The Agency Model
Building systems that scale clarity, creativity, and service excellence.
Context
Empower Schools is a nonprofit consulting firm that provides strategy and technical support for education organizations. In a fast-paced, mission-driven environment, the organization needed consistent messaging, brand-aligned materials, and streamlined cross-team communications. This was essential both for communicating its value and accelerating the work of the partners it serves. To meet this need, I built a communications agency from the ground up. The system brought clarity across Empower and delivered service excellence that extended to external partners.
My Role
Seeing the need for clarity, I led a rebrand and trained internal teams on messaging and brand application, improving the quality and alignment of communications across departments. To ensure consistency and manage the team effectively, I created and launched a ticketing system that allowed staff to request communications and design support. As demand grew, I expanded the agency to serve Empower’s external partners as a value-add service. That work became a revenue stream and is now integrated into Empower’s contracts.
Deliverables
Internal and external ticketing system
Brand guide and refreshed strategic positioning
Staff brand training and skill-building workshops
Strategic communications and visual deliverables for partner use
Revenue integration model to embed comms services into contracts
Selected Work
Client Deliverabls
Brand and Positioning
Results
As a result of my work, Empower Schools has a strong central communications functions that is regarded as a valuable resource for delivering high-quality communications throughout the network. Team members were able to significantly save time and resources by using branded templates and attending workshops.
90% of staff agreed or strongly agreed “I have the information I need to do my job”, up from 60% YoY.
95% of staff agreed or strongly agree “I understand our key objective (OKRs) and how I contribute to them, up from 45% YoY.
54% increase in productivity.
Average star rating 4.95 out of 5.
Immediate Impact
Empower Schools has been able to explicitly embed communications support into its contracts, opening up new revenue streams. With an average value of 10-25% of the contract, communications is significantly boosting earnings by clarifying and codifying its true value-add. Next, Empower is expanding how it uses its voice to lead through others.