(615) 219-9181
Why you should Take the Stairs

We believe that all businesses can be successful by working both smart and hard.

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We take the “con” out of consultants.

At Take the Stairs, we believe that a consultant’s role should be as business partners, not adversaries, by providing strategic advice and tactical implementations so business leaders can remain their company’s visionary while continuing to grow.

Take the Stairs Why Statement

We are
always transparent

Good business is always best with honest and transparent communication. With transparent monthly task breakdowns, you will always know exactly what to expect from your monthly services.

We teach you
how to fish

Our goal is to work ourselves out of a job every time. We teach you and your staff how to use every tool and process that we implement into your business so you can take the baton and run with it.

We start with a
strong foundation

We start out with every client by uncovering their brand identity. The story of why your business exists and where you are going needs to be established before attacking any long-term goals.

July 2016

Take the Stairs is founded.

August 2016

Take the Stairs secures their first client, Coterie Marketing.

December 2017

Take the Stairs creates the monthly grid system for Whitehardt.

July 2019

Whitehardt is named the Top Rated SEO Company by SEOblog.com

September 2019

Take the Stairs adds marketing agency services

December 2019

Take the Stairs helps a Greenway of Nashville go digital.

November 2021

Take the Stairs adds lead generation services

July 2016, Take the Stairs is founded.

In the summer of 2016, Adam Carbonneau founded Take the Stairs in Tennessee, inspired by his “taking the stairs” analogy used in a Gartner presentation, emphasizing discipline and small steps for success. The firm, named after this concept, focuses on providing predictable results for clients through consistent, incremental efforts in marketing consulting.

August 2016, Take the Stairs secures their first client, Coterie Marketing.

Shortly after starting, Take the Stairs gained their first client, Coterie Marketing in the UK, needing improved global communication for remote workers. Over two years, they integrated ActiveCollab into Coterie’s processes, enhancing hour tracking and financial reporting, thus providing clearer insights into project profitability for the expanding workforce.

December 2017, Take the Stairs creates the monthly grid system for Whitehardt.

Take the Stairs developed a monthly tasking grid for Whitehardt, an ad agency serving prominent personal injury attorneys, to enhance time tracking and staffing efficiency for digital marketing clients. The new system allowed their agency to define the scope for retainer clients and generate employee utilization reports, aiding in optimal department sizing based on workload.

July 2019, Whitehardt is named the Top Rated SEO Company by SEOblog.com

Over two years, Take the Stairs led the implementation of a monthly tasking grid, significantly enhancing an agency’s output. This contribution was pivotal in the agency being named the top SEO Agency in the United States by SEOblog.com, notably for consistently producing optimized content, a key factor in their success.

September 2019, Take the Stairs adds marketing agency services

Take the Stairs, initially a consultancy for marketing agencies and small businesses, evolved to include teams of content, design, SEO, and advertising contractors. This expansion aimed to enhance marketing support for more businesses and create additional opportunities for international remote workers, broadening their impact and scope of services.

December 2019, Take the Stairs helps a Greenway of Nashville go digital.

Take the Stairs landed their first fractional consulting role with a growing Nashville outdoor construction company, transitioning them from manual, paper-based processes to a digital job pipeline using Trello. They hired and trained an Intake Specialist and sales team, enabling the company to fully digitize operations before the pandemic, avoiding major disruptions.

November 2021, Take the Stairs adds lead generation services

Take the Stairs deciphered large businesses’ hypertargeting strategies, leading to the launch of their lead generation services. They integrated their brand identity workshops to create ideal lead lists for clients, continually refining and expanding these efforts to enhance their lead generation capabilities and support client growth effectively.

What makes us different?

Plain and simple, we’re $150/hour. This blended rate for our services makes all pricing fair and easy to understand. With every project we take on, comes serious thought and consideration, whether it’s proposing a content strategy or hiring a new member of your team. We also guarantee value beyond the price of our services or we don’t propose our services at all.

For every client, we create a monthly TTS Task Breakdown Report. This report outlines all the tasks we recommend completing for your business within our monthly allocation of hours. We review this report with you in advance and do not move forward until we receive your express approval. At Take the Stairs, you’ll never receive an ambiguous answer on what you will be receiving for your marketing or operations services. We believe this ensures that your business receives value month after month.

There are a number of ways to solve your business challenges but we never present a solution without first understanding the problem you’re facing and the market context. We take the time to properly uncover your business objectives and challenges before attempting to offer any type of solution.

The more we can understand about your business, the more tailored and precise our proposed solutions. Even more so, the more tailored the solution, the more likely we get it right the first time. After all, working with a marketing and operations consultant is all about teamwork. As the great Jerry McGuire once said, “Help me help you.” The better we can understand your business, the better outcomes we can provide.

You might think it’s crazy, but our goal is always to work ourselves out of a job. We want to walk you through our strategies for success and show you the potential impact each action might have. For all executed plans, we provide access to all the resources we use and will train your team to use our materials, tactics and strategies. We also make sure that anything we create for you (handouts, playbooks, content, social posts, etc.) is 100% your property.

You might ask, “Are you guys crazy?”

The answer is complicated and more yes than no, but there is still a method to our madness. We believe that if we do good work and solve your business problems, you’ll shout our name from the rooftops. Word-of-mouth referrals are the most powerful form of marketing, and we want to create more and more positive business outcomes for our clients.

We’re in this business for the long haul, not just the quick wins. Want to learn more? Call us today and we’ll talk about our success stories.

We want hard workers to win

Time after time, we’ve met with exceptional businessmen and women who work 70+ hour weeks tirelessly to create the best possible outcomes for their clients. But over time, they burn out and never reach the pinnacle of success that they envisioned.

Why is that? Doesn’t hard work always equal success?

The answer is, unfortunately not. While hard work is an essential part of any successful business, it isn’t the only factor. Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘Work smarter, not harder’? It’s an essential phrase for understanding the growth of your business, whatever your business problem is.

“I’ve got too much on my plate.”

“I don’t have enough businesses calling me.”

“My employees are lazy or don’t know what to do.”

“I’ve got too much overhead and I’m not making enough of a return.”

“I don’t have time to think about strategy, I have to run the business.”

All these problems (and more) are solvable and essential to your business becoming more successful. It’s your job to delegate, bring in business, motivate employees, manage costs, and innovate and grow the business. Our job is to help get you there. We want you to win and win big. We can teach you the processes and systems to develop a scalable business that doesn’t need you to work 70+ hours a week to succeed.

We can’t stand the fakers

There are a lot of fakers in operations and marketing, and there’s a rational reason for it. Industry fakers have been able to exist by replacing knowledge and expertise with bravado and buzzwords. While confidence and an understanding of key terminology are important, they can be mistaken for core competence.

The truth is NO-ONE has the answers to solve your sales and marketing problems. The answers can only be found by taking the following process:

  • Identify the problem/goal
  • Develop a strategy to solve the problem
  • Create actions to execute the strategy
  • Review the results
  • Adapt
  • Rinse, wash, repeat

The answers are never obvious. It takes a keen understanding of how a business operates to develop the kind of successful outcomes that you’re working so hard to achieve. We understand that it seems easier to work with someone who makes it look like they have your challenges solved after meeting #1, but you’re risking months of financial commitment and potential for a sub-par or fleeting result. As business owners, we must be willing to roll our sleeves up and address where our issues might be, so we can be more successful in the long run. The first step is the hardest to take but if you put the work in at the beginning, you’re more likely to get where you want to be. Much like deciding to take the stairs than riding up the elevator.

We genuinely enjoy helping others succeed

We’re not the only people who want to see the world be the most positive place it can be, and we understand you need to ‘be the change you want to see in the world’. All employees and contractors of the agency are vetted extensively for empathy. Empathy is the most important energy that helps our business run smoothly.

Being empathetic is not only a good virtue but it makes you more successful. The more we care about you and your business, the more we can understand the challenges you’re going through. This key understanding is a major motivator to finding the solution that best fits your unique needs as a business owner.

Empathy is a passion of every single member of the team and will never change as long as we operate. We love solving problems for upstanding individuals who just need a fresh business perspective. We strive to leave every business in a better place than we found it and that takes both parties working together for the good of the business. We can’t wait to work for you and show you what we mean.

I had the pleasure of working with Adam for a little over a year as a consultant to our advertising agency Whitehardt. We recognized that we were not as equipped and knowledgeable as we wished… View Testimonial
Kevin White Kevin White - CEO of Whitehardt, Inc.
We have worked on several projects with “Take the Stairs” since 2017. All have been very successful. Specifically, over the past 18 months “Take the Stairs” has completely transformed our SEO platform. The results really… View Testimonial
Eric Cook Eric Cook - Managing Partner at Greenway of Nashville

Are you ready to Take the Stairs?

We get it, it’s a major step just to start asking for help. And an even bigger one to think that someone other than you can ever understand your business well enough to achieve the kind of success you’ve always dreamed about.

Pressure selling is just not our thing. Our goal is simply to understand your business and try to see if there is an alignment between our organizations by conducting a no-risk, no-cost, no-worries discovery meeting to understand your challenges. From our meeting, we’ll set a second meeting to present how we can start to engage with your business. From there, it’s completely your decision if you want to move forward. We understand change is hard for everyone and we’re ready when you are.

That being said, nothing in life worth doing is easy. Call us today at (615) 219-9181 if you’re ready to take that first step towards a better you and a more successful business.