Strategy without an eye towards execution
is just thinking.

We've never been interested in just thinking.

How We Work

We translate strategy into the decisions, systems, and actions your team can actually deliver

How We're Different From Other Consultants

We ask the questions you may not have thought to ask
Most consultants validate what you already believe.
We surface what's been hiding in plain sight.

We build tools, not just decks
Most consultants deliver binders and presentations.
We deliver frameworks, templates, and playbooks teams use immediately.

We work alongside you, not from afar
Most consultants disappear to "develop strategy."
We workshop solutions together so teams feel ownership from day one.

We translate complexity into commercial language
Most consultants use jargon and consultant-speak.
We make complex ideas simple enough to explain to any buyer at any level.

We stay through activation
Most consultants hand off a deck and leave.
We embed until your teams are confident using what we built.

The result isn’t just strategy.
It’s shared understanding, better decisions, and action that moves in the same direction

Translated IBM's Smarter Planet vision into industry-specific GTM playbooks — driving a projected $20B pipeline and positioning IBM as a transformation partner across healthcare, retail, cybersecurity, and energy.

Created the unified customer narrative for the AT&T Wireless + IBM joint venture, merging competing global brand equities into a first-of-its-kind Fortune 1000 cloud offering.

Repositioned Huawei from global OEM to top-three consumer smartphone brand — architecting the brand and value proposition system that fueled $45B in revenue growth.

Led the customer experience, brand launch, and retail product line for Qua, Caesars Entertainment's $14M luxury spa concept — recognized by Condé Nast and Robb Report as a top luxury destination.

Redefined the customer experience for Harrah's global brand — building a Brand Experience Playbook that enabled property GMs worldwide to measure, close, and operationalize delivery gaps at both the global and local level.

Repositioned a publicly traded public safety tech company from product-led challenger to mission-driven brand — tripling positive sentiment and driving +200% lead growth in under 90 days.

Every one of these started with a conversation. Yours can too.

Let's Talk →

What Activated Looks Like

Trusted by global enterprise leaders including: IBM | Huawei | AT&T | Caesars Entertainment | Juniper Networks | Cincinnati Bell | U Chicago Booth

Doing this since 2006

Our Work, In Their Words

Most of our best work never made it into a press release. That's by design.
Here's what our clients say about what happened behind the scenes

"I brought Nima in as an advisor when I felt stuck. I didn't expect her to reframe the whole business — I just expected answers. Instead she asked better questions than I had been asking myself. That's not consulting. That's a different kind of thinking altogether."

— CEO, Growth-Stage Technology Company

"With an RFP due in 72 hours that felt dead on arrival, we begrudgingly gave her two hours. After the first hour, we gave her two days. We wrote the response faster than we ever had — and won the deal."

— VP Sales, Global Consulting Company

"Someone asked me why I wasn't using our agency of record for this. Honestly? Mezzanine goes deeper. We didn't just get a deck with pretty words — we got a framework our entire team could use, in language everyone understood. That's rare."

— VP Marketing, Global Technology Company (Cloud)

"We had a room full of engineers who knew everything about the technology and marketers who needed to sell it. The gap between them felt impossible to bridge. Mezzanine understood both worlds — and translated the complexity into benefit-driven value propositions that the market could actually act on. For the first time, everyone in that room was speaking the same language."

— VP, Strategic Partnerships, Global Technology & Telecom Joint Venture

"Mezzanine pulled us in from day one — and it changed everything. For the first time, we understood not just what we were building but why it mattered to the customer. It made us better at our jobs."

— VP Product, Global Telecom Company

"We brought Nima in for customer experience. What we got was a vision for the entire brand portfolio. The ideas were unexpected but the moment she explained them, they were obvious — completely grounded in who our customers were and what our brands stood for. She didn't just solve the problem in front of her. She saw what was possible across the whole portfolio."

— VP Brand, Global Hospitality Company

"Nima came in for a 3-month engagement. Three months turned into years. It wasn't by design — it was because every time a high-stakes challenge surfaced, she was the one we trusted to handle it. Not just to solve the problem, but to bring people along. She had a way of breaking down silos, building consensus, and turning skeptics into ambassadors. That's why she ended up everywhere."

— VP, Global Marketing, Enterprise Technology Company

Ready to start your own story? Schedule a Conversation →

Frequently asked questions

About Mezzanine Consulting

What is Mezzanine Consulting LLC? Mezzanine Consulting LLC is a strategy and activation consultancy that builds strategies designed to be executed — not presented. Founded in 2006 and trusted by global leaders including IBM, Huawei, AT&T, and Caesars Entertainment, we specialize in brand strategy, customer experience, and innovation.

We built this firm because we believe strategy should change what happens on Monday morning — not sit in a folder after the consultant leaves. That belief drives everything we do. We build the strategy and the execution tools simultaneously — so your teams walk away with frameworks, playbooks, and decision models they can use from day one. The thinking and the doing are never separated.

How is Mezzanine Consulting different from other consulting firms? Most consulting firms build strategy in isolation and hand it over. We build it differently from the start. Every strategy we develop is designed with execution already built in — we're asking "how will this work across sales, marketing, product, and operations" while we're building it, not after. Then we create the tools that activate it — messaging frameworks your sales team can customize, playbooks your marketing team can run, decision models your leadership can use to stay aligned. You don't get a strategy and then figure out how to use it. You get a strategy that comes ready to use.

We also bring something most consulting firms don't have in the room — a founding partnership that combines brand and marketing leadership with finance and operations expertise. Every recommendation we make gets pressure-tested against the reality of what organizations can actually deliver commercially and operationally. That's not a process step. It's built into how we're structured.

How do your services work? We build strategies and the activation tools to deliver them — in the same engagement. We don't hand you a strategy and leave you to figure out the execution. From the first session we're working with your leadership and teams to build both the strategic direction and the practical tools that make it real — value proposition frameworks your entire organization can deliver on, customer experience playbooks your teams can execute, innovation roadmaps with the commercial clarity to actually pursue.

Engagements range from three weeks for focused strategic work to ongoing retainer and fractional executive relationships for organizations that need sustained partnership. Whatever the scope, you walk away with tools — not just a direction.

How much does it cost? Our engagements are scoped and priced based on the nature of the challenge, the depth of work required, and the engagement model that fits your situation. We don't publish standard rates because the right scope varies significantly — a three-week value proposition engagement looks very different from a six-month brand transformation.

What we can tell you is that we work across a range of organizations from growth-stage companies to Fortune 500 enterprises, and we structure engagements to match the value they create. The best starting point is a conversation — we'll be direct about whether the fit and the investment make sense for both sides.

What is the first step? The first step is a conversation — no pitch, no proposal, no obligation. We start by understanding what you're navigating, what's already been tried, and what success looks like for your organization. From that conversation we can tell you whether there's a genuine fit and what the right scope of work might look like. You can schedule that conversation directly or send us a note first if you'd prefer to share some context before we talk.

What kind of organizations do you work with? We work with enterprise organizations navigating transformation, growth-stage companies ready to scale, public companies repositioning for growth, and venture-backed startups commercializing breakthrough ideas. The common thread isn't size or sector — it's leaders who recognize that strategy only works if the people responsible for delivering it can actually use it.

What industries do you work in? We have deep experience across technology, telecom, cybersecurity, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, energy, government and public safety, industrial and OEM, retail and franchise, entertainment and sports, and education. Our methodology translates across sectors — the principles of brand, experience, and innovation strategy apply broadly even when the specifics differ significantly by industry.

How can I contact you? You can reach us at hello@mezzanineconsulting.com, call us at +1-303-990-2429, or use the contact form on our Let's Chat page. If you're ready to schedule a conversation directly, you can book time on our calendar here. We respond to every inquiry personally — you'll hear from a founding partner, not an intake coordinator.

Brand Strategy

What does a brand strategy consultant actually do? A brand strategy consultant helps you define what your organization stands for, how it's positioned in the market, and how that positioning translates into the language, decisions, and experiences that drive growth. At Mezzanine we go further — we build brand strategies that are designed to be delivered, not just believed. That means every element of the strategy comes with the tools that help sales, marketing, product, and leadership actually operate from it every day.

How is brand strategy different from brand identity? Brand identity is the visual expression of your brand — logos, colors, typography. Brand strategy is the thinking underneath it — your value proposition, your positioning, your differentiation, and how all of that connects to how you operate and sell. Most organizations invest heavily in identity and underinvest in strategy. We focus on strategy because that's where sustainable competitive advantage lives — and where the execution tools that bring it to life get built.

How long does a brand strategy engagement take? Our brand engagements start at three weeks for focused work like value proposition development and run to eight weeks or more for full brand transformation. The timeline depends on the scope of the challenge, the complexity of your portfolio, and how much organizational alignment work is required alongside the strategy itself.

What do we actually walk away with at the end? You walk away with tools your teams can use immediately — not a presentation that sits in a folder. Depending on the engagement that might be a Value Mosaic™ that shows every function what it means to deliver on the value proposition, a messaging architecture your sales team can customize for different audiences, or a brand playbook your global teams can execute against consistently. The strategy and the activation tools are built together — you never have to figure out how to use what we built.

How do we know if we need brand strategy work? Common signs include: your sales team and marketing team describe the company differently, your customers can't articulate why they chose you over a competitor, you've grown through acquisition and your portfolio feels fragmented, or you're entering a new market and your existing positioning doesn't travel. If any of those resonate, it's worth a conversation.

Customer Experience Strategy

What is customer experience consulting? Customer experience consulting helps organizations design and deliver the experiences their customers actually have — across every touchpoint, channel, and interaction — so that what you promise matches what people experience. At Mezzanine we build experience strategies and the operational tools to activate them — journey frameworks, experience playbooks, and delivery standards your teams can execute consistently from day one.

We already have a CX team. Why would we need outside help? Internal CX teams are often great at identifying problems but struggle to get cross-functional alignment on solving them. We come in to provide the outside perspective, the facilitation, and the frameworks that help leadership and operations teams agree on priorities and commit to a clear path forward. We also bring pattern recognition from working across industries that internal teams rarely have access to. And critically — we don't just diagnose. We build the tools your CX team can use to execute the strategy we develop together.

What's the difference between customer experience and customer service? Customer service is one touchpoint — typically when something goes wrong or a customer needs help. Customer experience is everything — from how a prospect first hears about you, through the buying process, through delivery, through renewal or repeat purchase. We work on the full arc, not just the service layer, building the strategy and activation tools that make the entire experience intentional rather than accidental.

How do you measure the impact of customer experience work? We tie CX work to commercial outcomes from the start — retention rates, lifetime value, Net Promoter Score, conversion rates, and referral rates. We don't treat experience as a soft discipline. Every framework we build includes the metrics that tell you whether it's working and the operational tools that help your teams course-correct when it isn't.

Innovation Strategy

What does innovation consulting actually involve? Innovation consulting helps organizations identify where to grow next, how to commercialize what they've already built, and how to pursue new opportunities with the clarity and discipline that turns ideas into revenue. At Mezzanine we build innovation strategies that are grounded in market reality and organizational capability — and we create the activation tools that help leadership and teams actually pursue the direction we've defined together. Innovation without execution infrastructure is just aspiration.

We have plenty of ideas. How do you help us decide which ones to pursue? That's exactly where we start. Most organizations don't lack ideas — they lack a structured way to evaluate which ideas are worth pursuing given their capabilities, their market position, and their resources. Our Strategic Discovery & Prioritization work is specifically designed for this situation — we surface what's genuinely differentiated, stress-test assumptions, and help leadership align on where to focus. Then we build the frameworks and decision tools that keep the organization focused as the work unfolds.

What is commercialization strategy and when do we need it? Commercialization strategy is the work of turning something you've built — a technology, a capability, a product — into something the market understands and will pay for. It's particularly relevant for engineering and science-led organizations where the innovation is real but the go-to-market thinking hasn't kept pace. We build both the commercial strategy and the tools your sales, marketing, and partnership teams need to take it to market confidently. If you've built something valuable but struggle to explain it to buyers, partners, or investors, commercialization strategy is likely what you need.

How is your innovation work different from a traditional strategy consultant? Most strategy consultants hand you a growth framework and leave. We stay through the activation — building the tools, narratives, and decision models your teams need to actually pursue the direction we've defined together. The strategy and the execution infrastructure are built simultaneously, not sequentially. You never finish an engagement with Mezzanine wondering how to use what we built.

Working With Us

How do we know which engagement model is right for us? It depends on how clearly defined your challenge is and how much ongoing support you need. If you have a specific, well-defined problem with a clear endpoint — project-based work is usually right. If your strategy needs to be built, activated, and sustained over time — a retainer makes more sense. If you need senior leadership embedded in your organization to drive transformation — fractional executive engagement is designed for that. And if you want a trusted thinking partner who knows your business deeply — an advisory relationship is the lightest-touch option. We always start with a conversation to understand your situation before recommending a model.

Do you work with companies outside the United States? Yes. We have extensive experience working with global enterprises across North America, Europe, and Asia. Several of our longest engagements have been with companies navigating strategy across multiple markets and cultures simultaneously — building strategies and activation tools that work across geographies, languages, and organizational structures.

How do you staff your engagements? Every engagement is led by Mezzanine's founding partners. We bring in additional practitioners as needed — all with MBA-level backgrounds and deep familiarity with our methodology — to ensure we have the right capacity for the scope of work. You always have senior leadership involved at every critical juncture, not junior teams working independently. The thinking and the quality control never get delegated.

How do engagements typically begin? We start with a conversation — either a scheduled call or a note describing what you're navigating. From there we do a focused discovery to understand the challenge, the organizational context, and what success looks like. We then recommend the right scope and engagement model before any work begins. There's no obligation in that first conversation — our goal is to make sure there's a genuine fit before we both commit.