I build brands that make complex things legible.
I turn ambitious ideas into distinctive brands—building the strategy, identity, and story that connect businesses with the people they want to reach. From local businesses finding their footing to category-defining companies finding their edge.
Currentlyopen to VP / Head of Brand & Marketing roles & select engagements
Healthcare AIMedical roboticsConsumer techTeslaCategory designZero-to-oneEkso BionicsPositioningDemand & pipelineVave HealthNarrative systemsCalmWave
$0→$174.5M
Marketing-sourced pipeline grew from $0 to $174.5M — CalmWave, healthcare AI
45→20 MIN
Discovery calls cut from 45 to 20 minutes — narrative & positioning work
70X
70x revenue growth in 35 months — Vave Health, medtech
$50M
$50M pipeline at the LA Auto Show, 2017 — Tesla, 120+ staff, 20K leads
Services
Two ways to work together
From creating a brand's identity to sharpening its position in the market, I connect strategic thinking with creative work that makes it real—and bring that same perspective to executive leadership.
For hiring teams
Bring a brand leader in-house
Fifteen years owning the full arc — brand and narrative through demand and pipeline — for AI, robotics, health tech, and consumer companies at the zero-to-one stage.
Case studies → Full background & tenure →For businesses & founders
Build a brand worth remembering
Brand creation and identity for local businesses; positioning, narrative strategy, and fractional brand leadership for startups and growing companies.
Explore an engagement →Local branding services →I work at the zero-to-one moment. Before the category exists.
* Where a product is genuinely hard to explain, or a brand needs rebuilding on a foundation that no longer fits.
Selected work
Other case studies
04
Credibility in a skeptical category
Vave Health — 70x revenue growth against entrenched incumbents
Medical devices
→
03
A car into a cultural moment
Tesla — $50M pipeline, 20K leads at the LA Auto Show
Consumer · Auto
→
07
Close to home, worth the wait
Next Dough Bakehouse — a home bakery named and branded from zero
Consumer · Food
→
08
Making technology worth looking at
Jupiter Co. — a concept home-tech brand, from category insight to a four-object collection
Home tech · Concept
→
Bring me the thing that's hard to explain.
FAQ
What does a brand and narrative strategist do?+
I build the positioning, messaging, and brand systems that let a company explain what it does clearly: the thinking that sits underneath the visual identity. I work at the zero-to-one stage, before a category exists, through to enterprise scale.
What is narrative architecture?+
Narrative architecture is the system that governs how a company talks about itself, the positioning, messaging hierarchy, and story every team can build from without reinventing it department by department.
What is category creation?+
Category creation is the work of naming or defining a market that doesn't yet exist as a category, positioning a product so its value is legible before anyone forces a comparison to something it isn't. It's the work behind the CalmWave and Ekso Bionics case studies above.
What's the difference between branding and brand strategy?+
Branding is the visual and verbal expression: the logo, the palette, the voice. Brand strategy is the decision logic underneath it, who you're for, what you're not, and why that's true. I work primarily in the latter, though the engagements I run often include the former.
What's your approach to brand and narrative strategy?+
Every engagement starts the same way: a working session to pressure-test what's actually been built against how it's currently being described. That gap is usually where the real problem lives. From there, timeline and scope depend on the track: a Positioning Sprint runs 4–6 weeks, a full Category & Narrative System 6–10. See the Services page for what's included at each stage.
Where are you based?+
I'm based in Walnut Creek, California, and work with companies both locally in the Bay Area and remotely across the US.
Are you available for full-time roles, consulting, or both?+
Both. I'm actively open to Director/VP roles while running a small portfolio of retainer consulting engagements for founders. See the Services page for engagement types, or About for my full background.
How do I get in touch?+
Use the contact form, or email ashleylynnpola@gmail.com directly. I typically respond within a couple of business days.