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Root + River

a beliefs-based branding strategic consulting team

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EVERY GREAT BRAND IS A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.

Guiding defiant leaders to scale their brand around their mission

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Brand is a verb, not a noun.

It is made real when everyone is able to speak confidently about the brand. It’s manifested in who you attract and who you repel. It’s born out in the perennial ROI of consistent differentiation.

It Starts With a Root Session

How We Work

Are you a mission-driven leader? Are you rebranding, in rapid growth mode or about to evolve? The first step is a Root Session. We continue with message refinement, ongoing brand coaching and a community of like-minded defiers who live with courage and care.

Working with us, you learn for a lifetime:

  • Intrinsic branding
  • Soulful messaging + language
  • Humanistic marketing practices
  • Category design + ownership
  • Storytelling as a discipline

Brands

Individuals

We are not for everyone.

Read Our Warning Label

HOW TO BRAND YOURSELF … WHEN YOU DON’T REALLY WANT TO

Our 2-part course designed specifically for solo entrepreneurs and individual leaders who want to create an authentic, sustainable and memorable brand but are uncertain about where to begin and what to do.

Learn More About Our Branding Course

What Our Clients Say

The Team


EMILY SOCCORSY

Co-Founder + Strategist

@emilyatlarge

Justin Foster

JUSTIN FOSTER

Co-Founder + Strategist

@fosterthinking

Jennifer Lawhead

JENNIFER LAWHEAD

Chief of Story

@jenlawhead

Cat Weise

CAT WEISE

Chief of Staff

@catweise

Are You a Defier?

If you’ve decided not to do things the way everyone else does. If you’ve chosen to make your business your way of changing the world. If you see the divide between the Old World and the New World and want to be a bridge, then we need to talk.

Contact Us

Musings

What Amanda Gorman Taught Us About Storytelling

By Jennifer Lawhead If you tuned into Joe Biden’s inauguration, it was impossible not to be talking about Amanda Gorman. In a nation that has been fractured by division and unrest, Amanda bravely rose to the occasion with poetic words that comforted, inspired and reminded us of our values as a country. With each beautifully…

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Why You Sound Like Everyone Else

  As the people in charge of our brands, we want to stand out. We want our voices to rise above the lesser operators, the people who give our industry a bad name. We want someone to hear our message and reach out to us with a hearty: “I want to work with you!” But…

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Connecting the Dots from Mission to Brand

An Entrepreneurial Journey of Monetizing Your Mission A rare yet not impossible sequence of events: Seeing a need in the world that sparks a personal mission That mission inspires a product The production of that product turns into a business That business becomes a vehicle for not only serving the injustice but also for inviting…

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Slow Down to Speed Up

As a director of marketing, you’ve become friends with timelines and time management, buddies with bandwidth. Even if the leadership team loves your ideas and encourages you to execute, they then repeatedly and persistently ask one question: “When?” When will it be done? When will the website launch? When will the new brand language be…

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3 Mistakes You Could Be Making When Telling Stories

By Jennifer Lawhead Telling stories about your brand is easy. But practicing storytelling in a way that perks up the ears of those you want to reach, encourages dynamic dialogue and subtly reveals something important about your brand in the process? This skill, my friends, is difficult. “I’ve tried telling stories about my brand before,…

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The Unstoppable Power of an Aligned CEO and CMO

In our work with mission-based leaders, there is one factor above all others that leads to successful brand differentiation. That factor doesn’t involve SEO or PPC. It’s not the best ad campaign. Nor even the best product.  It is spiritual and strategic alignment between the CEO and the CMO. Particularly when the CEO has been…

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‘I Thought I Could Do It On My Own’

By Jennifer Lawhead Branding was always something I didn’t feel like I needed help with,” our client Sonya Stattmann recalled. “But I started to realize there was misalignment with who I am and how I ran my business.” This realization dawned on Sonya about a year ago: as she continued to grow her business, she…

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Planning for 2021 is foolish: Question instead

  A plan is a method for achieving an end, so says Merriam-Webster. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that relying too heavily on the solidity of your plans is foolishness. Defining yourself by your adherence to a plan subject to the current volatility of our world can leave you feeling disappointed, jaded and…

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Want to be a great marketing leader? Build a great team! An Interview with John Hardesty

On October 1 at 2p CT, we will be visiting with John Hardesty on our “Being Marketers” webcast. Here is a sneak preview of our discussion. Q: Who are you and what do you do? John Hardesty, Chief Brand Officer at VShred   Q: What do you love about marketing? The ah-ha moment when a…

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Root + River

We believe all great brands are spiritual experiences. Branding is an experience that will change you. It will shift the borders of your thinking and give you a practical framework for how to collectively carry the brand forward.

Contact Us

Recent Musings

  • What Amanda Gorman Taught Us About Storytelling
  • Why You Sound Like Everyone Else
  • Connecting the Dots from Mission to Brand
  • Slow Down to Speed Up
  • 3 Mistakes You Could Be Making When Telling Stories

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