Worried AI Will Replace Your Creative Career? Become a Brand Strategist.
A practical in-person course that will teach you how to become Brand Strategist in an AI-driven world.
Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the creative industry.
The entry-level work that once taught designers, developers, copywriters and marketers the foundations of branding and strategy is increasingly being automated. For decades, Brand Strategists developed their skills through years of exposure to real client projects, gradually learning how to research, think strategically, communicate with clients and lead creative teams.
As those learning opportunities disappear, so too does the traditional path to becoming a Brand Strategist.
This course is designed to replace that path giving students and early-career creatives the knowledge, frameworks and practical skills needed to become a Brand Strategist in the age of AI.
The Traditional Path to becoming a brand strategist Is Disappearing. This Course Replaces It.
Skills I've Learned Through Decades of Trial & Error Experience - Taught Step By Step.
This isn't a course about design, websites or marketing software. It's a course about becoming the person who defines the strategy behind them.
You'll learn how Brand Strategists research businesses, ask better questions, develop positioning, communicate with clients and lead creative projects - skills that have traditionally taken years to acquire through industry experience.
Through a structured, practical curriculum, you'll develop the knowledge and skills traditionally gained through years of industry experience, helping you become a Brand Strategist faster.
This Brand Strategy course is a practical, tool-based in-person course that walks you through the exact process professional Brand Strategists use with real clients - from the first discovery call to the final creative brief. Across 7 modules you'll learn 20+ proven frameworks, when to use each one, and how to turn strategic thinking into deliverables clients are willing to pay for.
The Conversations
Learn exactly what to ask and when: how to run a discovery call, conduct stakeholder interviews, and surface the gaps clients don't know they have.
The Tools
Master the frameworks that turn those conversations into sellable deliverables: Business Model Canvas, Brand Positioning Statement, Brand Pyramid, Customer Avatar, and more.
The Mindset
Build the confidence to sit at the table before the brief exists, and to charge for the thinking, not just the output.
Command Higher Fees —
Students & early creatives who add brand strategy to their offering routinely raise project fees by 200% or more, because clients are paying for direction, not just execution.
Skip A Decade of Trial and Error —
Learn the exact tools used on Fortune 500 brands, distilled into a repeatable system you can apply with your very next client.
Get Called In Earlier —
Instead of waiting for a finished brief to land on your desk, become the person clients call before the project is even defined.
Inside The Course
7 modules · 22 lessons · 19 hours of live, in-person workshop training. One complete system.
The same system used to build strategy for Fortune 500 brands, broken down into a step-by-step curriculum you can start applying immediately.
Join the Waitlist Now!
The Brand Strategy Project That
Changed My Career Forever
When I started my career, I was running a small graphic design agency. Business was growing, I'd hired my first few members of staff and, on paper, everything was going well. However, what I really wanted was to break into larger, more strategic projects. I wanted to be contacted before the project got all the way down to print, web or graphic design.
Then one meeting changed everything!
A client of mine, Shimmer Research in Dublin, asked me to design their packaging for a new wearable sensing device they were developing.
And during the meeting I asked one simple question that changed everything:
"Why are you going after the wearable market?"
The owner turned to his senior management team.
"Why are we going after the wearable market?"
The answers that returned were vague.
The CEO had asked a simple strategic question, and nobody in the room could answer it.
He looked back at me and asked,
"Could you research the market before we go any further?"
I immediately agreed.
Once I left the meeting the daunting feeling of realising I had no idea how to research a market hit me, for years I wanted to sit at the big table, but once the opportunity arose, I had no idea how to grab it!
The only Brand Strategist I knew was Philip VanDusen. His minimum fee was over $100,000 - more than ten times the value of the design project itself. Instead of doing the work for me, he agreed to guide me through it.
Over the next six months, I researched the market, analysed competitors and challenged the client's assumptions all while being mentored and guided by Philip - a world class strategist. By the end of the project, Shimmer Research had abandoned the wearable market entirely and repositioned itself into a much larger research market in the United States.
That project completely changed my understanding of the creative industry.
I realised that the difference isn't design. It isn't marketing. It isn't social media.
It's positioning.
Understanding your market, your competitors, your audience and where your business belongs.
That's what Brand Strategy is.
And thats what this course is designed to teach.
The Old Path Is Disappearing
For decades, these skills were learned by working alongside experienced strategists on real client projects.
As AI continues to automate more of the creative work that once formed that apprenticeship, those opportunities are becoming harder to find.
This is The New Path
This course is designed to replace that missing path-giving the next generation of creatives the knowledge, frameworks and practical experience needed to become Brand Strategists without waiting decades for the opportunity.
Here’s what people are saying about the course instructor
Paul is an exceptional marketer
"Paul is an exceptional marketer who truly understands what it takes to build a brand. He was able to guide us through our product launch from strategy to launch with success at every milestone."
Martina Donohue
Marketing head @ VERISENSE TECHNOLOGIES
Paul has a sixth sense for what a brand needs.
"Paul has a sixth sense for what a brand needs. His experience in branding, business strategy and market research combined with his unique way of energising the people he works with makes him an outstanding marketer to work with."
Philip Vandusen
BRAND EXPERT @ VERHAAL BRAND DESIGN
lead to ... branding beyond our expectations.
"We needed to develop a brand that could be utilised across all marketing. Paul not only delivered...but made it extensible and dynamic with the future in mind. His ability to understand our company’s message lead to the realisation of our corporate branding beyond our expectations."
William Lyons
@ SHIMMER RESEARCH
amazingly creative...
"Paul is amazingly creative; gets a good understanding of our needs and always delivers a creative solution which has ‘wowed’ our customers. It is great to work with such a professional."
Mike McGrath
Co-Founder @ KwaygaS
exactly what a business needs...
"Paul’s hands on approach to marketing and growing a business is exactly what a business needs in todays fast paced world of digital marketing."
Martijn Moret
CEO @ AirFi
Paul's ability to ... distil ... our 50-year-old company into a clear brand ... was astounding
" Paul's ability to work with managers around the world and distil the message, services, products, and industries of our 50-year-old company into a clear brand, website, and consistently growing sales system was astounding. "
James Dodgson
Global Business Manager @ Survival Systems International
The Problem This Course Solves
There used to be three ways to become a Brand Strategist.
The first was university.
A marketing or business degree costs tens of thousands of pounds and takes three or four years to complete. Yet it still won't teach you how to run a discovery workshop, interview a client, build a positioning statement or present strategy to a business owner. Universities teach theory. Brand strategy has always been learned through real client work.
The second was agency experience.
For decades, junior designers and marketers learned these skills by working alongside experienced strategists. They researched competitors, sat in workshops, listened to client conversations and gradually took on more responsibility. It took years, but eventually they became strategists themselves.
That apprenticeship is disappearing.
AI is now completing much of the research, analysis and first-draft work that once trained junior staff. The very jobs that used to create future Brand Strategists are quietly disappearing from the industry.
Which leaves one final option.
Learn the process directly.
‣ Not over four years.
‣ Not by hoping the right agency still exists.
But by learning the exact frameworks, workshops and thinking that experienced Brand Strategists have traditionally spent years acquiring.
Join The first Brand Strategy Course workshops taking place in Edinburgh and Glasgow
You are fully protected by My 1st-Day Money Back Guarantee
I genuinely believe this course will change the way you think about your creative career. If, after the first workshop, you don't believe you'll received genuine value from the course, simply let me know and I'll issue a full refund.
No complicated conditions. No unnecessary questions. No hard feelings.
I've built this course because I believe the traditional path to becoming a Brand Strategist is changing, and I want to help the next generation of creatives develop the skills they need to succeed. I'm confident in the value of what you'll learn, and I'm happy to stand behind it with a simple, straightforward money-back guarantee.
Frequently asked questions
Not in the way many people imagine.
AI is becoming incredibly good at execution. It can write copy, generate logos, create presentations and analyse information faster than any human.
But AI still needs someone to define the business problems, ask the right questions, challenge assumptions and make strategic decisions.
That's what this course teaches.
The people who thrive won't be the best prompt writers.
They'll be the people deciding what should be prompted in the first place.
Absolutely.
The course was designed for designers, marketers, freelancers, students and creative professionals who want to move beyond execution and into strategy.
You don't need previous strategy experience.
The course will teach you the frameworks, but more importantly, I'll teach you how brand strategists actually think.
I can't promise you complete protection from technological change.
But what I do know is this:
AI is removing many entry-level design tasks that creatives (like me) traditionally learned from.
That means the people who understand business, positioning, customer psychology and decision-making will become significantly more valuable in the near future.
This course will help you build and learn those skills.
In my experience, yes.
The closer you are to the business decisions, the more valuable you become.
Designers are often hired to execute a brief. Brand Strategists are hired to help define the brief. They help businesses make better decisions about their products, positioning, customers and direction before any creative work begins.
As your value to the business increases, so does your ability to command higher fees, work on larger projects and build longer-term client relationships.
That's why strategy sits at the top of the creative profession.
Whether you work in an agency, freelance or in-house, being able to influence direction rather than simply execute it often leads to higher-value projects, stronger client relationships and greater career opportunities.
No.
Most branding courses teach you how to design a brand.
This course teaches you how to lead the branding process.
I've bought enough disappointing courses over the years to know what I didn't want to create. This course is the opposite. It's everything I've learned throughout my career, distilled into a practical step-by-step process for becoming a Brand Strategist.
Every framework, worksheet and lesson exists because I've used it with real clients.
You'll learn how to run discovery meetings, ask better questions, research markets, analyse competitors, build positioning, present strategic recommendations and guide clients from the first conversation through to the final creative brief.
No.
The Brand Strategy Course is delivered in person over eight, two-hour workshop sessions, covering seven structured modules.
Each participant receives workbooks for every module, which we will work through together during each session. I'll teach the material, explain every framework step by step, share real client examples from my own career, and answer questions throughout the workshop.
I chose to teach the course this way because Brand Strategy isn't something you learn by watching videos. Every business is different, every project is different, and there are always questions that need to be discussed, challenged and explored.
The workshop format allows us to stop, ask questions, work through examples together and make sure you leave each session understanding not just what to do, but how to apply it to real client projects.
The goal of this course isn't simply to teach you Brand Strategy.
It's to help you become a Brand Strategist.
By the end of the course, you'll understand how Brand Strategists approach projects, communicate confidently with clients, uncover opportunities, lead workshops, present strategic recommendations and position themselves as trusted advisors rather than simply designers, marketers or developers.
You'll know how to position and present yourself as a Brand Strategist - opening the door to larger projects, higher-value work and greater earning potential.
In short, you'll have the knowledge and practical skills needed to begin building a career as a Brand Strategist.
Join The first Brand Strategy Course workshops taking place in Edinburgh and Glasgow