Strait & Co.

01 · Executive summary

The work wins. The pipeline does not.

Strait & Co. (EXAMPLE) is an 18-person brand, campaign, and digital studio in Railtown. Tuesday mix: account, design, strategy, production. Managing director Avery Chen still owns new business from a laptop in a client session. Clients who reach a person stay. The leak is not craft. Inquiries arrive three ways — contact form, Instagram, referral Slack — and land in one inbox. A won job hits Slack #delivery without the deck. CLIENT PULSE still shows Friday’s rows on Monday. Eight retainers renew from Avery’s calendar. Scope extras live in chat.

Inquiry test (EXAMPLE, PDT, 2–5 Sep): Instagram DM with a 6-slide deck sat 49 hours 48 minutes. The form auto-replied “new business will be in touch within one business day” — no staff email in 36 hours. Avery answered from a personal handle and re-asked budget and timing already in the form. Account lead Sam Rivera wrote in #delivery: “Did new business send the Yaletown deck?” It was in Avery’s Gmail. Designer Noah Park asked for the logo pack in a DM. Existing retainer Cedar & Pine: “add a landing page to September” — heart-react, no SOW add-on, producer never saw it.

This is the $1,997 audit: what to keep, what to skip, and a 90-day order Avery can run even if we never build. Do it yourself this month is real work (inquiry log, five-field form, Instagram pin, paste rule, Google + LinkedIn replies, unused-hours tab, one change-order sentence). After the Debrief, the honest optional call is a bespoke solution: one shared list the studio owns — inquiry → proposal → kickoff → delivery → retainer — with confirmation a person sends. A lunch-hour DM habit will not cover three doors.

Composite below is an illustrative diagnostic index for this sample (0–100). It is not a peer benchmark, not a grade, and not a claim about a real company.

02 · How they use AI

A private tab drafts. The week is still oral.

AI is already in the studio. It is not a program. Avery rewrites the same three proposal blocks on a personal laptop: discovery, scope / fee, “we’ll send a deck this week.” Producer Priya Shah (EXAMPLE) pastes Google reviews into a chat window and copies a reply into the listing on Tue / Wed / Fri mornings. There is no shared prompt page, no written rule for client files, and no owner for “what we never paste.”

Who else opens a drafting assistant: account leads — no. Sam still asks Avery in Slack. Retainer strategy notes: Avery types those from a client session. Instagram: Avery’s personal handle, not a studio seat. Site: no public kickoff calendar — correct, because intake already fails a human. This is not a readiness score. It is who can draft, who can send, and what must never leave a client folder.

Bars are teaching scores for this SAMPLE. A live audit uses evidence from that business. We do not sell a readiness product.

What actually gets pasted (EXAMPLE inventory)

In a live audit we would sit with Avery and scroll last month’s tab — not to shame it, to name the risk. This SAMPLE assumes the following showed up more than once. A live audit lists what that owner actually pasted.

03 · Where AI can help

What’s broken. What to do this week. What to build only if it makes sense.

This is not “use more chat.” It is five jobs, in order, on the path inquiry → proposal → kickoff → delivery → retainer. Each one says what is broken now, what to do this week, and what we would build only after the Debrief — if justified. EXAMPLE notes are teaching. They are not a forecast of Strait & Co.’s year.

Order matters. Items 02, 03, the paste rule, and the unused-hours tab are real $1,997 work even if you refuse a bespoke solution. Item 01 is the optional build for this EXAMPLE because intake, proposal, and Slack extras will not hold on habit.

Action this week (EXAMPLE — owner, what to run, don’t)

04 · Money left on the table

Leaks we can point at. Not a year we invented.

We will not mint annual revenue for a fictional studio and dress it as analysis. What the sample shows is narrower: people who already tried to hire Strait & Co. wait, repeat themselves, or hire the next studio that answers. Walk the week, not the year.

Walk the EXAMPLE week (PDT)

1. Mon · Railtown CLIENT PULSE still has Friday’s rows. Notion job pages stop at last week. Priya is not in Mondays. Eight retainer renewal dates live in Avery’s calendar — two are inside 21 days. Unused hours: not on the sheet.
2. Tue 7:14 am · Instagram DM Jordan Hale, brand lead, Yaletown CPG. Q4 campaign + landing. Six-slide deck attached. Timing: this month. Avery is already in a client session. Seen-by nobody. No studio handle.
3. Wed 10:06 am · contact form Same inquiry. Nine fields, including a budget essay Jordan already put in the DM. Auto-reply: “New business will be in touch within one business day.” No ticket. Priya is in — on reviews, not on the form. Inbox owner: Avery.
4. Thu · session day Studio line 8:51 am, five rings, Avery’s voicemail. Instagram reply 9:02 am from her personal handle, re-asking budget and timing. 14:40 Cedar & Pine (Sam’s retainer): “Can you add a landing page to September?” Heart-react. No SOW add-on. 15:10 Sam in #delivery: “Did new business send the Yaletown deck?” Noah DMs Sam for the logo pack. Deck is in Avery’s Gmail.
5. Fri 11:20 am · callback Avery emails Jordan “maybe mid-month” from a session. A Gastown proposal from 28 Aug sits in Gmail with no reminder. That buyer hires another studio (EXAMPLE). Teaching loss: one campaign-sized yes. Not a year. LinkedIn work post still has three unanswered comments.

Tuesday’s DM is unread while new business is in a session. Wednesday’s form sits under an auto-reply that already lied. Thursday’s deck never reaches account. Thursday’s retainer extra never becomes paper. Friday’s callback is late and vague. None of that is a forecast. It is a pattern you can point at in the room: growth dies on the path, not on the work.

Dollar ranges in this table are teaching examples so the debrief has a shape. They are not a valuation, not first-year production math, and not a promise that Bespoke solution recovers them. A live audit uses that client’s numbers.

A live audit replaces every clock and every “if 3–5” with that client’s week. We count how inquiries arrive, sit with the inbox, and run one inquiry test. We do not multiply a teaching row into a year.

05 · Real-world test

Inquiry test — form, Instagram, Slack (EXAMPLE)

We acted as a brand lead at a Yaletown CPG who needed a same-month Q4 campaign + landing, and also tried the studio after hours. Clocks are Pacific (PDT), September 2026, built for this EXAMPLE. This is not a recording of a real producer.

1. Tue 2 Sep · 7:14 am · EXAMPLE Instagram DM to the published handle with a 6-slide deck: “Q4 campaign + landing, this month, mornings free.” Seen-by nobody. No auto-reply. Profile routes to Avery’s personal DMs.
2. Tue 2 Sep · 9:22 am · EXAMPLE Called the published studio line. Five rings. Avery’s voicemail, recorded from a session. No return window. No new-business option.
3. Wed 3 Sep · 10:06 am · EXAMPLE Submitted the contact form (9 fields, including budget essay and “describe the project”). Immediate auto-reply: “New business will be in touch within one business day.” No ticket. No second inbox.
4. Thu 4 Sep · 9:02 am · EXAMPLE Instagram reply from Avery’s personal handle: “Sorry — in a session. Email me? What’s budget and timing?” Both were in the form. The deck was already attached twice.
5. Thu 4 Sep · 14:40–15:10 · EXAMPLE Cedar & Pine Slack extra (landing page on September) — heart-react, no SOW. Sam in #delivery asks for the Yaletown deck. Noah DMs Sam for the logo pack. No Notion job page.
6. Fri 5 Sep · 8:05 am · EXAMPLE Google listing message: “Do you take campaign retainers?” No reply through Fri 5:00 pm. A fourth door. Same missing list.

“I attached the deck twice and put budget in the form. Then she asked me again from her personal Instagram.” Constructed shopper note · EXAMPLE · not a real review

What we actually sent / received (EXAMPLE transcripts)

A live audit pastes the real threads. This SAMPLE writes the test messages so you can see how specific the write-up gets.

Elapsed DM-to-human: 49 hours 48 minutes (EXAMPLE). Elapsed form-to-human: not observed in the sample window. A habit (Avery opening Instagram at lunch) fails the next time new business is in a session.

06 · Business snapshot

How Strait & Co. is shaped — EXAMPLE facts

Observations from the sample public site, the EXAMPLE inquiry test, and the story we would confirm in intake — not a guess about “agencies.” A live audit replaces every line with that client’s Tuesday.

What we opened for this SAMPLE

A live audit lists URLs, handles, and the actual form. This file lists the sample inventory so you can see the grain.

07 · Scorecard

Tough on the evidence. Not a product grade.

Scores are EXAMPLE teaching marks (0–100) tied to the record above. A live audit writes to that client’s evidence.

08 · SEO & Google presence

Google knows the name. The work page does not earn the next brief.

Presence is live (EXAMPLE): Google 4.6 from 84 reviews, hours roughly right, two studio photos and a still. The work page has four case studies last updated March. Brand / Campaigns / Digital reuse one paragraph. No “how we start.” No Yaletown / Gastown / Railtown proof. LinkedIn’s last work post (12 Aug) has three comments asking how to begin — unanswered. We will not write a fake competitor dossier or claim Strait & Co. ranks for a keyword we did not measure.

• 11 of the last 18 Google reviews have no owner reply.
• Last Google post: July studio party. No Friday habit.
• LinkedIn 12 Aug work post: three buyer comments, no reply.
• Form sits under a long brand story. Nine fields. Auto-reply already failed the test.
• This month, no new site: Priya replies on Google + LinkedIn, posts one real project still Friday, and hides four unused form fields on the existing page.

Silent notes we would answer this month (EXAMPLE)

Constructed — not real customers. Do it yourself is four house-style Google replies plus one LinkedIn comment, human-posted. Avery initials anything about fee.

09 · How you stack up

Honest, local, and unfinished. Not a hit list.

Nearby studios in this SAMPLE look faster because someone is at a desk at 9:00 and new business is not also in a session. We did not mystery-shop named competitors. We will not invent a “you are losing $X to Studio Y” slide.

What we can say from this EXAMPLE test: a brand lead who DMs at 7:14 with a deck and gets silence will open the next profile that posted a still this week. A form that promises one business day and then does not is worse than a slow brand. A kickoff that starts in #delivery without the deck is a studio that can grow the roster and still cannot see the week. That is habit plus structure — not a logo problem, and not a list of invented rivals.

10 · What’s working

Keep these. Do not “digitize” them for sport.

11 · Five opportunities

What’s broken. What to do. What to build only if it makes sense.

12 · What it looks like

What a confirmation looks like — a person taps send.

Constructed client mail after a proposal is accepted. Human taps send. Teaching mock for the Debrief — not a live template and not a promise of copy we will ship unedited.

How that line would move (EXAMPLE)

1. Inquiry Form, forwarded DM, or Slack extra creates #1847 / #1848. Status: inquiry. Owner: studio.
2. Proposal Priya (or Avery at the desk) sees company + deck already on the line. No re-ask. Draft from the three-block page. A person sends. Status: proposal out.
3. Kickoff Client replies. Calendar hold. Status: SOW signed → kickoff. Handoff note to Sam includes files.
4. Delivery Account opens the list Monday — not “where is the deck?” Status: in delivery.
5. Retainer Unused hours and renewal on the same line. Slack extras become #1848, not a heart-react.

Do it yourself copy you can use this week (EXAMPLE)

13 · Skip these

Four things that would make this week worse.

14 · Systems map

How the week runs now vs. what we would quote after Debrief.

A bespoke solution is systems and automations built specifically for how this studio runs. Fixed. No hourly. Only after the Debrief Workshop. What we would price in the room: form into the shared list; Instagram DM forwarded to the same line; Slack extra as a scope row; status on the real path; confirmation email + hold a person sends; a Monday list Sam and Noah open — not #delivery archaeology.

15 · 90-day roadmap + quick wins

You can run this without us. The audit is enough to start.

You can run this order without a build. Days 1–14 are Do it yourself. The shared list is named so the workshop has something honest to price — or to refuse.

Quick wins this week: four Google replies, one LinkedIn comment, form fields, Instagram pin, change-order sentence. No purchase required. That is the audit standing alone.

16 · Tools & costs

What’s paid for vs. what actually runs the week.

17 · Next steps

The audit stands alone. Then you choose.

The $1,997 AI Adoption & Ops Audit includes the required ~90-minute Debrief Workshop. Research runs ~2 weeks after intake. You leave with this shape of document: suggestions, how to implement them, Skip These, a 90-day order, and an honest call. That is the product — complete even if we never build. Do it yourself is that value, not a consolation prize.

Then, if it makes sense, a fixed quote for systems and automations built specifically for how you run. For this Vancouver EXAMPLE, that is the natural optional call after the Debrief: one shared list the studio owns — inquiry → proposal → kickoff → delivery → retainer — built for Strait & Co.’s form, Instagram, and Slack. Not a generic tool. A lunch-hour DM habit will not cover three doors. You can still refuse, keep the written plan, and run it yourself.

Recommendation for Strait & Co. (EXAMPLE): a bespoke solution after the Debrief — systems and automations built specifically for how this studio takes and runs work — because habit cannot cover form, Instagram, and Slack extras. Do it yourself is not a consolation: you still run the written plan, including the first two weeks of work, even if you later buy the list.

18 · Glossary

Words we use, in plain English.

Inquiry / intake

Form, Instagram, Slack extra, voicemail, or a listing message. The start of the path.

Shared list

One studio-owned list with status on the path. Not an inbox. Not #delivery.

Proposal / SOW

What Avery sends. Fees stay hers. Add-ons are paper, not a heart-react.

Kickoff

Start with files, owner, and in/out on the line. Not “we’re in” in Slack.

Delivery

Account and production running the job. Monday list, not archaeology.

Retainer / unused hours

Known monthly work. Hours used vs sitting. Renewal date on the same line.

Do it yourself

You keep the written diagnosis and run the plan yourself. We do not build the system for you.

Bespoke solution

We design and build systems and automations specifically for how that studio operates — unique to their business, not a template, not plug-and-play. Fixed quote. No hourly.

Debrief Workshop

Required ~90 minutes. We walk the document. Then we choose.

A person taps send

Drafts may be machine-assisted. A person still sends the client message.

Will not hold on habit

A miss that lunch-hour checking cannot cover — here, three intake doors owned by one person who is also in sessions.

Skip These

Work we recommend you do not buy or start. Part of the written plan, not an upsell list.

EXAMPLE

Built for this file. Not a live client. Not a case study. Not their numbers.

What it would have meant (EXAMPLE)

A teaching number so the Debrief has a shape. Not a forecast. Not a year of revenue we made up.

CLIENT PULSE

The Google Sheet that is today’s status board. Updated when someone remembers.

#delivery

The Slack channel that still announces kickoff and asks where the deck is.

Studio

Whoever can sit with the list — Priya, or Avery at the desk. Not a laptop in a client session.

Pause

You may stop after the written plan. We do not convert Do it yourself into a retainer.

19 · Method & disclaimers

How a live audit is made — and what this file is not

A live Insight Audit — the AI Adoption & Ops Audit — is intake, about two weeks of research, at least one real-world test (call, form, DM, or booking), a written report, and the Debrief Workshop. We do not invent a readiness score as a product. We do not sell a middle workshop day. We do not quote hourly builds. Verification: intake, at least one real-world test, and numbers that belong to that client — never a teaching row multiplied into a year.

This document is a SAMPLE. Strait & Co. is a fictional Vancouver, BC business. Names, review counts, clocks, field counts, photo boxes, and dollar bands are illustrative. They are not measurements of a real company. Not a case study.

What a live audit would verify (vs. this file)

Insight Audit is based in Vancouver, BC. The AI Adoption & Ops Audit stands alone. Research runs ~2 weeks after intake. Bespoke solution is quoted only if justified.