CEOs call me when they’re stuck.
I’m Wes Gay. Since 2016, I’ve helped more than 350 companies clear up the confusion that slows them down and start growing again.
In 2016, I bet $5,000 I didn’t have on myself.
I’d just been fired from a church job, and I had a young family and a brand-new mortgage. So I put $5,000 on a credit card and flew to Nashville to become one of the first StoryBrand Certified Guides.
I told myself it would be what I did until I got a real job. Within six weeks, it was my real job.
That had less to do with talent than with a relentless sense of desperation and that brand-new mortgage.
Then I hit a wall I didn’t expect.
Clients hired me to write their websites, and I kept getting stuck at the blank page. Every time I sat down to write someone’s messaging, I couldn’t, because the decisions underneath the words had never been made.
Nobody had decided who the company was for, which problem it owned, or what it would stop doing. So I started asking those questions before I wrote anything, and that’s how a copywriter became a strategist.
Those questions became the Clarity Cascade. Today it’s the first thing I do with every leadership team.
The words only work once the decisions underneath them are made.
What I do now
I’ve worked with more than 350 companies in more than 120 industries, from technical manufacturers to Cedar Fair.
I also lead Guide Consulting Group, a small team focused on strategic messaging.
The Strategic Clarity Engagement.
One day with your leadership team to make the decisions, then 30 days to make them real.
Strategic Advisory.
I stay in your corner, 90 days at a time, while the plan runs.
StoryBrand.
I’m the Lead Strategist for StoryBrand, and I run the StoryBrand Mastermind with Donald Miller.
Speaking.
I speak to Vistage groups and executive teams who want their people saying the same thing.
What I believe
Confusion is the number one enemy of business.
It shows up as slow sales, busy agencies, and good people who can’t explain what they’re building. Left alone, it compounds every month.
People don’t buy the best products or services. They buy what they understand the best.
I’ve watched the better product lose to the clearer one more times than I can count. My job is to make you the best understood company in your market.
Marketing should make money.
Marketing’s job is to clear the path for sales. If it isn’t showing up in the checking account, something’s broken.
Most teams already know the answer.
Somebody has been carrying it around for years, and nobody ever asked. My job is to ask the question that gets it out.
The backstory
I live in Georgia with my wife and kids. I grew up in Florida and Alabama, which explains the Gators. It’s been a rough few years.
I have ADHD, so I work in intense bursts of focus. That’s why my business runs on one hard day with your team instead of a year of standing meetings. You get my full attention, and you get your calendar back.
Before any of this, I earned a degree in music. Music teaches you to hear the structure underneath the noise, which turns out to be most of strategy. I can also count to four really well.
“Go with Wes. He knows how to get a return on your investment.”
I help leaders make decisions so they make more money.
If your company has outgrown its story and you can’t quite say why, that’s usually where I come in. Schedule a call, and let’s talk about it.