Hello, I’m Karina, and I help organisations fix the gap between what their Brand says and what their customers actually experience.
Whether you make something, supply a service or serve up ideas, I work with you to align your identity to your operations, so you make promises you can keep, and keep the ones you make. The result is a resilient Brand, worthy of the loyalty you’re asking for.
What I do
I help you align promise and performance.
I work with leaders who suspect something’s off in their brand or customer experience but can’t quite see where or why. Together, we diagnose what is really going on, decide what your Brand should be promising, and design practical ways to deliver that experience consistently.
Think of me as a strategic partner who:
- asks the (often uncomfortable) questions others won’t
- listens carefully to what your customers and teams are actually experiencing
- connects purpose, Brand and operations into one coherent narrative
- leaves you with clarity, tools and next steps your teams and partners can run with
You need me if
any of this sounds uncomfortably familiar:
- your Brand says one thing, your customers experience another
- your customer experience is broken, and you don’t know how to fix it
- you invest heavily in engagement, but aren’t getting the results you believe your efforts deserve
- different teams are telling different stories about who you are and what you do
- you’re entering a new market or changing direction, and need your Brand and promises to align
- you want to build a resilient Brand to withstand what may come
What we’ll tackle together
a four-step process that takes you from vague hunches to clarity you can act on with confidence.
We start by getting clear on what you’re really promising, intentionally or otherwise.
- clarify and reality-check your organisational purpose and values
- map the promises - explicit and implicit - you make to customers, employees and partners
- audit those promises against the experiences people are actually having with you
- identify promise gaps that are quietly eroding trust, reputation and morale
Result: A realistic picture of where you stand today.
Next, I listen to the people whose view matters most: the ones you serve.
- structured conversations with customers, past and present, to understand their needs, expectations and frustrations
- listening to employees who are closest to your customers and operations
Result: Clear insight into what's working, what needs tweaking, and what has to go.
Once we know what is true, we can decide what to say.
- stress test your promises (intended or in play) against what your organisation can actually deliver
- create clear narrative foundations: who you are, who you’re for, what you promise, how you behave
- shape a voice and story that your leadership, teams and partners can use consistently
Result: A Brand story that feels like you - one your people can own without a script, and your customers recognise in their own experiences.
A story is only as strong as the experience that backs it up.
- identify key moments in your customer journey where promises are kept or broken
- recommend practical strategies to close the gaps between your purpose and your performance
- define where you need process change, better communication, or different measures of success
- work alongside your in-house team, agency or trusted collaborators to ensure the Brand foundations actually show up in the work
Result: Brand, customer experience and operations finally sitting at the same table.
What changes after we work together
When we’ve done this work properly, you should be able to say:
- We know exactly what we promise, to whom, and why.
- Our teams, partners and agencies are telling the same story, with their own voices.
- Our customers recognise themselves in the way we speak about them.
- Our marketing and sales efforts feel less frantic and more focused.
- We can make decisions faster, because we know what we stand for
Who I work with
I work with leaders responsible for how their organisation shows up in the world:
- founders and CEOs of growing businesses
- Our teams, partners and agencies are telling the same story, with their own voices.
- heads of Brand, marketing and communications
- product and business leaders launching into new markets or categories
- organisations in events, media, B2B services, technology and other complex, relationship-driven spaces
If you’re accountable for the promises your Brand makes, and you care about keeping them, we will work well together.
How you can engage me
I offer a small set of focused ways to work together:
- Focused diagnostics around a specific problem or product – short, intensive engagements to clarify what is really going on and what to do next.
- Project-based partnerships for launches, brand repair or shifts in strategy – typically 6–12 month engagements where we move from diagnosis to design and implementation.
- Ongoing senior advisory support – retainer engagements for leaders who want a thinking partner on brand and customer experience.
We can decide together what format makes the most sense for where you are now.
My approach to Brand
Kintsugi (金継ぎ, golden joinery) is the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold or silver. It is both an art form and a philosophy: joining broken pieces into something striking, individual and functional. It’s also an apt metaphor for my approach to work and collaboration.
Most organisations aren’t broken. They’re just carrying the weight of old decisions, rushed fixes and competing priorities. My work is to help you understand each piece, decide what to keep, what to discard and what to rebuild, so your Brand emerges more intentional, coherent and resilient than before.
If your Brand needs voice, alignment, repair or redefinition, and you’d like to talk about the results you want rather than just engagement activity you could buy, we should talk.