... Stage 2: Then they... Stage 3: Eventually they...

Why we're asking

Your real competitors are the ones your ideal client considered before they found you. Not the ones you wish you were compared to. The ones that actually get the click.

Stuck? Try this.

Ask a recent client: "Who else did you look at before you hired me?" That is your competitor list. Or search what your ideal client might Google right now. Who shows up on page one? Include big names and local ones. And do not forget the "do nothing" option. That is a competitor too.

Why we're asking

One sticky sentence beats ten paragraphs of clever copy. The answer to this question often becomes your primary tagline or the first line of your website.

Stuck? Try this.

Write five different versions. Then cross out:

Anything with jargon (words only industry people use)

Anything longer than 12 words

Anything that could describe 10 other people

Read what is left out loud. Which one would a stranger actually remember tomorrow? Which one makes them say "wait, tell me more"? That is the answer.

One sentence. Something a stranger would remember tomorrow.
Phase 5 · Voice Capture
How you actually sound.

Not how a marketing agency would write about you. How you actually talk.

Why we're asking

This raw text is gold. It contains your natural cadence, your go-to phrases, your sentence structure, your level of formality. We reference it when writing every section of your brand bible. If anything we write later sounds different from this raw capture, it means we are drifting from your voice.

Stuck? Try this.

Open the Voice Memo app on your phone. Hit record. Talk for 2 minutes like you are explaining what you do to a friend you have not seen in 3 months, and they just asked "so what are you up to these days?"

Do not script it. Do not rehearse. Just talk like a human.

Then play it back and transcribe what you said into this box. Do not edit it. The run-on sentences, the "like" and "you know," the profanity if it is there. All of it. That is your voice. Paste it raw.

Stream of consciousness. Do not edit. Do not capitalize. Do not worry about grammar. Just talk. This is the most important answer in the whole form.

Why we're asking

Your signature phrases are brand equity. The words people expect to hear from you are the words that make your content sound like you, not like a template.

Stuck? Try this.

Scan your last 20 texts, DMs, or voice memos with clients. What phrases keep repeating? Any analogies you reach for? Any inside jokes? A catchphrase you did not know you had? Anything that shows up more than twice is a signature phrase. Paste them all.

Things your friends would recognize as "so you."

Why we're asking

Your never-say list is as important as your always-say list. When a forbidden word shows up in a draft, we know we are drifting from your voice.

Stuck? Try this.

Scan these and mark the ones that make your skin crawl: leverage, unlock, supercharge, synergy, disrupt, hustle, ninja, game-changer, crushing it, rockstar, 10x, move the needle, at the end of the day. Which of these do you refuse to use? Any industry-specific ones you would add?

Phase 6 · Promise & Visual
The feeling you create.

The emotional core of your brand and the feel of how it looks.

Why we're asking

People buy feelings, not services. When you know the emotion, you know the promise. This one word shapes everything from your color palette to your closing script.

Stuck? Try this.

Think about a client who told you something like "I am so glad I found you." What were they feeling right before they said that? Name the feeling.

Now think about what they were feeling the day before they found you. Scared? Lost? Overwhelmed? Skeptical?

Your brand lives in the gap between those two feelings. Name the one they feel after. Go deeper than "excited" or "happy." Relief? Certainty? Safety? Recognition? Hope? Which one?

Relief? Certainty? Hope? Safety? Something else? Go deeper than "excited."

Why we're asking

Your transformation is the ONE promise. Not a feature list. Not "results." The actual shift that happens inside someone after working with you.

Stuck? Try this.

Finish this sentence: "Before working with me, people usually ___. After, they ___."

If the "before" and "after" are the same person with the same struggles, dig deeper. Real transformation is a shift in identity, not just tactics. They went from feeling lost to feeling certain. From chasing to building. From hiding to owning.

What is your version of that shift?

The thing that actually changes in someone's life after working with you.

Why we're asking

Visual direction is faster to point at than to describe. The brands you point to give us a shortcut to understand your aesthetic without a ten-paragraph explanation.

Stuck? Try this.

Pull up your browser bookmarks, your Instagram saves, or any brand whose packaging made you stop in a store. What websites do you enjoy landing on? Any industry works. Coffee shops, tech, clothing brands, magazines, neighborhood bars.

For each one, write what specifically you like. "I like how clean it feels." "I like the warm tones." "I like that it looks editorial, not corporate."

Apple, Patagonia, Notion, a local coffee shop. Whatever. What specifically do you like about how they look?

Why we're asking

Naming the wrong direction protects us from accidentally building it. Anti-examples are as useful as examples.

Stuck? Try this.

Think about brands in your space you specifically do not want to be compared to. What is wrong with how they look? Be specific.

"I don't want the cheap stock-photo real estate look."

"I don't want the wellness-industrial beige aesthetic."

"I don't want loud gradients and emoji-filled social posts."

Why we're asking

Your face anchors the brand. It goes on the homepage, the About section, social profiles, email signatures, press features. We need a clean, professional version we can crop, resize, and use everywhere.

Specs

File type: JPG or PNG. (HEIC from iPhone is fine — we'll convert it.)

Minimum size: 1500 × 1500 pixels. Bigger is better.

Ideal: 2000–3000 pixels on the long edge, square or vertical crop, even lighting, neutral background, sharp focus on your eyes.

Max file size: 10 MB.

If you have multiple, send the one that looks most like the version of you that shows up to work. Not the LinkedIn one from 2017.

JPG or PNG. Minimum 1500 × 1500 px. Ideal 2000 px+ on the long edge. Max 10 MB.

Why we're asking

This is the open mic. Anything you want in your brand bible that we did not ask about directly, put it here.

Stuck? Try this.

Some ideas to pull from:

Stories you always tell clients

Beliefs you hold that shape how you work

Quirks about how you operate

A line you want as your website headline

Something you definitely do not want us to do

Optional, but useful. The more you write, the less we have to guess.

Stories, context, beliefs, anything you want in the brand bible that we did not ask about. Optional, but useful.
The Handoff

Ready to be excavated.

Once you submit, the foundation gets built from what you just shared. In your voice. Using your actual words. You will hear back within 2 to 3 business days with your complete brand bible.

Access Code · Optional
Got a code from your onboarding email? Paste it to install Origin in your business immediately. No code? Submit without one. Blake and Tyler personally review every install request and will reach out within 24 hours to see if working together makes sense.
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