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Build Your Minimum Viable Brand

4.9 (6)

·

2 Weeks

·

Cohort-based Course

Go from a company with a product to sell to a culturally relevant brand people will love. Create your brand strategy playbook in two weeks.

Financial Times
NBCUniversal
CNBC
Sonder & Tell

Course overview

Unlock your next level of growth

In the early stages of company building people get caught up making products, not brands. But the best founders and marketers know that your brand is your product and that they need to incorporate it into their business from day one.


Using purpose, position, and personality, we’ll articulate what you do, why you do it, and why anyone should care. You’ll build a brand playbook full of frameworks and exercises that you can not only action immediately but come back to and iterate on as you scale.

Who this course is for

01

You’re part of a founding team looking for the best way to position your product or service.

02

You’re a product or growth marketer who wants to add brand strategy to your skillset.

03

You work in venturing or innovation and you want to build companies with great brands not just great products.

Key outcomes

Articulate your purpose to make better business decisions

Your brand is your company's north star — use it to make decisions about everything from product development to attracting top talent. Craft one that you can live up to and will make people want to root for you.

Narrow in on your true target audience

Ask yourself, "who will love you most?" and start there. You can't be everything to everyone, so be something great to someone specific.

Identify what you're up against in your customers' minds

Companies worry too much about their competition and not enough about the old way of doing things, which is usually what loses when you win.

Define your category so you can win it

Clarify your position in your customer's minds, or they'll do it for you — and not necessarily in a way you'll like.

This course includes

Interactive live sessions

Lifetime access to course materials

10 in-depth lessons

Direct access to instructor

4 projects to apply learnings

Guided feedback & reflection

Private community of peers

Course certificate upon completion

Maven Satisfaction Guarantee

This course is backed by Maven’s guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in our refund policy.

Course syllabus

Week 1

Dec 2—Dec 8

    👋 Welcome and Course Introduction

    3 items

    MODULE 1: Find Your Purpose

    4 items

    MODULE 2: Nail Your Position

    2 items

Week 2

Dec 9—Dec 13
    Nothing scheduled for this week

Post-course

    MODULE 3: Uncover Your Defendable Difference

    3 items

    MODULE 4: Bring Your Brand To Life

    2 items

    🎓 Graduation

    0 items

4.9 (6 ratings)

What students are saying

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What people are saying

        This workshop has been instrumental in our growth as an early stage startup. The things we walked away with have helped us far beyond the bounds of marketing. Everything from our culture to recruitment has been built upon the frameworks we learned in this course. I rave about it to every founder I know.
Brittany Hawkins

Brittany Hawkins

Co-Founder, ELANZA Wellness | Fortune Top Innovator Shaping The Future of Health
        We needed better ways of expressing our brands but were stuck working with expensive agencies and never really making progress. Kelli pushed us outside of our comfort zone in the BEST way. We're now better at solving real problems for our customers that actually connect and have impact. If you can learn from her, you should.
Micah Rondot

Micah Rondot

Global Integrated Marketing Manager, Brown-Forman
        Kelli is a wonderful strategic guide. Our work together has informed everything from visual identity to product development to our national ad campaign. Perhaps the most impressive thing is the speed with which she synthesised our business, never dipping in energy, quickly identifying and solving our core problems. She felt like one of the team.
Phil Lloyd

Phil Lloyd

Chief Marketing Officer, Purplebricks
        To be a great brand you have to be brave. To push your ideas and think outside the box. Kelli gives people the foundational knowledge, frameworks, processes and structure that make them feel not only safe but confident enough to take risks and create something truly exceptional.
Emily Ames

Emily Ames

Co-Founder, Sonder & Tell | Forbes 30 Under 30
        We needed a thought partner who could work with us to uncover customer insights and help us to articulate IDEO's value in a way that would resonate in the European market. Kelli's approach was thougthful, intelligent, customer-centric and refreshingly clear.
Jessica Hall

Jessica Hall

Marketing Director, IDEO
        Our team was struggling to unlock Fords Gin's personality and make it shine. Kelli's unique approach and sharp insights transformed the way we understand and talk about our brand. We now have the tools to rally everyone around a well-articulated vision.
Simon Ford

Simon Ford

Co-Founder, Fords Gin

Meet your instructor

Kelli Corney

Kelli Corney

2 x Co-Founder | Chief Brand & Marketing Officer | Strategist, Venture Builder

Kelli picked up brand marketing at NBCUniversal, where she spent the early part of her career developing media campaigns for some of the biggest companies in the world. She went on to craft foundational messaging for >70 companies at Mightily, a creative agency she helped co-found and grow to 40 employees with $4.5M in revenue in under five years. As a corporate VP of Marketing at Atria, she led a team of 50 people to create award-winning work while launching three new products to market. 


Since then she’s worked at the Financial Times with companies including Facebook and WeWork on their campaign messaging. Now, for the first time, she’s turning the brand strategy work she does through her consulting practice into a cohort-based course. Kelli studied creative writing and philosophy and is more interested in what moves people than omni-channel journey mapping.

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Course schedule

2 weeks | 6-8 hours per week

  • Introductory Session

    5:00pm-5:30pm GMT | Monday

    The first Monday. Meet your instructor and other students virtually!

  • 4 Live Workshops

    5:00pm-7:00pm GMT | Tuesdays & Thursdays

    Workshops are on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:00pm to 7:00pm GMT (12:00pm to 2:00pm EST) to allow for people from as many timezones as possible to attend.

  • Office Hours

    5:00pm-7:00pm GMT | Wednesday

    Optional office hours. Book time to ask questions or get specific feedback from Kelli. Takes place both Wednesdays the course is in session.

  • Pre-work / Homework

    2-4 hours per week

    Refine your work with feedback from your instructor and fellow students in your own time.

  • Graduation

    5:00pm-5:30pm GMT | Friday

    Wrap up on the final Friday and celebrate!

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Learn while doing. Create a brand strategy you can action now.

Learn while doing. Create a brand strategy you can action now.

Active learning, not passive watching

This is a crash course that's taught live and interactively. Workshops aren't simply lectures — there will be live examples, breakout rooms, discussions, and Q&A.

Learn with a cohort of peers

Surround yourself with like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you. Get feedback from your peers and instructors to refine your thinking.

Accountability and feedback

Trying to do this on your own is tough. This course keeps you honest and forces you to do the work in a supportive community with expert guidance.

Frequently Asked Questions

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