--- title: "The StrategyComics Manual" author: "Mr. Edutainment" url: "https://docs.mredutainment.com/9/strategycomics-manual" --- # Introduction Most “strategy” is just outdated documents you ignore because you’re underwater and need to ship. Most “marketing” is just a collection of disconnected ideas trying to grab attention or convince people to buy. But you don’t actually want attention, or to convince.
You want more customers to actually like your brand, want to buy from you, and choose to spread the word. Most modern marketing systems encourage the very fragmentation that causes the problem in the first place. One team handles ads. Another handles pages. Another handles emails. Another handles customer success. Another handles social media. Each part gets optimized separately. Each part tells a slightly different story. And worst of all, the best ideas aren't possible, because they would require everyone working together to orchestrate an amazing, unified experience that customers can't help but talk about. Truly great experiences never see the light of day. StrategyComics fixes that, while making it easy and fun in the process, so everyone stays clear and engaged long-term. --- ## What StrategyComics is StrategyComics is a buyer experience strategy system. It helps businesses understand: - who their customers really are - what those customers genuinely want - what problems they’re trying to escape - what better future they’re trying to get to - what kinds of experiences they would actually enjoy progressing through - how each stage of the buyer experience should connect together Then it turns that strategic thinking into fully illustrated comicbook-style documentation that teams can actually understand, remember, share, and execute against. Not (just) because comicbooks are "fun". But because even the best plans don't get implemented if no one can remember them, or hates reading them in the first place. A strategy hidden inside a 90-page corporate sludge deck is difficult to read, difficult to remember, difficult to explain, and difficult to implement consistently. A strategy wrapped in story, visuals, emotion, clear write-ups and custom hand-drawn sketches of every stage along the way is dramatically easier for teams to like, use, and implement. --- ## Why this manual exists Customers buying StrategyComics, and talent wishing to work on StrategyComics, both want to know what StrategyComics are, how it works, how pricing works, what each stage does, how the system fits together, who works inside the system, and what standards exist inside the system. Team members also have extensive 'playbooks' (one for each skillset) and 'recipebooks' (one for each product) to ensure consistent high-quality output for every single customer. This manual serves as a public-facing introduction to that work for them. Customers also like to understand how we think, what's included in every product, and how things work. While they won't want access to our lengthy 'playbooks' and 'recipebooks', they do want full transparency into how everything works; even if they don't read it, they find it comforting to know its there, and that we are as transparent as we are. --- ## How to use this manual Peruse the pages and get a better sense of how StrategyComics works. We've detailed guiding principles, how every product works, how pricing works, how to become a customer, and what roles are involved in producting your StrategyComic. If something feels unclear, missing or confusing, don't hesitate to write. Mr. Edutainment founder, Adam, can be contacted at adam@mredutainment.com. Thanks so much for reading. Principles # We buy stories, not products Brands often seem to forget that people buy from them. Not other companies. Not amorphous, shapeless entities. People. People are messy and contradictory. They think they're logical, while being emotional. They think they're buying utility when actually buying status, or the other way around. Carefully evaluate whether a $6 book is worth the money while sipping a $6 coffee they didn't think twice about. This is news to brands. While they articulate features, stats, charts and frameworks, "but wait, there's more"-ing themselves into marginalized obscurity, people don't give them a second look. Not because the brand didn't have a good offer.
But because the brand didn't have a good story. --- ## Humans don't think in facts Humans don't think in facts. They feel in stories. They edit their photographs because the story they tell themselves about their lives matters more than an accurate representation of what happened. They universally hate movies where "the dog dies" because the feeling spoils the rest of the movie. They can't get into the movie anymore, therefore it was bad. They'll gladly pay $9.99 + free shipping, but almost never pay $5 + $5 shipping. They can't remember a series of random numbers they heard ten seconds ago, yet can recite the lyrics to their favorite childhood cartoon theme song that they've not heard in thirty years. Discretionary effort counts double because, while functionally redundant, it makes people feel vastly more cared for. Stories don’t just pass through the language centers of the brain. They activate emotional and sensory regions too. The brain treats stories more like lived experiences than abstract information. You don't feel facts.
You feel stories. --- ## Facts inform, but decay We're taking in information all the time. The desk is brown. The coffee is going cold. The notebook is open.
The magazine is creased. The monitor is dusty. If we held onto every piece of information, our minds would explode. Our brains are excellent at "thoughtfully forgetting" information, holding on to only that which is most obviously pertinent to our wellbeing. Good stories are the exception. We remember our spouse's birthday because it has a story associated with it. It could be, "I love buying them a gift, I love the way they light up when they open it" because its part of our own story of "being a good spouse". Alternatively, it could be "I must not forget to get them a card or they'll rip me a new one" because its part of our own story of "preferring not to sleep on the couch". Two different stories. One outcome: remembering a date. Facts may help people intellectually understand, but brains treat stories just like lived experiences. There is movement, tension, consequence, meaning, emotion, and self-preservation all at play when a story shows up. That makes our brains deem them far more likely to be worth remembering. --- ## Stories make facts irrelevant Is a $200,000 Birkin bag expensive? After all, it only costs $800-1,400 to produce. It's a $1k bag with a $199k story attached to it. What's the story? For its target market, it's the feeling of being a better, more important, higher status individual than everybody else around them. A Rolls-Royce Phantom sells the same story for $500,000. A whopping $301k more expensive story than the Birkin, yet designed to achieve the same feeling. For the target market, the Birkin bag is a steal. But facts about the bag don't make it a steal.
Nor do "offer stacks" or "limited time offers".
The story makes it a steal. --- ## Stories create culture Companies like to talk about culture. Normally, it's a thinly-veiled hodgepodge of aspirations, rather than an account of what things are actually like. But culture is much more than sterile documentation that preaches to a priesthood of unconverted staff that just want to get paid and go home. Culture needs stories. For thousands of years, stories were used to pass down knowledge, define norms and shape shared perspectives. All three are true when deploying a StrategyComic. Knowledge is easily passed down through visual storytelling that everyone will enjoy reading, defines norms and common language everyone shares, and facilitates shared perspectives now everyone sees the big picture. Everyone on the team is on the same page.
In the loop, invested in the journey, and in it to win it, together. # Simplicity gets implemented Brands love complexity. Complex pricing models. Complex funnels. Complex frameworks. Complex org charts. Complex customer journeys. Complex slide decks. Complex strategy documents. "Complex" is almost shorthand for "I spent more time on it, therefore it's better." French philosopher Blaise Pascal famously once wrote, _"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."_ The real world doesn't reward complexity.
Reality rewards implementation.
And implementation likes simplicity. --- ## Resisting the puzzle Most businesses aren't suffering from a lack of information,
any more than a jigsaw puzzle suffers from a lack of pieces. They're suffering from an inability to act on the information they already have.
They haven't completed the puzzle yet.
And puzzles are hard. When strategies are complex, those involved in creating it feel clever, their higher-ups feel they got their money's worth, peers and subordinates feel overwhelmed, and the whole thing is reduced to intellectual entertainment. It's easier to create verbose, complex documents that imply hard work has been done, than to dig deeper for the real work to be done, then make that very easy for everyone to understand and implement. (Much easier.) This is why strategy has a reputation for being documents teams might refer to sometimes while doing other things, rather than the cornerstone of everything teams do together, pivotal to their continued growth and success. StrategyComics are designed to solve the puzzle by using 1:1 coaching sessions to extract all the puzzle pieces, then assemble them on your behalf between sessions. Now the hard part is done, and everyone can focus on executing the completed picture. --- ## Most strategy dies during handoff What's the next step after producing a complex, longform strategy document? That's right: absolutely nothing. Only those who created it understand it, and given a few months, they'll forget too. It's not used because it's not understood. It's not updated because it's not used. Before long, it's forgotten about entirely. Everyone knows someone who thought Uber was originally their idea. Not many know someone who had the idea, made it simple enough for a whole team to both understand and execute against, then turn it into a $150B company. It doesn't matter if your goal is a $150B company or a small, resilient, long-term mom 'n' pop store. Both require a strategy to move in the right direction. Good strategies make that more likely than bad ones.
But good, complex ones never really get off the ground.
Good, simple strategies are worth executing and get executed. --- ## Simplicity removes hiding places How do you know if your marketing is working? If your marketing team increases MQLs, but close rates decline because lead quality is down… is your marketing working? If your post-sale team's new referral system creates new MQLs, but SDRs take the credit despite flat reception… is your marketing working? When things are so complex that everyone focuses on their own little piece of the puzzle just to make sense of what they do… is your marketing working? It's tough to answer. Everyone defines success differently, and none of the definitions can truly answer whether or not marketing — all of it — is working. We need everyone defining success the same way. For things to be simple enough that everyone can easily remember the entire plan regardless of their role, and how their actions contribute to the common goal. No more places to hide. Everyone measured on their ability to execute the same plan. No blame games, no "that's not my job" just one team, with one plan, and one goal. StrategyComics put the entire buyer experience into one plan, one document, then make it simple to understand thanks to the comic book delivery model. We all struggle to read through documents sometimes.
But nobody struggles to read a comic on company time. # Your business is a taxi service People have very different mental pictures about what their business is. Leaders see it like a boat, where we all need to row together.
Product people see it like Jobs' garage where the future is made.
Hustlers see it like a cannon aimed at the moon as they reach for the stars. We see it like a taxi service. --- ## Customers don't care about the taxi… yet Of course they don't care yet. Why would they. Yours could be a year-model car, with chilled water in the back seat, their favorite jazz on the radio, and a great conversationalist in the driving seat. But none of that matters. Not until they know you can pick them up in the right place, and drop them off in the right place. Only then do any of the other details matter. The path to them being interested in what you have going on (and showing it), it through being interested in what they have going on (and showing it). StrategyComics helps brands do that by basing the entire buyer experience design on what the your customer truly wants to do. It defines them like characters in a movie. It defines their story like the plot in that movie. It maps every action customers want to take onto that storyline, based on what they needs in each chapter. Your brand is an aide in their story. Now you'll always remain focused on the right thing at the right time. --- ## A good ride beats a good taxi Old, musty car. No air conditioning. No music. The driver is socially-awkward, but knows the specific route you want to take like the back of his hand, and has taken that sole route every day for almost a decade. Compare that to a brand new, year-model car. Freshly gassed AC. Chilled waterbottles in seatback nets. Your favorite jazz band on the radio. Friendly driver, who makes his way around with his smartphone's maps app, joining the same congested route as everyone else because he doesn't know the local secrets. Which ride would you choose? Knowing the journey a customer truly wants to go on, focusing on the details that matter most to them, is a great way to start building a ride they want to take. That's why StrategyComics maps each key marketing function onto the customer's ideal journey. Because nothing else matters if you dont know the way. --- ## Know their favorite route First, learn the way. Then, learn a better way. Most assume they know the best route for any taxi to ever take.
Surely it's the fastest path from A to B, right? Lots of missed opportunities hidden in this assumption, and many like it. Perhaps they're in a hurry. In that case, sure, they want to get there ASAP. Perhaps they're famous. Maybe they want to get there as discreetly as possible? Perhaps they're tourists. Maybe they want to get there as scenicly as possible? Consider the last example for a moment. Armed with that information, now you can plan scenic routes depending on what's between their destinations. You could learn the sights and tell customers all about them on the route. You could have free city guides in the seatbacks for customers to take. Who are they going to call next time they take a trip there?
Would they even dream of calling anyone else? That's why StrategyComics focus on getting the routes defined, then build each part of the marketing experience around that. Because there's a whole world of competitive advantage available to brands that get the route right. Services # StrategyComics Chapter 1: Foundations Behind every great movie, book, and marketing campaign… is a great foundation. A clear roadmap that ties everything together.
Something to get all teams aligned and clear.
Something to be the north star of execution.
Something to help you lead company growth. StrategyComics Foundations helps define the customer, the brand's role in relation to the customer, and each marketing function needed to make discovery, evaluation, conversion, nurture, transaction, activation, retention and referral run like clockwork. All while making all that feel simple, clear, easy to remember, and easy to apply. --- ## What Foundations is for Foundations is for understanding the core strategy beneath the buyer experience. It answers questions like: - Who is the customer and what do they want? - What problem are they trying to move away from? - What better future are they trying to reach? - What is the role of the brand in their story? - How should the brand earn the customer’s attention in the first place? - How should the brand move attention from borrowed platforms onto its own site? - How should the brand convert visitors eagerly rather than with coercion? - How should the brand nurture that interest to sale? - How should the brand activate new customers immediately post-sale? - How should the brand retain customers over time? - How should the brand create methodical referrals? Foundations answers these questions so all ads, posts, pages, emails and other assets can sing from the same hymn sheet, resulting in a much stronger buyer experience. --- ## Why it comes first You can make ads, pages, emails, onboarding, and sales material without Foundations.
Perhaps you've been doing that for years already. And if you have, you'll likely already know how every marketing asset risks telling a slightly different story: - Social and PPC send traffic to your site for various reasons. - Pages don't acknowledge those reasons, much less build on them. They often jump straight into pitching a product or service, which is why people hesitated to click in the first place. - If they do convert, nurture materials are sporadic, forgetting any reason people clicked or converted in the first place, instead electing to either pitch product, or obscure pitches with "value". - If they do buy, the user experience is reduced to a thank you email and customer service tickets. We instinctively know this is suboptimal. We know it would be so much better if the entire process was a continual, integrated, orchestrated experience — each step building upon the last, drawing customers in with eager anticipation of what happens next. We just tend not to know how to plan out such a thing.
That's what Foundations is for. --- ## Who Foundations is for Foundations is useful for companies that have a good product or service and prior interactions with their target market, who want to level-up their buyer experience to grow their brand and better serve their customers. Good fit: - service companies - SaaS brands - product companies - education/course brands - founders/teams with scattered ideas or marketing challenges - companies whose marketing feels fragmented for whatever reason - companies that know they are useful but struggle to explain why people should care - companies about to create pages, campaigns, nurture, or customer journeys Bad fit: - people who only want a quick logo/design refresh - businesses with no offer or no prior interactions with their target market - teams that would rather use ready-fire-aim tactics than coherent long-term strategies - companies looking for generic marketing that doesn't stand out - teams with stakeholders who "already know best" - teams with disrespectful stakeholders (we refuse them service) - companies selling products or services we're not comfortable helping promote --- ## What happens inside Foundations Foundations is delivered through a mix of coaching sessions and comic page updates. Each session extracts a specific part of the puzzle live with a StrategyComics coach, then the StrategyComics strategists and artists turn those inputs into clearly written and visually engaging material between sessions. ### Session 0: Map and Rank (Optional session) For brands with existing marketing materials who would like to rank their current performance before starting the Foundations process. Here, we plot current materials onto a proper buyer experience map, identifying where the gaps are, and how well each asset ranks in pulling power. ### Session 1: Characters We clarify who the customer is, and who your brand is, as if they were characters in a story. We define them with the same components as one would in a movie, to fully understand their motivations and behaviors, both individually and in relation to one another, so we can more deeply understand each of their roles in the customer journey. ### Session 2: Narrative We clarify the customer's problem, the desired future, and the steps they need to move through in order to move from one place to the other. This map becomes the territory upon which every marketing function sits. ### Session 3: Attention We clarify where customers already spend their attention, what they naturally notice, and what kinds of ideas, formats, stories, and visuals are most likely to earn their attention. Rather than trying to force attention through interruption or trends, we identify your customer’s existing habits for learning and for entertainment, then design ways of combining the two together to distinguish your brand as a winning source of both in places of meaning for them. ### Session 4: Invitation We clarify how people would appreciate moving from borrowed attention into owned brand experiences. This means defining the invitation that makes someone want to leave the platform they're on, visit the brand’s website or owned space, and continue the journey there in a deeper or elevated state. We look at what promise, curiosity, value, or next step would make that move feel natural and worthwhile, rather than asking people to click away merely for the brand’s convenience. ### Session 5: Nurture We clarify how the offer should be understood, trusted, and considered… how customers would appreciate going deeper with their invitation insights… and how to use one as a bridge to the other. The goal is to make nurture feel like a valuable continuation of their interest, helping them feel increasingly clear, confident, and ready to take the next step. ### Session 6: Post-Sale We clarify what should happen after purchase so customers succeed, return, and talk about it. This includes the initial moments after buying, the early wins customers need to experience, the moments where they may need reassurance or guidance, and the opportunities to create retention, expansion, referrals, testimonials, and champions. The buyer experience does not end at the transaction; the post-sale journey is where the promise is either fulfilled, strengthened, or quietly weakened. --- ## What customers receive Customers receive a fully illustrated comic book that presents the insights and opportunities uncovered during the 1:1 coaching sessions. StrategyComics strategists turn the session inputs into clear strategic material. StrategyComics artists then illustrate those ideas so the final artifact is easy to read, share, remember, and use. Each section of the buyer experience is written up as a suite of insights, and corresponding opportunities to execute are illustrated and explained for each section. The entire experience is wrapped in a comic book story to help readers understand how everything fits together, while making it easy for your whole team to remember and recall in future, as a common language during execution. --- ## What happens after Foundations? With your StrategyComic Foundations in hand, you now have a complete map of your entire buyer experience — how people will progress from one stage to the next, from first contact through to being a brand advocate. At this stage, companies have a choice. The first option is to iterate upon their existing marketing materials using StrategyComics Foundations as their guide, intuiting how to implement each opportunity into each stage of their buyer experience. The second option is to blueprint a specific phase of the map before production begins, so they can see precisely what to make, write and do for each post, page and email for the best customer experience, the best marketing results, and the most economical production. Both are valid paths, and its the business owner's responsibility to choose what they believe is best for their business. The right choice depends on the scale of change required, how ambitious the opportunity is, and how much the company wants to "figure it out as they go" vs "plan the work and work the plan". ### Path 1: Small improvements using Foundations Some companies simply want to improve existing materials gradually, feeling it out as they go. For example, they might like to refine existing pages by tweaking their messaging, positioning and visuals. Or tighten existing onboarding. Or modify existing nurture flows. Tweaks and changes, using their Foundations as a north star while they figure it out. In these cases, many companies simply use the Foundations StrategyComic internally as guidance while making those smaller changes, or use our [Otherworldly Alliance Pay-As-You-Go](https://otherworldly.mredutainment.com/) service for a la carté production support as and when they need it, or a mix of the two. This path is lighter-weight, faster to start, and works well when the existing infrastructure is already relatively strong. ### Path 2: Blueprint a buyer journey phase properly before production Some companies simply want to execute upon the opportunity in front of them, and want to get it right without wasting time or money on missteps or hoping that "figure it out as we go" works out. Instead of making various tweaks, they want to properly design stages of their buyer experience before production begins. In these cases, this is where StrategyComics Blueprints come in. Blueprints zoom into one phase of the buyer journey and turn it into a detailed implementation schematic before production starts. This dramatically reduces production ambiguity, fragmented decision-making, revision loops, patchy experience, and wasted production time or dollars. Similarly, it typically increases implementation clarity, production confidence, the quality of the finished result, and value per dollar of production time. This path is easier because there’s nothing to “figure out” during production. The thinking has already been done. Teams simply follow the blueprint. ### Choosing a Blueprint Blueprints are produced in phases that match the structure in StrategyComics Foundations, so companies can choose to blueprint only the pieces they want to blueprint. This increases speed to production while saving them money. Both are good things. - [StrategyComics Chapter 2: Attention Blueprint](https://docs.mredutainment.com/9/strategycomics-manual/237/chapter-2-attention-blueprint) - [StrategyComics Chapter 3: Deplatform Blueprint](https://docs.mredutainment.com/9/strategycomics-manual/238/chapter-3-deplatform-blueprint) - [StrategyComics Chapter 4: Nurture Blueprint](https://docs.mredutainment.com/9/strategycomics-manual/239/chapter-4-nurture-blueprint) - [StrategyComics Chapter 5: Post-Sale Blueprint](https://docs.mredutainment.com/9/strategycomics-manual/240/chapter-5-post-sale-blueprint) Most companies build what they need, when they need it. Some only Blueprint one phase, others Blueprint the entire buyer journey over time or up-front. There is no pressure to take any one path over another. Blueprints exist to make bringing your ideal buyer experience to life as easy as possible. # StrategyComics Chapter 2: Attention Blueprint ``` This blueprint requires: • StrategyComics foundations ``` Not all attention is made equal.
There are two main types. The first type is unwilling attention. This is the generated slop, the cuts of other peoples work to hijack views, and sensational claims appealing to your insecurities. It's the stuff you look at but wish you hadn't afterwards. It doesn't leave you better than it found you. It's not particularly entertaining. It merely rides the fast-food wave of mediocre "content", harvesting eyeballs to win short-term algorithm prizes. The second type is willing attention. This is the TV show you can't wait for the next episode of. It's the product release you've been looking forward to. It's the video from the one person who seems to talk sense in your industry. It either fulfills you with entertainment, education, or best of all: both. It's not the fast-food option. It's the restaurant with a queue extending out the door and down the street. The Attention Blueprint exists to turn the attention strategy defined during StrategyComics Foundations into a complete implementation schematic for recurring attention assets that fall squarely into the latter category. --- ## What the Attention Blueprint is for The Attention Blueprint is for crafting the attention layer of your buyer journey. It answers questions like: - What recurring series or concepts should the brand lead? - What makes those ideas interesting enough to follow repeatedly? - How should educational and entertaining elements work together? - What kinds of stories, structures, or themes should recur? - What makes the series recognizable and memorable? - How should episodes or posts be structured? - How should the same idea adapt across different formats and platforms? - How should short-form, long-form, static, carousel, or ad formats differ? - How should attention transition naturally into conversions? - What CTAs make sense within the experience, and how are they used? - How should the audience feel while consuming the material? The Blueprint exists so that you can hand your StrategyComic to any competent web team (internal or external), say "build that", and they'll know exactly what to do. --- ## Why this blueprint exists between Foundations and implementation Your StrategyComic Foundations map out how your entire buyer experience works together. Each part of the customer's narrative. Each opportunity to take along that journey. All defined in one place to create a coherent, unified experience customers genuinely enjoy progressing through. But knowing _what_ the experience should be is different from knowing _how_ to build it. Without an Attention Blueprint, you (or your production team) will quickly run into questions like: * What kinds of content should we actually be making based on this? * Which ideas deserve long-form treatment vs short-form treatment? * What formats should exist — comics, videos, posts, ads, something else? * How do we make assets that get attention without feeling disposable? * What should the structure of each content type actually look like? * How do we keep making things like this without running out of ideas? * How do the visuals, hooks, messaging, and progression systems work together? * What content connects into the deplatform experience, and how? Without a Blueprint, teams have to “figure it out” while creating content. Which usually leads to inconsistent messaging, weaker differentiation, random content schedules, reactive production decisions, and more production cost than necessary. With a blueprint, teams are able to see exactly what to do, for each type of asset required. It doesn’t write the posts for them… but it tells them what to write, where, and why. It doesn’t create artwork or animations for them… but it tells them what elements go in each asset, and why. It doesn’t publish materials for them… but it tells them how it all works together, and why. The result is a clear path from strategy, to production, to real customers having a great experience as planned. --- ## Who the Attention Blueprint is for The Attention Blueprint is useful for companies that have StrategyComics Foundations, and are ready to turn the Attention phase of that strategy into a detailed blueprint so it can be executed easily without interpretation. Good fit: - service companies - SaaS brands - product companies - education/course brands - founders/teams with scattered ideas or marketing challenges - companies whose marketing feels fragmented for whatever reason - companies that know they are useful but struggle to explain why people should care - companies about to create pages, campaigns, nurture, or customer journeys Bad fit: - people who want to deviate from their Foundations StrategyComic - teams that would rather use ready-fire-aim tactics than coherent long-term strategies - companies looking for generic marketing that doesn't stand out - teams with stakeholders who "already know best" - teams with disrespectful stakeholders (we refuse them service) - companies selling products or services we're not comfortable helping promote --- ## What happens inside the Attention Blueprint Like the StrategyComics Foundations that comes before it, the Attention Blueprint is delivered through a mix of coaching sessions and comic page updates. The resulting pages add a "chapter" to the same StrategyComic, so everything stays neatly organized, and easy to read or distribute among your team. Each coaching session defines a specific part of the attention infrastructure, while StrategyComics strategists and artists transform those discussions into implementation schematics, visual structures, and experience pages between sessions. The final output becomes a clear, visual guide showing how the attention stage of your buyer experience should function from beginning to end. ### Session 1: Experience We define the core deplatform experience itself, based on the winning Foundations opportunity. We dive into recurring series, concepts, hooks, educational structures, entertainment structures, storytelling approaches, emotional positioning, visual direction, and recurring mechanics that make the material worth consuming and coming back for more. ### Session 2: Infrastructure We define the supporting infrastructure surrounding that core experience. We dive into the structure of applicable formats and platforms, such as short and long-form video structure, carousel or image appropriations, different story adaptations, and ad-specific derivatives. The goal is to ensure the brand doesn't produce random disconnected "content", but instead operates a recognizable and adaptable attention ecosystem. ### Session 3: Review & Refine We review the complete blueprint together. Here, we check implementation clarity, refine spec or logic, and clarify implementation expectations. After the session, the strategy team will refine the blueprint based on your feedback. The goal is to ensure an implementation-ready blueprint that a competent team can confidently build with. --- ## What customers receive Customers receive a blueprint "chapter" of their StrategyComic, that presents an illustrated write-up of precisely how each asset will function, as an implementation schematic for your attention experience. It is a visual implementation blueprint showing what should exist, how it should behave, why it matters, and how all the pieces connect together. The blueprint is clear enough that internal teams, agencies, designers, developers, writers, and stakeholders can all understand exactly what should be built, how it should function, and why it matters. The entire experience is wrapped in the same comic book story as StrategyComics Foundations to help readers understand how everything fits together, while making it easy for your whole team to remember and recall in future, as a common language during execution. --- ## What the Attention Blueprint is not The Blueprint is not: - content calendars - trend-chasing systems - generic social media advice - AI-generated engagement bait - finished production assets - live ad management - posting/SDR services - growth hacks It is the architectural layer of your StrategyComic's attention stage. The Blueprint defines the intended experience clearly enough that implementation becomes dramatically easier, more coherent, and more strategically aligned afterward. # StrategyComics Chapter 3: Deplatform Blueprint ``` This blueprint requires: • StrategyComics foundations ``` You rent attention on social platforms.
But you own your website. Attention is constrained by what platforms allow. Your website can do anything: your turf, your code, your system. It's an opportunity to prepare something wonderful for your customers, something they'll gladly deplatform for. Not because they were tricked into clicking.
Not because they were pressured into a funnel.
But because the next step is personalized, enjoyable, and helps them move forward meaningfully toward the solution they have in mind. So this blueprint turns the deplatform strategy defined during Foundations into a complete implementation schematic that shows exactly how that owned experience should function, behave, and connect together with the rest of your website. --- ## What the Deplatform Blueprint is for The Deplatform Blueprint is for crafting the owned experience layer of your buyer journey. It answers questions like: - What should happen after someone clicks through? - How should the experience greet them first? - How should that experience work step-by-step? - What pages and sections should exist on the site? - How should the site be optimized for conversions? - How will this experience reduce uncertainty and build trust? - How does the personalization work? The Blueprint exists so that you can hand your StrategyComic to any competent web team (internal or external), say "build that", and they'll know exactly what to do. --- ## Why this blueprint exists between Foundations and implementation Your StrategyComic Foundations map out how your entire buyer experience works together. Each part of the customer's narrative. Each opportunity to take along that journey. All defined in one place to create a coherent, unified experience customers genuinely enjoy progressing through. But knowing _what_ the experience should be is different from knowing _how_ to build it. Without a Blueprint, you (or your production team) will quickly run into questions like: - Where does the opportunity live — on a certain page, its own page, somewhere else? - How does the opportunity work — what are the page states, how does it all work? - What other pages exist around it - home, about, contact… what's on those? - What should the pages say — for each section of each page, what are we writing? - What should the pages look like - for each section of each page, what's the design? - What's the technology behind it - what's off the shelf vs custom, how do we do it? Without a blueprint, teams have to "figure it out" as they go. Which is a shame, as that usually leads to slower prouction, inconsistent decisions, fragmented experience, unnecessary revisions, weaker overall implementation, and more production cost than necessary. With a blueprint, teams are able to see exactly what to do, for each page required. It doesn't write the words for them… but it tells them what to write, where, and why. It doesn't design the site for them… but it tells them what elements go in each page, in what order, and why. It doesn't build the site for them… but it tells them how it all works together, and why. The result is a clear path from strategy, to production, to real customers having a great experience as planned. --- ## Who the Deplatform Blueprint is for The Deplatform Blueprint is useful for companies that have StrategyComics Foundations, and are ready to turn the Deplatform phase of that strategy into a detailed blueprint so it can be executed easily without interpretation. Good fit: - service companies - SaaS brands - product companies - education/course brands - founders/teams with scattered ideas or marketing challenges - companies whose marketing feels fragmented for whatever reason - companies that know they are useful but struggle to explain why people should care - companies about to create pages, campaigns, nurture, or customer journeys Bad fit: - people who want to deviate from their Foundations StrategyComic - teams that would rather use ready-fire-aim tactics than coherent long-term strategies - companies looking for generic marketing that doesn't stand out - teams with stakeholders who "already know best" - teams with disrespectful stakeholders (we refuse them service) - companies selling products or services we're not comfortable helping promote --- ## What happens inside the Deplatform Blueprint Like the StrategyComics Foundations that comes before it, the Deplatform Blueprint is delivered through a mix of coaching sessions and comic page updates. The resulting pages add a "chapter" to the same StrategyComic, so everything stays neatly organized, and easy to read or distribute among your team. Each coaching session defines a specific part of the deplatform infrastructure, while StrategyComics strategists and artists transform those discussions into implementation schematics, visual structures, and experience pages between sessions. The final output becomes a clear, visual guide showing how the deplatform stage of your buyer experience should function from beginning to end. ### Session 1: Experience We define the core deplatform experience itself, based on the winning Foundations opportunity. We dive into how users move through it, what interactions occur, how the personalization works, what creates momentum, and what makes the experience feel genuinely useful and enjoyable to continue. This session focuses on the heart of the deplatform experience. ### Session 2: Infrastructure We define the supporting infrastructure surrounding that core experience. We dive into the structure of essential site pages such as the homepage, about pages, product/service pages, ecommerce or blog flows if relevant, subscribe entry points, CTA placement, and section-by-section page planning. The goal is to ensure the entire site supports the core deplatform experience coherently. ### Session 3: Review & Refine We review the complete blueprint together. Here, we check implementation clarity, refine spec or logic, and clarify implementation expectations. After the session, the strategy team will refine the blueprint based on your feedback. The goal is to ensure an implementation-ready blueprint that a competent team can confidently build with. --- ## What customers receive Customers receive a blueprint "chapter" of their StrategyComic, that presents an illustrated write-up of precisely how each page and feature will function, as an implementation schematic for your deplatform experience. It is a visual implementation blueprint showing what should exist, how it should behave, why it matters, and how all the pieces connect together. The blueprint is clear enough that internal teams, agencies, designers, developers, writers, and stakeholders can all understand exactly what should be built, how it should function, and why it matters. The entire experience is wrapped in the same comic book story as StrategyComics Foundations to help readers understand how everything fits together, while making it easy for your whole team to remember and recall in future, as a common language during execution. --- ## What the Deplatform Blueprint is not The Blueprint is not: - final UI design - polished visual design files - frontend development - production copywriting - finished artwork - live implementation - generic wireframes - growth hacks It is the architectural layer of your StrategyComic's deplatform stage. The Blueprint defines the intended experience clearly enough that implementation becomes dramatically easier, more coherent, and more strategically aligned afterward. # StrategyComics Chapter 4: Nurture Blueprint ``` This blueprint requires: • StrategyComics foundations ``` Nurture is not "harass suckers who gave you their email addresses until they buy or get a restraining order." Nurture is when the service begins, before a transaction has occurred. After someone gives you their attention and converts on your site using your deplatform experience, you now have a real person, who has shared their specific real problems with you, and liked what you had to offer them so much they wanted more support from you. Think about how special that is. Not a number. Not a "MQL". A person, who shared their pains with you, someone they think may be able to help them. The Nurture Blueprint exists to turn the nurture strategy defined during StrategyComics Foundations into a complete implementation schematic for recurring nurture assets that methodically serve and support people like that, so they look forward to your emails, and buy from a place of desire and appreciation. --- ## What the Nurture Blueprint is for The Nurture Blueprint is for crafting the nurture layer of your buyer journey. It answers questions like: - How should the audience be guided after deplatforming? - What questions, fears, or uncertainties need resolving? - What should the nurture journey actually feel like? - How should emails, sequences, or touchpoints be structured? - What kinds of lessons, stories, proof, or reassurance should appear? - How should nurture continue the emotional momentum created earlier? - How should the brand deepen trust without becoming repetitive or salesy? - How should nurture naturally transition into conversation or purchase? - What should happen if somebody stalls, hesitates, or disengages? The Blueprint exists so that you can hand your StrategyComic to any competent web team (internal or external), say "build that", and they'll know exactly what to do. --- ## Why this blueprint exists between Foundations and implementation Your StrategyComic Foundations map out how your entire buyer experience works together. Each part of the customer’s narrative. Each opportunity to help them move forward along that journey. All defined in one place to create a coherent, unified experience customers genuinely enjoy progressing through. But knowing _what_ the experience should be is different from knowing _how_ to build it. Without a Nurture Blueprint, you (or your production team) will quickly run into questions like: - What am I actually writing in these emails? - How should these emails look - and why? - How do all these emails get stuck together and work like a system? - How do we make sure these emails feel really useful instead of “marketing automation”? - How do we make people feel understood, supported, and emotionally safe while still moving them toward a decision? - How does nurture connect into the wider buyer experience and future purchase decisions? Without a blueprint, teams have to "figure it out" as they go. Which is a shame, as that usually leads to slower prouction, generic emails or sequences, fragmented messaging, unnecessary revisions, weaker overall implementation, and more production cost than necessary. With a blueprint, teams are able to see exactly what to do, for each nurture asset or system required. It doesn’t write the emails for them… but it tells them what to write, where, and why. It doesn’t create the resources or visuals for them… but it tells them what materials should exist, how they connect together, and why. It doesn’t run the nurture systems for them… but it tells them how the entire experience works together, and why. The result is a clear path from strategy, to production, to real customers having a great experience as planned. --- ## Who the Nurture Blueprint is for The Nurture Blueprint is useful for companies that have StrategyComics Foundations, and are ready to turn the Nurture phase of that strategy into a detailed blueprint so it can be executed easily without interpretation. Good fit: - service companies - SaaS brands - product companies - education/course brands - founders/teams with scattered ideas or marketing challenges - companies whose marketing feels fragmented for whatever reason - companies that know they are useful but struggle to explain why people should care - companies about to create pages, campaigns, nurture, or customer journeys Bad fit: - people who want to deviate from their Foundations StrategyComic - teams that would rather use ready-fire-aim tactics than coherent long-term strategies - companies looking for generic marketing that doesn't stand out - teams with stakeholders who "already know best" - teams with disrespectful stakeholders (we refuse them service) - companies selling products or services we're not comfortable helping promote --- ## What happens inside the Nurture Blueprint Like the StrategyComics Foundations that comes before it, the Nurture Blueprint is delivered through a mix of coaching sessions and comic page updates. The resulting pages add a "chapter" to the same StrategyComic, so everything stays neatly organized, and easy to read or distribute among your team. Each coaching session defines a specific part of the nurture infrastructure, while StrategyComics strategists and artists transform those discussions into implementation schematics, visual structures, and experience pages between sessions. The final output becomes a clear, visual guide showing how the nurture stage of your buyer experience should function from beginning to end. ### Session 1: Experience We define the core nurture experience itself, based on the winning Foundations opportunity. We dive into the emotional journey between conversion and purchase, the uncertainties that need resolving, the lessons and reassurances the audience needs, the trust-building mechanisms involved, and the progression of momentum throughout the nurture experience. This session focuses on the heart of the nurture journey itself. ### Session 2: Infrastructure We define the supporting infrastructure surrounding that nurture experience. We dive into email structures, nurture sequence architecture, automation pathways, delivery formats, CTA structures, segmentation logic if relevant, and how different nurture moments should adapt across the customer journey. The goal is to ensure the nurture system feels coherent, valuable, and intentionally connected together. ### Session 3: Review & Refine We review the complete blueprint together. Here, we check implementation clarity, refine spec or logic, and clarify implementation expectations. After the session, the strategy team will refine the blueprint based on your feedback. The goal is to ensure an implementation-ready blueprint that a competent team can confidently build with. --- ## What customers receive Customers receive a blueprint "chapter" of their StrategyComic, that presents an illustrated write-up of precisely how each asset will function, as an implementation schematic for your nurture experience. It is a visual implementation blueprint showing what should exist, how it should behave, why it matters, and how all the pieces connect together. The blueprint is clear enough that internal teams, agencies, designers, developers, writers, and stakeholders can all understand exactly what should be built, how it should function, and why it matters. The entire experience is wrapped in the same comic book story as StrategyComics Foundations to help readers understand how everything fits together, while making it easy for your whole team to remember and recall in future, as a common language during execution. --- ## What the Nurture Blueprint is not The Blueprint is not: - generic email templates - spam sequences - artificial urgency systems - AI-generated nurture slop - hard-pressure sales funnels - automation for automation’s sake - finished production assets - live CRM implementation - growth hacks It is the architectural layer of your StrategyComic's nurture stage. The Blueprint defines the intended experience clearly enough that implementation becomes dramatically easier, more coherent, and more strategically aligned afterward. # StrategyComics Chapter 5: Post-Sale Blueprint ``` This blueprint requires: • StrategyComics foundations ``` When the sale is made, the work is not done. Not close. The sale often isn't even as big of a milestone to the customer as it is to you. It's just a stepping stone on their journey from Problem to Solution. It's just a step of the buyer experience we're crafting. When the gap between sale and solution is left to customer support tickets and boilerplate communications, it's no wonder customers disappear, referrals are so infrequent, testimonials aren't forthcoming, upsells feel gross, and loyalty never forms. The Post-Sale Blueprint exists to turn the post-sale strategy defined during StrategyComics Foundations into a complete implementation schematic for helping customers succeed, continue progressing, deepen their relationship with the brand, and naturally become long-term champions of it. --- ## What the Post-Sale Blueprint is for The Post-Sale Blueprint is for crafting the post-sale layer of your buyer experience. It answers questions like: - What should happen immediately after purchase? - How should new customers be welcomed and guided? - What early wins should customers experience? - How should onboarding reduce uncertainty or buyer anxiety? - How should the experience keep buyers activated after purchase? - How should future purchases or upgrades feel natural? - How should the brand encourage referrals or testimonials? The Blueprint exists so that you can hand your StrategyComic to any competent team (internal or external), say "build that", and they'll know exactly what to do. --- ## Why this blueprint exists between Foundations and implementation Your StrategyComic Foundations map out how your entire buyer experience works together. Each part of the customer’s narrative. Each opportunity to help them move forward along that journey. All defined in one place to create a coherent, unified experience customers genuinely enjoy progressing through. But knowing what the experience should be is different from knowing how to build it. Without a Post-Sale Blueprint, you (or your production team) will quickly run into questions like: - What am I actually writing in these emails or pages? - How should these emails and pages look - and why? - How do all these emails and pages get stuck together and work like a system? - How do we make sure these assets feel really useful instead of “marketing automation”? - How do we make people feel understood, supported, and emotionally safe while still ascending as customers? - How do I make sure to connect into the wider buyer experience and future purchase decisions? Without a blueprint, teams have to “figure it out” as they go. Which is a shame, as that usually leads to slower production, fragmented customer experiences, weak onboarding, patchy retention systems, unnecessary revisions, weaker overall implementation, and more production cost than necessary. With a blueprint, teams are able to see exactly what to do, for each post-sale asset or system required. It doesn’t write the emails or pages for them… but it tells them what to write, where, and why. It doesn’t create the resources or visuals for them… but it tells them what materials should exist, how they connect together, and why. It doesn’t run the post-sale systems for them… but it tells them how the entire experience works together, and why. The result is a clear path from strategy, to production, to real customers feeling supported, progressing confidently, and naturally becoming long-term advocates of the brand. --- ## Who the Post-Sale Blueprint is for The Post-Sale Blueprint is useful for companies that have StrategyComics Foundations, and are ready to turn the Post-Sale phase of that strategy into a detailed blueprint so it can be executed easily without interpretation. Good fit: - service companies - SaaS brands - product companies - education/course brands - membership or subscription businesses - companies that rely on retention or referrals - companies with onboarding, activation, or customer success challenges - companies that want customers to become long-term advocates Bad fit: - people who want to deviate from their Foundations StrategyComic - companies that only care about short-term transactions - teams that would rather maximize extraction than customer success - companies looking for manipulative upsell tactics - teams with stakeholders who "already know best" - teams with disrespectful stakeholders (we refuse them service) - companies selling products or services we're not comfortable helping promote --- ## What happens inside the Post-Sale Blueprint Like the StrategyComics Foundations that comes before it, the Post-Sale Blueprint is delivered through a mix of coaching sessions and comic page updates. The resulting pages add a "chapter" to the same StrategyComic, so everything stays neatly organized, and easy to read or distribute among your team. Each coaching session defines a specific part of the post-sale infrastructure, while StrategyComics strategists and artists transform those discussions into implementation schematics, journey structures, experience systems, and customer progression pages between sessions. The final output becomes a clear, visual guide showing how the post-sale stage of your buyer experience should function from beginning to end. ### Session 1: Activation We expand the immediate post-purchase experience defined during Foundations. We dive into the specifics of onboarding, first actions, reducing uncertainty, early wins, reassurance, momentum, and helping customers feel successful quickly. This session focuses on making the customer feel confident and supported immediately after buying. ### Session 2: Retention & Expansion We dig deeper into the systems that keep momentum alive after activation, from your Foundations. We dive into the specifics of continued progression, future pacing, recurring engagement, retention mechanisms, expansion opportunities, and how the relationship deepens over time. The goal is to make continued engagement feel valuable and natural rather than forced or transactional. ### Session 3: Champions & Advocacy We dive into how satisfied customers naturally become advocates for the brand, from your Foundations. We dive into the specifics of referrals, community participation, customer stories, identity reinforcement, reward structures, and ways of making advocacy feel emotionally rewarding rather than extracted. ### Session 4: Review & Refine We review the complete blueprint together. Here, we check implementation clarity, refine spec or logic, and clarify implementation expectations. After the session, the strategy team will refine the blueprint based on your feedback. The goal is to ensure an implementation-ready blueprint that a competent team can confidently build with. --- ## What customers receive Customers receive a blueprint "chapter" of their StrategyComic that presents an illustrated write-up of precisely how the brand’s post-sale systems should function, as an implementation schematic for the post-sale stage of the buyer journey. It is a visual implementation blueprint showing what should exist, how it should behave, why it matters, and how all the pieces connect together. The blueprint is clear enough that internal teams, agencies, designers, developers, writers, onboarding specialists, customer success teams, and stakeholders can all understand exactly what should be built, how it should function, and why it matters. The entire experience is wrapped in the same comic book story as StrategyComics Foundations to help readers understand how everything fits together, while making it easy for your whole team to remember and recall in future, as a common language during execution. --- ## What the Post-Sale Blueprint is not The Blueprint is not: - customer support documentation - spammy retention campaigns - manipulative upsell systems - endless discount campaigns - shallow loyalty programs - finished production assets - live CRM implementation - growth hacks It is the architectural layer of your StrategyComic’s post-sale stage. The Blueprint defines the intended experience clearly enough that implementation becomes dramatically easier, more coherent, and more strategically aligned afterward. # StrategyComics: Ongoing calibration ``` This subscription requires: • StrategyComics foundations ``` Markets change. Language changes. Customer priorities change. Platforms change. Culture changes. Competitors change. Products change. We always say your strategy should be: > "The best it's ever been, and the worst it'll ever be." A strategy that perfectly reflects the reality of your market and the best opportunities for you to move them forward, twelve months ago… is a really useful asset to have… twelve months ago. Teams tend not to notice this happening. They keep producing the same pages, ads, emails, onboarding, and campaigns that their previous assumptions led them to believe, even when they stop being true. StrategyComics Calibration exists to stop that from happening.
While building an even stronger relationship with your customers in the process. It keeps your StrategyComic aligned with real customer behavior over time by continuously reviewing customer behavior, identifying what changed, and updating your whole StrategyComic with those changes. This way, you'll always have your finger on the pulse of your customers, what opportunities are available to pursue based on the latest market data, and how to implement them. --- ## What StrategyComics Calibration is for StrategyComics Calibration exists to ensure your StrategyComic always remains a north star of truth for what your buyer experience should look like. It answers questions like: - Has customer language changed? - Have customer priorities shifted? - Are the current opportunities still the strongest ones? - Are new objections appearing? - Are parts of the buyer experience weakening? - Are customers responding differently than before? - Have new patterns or behaviors emerged? - Should new opportunities be prioritized? Whenever the answer is “Yes”, the StrategyComic foundations, opportunities, and blueprints are all updated with those findings. Now you can be sure your whole team will always be focused on — and building — what matters most to your customers. --- ## Who Calibration is for Calibration is useful for companies that: - already completed 1+ stages of their StrategyComic - want their strategy to stay aligned with real customer behavior - want strategic clarity to compound over time - want to avoid strategic drift or marketing atrophy - want to continually improve their business Bad fit: - companies looking for one-and-done strategy - teams unwilling to listen to customers - companies that want generic marketing - teams unwilling to evolve their assumptions over time - teams with stakeholders who "already know best" - teams with disrespectful stakeholders (we refuse them service) - companies selling products or services we're not comfortable helping promote --- ## How Calibration works Calibration works by continuously collecting real customer insight, processing the patterns that emerge, then updating your StrategyComic accordingly. The process is methodical and repeatable, creating a living strategic system rather than a static strategy document. Each calibration cycle follows the same structure: ### Step 1. Establish an Inner Circle We first help establish an "Inner Circle" of customers, users, or audience members who are willing to regularly share feedback in exchange for useful rewards, giveaways, recognition, or early access. The goal is to create an engaged pool of real people who actively help improve the buyer experience over time. **Step 2. Define a synopsis** We define what we are testing during this calibration cycle, why we are testing it, and what assumptions or opportunities we want to validate, challenge, or refine. This creates a clear focus for the cycle instead of gathering random disconnected feedback. ### Step 3. Create the calibration materials We prepare the customer-facing calibration assets. This may include sketches, strategic writeups, animated or video-led explanations, question flows, forms, delivery emails, thank-you emails, and giveaway or participation mechanics. The goal is to make participation feel engaging, thoughtful, and worth contributing to. Something they get to be a part of with a brand they like, rather than mere ‘surveys’, which are no fun at all. ### Step 4. Send materials to the Inner Circle The calibration materials are then distributed to the Inner Circle. At this stage, we simply allow space for participation and gather responses naturally rather than forcing engagement aggressively. ### Step 5. Gather customer responses We collect the feedback, answers, reactions, concerns, patterns, emotional wording, objections, preferences, and suggestions shared by participants. This creates a fresh strategic signal directly from the audience itself. ### Step 6. Process patterns and shifts Once responses are collected, we process the data looking for recurring patterns, changes in language, emerging concerns, behavioral shifts, new opportunities, weakening assumptions, or strategic drift. The goal is to identify meaningful patterns or changes in behavior, rather than just isolated comments. ### Step 7. Identify strategic implications We then determine what the findings actually mean strategically. For example, has positioning weakened? Has audience language changed? Have priorities shifted? Are new objections appearing? Have stronger opportunities emerged? Are parts of the buyer experience underperforming? This stage turns raw feedback into strategic direction. ### Step 8: Update the StrategyComic Foundations Relevant sections of the StrategyComic’s Foundations are updated to reflect the newly validated understanding of the customer, their motivations, their language, their concerns, and their desired journey. The goal is to keep the strategic foundation aligned with reality over time. ### Step 9: Update affected opportunities and Blueprint logic Any opportunities, recommendations, structures, flows, or Blueprint pages affected by the calibration findings are updated accordingly. This may include updates to Attention opportunities, Deplatform experiences, Nurture flows, or Post-sale systems. The goal is to ensure the implementation guidance stays aligned with the updated strategic understanding. ### Step 10. Deliver the updated material with commentary Finally, the updated StrategyComic pages, opportunities, Blueprint refinements, and strategic commentary are delivered to our customer. This allows the company to clearly see what changed, why it changed, what was learned, what opportunities emerged, and what should happen next. --- ## Calibration Lite Lite is designed for smaller teams and slower-moving markets. This option runs on a two-month cycle. Planning tasks occur in one month, then production tasks happen in the following month. Each of the two months alternate ongoing. During the planning month: - the next calibration synopsis is defined - customer prompts and participation materials are created - calibration emails and participation flows are prepared The goal is to gather fresh audience insight around the current StrategyComic assumptions, opportunities, and buyer experience, ready for the production month. During the production month: - customer responses are processed - patterns and shifts are identified - opportunities are re-evaluated - affected StrategyComic pages are updated - revised pages and opportunities are delivered --- # Calibration Standard Calibration Standard runs continuously every month. It is designed for companies that would like to grow more quickly, or would like deeper and more immersive customer relationships. Because the audience relationship is more regular and engaging, customers are often willing to share deeper and more nuanced feedback than they would through periodic communications. During each month: - the next calibration synopsis is defined - customer prompts and participation materials are created - calibration emails and participation flows are prepared - customer responses are processed - patterns and shifts are identified - opportunities are re-evaluated - affected StrategyComic pages are updated - revised pages and opportunities are delivered --- ## What customers receive Customers receive ongoing updates to their existing StrategyComic and associated Blueprints. This includes updates to any areas where meaningful changes or refinements have emerged, including: - customer understanding - emotional language - positioning - objections - motivations - opportunity priorities - blueprint implementation direction Updated pages are added directly into the StrategyComic itself so the document remains the current strategic source of truth for the company. The goal is for the StrategyComic to stay accurate, refined, and valuable over time rather than slowly degrading, so your whole team has a steady north star to refer to at all times. --- ## What Calibration is not Calibration is not: - generic consulting - random brainstorming - ad management - social media management - arbitrary strategy calls - trend chasing - shallow surveys It is the difference between a great strategy for a moment in time, and a great strategy that stays great long-term no matter what happens with your customers. # How StrategyComics pricing works We're not a fan of how most strategy services are billed. Large retainers. Long lock-in. Vague deliverables. Big up-front purchases. Pressure to "trust the process" before you've even seen whether the process is any good. Yeurgh. StrategyComics pricing is designed around the golden rule: > "For the only thing that can be called 'good' is what is morally right... Treat human beings as they deserve, be tolerant with others and strict with yourself." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.33 When you first buy a StrategyComic, we know how effective they are, far better than you do, because we see them every day. You simply don't know yet. So why should you have to make decisions as though you do? No long retainers. No lock-in. Precise deliberables. No big up-front purchases. Full transparency. No pressure. Morally right. --- ## Make little bites StrategyComics is split into clear stages. Foundations comes first. Then come the Blueprints, which turn each stage into implementation-ready schematics. After that comes ongoing calibration, which keeps the StrategyComic aligned with real customer behavior over time. You can stop any time and have a valuable, stand-alone asset that will make your business better. Brands buy what they need all the time, buying the bits they want and leaving the rest. That's totally fine with us. We designed it that way because we think it should be that way. We decided to go even further than that. The Foundations are paid session-by-session, delivering real, finished pages of your StrategyComic as you go. You can stop any time if you want to, and have a great product to show for it. After a paid session, if you feel you're not receiving what was promised, you can request a re-do of that session, or terminate the process with a refund of that session. The Blueprints are paid stage-by-stage too, also delivering real, finished pages as you go, for the same reasons. As for keeping it updated with real customer data over time? It's month-by-month, with no long-term contracts. Simply use it for as long as you want to use it. Same reasons. We want customers working with us because they want to. Not because they have to. --- ## Customers over Zuck Most customers would rather write large checks to their social media overlords, rather than to their customers. We don't understand that. We'd much rather reward our customers, wherever possible. A great video testimonial lets people like you see someone like them, growing. It helps them feel safe and comfortable enough to explore StrategyComics for themselves. A great referral does a similar thing, but for one a specific person. It helps that person make a buying decision thanks to the relational equity they have with you. So to make it easy, we've defined exactly how we reward customers: ### Foundations → First Blueprint If a customer records a nice video testimonial about their Foundations experience that we can share with the market to help them feel safe and confident in checking it out for themselves, our customer receives 25% off their first blueprint purchase, or a free month of ongoing StrategyComic calibration. They can choose: whichever is the next step they'd like to take, that's the one they get. ### Blueprint → Next Blueprint After completing a Blueprint, customers can again choose to receive 25% off their next blueprint purchase, or a free month of ongoing StrategyComic calibration. Whichever is the next step they'd like to take, that's the one they get. This means customers can progressively unlock discounted pricing throughout the entire StrategyComics system simply by helping future customers understand the experience and feel safe enough to check it out for themselves. Customers who buy all of the stages and leave video testimonials of each one, quickly notice they effectively got a whole blueprint for free. Good. ### The last Blueprint If you complete all of the Blueprints, there are no more blueprints to give a 25% discount on! At this stage, the most valuable next step is usually keeping the StrategyComic aligned with real customer behavior over time, anyway. So at this stage, they receive a free month of that calibration service. Good. It's our pleasure to support you, and it'd be our pleasure to support more people like you. And by golly, we like you a whole lot better than Zuck. # How to become a customer _"Simply and safely."_ We buy consultant services as much as the next company.
And we're just as tired of the sales business-theatre as you are. Sales calls (sorry, "Discovery calls") where you're pitched by a salesperson who's job is to close you, not to help you. Pitch decks you can barely hear over the sound of the questions in your head that no one seems to be answering, such as, _"Yeah, okay, but what does it cost?"_ StrategyComics is designed to be different. We want you to fully understand what it is, how it works, whether it’s a good fit for you, and what happens next… before spending a penny. And when you do spend a penny, we want you to feel in total control — and totally safe — in that process, too. Here's our process. --- ## Step 1: Watch the cartoon The process starts at https://mredutainment.com/strategycomics. You'll see an orange button inviting you to watch an [animated walkthrough](https://mredutainment.com/strategycomics/watch), hand-made by our talented animation team and some talented voice actors. It explains the StrategyComics system by walking through a sample StrategyComic being created for a fictional customer. The goal is simple: - understand what StrategyComics actually is - understand how the process works - understand what kinds of outcomes it creates - understand whether it feels right for your business - learn how we make them and how it all fits together - enjoy the process of learning it --- ## Step 2: See if, or how much, you need it After the cartoon, there's a button that takes you into an [interactive chat experience.](https://mredutainment.com/strategycomics/chat) This experience was hand-made to explore your current marketing materials, to see which areas StrategyComics will help your business and its customers. If it's not a fit for you, the experience will tell you that, and you won't be able to buy it. If it is a fit for you, it will tell you that, explain why, then invite you to get started. The experience will also help answer any questions you have about StrategyComics, in case you have any outstanding questions prior to continuing. --- ## Step 3: Choose your next step If the interactive chat system determines you're a good fit for StrategyComics, you'll be given two options. ### Option 1: Book [Session 0 (free)](https://docs.mredutainment.com/9/the-strategycomics-manual/236/chapter-1-foundations#session-0-map-and-rank-optional-session) Session 0 is an optional free review session. It's for brands with existing marketing materials who would like to rank their current performance before starting the Foundations process. Here, we plot current materials onto a proper buyer experience map, identifying where the gaps are, and how well each asset ranks in pulling power. ### Option 2: Proceed directly to [Session 1](https://docs.mredutainment.com/9/the-strategycomics-manual/236/chapter-1-foundations#session-1-characters) If you're ready to get started, you can proceed directly into [StrategyComics Foundations](https://docs.mredutainment.com/9/the-strategycomics-manual/236/chapter-1-foundations) by booking [Session 1](https://docs.mredutainment.com/9/the-strategycomics-manual/236/chapter-1-foundations#session-1-characters) immediately. You will always: - see available booking times before paying - receive each part of your StrategyComic prior to the next booking - only pay for the next session ahead No retainers. No lock-in. No pressure. No long commitments. _"Simply and safely."_ The team # Coaches A coach is not a salesperson with a softer title.
A coach is not a motivational speaker or form-filler.
A coach is not someone who talks at people trying to sound smart. In StrategyComics, a coach exists for one reason: To help extract the full truth clearly enough that it can become actionable. Customers already know an enormous amount about their business, customers, frustrations, opportunities, and goals. The problem is rarely "having no information". The problem is usually scattered thinking. Emotional proximity. Overwhelm. Contradictory assumptions. Fragmented experiences. Lack of thought structure. The coach’s role is to help untangle those things so our Strategists can act on them. Not by fabricating ideas, planting ideas or, worse, generating them… but by helping customers articulate what is already true, then organizing that truth into something coherent enough to build upon. --- ## What StrategyComics coaches do StrategyComics coaches guide customers through structured sessions designed to extract specific parts of the buyer experience clearly and methodically. The first coaching responsibility is to break down big, hard things into small, easy things. We do this by using worksheets filled with small, easy-to-answer questions. The questions are very deliberate, as their answers all contribute to different parts of the strategy process, giving them the material they need to determine great market opportunities, without hurting the customer's brain as they try to hold multiple ideas in their minds at once in the way a marketing strategist would. The second coaching responsibility is to lead sessions with customers, where they're put at ease, guided through the worksheets live on the session, and help them with every single question so the right information has been captured. Every single session in every chapter of the StrategyComic process is designed in that way, to make the entire process as dependable, consistent and reliable as possible. Every coach uses — and contributes to — a Coaching Playbook, that details exactly how coaches do what they do. This ensures everyone's experience is consistently excellent, thanks to structured, unified coaching training. Every coach also uses — and contributes to — Recipebooks, that detail exactly how to make every session excellent, thanks to our extensive documentation based on over a decade of StrategyComics delivery. --- ## What coaches are not allowed to do Just as StrategyComics coaches follow their Coaching Playbook to identify what to do for excellence, they also gain clarity over what not to do. Examples include pressuring customers, dominating conversations, allowing poor-fit customers into the system, improvising on established frameworks, injecting personal opinions into the data, or fabricating certainty where testing is still required. The StrategyComics system exists specifically to make things simple and enjoyable. Our coaches are expected to protect that standard. --- ## Calm is part of the job Sometimes, customers arrive overwhelmed, insecure, or both. Their marketing may feel fragmented.
Their teams may disagree internally.
Their buyer experience may feel unclear.
They may have been burned by agencies, consultants, or previous marketing efforts. The coaching experience should reduce that feeling, not intensify it. A good StrategyComics coach creates an atmosphere where: - customers feel heard - customers feel safe asking questions - customers feel comfortable admitting uncertainty - customers feel progressively clearer as sessions continue - customers leave sessions feeling calmer and more organized than when they arrived Calm is not a nice-to-have, aside from the core coaching discipline. Calm is part of what allows our coaches to be effective in the first place. --- ## Coaching in the system StrategyComics coaches contribute to the StrategyComics system, then run the system. They do not make things up on the fly: that would be reckless. The worksheets exist for a reason.
The session structures exist for a reason.
The ranking systems exist for a reason.
The data extraction methods exist for a reason.
The session structures and outlines exist for a reason. The coach’s responsibility is to guide customers through that system skillfully, thoughtfully, and clearly. Any tweaks to our process are done via the system, not spontaneously during live sessions. This is important because it means customers receive a consistent experience, quality remains high, sessions remain structured, strategy remains coherent, there are no bottlenecks, and teams know what to expect from each other for a flawless production pipeline. A great coach is not necessarily the one with the most marketing experience or the most charismatic personality. A great StrategyComics coach is someone who listens carefully, thinks clearly, knows the system, reduces confusion, genuinely cares about helping customers, respects the process, respects the customer, and values clarity, consistency, and customer outcomes more than personal ego. # Strategists A strategist isn’t someone who sits around inventing ideas.
A strategist isn’t someone who advocates for this year’s marketing trends. In StrategyComics, a strategist has one job: To clearly and simply identify what an audience would genuinely love to engage with from a company, then turn that truth into something actionable. There’s always a lot of data that comes into the StrategyComics system. A lot. Strategists make sense of it all, think through every opportunity that comes from that data, then systematically whittles them down to the best ones for their audience, and makes them very easy to understand. Not by leaning on trend data, fabricating ideas or, worse, generating them… but by helping customers see what is already true, then organizing that truth into something coherent enough to build upon. --- ## What StrategyComics strategists do StrategyComics strategists turn the outputs of the coaching sessions into the strategic material and identified opportunities that go into StrategyComics. The first strategic responsibility is identifying patterns in the coaching data, and summarizing behaviour for the data pages. This means reviewing session worksheets and ID ouputs to identify recurring themes, dissonance, customer priorities, and signals that inform the opportunity pages. The second strategic responsibility is using those data pages to produce opportunity pages throughout the whole StrategyComic. Opportunities exist at the intersection of platform, education, and entertainment. Strategists need to methodically work through all of the possible opportunities based on each intersection, whittle them down based on customer data, then wrap the winning opportunities with engaging livery so they’re memorable to readers. The third strategic responsibility is accurately portraying how each opportunity should look and function — even in this idea state — to StrategyComics artists. This is so each idea can be illustrated in the StrategyComic for maximum reader clarity. --- ## What strategists are not allowed to do Just as StrategyComics strategists follow structured systems for producing strategic clarity, they also maintain clear boundaries around what not to do. Examples include inventing unsupported conclusions, forcing fashionable marketing ideas upon customers for their own sake, allowing complexity into the system unchecked, ignoring customer evidence, producing vague writing, or presenting assumptions as facts. The strategist’s job is not to sound impressive. It’s to make the buyer experience plan measurably clearer, and stronger, and more engaging for those it will serve. --- ## Clarity is part of the job Customers do not buy strategy because they want overwhelm and confusion. They buy strategy because they want easy, enjoyable progress. A good strategist removes ambiguity.
A good strategist identifies opportunities customers will genuinely enjoy engaging.
A good strategist makes advanced strategy feel easy. Clarity isn’t a nice-to-have, aside from the core strategy discipline. Clarity is essential to what makes our strategies effective in the first place. --- ## Strategists work inside a system StrategyComics strategists contribute to the StrategyComics system, then run the system. They do not make things up on the fly: that would be reckless. The extraction systems exist for a reason.
The ranking systems exist for a reason.
The writing structure exists for a reason.
The opportunity frameworks exist for a reason.
The blueprint structures exist for a reason.
The calibration systems exist for a reason. The strategist’s responsibility is to execute that system skillfully, thoughtfully, and clearly. Any tweaks to our process are done via the system, not spontaneously in the middle of producing live StrategyComics. This is important because it means customers receive a consistent experience, quality remains high, sessions remain structured, strategy remains coherent, there are no bottlenecks, and teams know what to expect from each other for a flawless production pipeline. A great strategist is not necessarily the one with the biggest idea-muscle or the longest tenure in the marketing world. A great StrategyComics strategist is someone who reads carefully, thinks clearly, knows the system, reduces confusion, genuinely cares about helping customers, respects the process, respects the customer, and values clarity, consistency, and customer outcomes more than personal ego. # Artists A strategy system with dedicated artists? In StrategyComics, an artist has one job: Bring strategic opportunities to life visually in every StrategyComic product, so every post, ad, page and email is easy to understand, remember, and implement from, and every idea is easy to follow. Not by decorating pages with spot illustrations… but by making full-color comicbook pages, and custom sketches to represent every idea, for every customer. --- ## What StrategyComics artists do StrategyComics artists turn strategic material into visual storytelling systems. The first art responsibility is memorability. Connecting every step of a buyer experience together, remembering it all as a whole, is hard. Unless there’s a story to pull it all together. That’s why the fully hand-illustrated comicbook pages exist: when you remember the story, the strategy comes along for the ride. The second art responsibility is clarity. Foundations have multiple opportunities in them. Blueprints detail lots of moving parts. The writing explains how it works, but artwork brings them to life so it’s easy to mentally picture everything. That’s why every idea and component is hand-drawn to make everything really easy for readers to understand. --- ## What artists are not allowed to do Just as StrategyComics artists follow structured systems for creating clarity and emotional engagement, they also maintain clear boundaries around what not to do. Examples include prioritizing style over clarity, adding visual complexity that weakens understanding, creating illustrations that contradict the strategy, ignoring storytelling flow, or treating the work as personal artistic expression detached from customer outcomes. The goal is not to impress other artists. The goal is to help customers and teams understand, remember, and execute the strategy more effectively. --- ## Memorability is part of the job A strategy people can’t remember isn’t a strategy that will see the light of day. A strategy people don’t emotionally connect with is difficult to sustain internally. This is why visual storytelling matters so much inside StrategyComics. A good artist increases strategic recall.
A good artist increases emotional engagement.
A good artist makes strategic material easy to understand and apply. The visual layer isn’t "extra". It’s part of what makes the StrategyComics system effective in the first place. --- ## Artists work inside a system StrategyComics artists contribute to the StrategyComics system, then operate within it. They don’t randomly reinterpret strategy based on personal taste or artistic impulses. The page structures exist for a reason.
The storytelling systems exist for a reason.
The art guidelines exist for a reason.
The production pipelines exist for a reason. The artist’s responsibility is to execute that system skillfully, thoughtfully, and clearly while helping strengthen the emotional and visual communication of the strategy itself. A great StrategyComics artist is not necessarily the one with the most complex rendering style or the most technically impressive portfolio. A great StrategyComics artist is someone who understands storytelling, respects the process, respects clarity, respects the strategy, works collaboratively, thinks structurally, and cares more about helping people understand than showing off personal artistic ability.