How your business reads from outside

See how buyers read your business before they do.

Enid finds it. DLB fixes it.

I help owners close the gap between the business they've built and how it reads from the outside. Enid, my own tool, takes the first look. Ideally a couple of years before there's a price on it.

See what Enid finds

Doug Belding, Chief Brand Officer. DLB Creative, Nashville, since 2010.

The outside view Illustration. Tallow Creek IT isn't a real company. 01 · What people say 02 · What Enid finds 03 · The Enid score

A buyer Couldn't tell what they're best at.

An investor Twenty years in. Where are the clients?

An advisor AI thinks they fix laptops.

1 · PositioningThis headline could be any IT firm's.

2 · WebsiteTwo buttons. Two different asks.

3 · MessagingAward-winning. 24/7. Says who?

4 · Trust20+ years in. Not one client named.

0481216202428323640444852 / 100Enid scoreHow it reads to a buyerReading the siteCompetitive

Find your way in

Two kinds of people call me.

Pick the one that sounds like you.

The view from inside For owners, founders, CEOs I run the business. A sale, a raise or a merger is coming. And the outside doesn't show what you've built. GrowingRaisingSellingCombining See how it works The view from the street For M&A, private equity, wealth and exit planning I advise people who do. You get owners ready to sell. You want one more trusted name on the bench for the part nobody checks. Before marketAfter a closeHeld too long See where this fits

How it starts

Starting is small on purpose.

Four steps, and you can stop after any of them. No pitch deck. No 40-page report.

You'll be talking to me the whole way. Not a sales team.

We talk.

20 minutes

Tell me where the business is headed and what's bugging you. I'll tell you what I'd look at first. If it's not a fit, I'll say so.

I take a first look.

A small starter project

Scoped up front and built around an Enid read. Your business, read the way a buyer would.

We make a plan.

In person or on a call

I walk you through what I found. What's worth fixing, what can wait, what's fine as it is. You leave with a 30, 60 and 90 day plan in plain words.

We fix it.

Only if you want to

If you want to keep going, we scope the work from what the look found. Position, build, launch, adjust. You can stop at any step.

"I shared it with our marketing committee and we're going to make some of the adjustments Enid recommended. Really helpful!"

John Line, Partner and Managing Director, Copacino + Fujikado

Book the 20 minutes And no, you won't have to throw out everything you've built.

One story

Choice Health Centre.

One clinic in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia when we started. I built the brand from the mark up. It grew into a group of clinics, then went to market.

Choice Health Centre 01 · The mark02 · The name03 · Everywhere it shows up04 · The sale05 · The name lives on

Your choice for better health.

Choice Health Centre pylon sign design — The pylon sign

Choice Health Centre window wrap on the building — The window wrap

Choice Health Centre business card — The cards

Taken to market. Bidding war. 036912151821242730%over valuation

Then the buyer put the Choice name
on his own clinics.

CHOICE

Read the case

036912151821242730% over valuation Choice Health Centre, after a rebrand. Then a bidding war.

0481216202428323640+ companies read With Enid, since March 2025.

2010 running DLB Creative Sixteen years and counting.

0152944597488103118132147 industry awards Earned with the SweetRush team.

Big names and companies your size

CVS Health, Estée Lauder and Capgemini: enterprise work. Nashville CARES, Copacino + Fujikado and CORE: companies closer to your size. See the full list

The house

Brand is the house. Marketing is the party.

Most budgets go to the party. When it doesn't convert, the marketing gets the blame. Usually the problem is the house: people can't find the way in, or the inside doesn't match the promise.

If people have to walk through a half-built house to get to a black tie dinner, they don't trust the dinner.

See the full story on How It Works →

The same hallway, cleared, with a straight path to the party out back — Drag to clear the way in

A hallway blocked by boxes and a ladder, with the party barely visible out back — Drag to clear the way in

Questions

The short answers.

What does a Chief Brand Officer do?

Makes sure what the market sees matches what the business is. I look at how a company shows up, find where it's losing trust, and fix it.

Who should I talk to in Nashville about brand before selling my business?

That's what I do. I'm Doug Belding, DLB Creative, in Nashville. I work with owners and alongside their M&A advisors and exit planners, usually two to three years ahead of a sale. How brand affects the sale price

Is this marketing?

No. Marketing is the party. This is the house. If the house is right, the marketing you already pay for starts working.

One senior person

Start with a 20‑minute call.

I've run DLB since 2010, seven of those years leading creative for SweetRush. Now I do this for owners and their advisors. You're talking to me, start to finish.

"You have a very calming and even keeled demeanor in good times and in bad. And that... matters when you're partnering and collaborating with somebody." Marni Taradash, Client Experience Strategies

Book 20 minutes More about me