Carper Advisory
A structured four-phase engagement that builds your employer brand foundation around specific talent audiences — not a universal EVP. The output is a system your team can activate, anchored by an AI-ready brand asset that works long after the engagement closes.
$300/hr · Fixed-scope engagement · Limited availability
Most employer brands start with the company — what we want to say about ourselves. The Talent Brief starts with the hire — who exactly you are trying to reach, and what that person needs to hear to move.
The Methodology
AI builds the research foundation, synthesis, and structural output. Human expertise shapes it into something credible, differentiated, and defensible. Every phase runs on this logic — the ratio shifts as the judgment-heavy work gets done.
Build (AI-Enabled) Shape (Human Expertise)
Synthesizes competitor messaging, external persona research, and client-provided materials into draft persona skeletons and a white space map. Identifies where the market clusters and where the messaging gaps are.
Validates threshold beliefs — what candidates must believe before they'll move — and confirms the white space hypothesis. Identifies which 2–3 personas to build and what each one actually requires.
Analyzes client-provided internal data — exit interviews, decline patterns, engagement surveys, top performer profiles. Prepares structured stakeholder interview guides and synthesizes findings into an initial gap map.
Conducts and interprets 2–3 stakeholder interviews. Makes the credibility call on what the company can own outright, what needs proof, and what's a reach. Produces the first positioning recommendation — where to plant the flag.
Generates messaging pillar options and proof point structures per persona. Cross-references against competitor language to surface open territory. Produces multiple variations per pillar for evaluation and reduction.
Selects and refines 3–4 pillars per persona. Pressure-tests each against Phase 2's honest inventory — if there's a credibility gap, the pillar gets cut or reframed. Layers in competitive differentiation where it's earned, not forced.
Maps owned/earned/paid property inventory from publicly available information. Populates the universal activation template with persona-specific pillar language from Phase 3. Flags any priority channels or stakeholder considerations.
Validates the framework as a handoff-ready system. No calendar. No posting cadence. Categorization and focus areas — your team decides what they can actually execute. The ratio shifts here because the judgment work is already done.
Deliverables
2–3 fully developed personas capturing decision logic, motivations, fears, and threshold beliefs — built from market research and internal signal, not assumptions. One-page summary per persona included.
Where competitors cluster, where the white space is, and what the company would need to credibly claim to own it. The foundation for every positioning decision that follows.
What the company can credibly offer each persona, where gaps exist, and where the narrative has to work harder to earn the claim. Direct and specific — not a culture audit.
3–4 messaging pillars per persona with supporting proof point structures and competitive differentiation notes where applicable. Framework only — designed to feed a writer, an agency, or an AI tool.
Owned/earned/paid property map showing current vs. ideal-state presence — no audit language, no performance commentary. Content category logic per property type, populated with persona pillar language.
A structured brand asset formatted for direct input into an AI tool. Every engagement closes with this. See below for what it actually does.
Standard — All Engagements
Your AI content tool isn't the problem. The inputs are. Most companies using AI to produce employer brand content are starting from a generic brief, a vague EVP, or nothing at all. The output sounds like every other company hiring for the same role — because the inputs were never specific enough to produce anything different.
The Talent Brief builds the right inputs. The AI-Ready Talent Brief packages them in a structured format your team loads directly into Claude, ChatGPT, or equivalent — and uses to produce on-brand, persona-mapped content on demand. Not a deck. An operational capability.
Persona profiles, threshold beliefs, positioning territory, credibility map, messaging pillars and proof points per persona, content category logic — all structured as prompt-ready inputs.
Job descriptions, LinkedIn posts, culture content, interview prep guides, recruiter talking points — all on-brand, persona-mapped, and grounded in what you can actually claim. Indefinitely, without starting from scratch.
A structured document formatted for direct AI tool input. Your team tests it for two weeks. Two rounds of revision are included based on output quality feedback — not new strategic work.
Every other employer brand engagement ends with a deck. This one ends with something your team can put to work tomorrow and still be using in two years.
A primary point of contact with access to internal data and stakeholders
Current employer brand materials, job descriptions, and hiring targets or profiles
Exit interview data, decline patterns, engagement or survey results if available
2–3 stakeholders available for structured interviews during Phase 2
Feedback on drafts within 5 business days of delivery
Two weeks to test the AI-Ready Talent Brief and submit revision feedback
Content creation, copywriting, or creative production of any kind
Career site design, development, or technical implementation
Paid media planning or media buying
Ongoing advisory or retainer support beyond this engagement
Primary candidate or employee research (scoped separately if required)
AI tool setup, integration, or technical configuration beyond the brief handoff
I take on a small number of engagements at a time. If your timing is off, I'll tell you — and point you somewhere useful in the meantime.
Prefer email? [email protected]