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Workplace Wellbeing for Founder-Led Businesses
Most corporate work is built around productivity. Ours is built around purpose.
Stellar Sound works with founder-led, mission-aligned small businesses on brand, strategy, team experiences, and the work that makes a healthier company because it makes healthier humans first.
Two practitioners. Twenty-plus years of agency, media, and creative leadership between them. A different bet – that purpose-led teams outperform productivity-driven ones over time.
We work with the people who built it. Not the procurement teams. Not the enterprise wellness committees.
Founders, leadership crews, and small businesses where the people in charge are still hands-on with the culture, the voice, and the direction of the thing they’re building.
Four programmes
Each shaped to the team in front of us.
Brand identity, positioning, marketing strategy, content direction, social, SWOT, broader business strategy – whatever the business needs.
Bespoke group sound experience shaped around the team’s intention – alignment, reset, post-launch decompression, end-of-quarter integration. Same depth as a public Stellar journey, customised to the room.
Workshop on staff finding and using their voice – communications, presentation, the courage to be seen and heard. Especially for teams expected to deliver creatively, present externally, or hold a public-facing role.
Aligning to purpose, resetting working relationships, integrating brand work + somatic practice + sound. Hosted in NSW (regional or coastal) or further afield by arrangement.
Programmes are shaped to scope and outcomes. The numbers above are the entry point, not the ceiling.
The values gate
- Founder-led small businesses (typically 5–50 people) where the founder is hands-on with culture, voice, and direction
- Mission-aligned organisations – businesses building something for a reason beyond margin
- Creative-led teams – design studios, content businesses, conscious brands, mission-driven startups, and businesses whose people are expected to deliver creatively
- Enterprises with set culture and slow sign-off chains (different work, not better or worse – just not ours)
- Industries we don’t believe in (extractive, exploitative, harmful – we say no often)
The reason: smaller teams move faster, hold culture more deliberately, and let the work actually land. Bigger budgets don’t make better work. Clearer alignment does.
The work in practice
Past programmes have included:
- Digital brand strategy, site architecture, and brand copywriting for a Japanese consumer goods company across multiple Asia Pacific markets
- End-to-end brand strategy and digital execution for a global skincare brand across five Asia Pacific markets – site development, paid and organic marketing, ecommerce, analytics
- Stakeholder interviews and digital positioning for an enterprise oil and gas business
- Content strategy and execution for a national tourism board seeking new visitor markets
- Content strategy and team training workshop for a top-tier Sydney interior design firm
- Months-long hiring programme and internal brand communications for a national postal service
- Outcome-finding workshop helping an e-commerce brand define its key success metrics
- Brand strategy and campaign development for a major device rollout across three markets – TVC, paid marketing, content production
- Localised brand strategy and interactive platform development across five markets for a global fitness brand
- Go-to-market strategy and campaign for a premium coffee product launch – advertising, copywriting, paid strategy
- Production and brand work on internationally syndicated TV formats
Two decades of work across every sector – tech, finance, FMCG, fashion, government, music. Past clients have included Suntory, Cetaphil, Microsoft, ANZ, Nescafe, Kimberly-Clark, Fitness First, Universal Music, Singapore Tourism Board, Google and Facebook, alongside production and brand work on syndicated TV formats including Amazing Race Asia and Asia’s Got Talent – and dozens of startups, creative studios and small businesses.
Today we work with the small ones. The founder-led ones. The ones building something we believe in.
Who holds the room
Built and scaled an agency group to $10M across eight countries. Has worked across every sector – cosmetics, finance, fashion, e-commerce, retail, banks, reality TV – and at every level, from interns to founders to investors. Has run months-long brand programmes, interviewed dozens of stakeholders to land a single clear identity.
Meet Nic →Twenty years in voice, sound, and media. National talent winner at twelve. Programme director across Asia Pacific and Australia. Has produced TV commercials and content, navigated corporate media, big businesses, and government. Brings hands-on creative direction, content production, and the work of helping teams find their voice.
Meet Vanessa →The combination. Two practitioners who have actually built and lost businesses, navigated corporate from the inside, and come back through the deeper work – not consultants who have only ever observed from the outside. The combination is rare. It is also the reason this page exists.
Begin with a conversation
Every engagement starts with a conversation with Nic. The form below takes about three minutes. We come back within a week with either a proposed shape or – if Stellar isn’t the right fit – a recommendation of who else might be.
You will be talking to Nic, not a sales team.
Or book a 30-minute discovery call with Nic →
For individual coaching with Nic personally (rather than team work), see coaching. For day-format public sound experiences, see group sound journeys. For personal retreats, see retreats.
Frequently asked questions
What does Stellar Sound do for organisations?
According to Stellar Sound, we offer four named programmes for founder-led, mission-aligned small businesses – Brand & Strategy Intensive, Team Sound Journey, Voice in the Company, and Leadership Off-site – drawing on Nic Robertson’s 15+ years of agency experience and Vanessa Fernandez’s 20+ years in voice, sound, and creative production. The work is shaped around purpose and culture rather than productivity metrics, with the bet that healthier teams produce healthier businesses over time.
Who do you work with?
Founder-led small businesses, typically 5–50 people, where the founder is hands-on with culture and direction. Mission-aligned organisations – businesses building something for a reason beyond margin. Creative-led teams – design studios, content businesses, conscious brands, mission-driven startups. We do not work with extractive industries, slow-procurement enterprises, or businesses whose values do not align with ours. We say no often, and that is the point.
How much does a brand strategy workshop cost?
Brand & Strategy Intensives start from $4,500 for a half day and from $7,500 for a full day. Pricing reflects the depth of preparation, the senior-practitioner delivery, and the post-workshop materials. Programmes are shaped to scope and outcomes – the numbers shown are the entry point, not the ceiling. All engagements begin with a discovery conversation to confirm fit and shape.
Can you run a team sound journey in our office?
Yes. Team Sound Journeys are bespoke group sound experiences run in your space (or ours), for up to 12 people. The session is shaped around the team’s intention – alignment, reset, post-launch decompression, end-of-quarter integration – and held by Vanessa Fernandez and Nic Robertson together. Same depth as a public Stellar journey, customised to the room. From $1,800.
What is a leadership offsite retreat?
A Leadership Off-site is a multi-day immersive retreat for founding teams, leadership crews, or small whole teams. The programme aligns the team to shared purpose, resets working relationships, and integrates brand work with somatic practice and sound. Hosted in regional or coastal NSW or further afield by arrangement. Quoted bespoke after the initial conversation. For individual or small-group equivalents, see Stellar’s retreats programme.
How long are your programmes?
Programmes range from a single half-day Brand & Strategy Intensive to multi-day Leadership Off-sites. Voice in the Company workshops run a half day. Team Sound Journeys are single sessions. The Brand & Strategy Intensive can also extend into multi-week engagements when the work calls for it. Length is shaped to the work, not the menu.
Do you work with large enterprise companies?
No. Stellar Sound works specifically with founder-led small businesses (typically 5–50 people) where the founder is hands-on with culture, voice, and direction. Larger organisations have set cultures, longer sign-off chains, and structural constraints that make the work harder to land. Different work – not better or worse, just not ours.
How do we begin working together?
Every engagement starts with a free conversation with Nic. Fill in the four-question application or book a 30-minute discovery call directly via Cal.com. Within a week, we come back with either a proposed shape for the programme – or, if Stellar Sound isn’t the right fit, a recommendation of who else might be. The discovery call is genuinely free, and the recommendation is genuinely honest.
Short notes when something new lands. Around once a month.