BELONG™ Brand: The Ethical Branding Cohort
Your marketing can be authentic, powerful, AND profitable. Build an ethical brand with a full marketing plan all based on psychology.
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Course overview
Build Your Ethical Brand and Acheive Sustainable Growth
This 8-week cohort helps you build a brand that doesn’t just sell, but resonates—leveraging the BELONG™ Framework to ground your marketing in applied psychology, human connection, and ethical influence.
With 80% of consumers more likely to purchase from brands that offer personalized experiences (Epsilon) and 90% of millennials saying authenticity is important when choosing who to support (Stackla), the need for human-centered marketing has never been greater.
You’ll learn how to harness behavioral science and neuroscience to connect with how people actually think and feel while using AI tools to amplify your humanity, scale your impact, and automate with authenticity.
By the end of the cohort, you'll be able to view marketing through a new lens (a psychologically aligned one) AND you’ll have a complete, psychologically aligned marketing plan ready to implement.
You’ll Walk Away With:
- A crystal-clear understanding of your ideal audience and what drives their decisions
- A Value Aspiration Statement that aligns your mission with your customer’s deeper needs
- Messaging that’s rooted in neuroscience and designed to engage attention and emotion
- A full, ethically aligned funnel that attracts and retains the right people organically
- A complete marketing plan tailored to your business goals and customer journey
How We’ll Do It:
- Weekly one-hour live trainings that move from insight to implementation through the BELONG™ framework
- Real-world examples, scripts, and messaging rewrites that show you how, not just what
- Biweekly office hours with hot seats to work through blockers (optional) and refine your work in real time
- A bonus 1:1 implementation session to finalize your plan and get expert feedback
Who is this course for
01
Small Business Owners
Still wearing all the hats? Make sure your marketing aligns with your values — and actually works.
02
Entrepreneurs
Whether you're just starting or scaling, build a marketing approach that honors your mission and values.
03
In-House Marketers
Uplevel your strategy with psychology-backed tools that foster belonging and real customer connection.
What you’ll get out of this course
Identify exactly who your audience is—and what drives them
Knowing your audience is about more than demographics. We’ll use psychology to uncover how they see themselves, what motivates them, and what actually drives their decisions. You’ll leave with an identity map and decision drivers that shape every part of your marketing.
Align your values with what your audience truly wants
You don’t have to choose between your mission and your marketing. We’ll identify the overlap between your business’s higher purpose and your customer’s deeper aspirations. This is the foundation of ethical marketing that resonates—and converts.
Craft messaging that works with the brain, not against it
Want your marketing to stick? We’ll explore how attention, memory, and motivation work—and how to design messaging that taps into each. You’ll practice rewriting your own content using psychology-backed frameworks that build trust and emotional resonance.
Design a sustainable demand system that grows with you
You don’t need to hustle or rely on ads to build consistent interest. We’ll map out attraction, engagement, and retention loops that create organic, ongoing growth. You’ll leave with a sustainable system you can actually maintain.
Tell a story your audience sees themselves in
Your brand story isn’t about you—it’s about who your audience becomes through you. We’ll use storytelling psychology to help you write from their point of view and create connection. You’ll get frameworks, feedback, and a ready-to-use brand narrative.
Guide customers from first touch to full transformation
Marketing isn’t one message—it’s a journey. We’ll map your customer’s decision-making process and align your strategy at every stage. You’ll finish with a full psychological journey map that turns attention into action and trust into loyalty.
Build a complete, psychologically aligned marketing plan you can actually use
Each week, you’ll create part of your marketing strategy — from audience insights to messaging, funnels, and brand story. By the end of the cohort, you’ll bring it all together into a full, cohesive marketing plan that reflects your values and speaks directly to your audience.
Get expert feedback in a 1:1 implementation session to bring your plan to life
Your bonus implementation call is designed to turn clarity into action. We’ll review your full plan together, identify gaps or sticking points, and outline your next steps—so you walk away with not just ideas, but confidence in how to move forward.
What’s included
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Live sessions
Learn directly from Chelsea Burns in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Maven Guarantee
This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund up until the halfway point of the course.
Course syllabus
12 live sessions • 9 lessons
Week 1
Go inward for lived examples of manipulative marketing
Review examples of marketing rooted in belonging vs. fear
Determine the feeling you want to build in your brand
Complete a pre-course reflection on current brand alignment
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BELONG Focus: Laying the Groundwork [click to expand]
Feb
7
Session 1 | Orientation & Mindset for Ethical Marketing
Orientation & Mindset for Ethical Marketing
Week 2
Start with identifying the problem you're solving to reverse-engineer your audience
Use a guided identity mapping tool to define audience segments
Analyze real psychographic data examples
Apply research-backed behavioral patterns (heuristics, habits, motivators)
- 📄
Discovering Your Audience
Feb
14
Session 2 | Discovering Your Audience
Feb
13
Office Hours
Discovering Your Audience
Week 3
Workshop your personal business origin story to uncover mission clarity
Use a guided exercise to extract shared aspirational values
Analyze real brand examples that create emotional alignment
Discover your Value Aspiration™ by finding the intersection of your offer's value and the value sought by the consumer
- 📄
Identifying Your Value
Feb
21
Session 3 | Identifying the Value
Identifying Your Value
Week 4
Dig into psychological storytelling
Learn the science behind memory, attention, and emotional triggers
Rewrite a current piece of brand messaging using attention formulas
Review before-and-after examples of brain-based messaging in action
- 📄
Designing Brain-Aligned Messaging
Feb
28
Session 4 | Designing Brain-Aligned Messaging
Feb
27
Office Hours
Designing Brain-Aligned Messaging
Week 5
Build a "Belonging-Based Funnel" aligned to user behavior
Examine case studies of sustainable marketing systems
Create your Attraction, Engagement, and Retention loops
Develop low-to-no-cost marketing funnels
- 📄
Building Sustainable Demand Systems
Mar
7
Session 5 | Building Sustainable Demand Systems
Building Sustainable Demand Systems
Week 6
Continue with psychological storytelling to write your brand story
Use the "Story from the Seat" method to write from your customer’s POV
Workshop and critique narratives in small groups or hot seats
Analyze real-world brand stories through a psychological lens
- 📄
Crafting a Compelling Brand Narrative
Mar
14
Session 6 | Crafting a Compelling Brand Narrative
Mar
13
Office Hours
Crafting a Compelling Brand Narrative
Week 7
Apply decision-making models (e.g., Fogg Behavior Model, CJMs)
Create your Ethical Influence Map: what to say, when, and why
Identify gaps in your existing journey using peer feedback
Align automation with the decision making process
- 📄
Mapping the Journey to Brand Transformation
Mar
21
Session 7 | Mapping the Journey to Transformation
Mapping the Journey to Brand Transformation
Week 8
Complete the Marketing Psychologist Plan Template
Present your plan or key slides in optional final showcase
Schedule your 1:1 bonus implementation session
Prepare to [re]launch your BELONG™ Brand
- 📄
Integration & Implementation
Mar
26
Final Session | Integration & Implementation
Mar
24
Office Hours
Integration & Implementation
Bonus
- 📄
Untitled lesson
1:1 Implementation Call
What students are saying
Meet The Marketing Psychologist
Chelsea Burns
Chelsea Burns
Chelsea Burns is a seasoned marketing executive and consumer psychology expert with nearly two decades of experience driving brand growth through data-driven insights and behavioral psychology. As the founder and CEO of The Marketing Psychologist and co-founder of Mumford & Burns Consulting, she specializes in leveraging psychological frameworks to enhance sales, branding, and customer engagement. With a Master’s in Applied Psychology from USC, Chelsea has a proven track record of implementing high-impact strategies that maximize brand equity and long-term customer loyalty.
Through The Marketing Psychologist, Chelsea takes a groundbreaking approach to marketing psychology — one that embraces the complexities of human behavior through a consumer lens. By layering multiple psychological principles with time-tested marketing strategies, she provides unique insights into critical business concepts like messaging, branding, and pricing. Her work goes beyond surface-level tactics, helping businesses understand not just what works, but why it works, empowering them to create sustainable, trust-driven growth.
Course schedule
3-5 hours per week
Tuesdays & Wednesdays
11 a.m. CST
Wednesdays are 60-minute live sessions focused on structured teaching, real-world examples, and Q&A.
Tuesdays are biweekly 60-minute office hours where you can join hot seats, move through blockers, and get personalized support from Chelsea and your peers.
Weekly Projects
2-3 Hour / Week
Each week focuses on a core element of the BELONG™ Framework with clear, actionable assignments. You’ll receive written recaps, templates, and examples to guide your implementation and build your final marketing plan step by step.
Private 1:1 Implementation Session with Chelsea
30 minutes
Every participant receives a bonus 1:1 session with Chelsea at the end of the cohort. We’ll review your plan, identify next steps, and make sure you’re set up to implement with confidence and clarity.
Learning is better with cohorts
Active hands-on learning
This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects
Interactive and project-based
You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams
Learn with a cohort of peers
Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you