How Standard Innovation Clarified Its Positioning and Sales Narrative, and Started Having Stronger Sales Conversations

“David’s been absolutely unreal—content mastery, messaging, and holding us to account on being brave and focusing on a specific sector. We’re way further ahead now than we thought we’d be.”

— Tom Mullen, CEO, Standard Innovation

The Overview

Standard Innovation was a newly funded agency with deep experience in digital transformation in finance and adjacent industries, looking to step into the complex world of music catalog investment. They’d done a lot of homework and could see several plausible segments in the market. What they didn’t have yet was a clear starting beachhead, a core ICP, a sharp way to talk about their value, and a go-to-market motion that would turn early interest into real sales conversations. They brought me in to make that direction concrete: tighten positioning, craft the message, and build an initial GTM anchored by a strategic narrative the team could actually use.

The Challenge

The industry’s real “competitors” weren’t just other firms. The true forks in the road were doing nothing, buying a tool, or building in-house. Early content and conversations were broad, the “spiky” point of view wasn’t yet codified, and the team was about to begin live prospect meetings. If the story didn’t land—clearly, consistently, and with decision-makers—the window would narrow. The ask was simple but not easy: turn research and hypotheses into a focused position, a confident voice, and a sales narrative that reframed how buyers evaluate their options.

The Process & Solution

I started by tightening focus before scaling output. Together we chose a sensible market beachhead and rewrote how Standard Innovation spoke to it—especially to CEOs and operators—so the language could be repeated without feeling scripted. We were careful not to posture as lifelong industry insiders; instead, we spoke from an authentic place: enterprise-level experience solving similar problems in adjacent spaces.

From there, we needed a way to keep learning the market, build the emerging brand, and spark conversations with likely ideal clients. That led to launching a podcast that was more than content. It became a credibility engine and a research loop at once: each interview associated the brand with respected voices while surfacing patterns that shaped our message and offers.

With focus set and feedback flowing, I helped craft core website copy and messaging and built an initial, founder-friendly pitch deck the team could use in calls. The story acknowledged real concerns affecting the music catalog industry, then showed where a pragmatic, hybrid approach made sense with Standard Innovation’s guidance. Throughout, I kept the team out of channel sprawl. Rather than trying to be everywhere, we concentrated on a few channels executed exceptionally well and repeated the strongest metaphors and proof points so they would stick.

The Impact

The qualitative shift showed up quickly. In their words, they were “way further ahead” than expected at this stage. Early prospect meetings felt natural, and the message resonated in the room. The podcast delivered a credibility lift as guests and listeners began to associate Standard Innovation with key figures in the space. Most importantly, the “Music Moneyball” narrative gave sales a clear spine; the deck went to a major industry player and was “extremely well received.” Day to day, it became easier to talk to true decision-makers, easier to say the same true thing in different ways, and easier to move conversations forward because the competitive set was finally framed on their terms.

How They Got There

This outcome came from my Why Us Sprint with additional consulting layered on. In practice, that meant choosing and articulating a beachhead, codifying a repeatable point of view, operationalizing the podcast as a GTM engine, and delivering the Music Moneyball narrative and deck for live prospect calls. With that foundation in place, the next phase shifts to ad-hoc, “chunky” projects: refining the competitive deck as the market responds, possibly producing a focused ICP research report, and creating targeted sales assets as more conversations accumulate.