When a founder-led brand becomes something bigger
The Situation
Brand arc: Evolve + Define
Context: Founder-named legacy brand rebranded alongside a new national product launch
Inspire Aesthetics Group needed to rebrand a legacy practice in a way that honored its heritage and preserved existing brand equity, while also positioning it to support the launch of a new national product line.
The legacy brand was built around a founder-named identity: Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, a globally recognized hair restoration expert with 30+ years of experience. The credibility was real, but the name anchored the business to an individual at a moment when it needed to become something more scalable. At the same time, Inspire was preparing to introduce a national product across five distinct practices, with plans to scale further across its network.
This was not a cosmetic change. It was an identity shift. The brand needed to carry trust forward, legitimize a new offering, and function as a credible platform for national expansion.
Brand Collaborations Include
Stewarding a deeply lived brand through its next phase
The Moment in Time
Brand arc: Evolve
Context: 20-year legacy brand with a deeply lived culture
Ruby was a rare case. The brand was strong, clearly articulated, and genuinely lived inside the organization. People knew what Ruby stood for and why it mattered. That clarity showed up everywhere, from how teams worked together to how the company showed up in the market.
Internally, Ruby was thoughtful, values-led, and human. The culture reflected inclusivity, care for people, and a clear sense of purpose. Externally, however, the brand expression had not kept pace with who the company had become.
The visual identity leaned heavily on mid-century nostalgia. What once felt warm and distinctive was beginning to feel dated and less representative of Ruby’s role as the leading CX SaaS company serving small business owners.
The Disconnect
Nothing about Ruby’s culture or core brand was broken.
The tension was that the external brand began to feel dated. It read less modern and less inclusive than the company actually was. That gap mattered because Ruby’s customers experience the brand from the outside first.
Ruby had already invested in a rebrand, but the visual system and its execution were not deeply thought through. It lacked the depth and breadth needed to hold up across touchpoints and channels. That made it hard to lock the brand in and be cohesive. Teams stayed in a constant cycle of testing and tweaking instead of building consistent momentum.
The risk wasn’t a weak brand. It was a strong brand being undersold by an external expression that did not fully reflect its values or its personality as a SaaS company.
The Shift
The decision was to evolve Ruby’s external expression with more rigor and intention, without disturbing what was already working internally.
The work focused on building a clearer, more cohesive system, anchored in Ruby’s customer promise. Ruby is a B2B SaaS company, but the value it delivers to small business owners is deeply human. Peace of mind. Professionalism. A stronger connection with their own customers. Grounding the brand in that promise helped shape an expression that felt more inclusive, more relevant, and true to the experience Ruby actually delivered.
The goal was to establish a point of view the brand could stand on, so execution could build instead of constantly being reconsidered.
When Nicole started at Ruby, it was so clear that she had a brand vision for leaning into the SMB community in new ways that would ultimately secure Ruby as the premier service in market.
Rebecca Grimes, Chief Revenue Officer
From confusion to credibility
Launching with intention
The Challenge
Brand arc: Define
Context: New practice launch led by an experienced physician
Southern Coastal Aesthetics was a new practice entering a competitive market, but the founder was not new to the work.
The physician behind the practice brought over twenty years of experience and a wide range of services and expertise. At the same time, she was relocating to a new geography and building the practice from the ground up. Credibility had to be established locally, without the benefit of existing name recognition or referral networks.
The challenge wasn’t expertise. It was translation. There was simply too much knowledge, too many offerings, and too many ways to explain the work.
Without structure, that depth risked overwhelming prospective patients rather than reassuring them. The question became how to create clear buckets that could organize her expertise into a story that felt approachable, understandable, and relevant to the end consumer.
Geography added another layer of complexity. The practice was launching in a conservative coastal region in the South, where trust, tone, and representation mattered deeply. The brand needed to feel welcoming and inclusive across genders, without skewing too heavily in one direction or relying on cues that might unintentionally exclude or alienate parts of the community.
The Approach
Instead of jumping into marketing or design, the decision was to get clear first.
The work focused on creating a brand foundation that could translate deep expertise into a story patients could understand quickly. Services were organized into clear categories that made it easier to see what Southern Coastal specialized in, how the offerings fit together, and where to begin.
Positioning, values, and tone were shaped with the region and audience in mind. The brand needed to feel credible and grounded in a conservative coastal market, while also being welcoming across genders. Visual and verbal decisions were made deliberately to ensure the practice felt accessible, trustworthy, and aligned with the community it was entering.
From there, clarity became the filter. Messaging, design, and patient experience could all build from the same point of view.
The Result
Southern Coastal Aesthetics launched with a cohesive brand presence that made expertise feel clear rather than overwhelming.
Patients could quickly understand what the practice offered, who it was for, and why it was credible. Messaging was approachable and consistent. The brand balanced professionalism with warmth, helping establish trust in a new market where relationships and reputation mattered.
By starting with clarity, the practice avoided common early-stage pitfalls like overexplaining, repositioning midstream, or rebuilding foundational elements later. Marketing decisions became easier. The brand could grow beyond the founder without losing credibility.
Southern Coastal entered the market with a clear point of view and a brand system designed to support sustainable growth from the ground up.
Nicole brings a rare balance of discipline and creativity, ensuring every decision and detail is guided by the client’s best interest. She is professional and thoughtful, yet innovative in her approach.
Carrie L. Morris, MD, FACS, Southern Coastal Aesthetics
