Home The Work Inside Out The Slate About

Great Voyageurs Creative Studio

What you've
been looking
for.

You've poured hours, days, years into the work. The business. The start-up offering. The restaurant that lives or dies on people coming back. The nonprofit that needs to thrive. That first script.

And now you're questioning if all that time has been wasted. Your product sucks. Or so it might seem. Your marketing isn't landing, despite all your expertise. You know in your heart what you're offering is needed, but customers aren't buying. What is up?!

Great ideas, great concepts, brilliant, close enough that you can feel what they could be. And still stuck at the waterline.

So is it a Big Problem? Or are you missing the thing that makes all the difference?

Whatever you're facing, we call it a gap. The distance between where you are and where you want to be. We find the way across.

Let's Build the Bridge See the Work The Slate

Mind the Gap. Then Close It.

That's where we work. We look at four things. Where you are now. Where you want to get to. What the gap between them is. And how to close it. Any one of these may be in question. All of them might be. We identify which, and build the solution to fit. From the inside out. It's called Inside Out.

Who's this for?

You.

You've built something, and there's a gap. Maybe it's not behaving the way you want. Or maybe it's working fine, but you know it could be... well, brilliant. And it's not.

If it's exactly where you want it, that's fantastic. You don't need us.

The field doesn't decide the work. The problem does - your 'gaps'.

You know you need to deal with it. Waiting is no longer an option.

It's time. Contact us.

Problems + aspirations + Inside Out = real solutions. And the gap closes.

How we work.

People come to us because something isn't working and they can't see why. The problem has been named. The fixes have been tried. The gaps persist.

For over two decades, we've parachuted into the unfamiliar, assessed what's needed, seen the pivots others don't, understood the vision, politics, personnel, and procedures that sway decisions, connected the right people, and done the unglamorous work that makes success real. Clients, collaborators, teams - you - make better decisions and get better results.

We start from inside what's being carried. Go deeper into that experience and the shift happens. What you're offering becomes exceptional. That's Inside Out.

When Step-by-Step reached a 93% completion rate for people with severe depression, in a population where most programs see single digits, it wasn't just better clinical content. It was because the program was designed from inside what severe depression actually feels like. Not from a template or a manual. From inside the human experience.

When Revalo's health analytics platform went from stalled product to competing with Google and Apple at the federal ministerial level in five weeks, it was because we found the pivot nobody else could see, built the narrative structures that aligned governments, NGOs, and private-sector actors, and moved at a speed most won't attempt.

The Inside Out method

Mine the Gap.

The world has had enough shallow. Enough adequate. Enough junk.

People are hungry, longing, for something deeper, something more. There is a level underneath where the real work lives. Where good work becomes great. Where products don't just get bought, they get championed. Where organizations stop fighting and start flowing. Where creative work ships, and matters more.

Matter more. Connect deeper. Leave a legacy.

We go there. Inside Out. That's how.

The proof is in the outcomes

Step-by-Step - Completion

93%

Where most mental health programs see single-digit engagement. Peer-reviewed, published, recommendations submitted to the provincial ministry.

Step-by-Step - Anxiety

-50%

Anxiety scores at completion. Sustained at three-month follow-up. BMJ Open, 2015.

Step-by-Step - Depression

-38%

Depression scores at completion. Sustained at three-month follow-up. First-author, peer-reviewed publication.

Provincial Ecosystem

300+

Partners, volunteers, and participants built from a napkin concept. 12+ concurrent research projects. 100-page provincial strategy.

Three ways to work
together.

Working with us, the work connects. It matters.

I

Banish
the Fog

Money is burning. Time is burning. Energy is draining. Something is off and you can't name it. One conversation with the right person can cut through weeks of waste. The fog lifts when you start from the inside out.

Sprints or short retainers

II

Get in
the Game

You've been holding something for years. A script. A series. A book. A vision that won't leave you alone. You know what it is. You just can't get it out and into the world. End to end, we go all the way - from what you have to what it needs to be, to how it gets out.

End to end engagement

III

Finish
the Work

You've made it. You know it's not there yet. You can feel the gap between what it is and what it needs to be. You've gotten notes. The notes haven't closed it. We enter the work from inside what it's trying to be and make the structural moves that finish it.

Hourly or scoped to the project

What people say about
working with David.

On working with David:"It's a unique skillset to be able to see opportunities and pivots others don't, to articulate the vision, to then set the strategy, and finally to have the expertise and experience to execute the day-to-day necessities for success."

Lambert Onuma

CEO, Revalo Health Analytics

"David is a magical connector of dots. A remarkable listener, David has the ability to tease ideas out of people that they simply can't pull out of themselves without some assistance."

Paul Shore

Climate Action Inspiration through Storytelling, Science and Adventure

"David is one of the most tenacious and thorough business development people I have ever worked with. He is strategic in his communication, knows what to write and what to say to open doors and start action. This is rare skill."

Lorraine McGregor

Founder-led company growth advisor · 300+ companies

"Knowing David over a decade, I am impressed how he has again and again preformed with excellence in challenging conditions and brought insight and value to his teams. His tenacity, wit and meta view combined ambition always go a long way with constructive outcome and results."

Vanessa Wiebel MCC

External Leadership Coach & Work-Life Harmony

"David really digs deep to get the facts right and then uses those positive or hard conversations to build genuine and deep relationships with people inside and outside the organization."

Denis Dymov

Experienced People Leader

"David has the incredible skill of taking a very small and minimally formed idea and to develop that into a functional vision and plan - and then to make it happen."

Dr. Gurdeep Parhar

Clinical Professor, Co-Founder Adult Autism Centre and Adult ADHD Centre · UBC

"Working with you, David, I was able to find my vision, identify my niche market and articulate what I want to bring to the world. Your thoughtful inquiry helped draw out of me the rich specificness of my values and aspirations. I identified my target client, what my potential customer wants and tapped into their feelings around it, to offer my service as a perfect match. The result is a beautifully framed picture of my marketing theme which is way beyond me, it's universal."

Lori M.

Licensed Professional Counselor

"The best advice we have received since starting our partnership. Thank you again for all your sage advice and for reinforcing that we do have something of value - we just need to convey it in a more succinct way."

Sharon Davis

Co-founder, Giving Well

Different domains. Different scales.
Same approach.

See all case studies

A fourteen-week program for people with severe depression. A napkin concept grown into a three-hundred-strong provincial research ecosystem of partners, volunteers, and participants. A national pandemic initiative built in five weeks. Two graphic novels and a pilot adaptation.

01

Healthcare - Novel Care Model

Step-by-Step

Conceived, designed, implemented, and evaluated end-to-end. Paired psychiatry with a fitness trainer in a community gym setting. Designed from inside the lived experience of severe depression. 93% completion. Anxiety -50%. Depression -38%. Sustained at three-month follow-up. Published peer-reviewed.

02

Provincial Strategy - Research Ecosystem

A Napkin Concept to a Provincial Ecosystem

From a vision and a small team to 300+ partners, volunteers, and participants, 12+ concurrent research projects, and a 100-page provincial strategy. Built from inside what each person was actually carrying.

03

National Digital Health - Crisis Strategy

A Pandemic Pivot in Five Weeks

Stalled health analytics platform reframed as a national COVID-19 contact-tracing initiative. Federal ministers, Health Canada, the Deputy PMO engaged. Positioned against Google and Apple. Five weeks.

04

Individual - Creative Development

Two Graphic Novels
and a Pilot

A creator with a story they needed to bring into the world. Worked alongside them on voice, structure, world, and form across two volumes and a pilot adaptation for television.

Occasional notes from the studio.

No schedule. No newsletter cadence. When there's something worth saying.

No spam. Unsubscribe any time.

Some things need
to matter.

Let's solve what's in the way.

Let's Build the Bridge See the Work