Most organizations sound exactly like their competitors. Not because they are. Because nobody ever helped them find what was already different.
Hi, I’m Ryan Miner. I help businesses, organizations, nonprofits, and healthcare systems find the emotional truth underneath their work and say it in language that actually lands.
You’ve built something that matters. You know it matters. Your clients know it. Your team knows it. But the moment you try to explain it to someone new, something goes flat.
The brochure sounds like every other brochure. The website says what a hundred other websites say. Your “About” page describes what you do, not why anyone should care. You’ve hired designers. You’ve workshopped taglines. You’ve stared at your competitor’s site and thought: we’re better than this. Why can’t we say so?
The problem isn’t your marketing. The problem is that nobody sat with you long enough to find the thing that was already there. The story underneath the business plan. The conviction that made you start. The promise you made before you had a logo.
That’s what I find. And once you can see it clearly, everything else gets simpler.
I lost my grandmother Maureen in July 2025, after a fifteen-year journey with Alzheimer’s. My grandmother Joyce is in memory care now. Two women from the same generation, both slipping away, and in both cases I watched the same thing happen: the people around them, the professionals, the systems, talked at them instead of with them. They used language designed for efficiency, not connection. They projected their process onto someone else’s experience. And the dignity gap that created was enormous.
Maureen used to tell me about watching the Moon landing in 1969. She told that story for decades. In her final year, I asked her about it, and she didn’t remember. Alzheimer’s had taken it. But here’s what stayed with me: the systems that were supposed to serve her never once asked what mattered to her. They never learned who she was before she was a patient.
That experience changed how I think about communication. About branding. About what it actually means to reach someone. Not through better messaging. Through better listening.
I’m trained in business strategy. I hold an MBA. I’ve spent over a decade in healthcare services, community relations, and investigative journalism. But the thing that actually made me useful to organizations wasn’t any of that. It was learning to sit with someone, ask the right question, and wait long enough for the real answer to surface.
Some people have a talent for invention. I have a talent for translation. I don’t create what isn’t there. I name what already is. You feel it in your business every day. You feel it when you talk about your work to someone who gets it. You just haven’t heard it said back to you in language precise enough to make you think: yes, that’s exactly it.
I use a combination of behavioral psychology, intelligence-grade research methodology, and systems thinking to understand what an organization actually means before I ever touch their messaging. Most consultants start with the tagline. I start with the room. Who are you serving? What do they feel before they find you? What would they lose if you didn’t exist? The answers to those questions are your brand. Everything else is typography.
Excavation, Not Invention
I don’t make up your brand. I find it. The truth was there before the logo, before the tagline, before the first pitch deck. My job is to name it clearly enough that everyone in your organization can carry it.
Systems, Not Slogans
A great message that lives in a slide deck is worthless. I build operational frameworks so your brand language shows up in how your team answers the phone, writes an email, and walks into a meeting.
Behavioral Science
How do people actually decide to trust you? Not the marketing theory. The research. I use evidence-based behavioral psychology to understand what makes someone lean in and what makes them walk away.
The Grandmother Test
If your mission statement wouldn’t make sense to your grandmother, it doesn’t make sense. I pressure-test everything against real human comprehension, not boardroom approval.
I work with organizations and founders who share a specific frustration: the work is meaningful, but the words aren’t landing.
- You’ve built something real, but your website sounds like it was written by a committee. Nobody can tell what makes you different. Small businesses, startups, local companies finding their voice
- You’ve tried agencies, freelancers, and internal brainstorms, and nothing sticks because nobody understood the business deeply enough to get it right. Founders, executive directors, marketing leaders
- You know there’s an emotional truth underneath your work, but every time you try to write it down, it comes out generic. Nonprofits, mission-driven organizations, anyone who’s stared at a blank “About” page
- You serve people who deserve to be spoken to with dignity, and you refuse to sound like everyone else doing it wrong. Healthcare, senior living, home care, hospice, elder services, community health
Sentinel Silver
Dignity-centered technology support for older adults. I founded this company on a simple belief: every interaction should be conducted as if you’re serving your own grandparents.
The Senior Soup
Maryland senior advocacy and resources. A platform for the people and policies that shape how we care for the generation that built this country.
A Miner Detail
Investigative reporting and political accountability in Maryland. Asking the questions other outlets won’t.
Brand Strategy
I work with organizations to find the emotional truth underneath their business. Not what they do, but what they owe. Not their features, but their founding story.
What We Carry
A 90-minute session for organizations who know their work matters but can’t seem to say why. Three stories. A plain white notecard. One question. And the realization that your brand was never something you needed to create. It was something you’ve been carrying all along.
You’ll leave with three things: the names of the people who shaped you and what you owe them, the thing you refuse to accept in your industry, and your actual mission stated in language your grandmother could understand.
Offered at no cost to Maryland senior services organizations.
You know what you mean.
Let’s find the words.
No pitch. No proposal. Just a conversation about what’s underneath.
Ryan@RyanRMiner.comSignal: RyanRMiner.85