
BRAND STRATEGY 101
Learn brand strategy and go from creative order-taker to indispensable business partner, even if you know nothing about strategy or don't know where to begin.
If you’re a creative pro and want to charge higher fees, win bigger projects and have greater control over your work - then you need to learn brand strategy.
You're pretty confident in your ability to do great creative work and you keep your clients happy. But sometimes you feel like just an-order taker and not valued as a true business partner.
Maybe you've offered some branding advice to your clients, but you lack the confidence to deliver real brand strategy or convince them of the ROI of doing it - and paying you for it.
Sound familiar? Well, I've got you covered.
By the end of BS101…
Master a suite of proven Brand Strategy tools.
You don't need an MBA to sell brand strategy to your clients. You just need to know how to confidently guide your clients through the creation of a suite of proven strategic exercises that will make their businesses more successful.
Get paid for thinking and become a highly valued business partner.
Go from being considered a design order-taker to a true thought-partner by your clients. Gain the trust that will lead to bigger projects and the ability to charge higher fees for the creative work you already do.
Bulletproof your creative career from the pricing pressure of Fiverr, 99Designs and crowd-sourced design.
The global economy is driving down the prices of creative work more every day. How can you survive, much less charge higher fees and grow your business? You do it by "swimming up stream" and getting paid for brand consulting in addition to your creative work.
Learn how to sell strategy projects and communicate the ROI to your clients so they're happy to pay for it.
Knowing brand strategy doesn't help you if you can't get your clients to buy it. In this course, you'll learn how to communicate the value of brand strategy so you can sell bigger projects for higher fees.
Increase your earning power and gain control over the volume of work you receive.
By helping your clients architect their brand strategy, you engage with them on a whole new level. A level that builds their trust in you and gives you greater control over the volume of work you receive.
“I’ve been a designer for 10 years. I just delivered the brand strategy process Philip teaches and I can tell you on thing: It works!
I just increased the scope of a client project to include strategy and transformed it into the biggest project I’ve completed in my career.”
~PAUL FEENEY
Enroll in Brand Strategy 101 Today
Immediate lifetime access to all videos and materials
One-time payment of
$497
Here’s What BS101 Graduates Are Saying…
What’s Inside
Brand Strategy 101
Module 1
STRATEGIC COMPONENTS
Module Description: We'll de-mystify brand strategy and show you that it's not as complicated as many people would have you believe. We'll define some of the key terms and tools and illustrate how you can use it to increase your revenue.
Module Highlights:
Brand Strategy Terms and Tools
The Goals of Brand Strategy
12 Components of Brand Strategy
The Strategist Mindset
Module 2
BRAND DISCOVERY
Module Description: You'll learn how to engage more deeply with your clients. Find opportunities to increase scope of your projects. Communicate the ROI of Strategic Brand Design so you can get paid to do it.
Module Highlights:
The Discovery Call
Stakeholder Interviews
How to Sell Strategy
Module 3
BRAND ASSESSMENT
Module Description: Learn to understand how a business functions holistically. Learn how to assess the client’s brand assets and activities. Discover how to tell if they have everything they need to accomplish their goals. Attain the skills to sell-in additional work.
Module Highlights:
Business Model Canvas
How to conduct an Internal Brand Audit
How to up-sell more work
Module 4
BRAND COMPARISON
Module Description: Learn to audit and map the competition in a compelling visual way. Learn how to assess the client brand's competitive landscape to expose strategy and project up-sell opportunities.
Module Highlights:
Competitive Audits
Brand Mapping
Brand Differentiation Strategies
Module 5
BRAND DEFINITION
Module Description: Learn to use a suite of proven brand strategy tools and how to apply them to client projects. Classic brand strategy techniques and tools will be fully covered - demystifying what it takes to do high-level brand strategy.
Module Highlights:
Brand Positioning & Strategy Statements
Customer Avatar Techniques
Pyramids and Personalities
Brand Archetypes
Module 6
BRAND VISUALIZATION
Module Description: Learn how Strategy and Design intersect and inform each other. Learn to create creative visualizations of strategy, bringing the brand to life in visuals and words.
Module Highlights:
The One-Page Visual Creative Brief
Defining Color Direction
Creative Anchors and Strategic Design
Module 7
THE BRAND STRATEGIST
Module Description: Learn how to change your mindset from "I can't." to "I can!" when it comes to selling strategy. We'll confirm the simplicity of the process and show you how you can apply it immediately in your client work and start getting paid to think.
Module Highlights:
Brand Strategy Process Guide
The Strategist Role
The Strategist Mindset

The Moment You Enroll You Get:
7 Training Modules
Gain the confidence to execute a brand strategy project, how to sell it and how to command higher fees for your work.
A Complete Brand Strategy Project System
A complete set of 20+ Brand Strategy tools and a proven turn-key scalable system to execute projects with your clients.
Proven Tactics to Sell Brand Strategy to Your Clients
Confidently communicate the ROI of brand strategy and successfully increase your agency's service offering
Secrets to Using Strategy to Bullet-Proof Your Creative Work
Stop the endless cycle of revisions and guarantee your design and creative work gets approved faster.
BS101 is a $3488 Value!
Brand Strategy 101 - $1997 Value
20+ Brand Strategy Tools - $697 Value
Strategy Process Guide - $297 Value
On-going Q+A Support with Philip - $497 Value
Total Value: $3488
But when you enroll today, you’ll get access to everything for just aOne Time Payment of
$497

💰 A Risk-Free 7-Day Money Back Guarantee!
We're so confident that by taking Brand Strategy 101 and completing the course exercises you'll acquire the skills and confidence to deliver a brand strategy project that we're offering a...Risk-Free 7-Day Money Back Guarantee*
If after completing the first 2 Modules, if you don't feel motivated, inspired and see the future value of Brand Strategy 101 for your business, we'll refund your purchase price.
*Just demonstrate you've done the Module 1 & 2 course work exercises in a Zoom interview with us
🧐 Frequently Asked Questions
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One of the key "unlocks" in selling brand strategy is being able to communicate the return-on-investment (ROI) the client will see for hiring you to do strategy work for them. In Brand Strategy 101 with Philip VanDusen we'll delve deeply into proven methods to demonstrate the tangible value of strategy and how it can propel their business forward.
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That's precisely the most amazing thing about Brand Strategy 101 with Philip VanDusen. We provide a brand strategy project process map that is turn-key. It includes the specific talking points, brand strategy tool template .pdfs and a step-by-step roadmap to engaging your client in the work. We'll walk you through a strategy project from the first call to the final delivery so you are confident you can do it solo.
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Well for one thing, I don't have an MBA and I've been selling strategy to my personal clients for over 6 years at my own agency. I've taken time-tested strategic tools and methods that are used by some of the biggest and most successful global agencies and Fortune 100 companies and scaled them down so that almost any creative professional can develop the skills to deliver them as a consulting service to their clients. If you've been working as a creative professional for 5-10 years you have what it takes to do this, I promise you!
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When you sign up for Brand Strategy 101 with Philip VanDusen you'll be setting yourself up to make the next real significant jump in your career as a creative professional. For the first time you'll be learning how to get paid for thinking.
You'll learn how to use a time-tested, proven suite of strategic branding tools and handed a process you can start using immediately to move from being your client's order-taker to a highly valued brand consulting partner.
You'll get:
7 Modules, including over 25 Lessons in the course
8+ hours of video
20+ Brand Strategy Tools
Q+A Access to Philip
Strategy Project Process Map
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For one thing, I've got 25+ years of real-world experience as a creative executive in award winning global branding agencies working with a host of Fortune 100 clients. Not many others can say that or compete with my list of past clients. I've also been a creative leader and lead teams as large as 65 creatives - and know how to teach, mentor and develop great talent.
The strategic processes I'll be teaching you are versions of the exact same processes I've used with clients like P&G, PepsiCo, Safeway, GE, Chevron, Johnson & Johnson and dozens of others. I've scaled these processes so they can be used by freelancers, consultants and small agencies with small-to-medium sized businesses (SMB's) and entrepreneurs.
Lots of other courses we've seen are either too massive and complicated to get through, or too niche, taught by people without experience on both the agency AND the client sides of the street. I have both.
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The brand strategy project system you will learn in the course will help you land more - and bigger clients. It will help you get a bigger share of the work your clients have to do. Many others who have put this system into practice have increased what they sell their design projects for by 200%. That's not even accounting for the additional consulting project work they get by offering strategy in addition to their creative work.
The more you "swim upstream" and engage in the strategic work that goes into building and running a business - the more your clients will value you as a "thought partner" and not merely a order-taker. When you become this type of business partner you can control to a much greater extent the type of work and the volume of work you can get from your clients.
All this adds up to significantly more revenue for you. This system will probably pay the full cost of the course the very first time you use it with a client.
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Yes, this course is video-on-demand. There are 7 Modules, 25 Lessons, 8+ hours of video content and over 24 downloadable course files.
Remember, after you take the course, you'll always have access to the course portal. That way if you want to go back to any past module or lesson to watch the video or listen to the audio-only file again, you can do that!
With your purchase, you'll have lifetime* access to the course, the videos, the resources and the course files.
(*lifetime access is defined by as long as the course is available in the Brand Design Masters evergreen course library)
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It is very important to me that you really learn what I am going to teach you and that you know exactly how to put it to work for your business and for your clients.
Because of that, you'll have the opportunity to ask any questions you have as you go through the course. All you do is fill out a simple Google Form with your question and then I'll answer them on video posted every month to the course members area.
Enroll in Brand Strategy 101 Today
Immediate lifetime access to all videos and materials
One-time payment of
$497

Still on the fence?
Enroll in Brand Strategy 101 RISK FREE if you're...
A creative pro who wants to get started with strategy and wants to do it right.
A designer who is frustrated with being treated like an order-taker by your clients.
If you have the ambition to sell bigger projects, charge higher fees for your work and get paid for thinking.
If you are trying to learn strategy but are overwhelmed with the vast amount of info out there but are confused about how to put it all together into a cohesive package.
If you are concerned about impact of AI, Fiverr and UpWork on how much you can charge your clients.
You want to learn how to communicate the ROI of strategy so your clients are anxious to pay for it.
You have some clients and projects coming in - but need to make more money per project and get treated like a true business partner.
I’ll see you inside Brand Strategy 101!
I created this course to give you the tools to survive and thrive in the creative economy.
If you are a creative professional looking to acquire new tools and knowledge so you can win bigger projects, make more money and bullet-proof your career, this course is for you.
Remember this opportunity is risk-free. You can't afford not to take advantage of what you'll learn in Brand Strategy 101.
Let’s do this!
~Philip