Cordwainer Alignment/Agreement Sync — 2026-02-19

Attendees: Mark Hope, Sebastian Gant, Karly Oykhman
Source: Fathom recording

Overview

Internal strategy sync to align on the ^[1] account. The meeting covered four major areas: fixing broken conversion tracking infrastructure, a page-by-page UX/SEO audit, realigning ad account control after unauthorized client changes, and an urgent legal situation involving former partner Egan poaching the ^[2] client.

Key Decisions

• Implement CallRail immediately. The website backend is now stable enough to support it. Whisper feature will be disabled to avoid client confusion. All staff must be informed that the displayed phone number may differ from the main line.
• Replace current form platform with Gravity Forms. E-Shock is assigned this task. The existing platform is unreliable and SMTP is failing (14 failed emails in 30 days), meaning form submissions may not be reaching the client.
• Control ad accounts through the agency only. Mark will call client owner Camel to set clear expectations: all ad changes must be requested through the team. Camel made unauthorized changes to Meta campaigns, pausing active ads and creating a duplicate campaign.
• Expand to Bing and Spotify ads. Sebastian will create a Bing Ads account under the team login. Mark will produce a 10–15 second AI-generated audio ad (via 11 Labs) for Spotify targeting the 45-year-old demographic (adult children of memory care candidates).
• Spend ~$200 on link-building to boost Domain Rating. Current DR is low; target is 30–40.
• Postpone OKR meeting to next week. Mark will use the strategy agent to generate initial OKRs as a discussion foundation.

Action Items

Sebastian

• [ ] Send South Shore Memory Care competitive analysis to Mark
• [ ] Add all focus keywords to Ahrefs tracker (currently only 11 of ~30+ are tracked)
• [ ] Create Bing Ads account for Cordwainer under team login
• [ ] Implement CallRail on Cordwainer site; disable whisper; configure conversion tracking
• [ ] Produce display/remarketing creatives; send to Gilbert
• [ ] Call Camel to realign on ad account access expectations
• [ ] Forward Further CRM login to Karly
• [ ] Meet with Cordwainer tomorrow (2026-02-20) to discuss Meta ads
• [ ] Prepare new plan for Tuesday client meeting
• [ ] Call Axley client to explain Egan legal situation and advise staying put

Mark

• [ ] Spend ~$200 on link-building agency to boost Domain Rating to 30–40
• [ ] Install and configure "Access Yes" accessibility plugin (replaces prior plugin that broke the site)
• [ ] Fix duplicate permissions-policy header (blocking upgrade from A to A+ security score)
• [ ] Fix cookie banner position on Cordwainer site
• [ ] Create 10–15 second Spotify audio ad using 11 Labs; send to client for approval
• [ ] Perform list hygiene for Paper, Too ABM campaign
• [ ] Add "customer" filter to Paper, Too ABM flow
• [ ] Draft LinkedIn connection verbiage for Paper, Too ABM campaign
• [ ] Create reporting plan for Paper, Too ABM campaign
• [ ] Post calculators to server
• [ ] Run strategy agent to generate draft OKRs ahead of rescheduled meeting

Karly

• [ ] Create Google Reviews best-practices doc for client (include keyword tips for responses)
• [ ] Review Further CRM account; propose lead scoring approach
• [ ] Verify Paper, Too ABM booking link and emails
• [ ] Schedule ABM working session with Mark
• [ ] Reschedule OKR meeting to next week

E-Shock (via Sebastian)

• [ ] Immediately replace current form platform with Gravity Forms on production site

Topic Notes

Conversion Tracking — Critical Fixes Needed

The Google Ads search campaign shows a strong 7% CTR on $300 spend (172 clicks, $2.98 CPC) but only 1 reported conversion. Two root causes identified:

1. WP Rocket / GCLID timing issue — WP Rocket was firing before the Google Click ID registered, causing missed conversions. Mark has already fixed this setting.
2. Broken SMTP / unreliable forms — 14 failed emails in the last 30 days. The current form platform (not Gravity Forms) is dropping submissions. E-Shock must replace forms immediately.

Phone calls are a major unconverted lead source. CallRail will be implemented to capture these. Rationale for delayed implementation: the team wanted the site backend stable first before adding tracking complexity.

Website & SEO Audit

Page-level UX issues identified:
- Staff pages: Hero images crop heads off. Fix: move H1 text below the image, remove gray overlay, allow full-color photo to display properly.
- Blog posts: Long unformatted text (e.g., lighting article). Fix: add bullets, bolding, shorter paragraphs. Two hero templates recommended — one with text overlay (non-person images), one with H1 below (person/face images).
- CTAs: Missing on key pages (e.g., no "Schedule a Visit" link on the visit info page). Fix: add prominent CTAs to all relevant pages.
- Accessibility: "Access Yes" plugin to be installed by Mark. Previous plugin broke the site. ADA compliance is a legal requirement; non-compliance creates lawsuit exposure.

Ad Strategy

• Budget: $2,000/month across all platforms
• Target demographic: 45-year-olds (adult children of memory care candidates), tight geographic radius around Boston/South Shore
• Current: One Google search campaign (underspending budget)
• Expanding to: Bing Ads, Spotify audio ads, Meta (awareness/remarketing), Google Display/Remarketing

Meta situation: Camel (client owner) made unauthorized changes — paused the agency-configured campaign and created a separate one. Mark will call her to establish that all changes must go through the agency.

Client Reporting

• Ask the client what metrics they want to see before building a dashboard
• Show wins selectively — e.g., security score F → A — without exposing raw audit data that prompts "why was it broken?" questions
• Avoid Pandora's box: showing everything creates unnecessary client anxiety and micromanagement
• Further CRM (industry-specific CRM for assisted living) — Karly will review and propose lead scoring approach

Axley Client — Legal Situation (Internal)

Former partner Egan is actively poaching the Axley client to his new firm, Egan Silver Elite Marketing. This violates a two-year payout agreement in which Egan agreed not to poach clients or interfere with the business in exchange for being paid out over two years.

Plan:
- A legal threat (civil and criminal) has already been sent to Egan's lawyer.
- Sebastian will call the Axley client directly — not to burn the relationship, but to explain that:
1. Egan is legally barred from taking on their account
2. A court order is likely to block the move
3. Getting caught in the litigation is a risk for them
4. Staying put for a few months while this resolves is the safer path

Paper, Too ABM Campaign

Separate client. Working session to be scheduled between Karly and Mark. Key pre-launch tasks:
- Verify booking link and email addresses in the flow
- List hygiene (check emails before sending, not after)
- Add customer filter so existing customers aren't enrolled
- Add LinkedIn connection verbiage to outreach sequence
- Set up reporting

Context & Background

• Cordwainer is a memory care facility in the South Shore/Boston area
• The site was recently rebuilt and pushed live; some legacy UX issues remain from the migration
• The client (Camel and her husband) tend to want to see everything in reports — requires careful scoping to avoid creating unnecessary questions
• Further CRM is a niche CRM built specifically for assisted living facilities

Related

• ^[3]
• ^[4]
• ^[5]
• ^[6]
• ^[7]
• ^[8]