Map & Fire

Map & Fire is a Los Angeles based research and brand consultancy. We help you own a unique space in your market with a mix of research, positioning, and messaging – so you can connect with more customers and grow with confidence.

View happy client testimonials at: https://mapandfire.com

Founder, Brand Strategist

HelloAdvisr LLC

Strategy Advisor

TVGla

• Led a team of 14 producers and was responsible for defining the department's vision and planning, managing overall budget, conducting individual reviews, setting goals and providing guidance on all project work.

• Provided strategic insights and oversaw production efforts for the agency's two largest Digital Agency of Record accounts, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, along with a wide array of campaigns for companies including Sony, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Hard Rock Cafe, Cinemax, A&E, History Channel, Dreamworks and Gruppo Campari.

• Unified and facilitated cross-training of a production department that had been historically split between a team of digital banner producers and web/app-focused producers. In addition, established dedicated production support for the company's quickly expanding social department.

• Worked to build strong relationships with all team members by providing personal support, empowering them to take on deeper responsibilities and challenging them to work on projects outside their immediate areas of expertise.

• Improved overall efficiency and expertise of the department through process refinement, mentorship and the introduction of improved project management and communication tools.

Executive Producer

• Played a key role in building the strategy and relationship that led to the agency's first major Digital Agency of Record account with Wheel of Fortune.

• Beyond production responsibilities, provided additional insight and value by helping to guide UX decisions, as well as input on creative and technical implementations.

• Led over 75 projects for clients such as Google, Sony, Universal Pictures, Mattel, and FOX. 

• Managed and oversaw between $1.5 - 2MM of project revenue annually, consistently delivering work under projected budgets.

Senior Producer

Better You

• Founding partner in startup, responsible for full UX, product management, and technical life cycle of project.

• Wrote business requirements, defined user experience, user flows, and created interactive wireframes for the entire site.

• Designed graphical UI elements for site and prototyped frontend experience.

• Managed developers to build out front and back end coding on a LAMP platform.

Co-Founder, Head of Product Development

Bird Branch

• Worked in a variety of roles including brand strategist, UX designer, creative lead, and developer on over 150 projects.

• Collaborated with a wide assortment of clients on projects ranging from the entertainment industry to consumer products to health care both in project lead and contractor roles.

• Extensive experience with both UI and graphic design.

• Developed front and backend code solutions utilizing existing frameworks as well as fully custom implementations. 

• Responsible for managing project budgets, tracking progress, and coordinating work both with clients and additional resources.

Founder, Strategy, UX, and Design Consultant

G4 Media

Senior Web Developer

Avacus Corporation

Web Developer

O'Neil Data

Unigraphics Solutions

Software Developer

Win with a brand built on research, not guesses | Founder Map & Fire 🔥, SmokeLadder | Contributor at Foundr Magazine

I use a mix of research, positioning, and messaging to help founders and marketing leaders connect with more customers and grow with confidence. 

My writing on strategy and research has been featured in Foundr Magazine and AdWeek. 

More about my background:

I've spent the last 20 years dreaming up and then bringing to life multiple startups as well as a wide range of digital projects. With every twist and turn of that journey there’s been a consistent thread of weaving together strategic problem solving, creative expression, and a curiosity to better understand how people think and make decisions. 

In the businesses I created or co-founded, my primary focus has always been on strategy and user experience. For others, I've worn lots of hats from Executive Producer, to Designer, to Copywriter, to Developer. I've also enjoyed an unofficial Account Services role where I carefully honed the craft of client therapy.

Over the years, I've collaborated with countless passionate small businesses along with several Fortune 500 brands including Google, Sony, Universal Pictures, Mattel, FOX, Dreamworks, CBS, A&E, Home Depot, Roland Keyboards, G4 TV, and the LA Times. 

When not doing mental gymnastics, I like spending time with my amazing wife and son, hiking, surfing, and watching things that make me laugh.

Clay Ostrom

Last week I got to do a guest lecture on brand strategy for an entrepreneurship class at UCLA…and something shocked me.


I’ve had the opportunity to do this for several years now and one of my favorite parts is at the end where the students share the business ideas they’re working on. We do a little impromptu work on their positioning and messaging.

I was braced and ready for the tidal wave of AI-centric ideas.

Instead I got:

- A practical car accessory 
- A community support group
- A place to meet up and train for sports
- A finance managing tool
- An eco-friendly pet waste cleanup product

There were 10 or so students who shared their ideas.

*Finally* at the very end there was one who wanted to use AI for creating ad content. 

But that was it. Everyone else was focused on classic, everyday human-centric needs...solved with classic human-centric solutions.

And there were some really creative ideas…I mean I was ready to hand over cash for the pet waste product on the spot.

Not sure what the takeaway here is other than AI feels like it’s everywhere, but it only touches a tiny fraction of what we do every day. 

Even this new generation of entrepreneurs who have every tech advancement at their fingertips isn’t viewing everything through a tech-only lens. 

So yeah, maybe there’s hope for keeping humans around for at least a little while longer. 😅

Founder Map & Fire 🔥 // SmokeLadder.com | Research + Positioning + Messaging | Contributor at Foundr Magazine

Teaching a class on brand strategy at UCLA.

Super excited to share this collaboration I did with Sara Stella Lattanzio and Diandra Escobar for The Workflow! 


In fact I was so stoked about it I couldn’t really nail down just *one* thing I liked so I had to do a full top-10 brain dump:

1. Got to work with two insanely cool people (Sara and Diandra). I’ve known Sara for a while but hadn’t met Diandra before this…they made the whole thing so easy and fun. This is why I keep coming back to LI – getting to build real relationships with smart, awesome, funny people. 🙌

2. The mission of their newsletter The Workflow is to kill off the fluff we get flooded with on LI and share real, practical workflows that people actually use. Could not be more aligned on this!

3. Nerding out about positioning and messaging. Give me an excuse to go deep on one of my favorite topics, I’m so there. 

4. Making positioning and messaging not feel so damn confusing. These topics are notoriously complex and I think when we can break stuff down into smaller pieces it makes it much easier to see how they all work together.

5. Bring a more quantified, data-focused view on these ideas. Again nerd alert! 🤓 But yeah I’m a big believer that navigating your brand’s strengths and weaknesses is much easier when you can compare and contrast with numbers…I’m weird that way.

6. Navigating the insane level of competition out there. The days of looking at 2-3 competitors is over. If you’re trying to position a brand you may need to look at 10-15 or more brands to get a real sense of what’s out there and where you can fit in..and stand out. Doing all that by hand is kinda nuts.

7. Figuring out what AI is good at…and where it falls short…waaay short. AI can’t come up with complex strategic outputs just on its own. Well, it can but they’ll be pure slop. This was a chance to share some ways I leverage AI to build up pieces of positioning and messaging in layers. 

8. Navigating prompts. Speaking of AI, this is also about philosophy on using AI. As much as we want to just feed in a 5000 word master prompt to solve all our problems, it just doesn’t work very well. Again, AI needs context and layers of information to produce good results…that’s what my workflow focused on.

9. A chance to make my own pov even sharper. This was a chance to take my process around positioning and messaging and look at it from a new angle, which is always a great way to make things stronger.

10. A chance to make my product stronger. I also have an app (SmokeLadder) that helps you work on and research positioning and messaging for brands. This workflow was a way to pull out a lite version of some of that functionality. Again, spread the love about these topics!

So, if you’re also a fan of ridding the LI feed of fluff and getting practical workflows on all kinds of marketing topics, you should definitely sign up for The Workflow immediately. Like right now. Stop reading, and do it. It's free! 🤩

Link down below. 👇

Brand Positioning and Messaging with The Workflow

Sure you could pay for a quick digital billboard in Times Square and post about it on LI…but come on, that’s super boring.


What’s *really* cool is getting a spot on the best, funniest B2B podcast in the world: Notorious B2B!

I’ve been a listener since day one and I knew if I was going to promote my product SmokeLadder somewhere this was the place. 

Tas Bober and Tim Davidson are hilarious together and I was glad I finally got to meet both of them at Drive this fall.

But yeah, after getting hundreds of people to sign up for SmokeLadder I decided it was time to pour a little gas on the fire.

And as the first official spot I’ve done for the brand it was a true honor to have Tas do the ad read. 

If you want an easier way to get deeper insights and do faster research for the brand strategy, positioning, and messaging of your brand, your clients, and the endless flow of competitors check out the app.

And if you want a weekly catch up on the latest B2B / LI drama while laughing your ass off definitely  listen to Notorious B2B.

Gwen Lafage 🐝

VP Marketing, Global Brand and Content @ Sinch 🚀 I B2b tech marketing leader, brand builder

Why do you need a strong brand? 
Because it is the only true differentiator that can’t be copied. And yes that’s also true for b2b companies. 

Think about it: products and features are all becoming the same. Sure you can be a little cheaper or a little better. But why not use your brand to win instead? Your brand is your future-proof competitive edge. 
A strong brand means recognition, credibility, trust, loyalty. 

And that’s why I’ve dedicated my career to building strong brands. BRAVE brands. Brands that connect with people. Brands that dare to be different. Brands with strong beliefs. Brand that build new categories and become their kings. 

I personally believe in the power of communication and creativity. I believe in doing things with passion and taking risks. I spent 10 years in the best Ad agencies in London and Paris, working on the world's leading consumer brands. In my late 20s, I traveled the world for one year. In my 30s, I opened an art gallery in San Francisco before going back to marketing and branding for B2B tech companies in Silicon Valley. In 2017 I moved to Sweden to open the European office of a b2b tech creative agency. 
In 2023 I came back to the US to continue to lead the brand growth of one of the fastest growing tech company in the world, Sinch. 

I’m now VP of Brand at Sinch, where I lead global brand strategy, though-leadership, communications, global events and creative direction for one of the fastest growing tech companies in the world. 

Bottom line: when I want to do something, I make it happen. 
I apply this ‘can-do-attitude’ to everything I do. 

I am always looking for new challenges, opportunities, and learnings, and I love networking and sharing knowledge with other professionals in my field.
Feel free to get in touch.

Specialties: B2B Marketing, Marketing Strategy, B2B SaaS Marketing, Data-driven Marketing, Growth Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Branding, Messaging, Content Marketing, Demand Generation, Account-Based Marketing, Engagement Marketing & Events, Project Management, Client Relationship Management, New Business, Campaign Management, Leadership, Operational Excellence.

Interests: B2B Marketing, Brands, Design, Technology, SAAS, Startups, Growth, Women in Tech, Green Tech, Sustainability, Meditation.

Executive member

The Pavilion is a private, invitation-only community of sales and marketing executives at growth-focused companies.

“Ok… I wasn’t sick-sick. I just needed a day.”

Someone at work said this recently, a little hesitantly, a little guiltily.

They had taken a mental health day but felt like they had to explain it.

And it made me pause.

Because how many of us still feel like we can’t say “I’m not okay today” unless we have a fever? 

We’ve made progress talking about mental health at work.
But actually living it still feels hard.

So let’s normalize:

✔️ Taking a day off because our brain is tired
✔️ Sleeping in because we worked late the night before
✔️Going to the gym at noon to burn off some steam 
✔️ Taking a 20min nap because we’re overwhelmed 
✔️Walking the dog at 3pm and touch grass to reconnect with ourselves 
✔️ Picking up the kids at 4.30

Working hard doesn’t have to mean working 9 to 5, or non-stop 8 to 8. 

Yes, I know this is a privilege of many white-collar jobs. But these jobs also blur boundaries in ways that quietly drain us.

Slack at night. Emails on weekends. Constant mental load.

Mental health isn’t a luxury. It’s a basic need.

What would it take for us to stop hiding it?

(👇Me on my way back from the gym at 1pm today, thinking about this post 😅)

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Let’s debunk a myth. 💥 
Just because you’re running TOFU ‘brand awareness’ in your ABM campaign
doesn’t mean you’re building your brand.

Brand awareness needs reach, and not just any reach.
It needs broad, consistent, emotionally resonant exposure across your entire potential market, not just the accounts showing intent this quarter.

That’s the core difference:
👉 Brand building is long-term.
 It creates memory and emotional preference before buyers enter a sales cycle.

👉 TOFU is short-term.
 It captures attention from people already shopping.

But too often, everyone, and many marketers blur the line.
They run a TOFU campaign, get a high CTR, and call it brand.
Clicks don’t equal preference. Awareness without memory doesn’t move markets.

So no, your TOFU ABM campaign isn’t brand. 
It’s performance marketing with a nice banner.
✅ TOFU = activation. CTR = attention.
✅ Brand = mental availability. Brand = memory.

Yes, we need both, but don’t confuse the two. 
Are we using “brand” too loosely in B2B?

Most marketers kill their own brands out of boredom!
And I say this with love… 
because I’m absolutely guilty of it. 😅

I come from creative agencies. 
I love new, fresh, bold ideas.
And creativity is essential. Because if you don’t cut through the noise, you’re invisible, right?

But here’s the true paradox:
Marketers get bored of their brand long before the market even notices it.
Inside the company, we see everything on repeat.
Outside, most people barely see it once.
And we’re the ones pushing to change it.

And the research is painfully clear 😬 
Brands grow through consistency and repetition,
not constant reinvention every time we get tired of our own assets. 

The truth is uncomfortable. The tension is so real for me!! 
What should we templatise so we can scale?
What should we reinvent so we can stand out?
Where do we stay consistent?
Where do we push creatively?

Honestly, I don’t have the perfect answer.
Just a belief that strong brands sit in the messy middle:
creative enough to stand out,
consistent enough to be remembered.
They’re built by surviving the tension between creativity and consistency.

Some days that inspires me.
Other days it drives me crazy.
But that’s the real work.

Anyone else feeling this too?
How do you balance this brand building paradox?

There’s no such thing as a “right” career path. 💥 
Julien Rio asked me on his Marketing Blueprint podcast how I got where I am and whether it was all part of a plan. The truth is… it wasn’t.

Was I ambitious? Yes always, but not always in the most conventional ways. 
I didn’t always chase titles.
I didn’t optimize for salary.
I didn't have a straight line up the corporate ladder.

I just followed what felt right at the time: the next adventure, the next challenge, the next thing that sparked my curiosity and my excitement.
Did I always make the smartest career move? No.
Some were probably rushed. Some only made sense years later.
My therapist would probably say I was sometimes running toward something, and sometimes running from something. 😅
Did I sometimes compare myself to peers with shinier titles and bigger salaries? Yes, and still do sometimes.

From business school, I was conditioned to think careers should go up, up, up 
(“It’s our moment” 😉  if you know, you know)

But what’s the top, really?

The pandemic pushes many off the regular ladder path.
AI is reshaping everything again, the “perfect path” is about to get rewritten anyway.

So let’s normalize non-linear careers? 
Let’s stop conditioning what success means?

The definition of success is personal. 
A job title, control over your schedule, more time with your family, being able to paint, giving back to your local community, 
or just a job you enjoy -- whatever you (we) decide! 

If you’re building your path right now, here’s a thought:
You don’t need to know exactly where you’re going, just what matters to you right now.

Check out our chat on career, but also leadership, burnout, and of course brand 😉 
Let me know your thoughts!

Some days it’s not just my computer that has 47 tabs open. 
It’s my brain!! 🧠 

My job is literally about communication (that's what Sinch does!)… 
and yet, I often struggle to turn down the noise enough to allow for meaningful communication.

Whether it’s building a brand, leading a team, or just managing the day to day, empathy, clarity, and rhythm are everything.
But we can’t inspire creativity or connection if our people (or our audiences) are overwhelmed. 

As leaders, our job is to make space, to slow the pace, to create environments where communication can breathe.

Between Slack messages, endless meetings, and the constant buzz of notifications, it’s easy to get caught up in reacting instead of reflecting. 
For myself. For my team.

That’s why I really liked this article by Rhett Power for Thrive Global 👇 
It explores how we can turn technology from a distraction into a tool
and find a professional rhythm that actually works. 
(And I happened to be quoted 😉 ) 

At Sinch, we see it every day. 
The best brands don’t shout louder, they listen better. 
It’s not just about personalization, it’s about contextualization.
It's about using technology to communicate in ways that feel relevant, not relentless.

The same applies to us as individuals. 
When we respect our own time and attention, communication (and creativity) starts to breathe again.

I talk the talk on this one, but I’m still learning to walk the talk!! 😅 

Finding rhythm in a world that never stops pinging is tough, 
but maybe the first step is just noticing when the noise takes over? 

How do you turn down the noise?

🎬 I declare Predictions 2026 season open!! 
Does our teaser video gives you "Succession" vibes too?? 
(So for 2026 are you feeling more Kendall or Shiv? 😉)

So you would probably guess it, at the core of our predictions, 
we have AI, AI, AI...🤖 💫 

But, not AI for the sake of AI.
Not chatbot hype.
But real, fluid, human-feeling conversations… everywhere.

✅ AI making conversation volume explode.
✅ AI agents getting smarter.
✅ Voice AI handling nuance.
✅ Inboxes becoming intelligent.
✅ Channels evolving by region.
✅ Trust becoming a design principle.
2026 is really shaping up to be the year conversational messaging finally becomes the default, 
and still, none of this replaces the human touch.

AI accelerates everything, but we don’t stop craving connection.
In fact, the more AI enters our lives, the more we expect brands to sound like people!

That’s the heart of our Sinch 2026 predictions 💛 

And I think what's true for our digital communications predictions is true across marketing too
> How do we scale conversations without losing authenticity?

(And now I'm curious:
When you watched our teaser video, did you feel the "Succession" energy too? 🤣  Is AI making you excited or nervous?)

taplio

The Battle

Clay Ostrom

Gwen Lafage 🐝

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taplio

The Battle

Clay Ostrom

Gwen Lafage 🐝

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Clay Ostrom's LinkedIn Performance

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