Kandr Solutions

YOUR BUSINESS IS FULL OFB.S.Business Strategy.

Hiring. Culture. Marketing. Sales. Operations.
Different challenges. Same bigger picture.

We call B.S. on business as usual.

See What We Mean
Classical marble sculpture with a vivid green brushstroke across its eyes, surrounded by architectural shapes.

Same
Problems
Need Bolder
Solutions.

01

CHOOSE YOUR B.S.

What's getting in the way?
Select an area to explore the problems we help solve.

A full pipeline is not a hiring strategy.

Better hiring starts with knowing what success looks like, not simply filling open positions. We help rethink hiring processes, improve selection, and align the people you bring in with the business you're building.

02

THE PROBLEM ISN'T ALWAYS
WHERE IT SHOWS UP.

Hiring problems might be culture problems. Sales problems might be marketing problems. And operational problems might start with leadership.

That's why we look at the whole picture.

Before recommending another tool, campaign, or initiative, we figure out what's actually happening. Then we connect the right people, ideas, and resources to make things better.

Hiring connects your culture to the people who will move the business forward.

It's all
connected.

03

WHAT WE ACTUALLY DO.

BIG PICTURE THINKING. ROLLED-UP SLEEVES.

Some businesses need a plan. Others need someone to build it, fix it, or make it work.

We do both.

Strategy & Growth

From business planning and new service development to pricing, positioning, and go-to-market execution, we turn opportunities into actionable plans.

Examples of work
  • Business planning and growth strategies
  • Go-to-market plans and new service launches
  • Pricing strategies, margin analysis, and financial planning
  • Market research, positioning, and competitive analysis
  • Product and software development and commercialization
  • Strategic partnerships and business development

Brand, Marketing & Design

Strategy meets creative execution. We build brands, design experiences, create content, and develop campaigns that connect with people and drive business results.

Examples of work
  • Branding, visual identity, and graphic design
  • Website design and development
  • Digital, print, retail, and recruitment campaigns
  • Marketing collateral, presentations, and sales materials
  • Content strategy and creation, SEO, and social media
  • Photography, video, illustration, and creative production

People, Culture & Sales

Better performance starts with better people, processes, and leadership. We strengthen how organizations hire, sell, develop teams, and serve customers.

Examples of work
  • Sales coaching, training, and performance management
  • Sales processes, playbooks, and pipeline development
  • Proposals, presentations, and sales enablement
  • Hiring workflows, assessments, and onboarding
  • Organizational culture assessments and workforce strategy
  • Leadership development and employee engagement

Systems & Operations

Good ideas need structure and accountability. We connect people, processes, technology, and performance so the business actually works better.

Examples of work
  • EOS Integrator leadership and operating rhythms
  • Strategic priorities, Rocks, and accountability systems
  • CRM/ATS evaluation, implementation, and process improvement
  • KPI dashboards, scorecards, and performance reporting
  • Workflow design, documentation, and automation
  • Operational restructuring and cross-functional execution
04

NOT JUST IDEAS.
ACTUAL WORK.

A few examples of the problems we've helped solve and the things we've helped build.

BRAND & GROWTH

Building a brand that does more than look good.

Reimagined Award Staffing's brand and brought it to life through nationally recognized creative work, recruitment campaigns, employee storytelling, and sales tools.

Lync culture assessment website and visual candidate alignment report

PEOPLE & PRODUCT INNOVATION

Making the invisible measurable.

Developed a culture assessment that connects how organizations actually work with how people work best.

Scattered green and cream blocks aligned into a clear forward arrow

SYSTEMS & OPERATIONS

More activity wasn't the answer.

Restructured sales, recruiting, and operational processes to prioritize quality over volume, improve profitability, and drive measurable performance.

05

LESS TALK.
MORE TRACTION.

No unnecessary complexity.
No recommendations that collect dust.

  1. Find the friction.

    We ask questions, challenge assumptions, and get to the real issue instead of treating symptoms.

  2. Focus on what matters.

    We identify opportunities, establish priorities, and build a practical plan that makes sense for your business.

  3. Make it happen.

    We help put the plan into action, measure progress, and make adjustments along the way.

06
Dr. Derek Freese, founder of Kandr Solutions
07

THE NAME'S
KANDR FOR A
REASON.

Candor. Without the sugarcoating.

I'm Dr. Derek Freese, Ed.D., founder of Kandr Solutions.

I've spent my career working across marketing, sales, recruiting, operations, and business leadership. I've built brands, developed new services, designed business tools, improved processes, and led teams responsible for real business results.

I've also learned that the problem a business thinks it has isn't always the one holding it back. That's why I started Kandr.

To bring honest perspective, creative thinking, and hands-on experience to businesses that want to move forward.

I'll tell you what I think. I'll explain why. And when there's work to do, I'll roll up my sleeves.

08

LET'S TALK B.S.

Something isn't working the way it should?

Maybe you know exactly what needs fixing. Maybe you just know something could be better. Either way, let's talk.

No pitch deck. No pressure.
Just an honest conversation
about your business.

Let's talk B.S.

What's getting in the way of your next step?

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA.

BRAND & GROWTH

Building a brand that does more than look good.

THE CHALLENGE

A strong brand needs to do more than look professional. It needs to communicate a clear identity, connect with the right audiences, and help the business grow.

At Award Staffing, the opportunity was to create a more distinctive, consistent brand experience across marketing, recruiting, sales, and client relationships.

WHAT WE DID

Led the creative direction and execution of an integrated brand and marketing transformation, connecting strategy, storytelling, design, and business development.

The work included:

Brand Identity & Creative Direction

Reimagined Award Staffing's visual identity and coordinated a multi-channel brand rollout across digital, print, recruitment marketing, and sales communications.

Integrated Recruitment Campaigns

Created nationally recognized recruitment campaigns combining bold creative, targeted messaging, and coordinated print and digital execution.

Employee Storytelling

Developed the Humanizing Employees content campaign, bringing employee experiences and authentic stories into the brand's communications.

Sales Enablement & Print Marketing

Designed and wrote nationally recognized marketing collateral, creating consistent, practical materials that supported sales conversations and business development.

Client Case Studies & Thought Leadership

Developed Highlighting What Matters, a client-focused case study translating a real business experience into an engaging story and useful sales asset.

WHAT CHANGED

The work established a more cohesive brand presence across customer and candidate touchpoints, connecting creative execution with recruitment, sales, and business development priorities.

Multiple initiatives earned national recognition for creative and marketing excellence.

Beyond visual consistency, the broader marketing and growth efforts contributed to stronger demand generation, clearer messaging, and improved commercial performance.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Good design gets attention. Good strategy gives it purpose.

This wasn't just a rebrand. It was a connected approach to building a recognizable brand, communicating its value, supporting sales, and attracting the right people.

Brand Strategy. Creative Direction. Graphic Design. Copywriting. Digital Marketing. Content Development. Sales Enablement.

Different disciplines. One business objective.

PEOPLE & PRODUCT INNOVATION

Making the invisible measurable.

THE CHALLENGE

Culture influences how people work, collaborate, and perform. Yet hiring decisions often rely on subjective impressions of what makes someone a good fit.

How do you make something as intangible as culture visible, measurable, and useful?

WHAT WE DID

Developed Lync (Leveraging Your Norms & Culture) for Award Staffing, translating organizational culture into a structured assessment experience.

The work spanned research, assessment design, organizational pilots, product development, visual reporting, positioning, and sales enablement.

BEYOND THE PRODUCT

The Lync initiative also included How to Speak About Your Culture, a companion workbook designed to help leaders translate organizational culture into meaningful conversations and practical action.

Through guided exercises, the workbook explores how organizations communicate, make decisions, and handle conflict, helping leaders develop an honest culture statement they can apply to hiring, onboarding, and team alignment.

Together, the assessment and workbook demonstrate how research, product development, design, education, and business strategy can work together.

WHAT CHANGED

Lync made it possible to compare organizational working norms with individual preferences, giving hiring teams a more tangible way to discuss alignment, differences, and expectations.

The supporting workbook provided a practical method for translating those insights into language and everyday hiring conversations.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

More than a product. A practical solution built around a real business problem.

Research. Strategy. Product Development. Creative Design. Education. Execution.

That's the kind of work we love doing.

Explore Lync Preview the Workbook

BUSINESS SYSTEMS & TRANSFORMATION

More activity wasn't the answer.

THE CHALLENGE

More calls. More hiring. More meetings. More activity.

But more doesn't always mean better.

Within a multi-location workforce services business, traditional volume-driven processes had created unnecessary complexity, inconsistent execution, and a disconnect between daily activity and meaningful business results.

The challenge wasn't getting people to do more. It was fundamentally changing how the business defined, measured, and achieved success.

WHAT WE DID

Helped lead a comprehensive business transformation, restructuring sales, recruiting, operational processes, performance management, and supporting technology around quality and measurable outcomes.

Sales Strategy & Commercial Performance

Shifted from activity-driven selling toward more intentional business development, emphasizing qualified opportunities, consultative selling, account profitability, pricing discipline, pipeline conversion, and long-term client value.

Recruiting & Workforce Quality

Redesigned recruiting, qualification, selection, and onboarding processes to prioritize candidate readiness, placement quality, retention, and successful employment outcomes rather than simply maximizing interviews, submissions, or placements.

Operational Systems & Process Redesign

Challenged longstanding workflows, eliminated unnecessary steps, modernized technology, and improved coordination between sales, recruiting, operations, and client service.

Performance Management & Accountability

Rebuilt KPI frameworks, dashboards, scorecards, and management routines to measure what mattered: profitability, conversion, productivity, quality, retention, and customer experience.

Organizational Leadership & Change

Aligned people, departments, and business priorities around a more disciplined operating model, establishing clearer expectations, stronger accountability, and more consistent execution.

WHAT CHANGED

The transformation contributed to meaningful improvements across business performance.

The broader leadership effort also contributed to revenue growth, stronger financial discipline, better visibility into performance, and a more consistent customer and employee experience.

These outcomes reflect multiple improvement initiatives across the business, not a single isolated project.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Being busy isn't the same as being effective.

Real business transformation isn't about adding more meetings, metrics, technology, or activity.

It's about challenging the way things have always been done, understanding what actually drives performance, and rebuilding the business around better outcomes.

Business Strategy. Sales Transformation. Process Redesign. Financial Performance. Technology. People Leadership. Change Management.

Less wasted effort. More meaningful results.