PREPARED FOR WEBSITE REDESIGN PROPOSAL · AUGUST 2026
In Review 01 The Proposal 02 Competitive Landscape 03 Creative Concepts 04 Positioning 05 Positioning V2 06 Brand Exploration 07 Questions for Ernest 08 Call Notes 09 Appendix A
SECTION 01
IN REVIEW
ernestmorrow.com, ten pages, read end to end — the man is vivid on the page; the site around him is a 2022 template holding 2017 writing and 2023 offers together, and it shows.
In the manner of the site's own first line — stop seeking, start finding
Ten pages, read end to end on 17 August 2026: Home, About, the three Initiations, the course, Testimonials, Writings, Contact, Shop. Roughly nine thousand words of Ernest's own copy, twenty-five posts, nineteen tributes, fourteen photographs.
We read the copy as written, walked every link, opened the source — WordPress 7 · Divi · WooCommerce · LearnDash — and screenshotted each page at desktop width. Nothing here comes from a call. Everything quoted is on the site today.
The finding: the voice is finished; the container isn't. Ernest is already the brand — the site is a theme around him.
Part one
The Site — eight pages, one template
Select a page. Every page runs the same Divi pattern — centred logo and nav · black hero with a studio portrait · alternating white and black bands · a form · footer. That repetition is the one constant worth keeping and the constraint the redesign has to escape. Captured 17 Aug 2026 at 1280px.
Part two
Two eras — the writer (2016–17) and the teacher (2022–)
Writings and Teachings · Feb 2016 – May 2017
Twenty-five posts in sixteen months, then silence. Open letters (‘Dear Men’), an Elephant Journal piece, ‘What is Practical Enlightenment?’, ‘personhood’, prayer, forgiveness, conflict as martial art. First-person, tender, political when it needed to be, illustrated with quote-cards and stock. Three lorem-ipsum test posts from December 2015 are still live beneath them. This is the voice the tributes describe — and the current site does not link to it from anywhere but the nav.
The Left Hand Path · Nov 2022 – present
A rebuilt site: new studio portraits (uploaded November 2022), a new knot-monogram logo (January 2023), a new vocabulary — initiation, finders, the Left Hand Path — and a catalogue: three Initiations, one course, a Collective. Sharper and more sales-shaped: Why · What · How · How long · How much, an application ladder, a lead magnet, a cart. The two eras share an author and almost nothing else on the page. The redesign’s first job is to make them one body of work.
Part three
The Brand — two constants worth keeping, two seams worth closing
The refrain
‘Stop seeking. Start finding.’ opens the home page; ‘Find joy. Find beauty. Find love.’ closes the hero and returns on Contact. Three beats, plain words, already doing the work of a brand line. Nothing else on the site is repeated this deliberately.
The black-ground portrait
Every hero: a black field, Ernest barefoot, white type to the left. Repeated on six of the eight pages — the one truly recognisable move on the site, and the only place the design and the man agree.
Three sans-serifs and a serif logo
Lato, Open Sans and Source Sans Pro all load (Khula too). The wordmark is a navy serif either side of a knot monogram — and nothing else on the site is a serif, or navy. The logo belongs to a different site. It is also PNG only; no vector was found.
Names that drift
‘How Life Works – Individuals’ / ‘The Initiations’ / a link to /individuals/; ‘Left Hand Path Community’ in the nav, ‘Collective’ on the page; ‘Tributes’ at home, ‘Testimonials’ in the nav; ‘Courses’ with one course. Small things, but the site is asking a stranger to learn a private vocabulary. Say each thing one way.
Part four
The Voice — transcribe it, don't invent it
Part five
The Photography — the strongest asset, and the site half knows it
One studio session on black (November 2022) and one shoreline session at dusk carry the whole site. Barefoot, direct, unposed-looking; the black field is what makes the white type work. These are placed here exactly as published — never retouched. The redesign should give them more room and fewer effects. Beside them sit two Unsplash images and a beach couple — the only frames on the site that could belong to anyone.
Home hero · studio on black, Nov 2022 · the site's signature frame
Home, ‘Hi, I'm Ernest Morrow’ · shoreline at dusk · the second register
‘This Is Initiation’ · the most vulnerable frame on the site, currently a card
Part six
Design Audit
Part seven
Six things the redesign must not break
‘Stop seeking. Start finding.’
The line — and the three-beat cadence it belongs to. It goes on the door of the new site, at size.
The left-handedness — not the capital letters
‘The Left Hand Path’ is on every page and it is his; but on the call Ernest said he is retiring the capital-L phrase (and its occult association) for left-handed, lower-case, and personhood. Protect the idea; let the name change with him (Section 09).
The black-ground portraits
The site's one visual signature. Keep the shoot, keep the black, lose the effects and the diagonal cuts.
The honest ladder
Why · What · How · How long · How much — with ‘not so much that you can't afford it but enough to feel like you're making a serious commitment.’ Pricing stated as a relationship, not a table. Keep the candour; give it a form worth the words.
The tributes, named
Nineteen testimonials from named people with titles, photographs and URLs — Regena Thomashauer, Layla Martin, Peter Meyers, Shann Jones — two on video. Real proof, generously given. Keep it real; don't cut it to three stars and a first name.
The archive
Twenty-five posts, 2016–17, that the tributes are really describing. Currently unlinked and unread. Protect it by publishing it properly, as reading — not as a card grid.
Part eight
The next site is the leap
Everything a redesign needs is already on the page — the line, the man, the photographs, the offers, the proof, the archive. What is missing is a container that reads at the level of the writing: one voice, one architecture, one doorway. Why now, in Ernest's own account (Section 09): a book in fall 2027, a school cohort in late September, retreats in New York and Tucson, an institute taking shape — and people who want to share him telling him they can't. The body of work has outgrown a theme built for a single launch page.
One voice
One type system, one palette drawn from the photographs, the wordmark brought back into the family (or remade — Section 07).
One path, three doors
Individuals, couples and community as one path with three entrances — and ‘How to Apply’ as one ritual, not four forms and a scheduler.
The writer, restored
The 2016–17 archive linked from the story it belongs to, set as a reading experience, with room for what comes next.
Plumbing sized to the offer
Keep what sells (course checkout, membership); retire what doesn't (a two-item shop, ‘Account’ in the nav, a cart on every page).
SECTION 02
THE PROPOSAL
Draft, for Steve to set — one home for the path, built in phases: positioning and vocabulary first, then the architecture, then a visual system and a shoot, then a phase-one site that ships the top of every topic before the depth arrives.
Section 02
Sequence & constraints
Kickoff
TBC — September 2026 proposed, so the New York retreat can double as the photo day.
Hard deadline
None imposed. Real dates around it: retreat, New York · September 2026 — School of Becoming Human cohort · late September 2026 — retreat, Tucson · January 2027 — book publication · fall 2027 (editing complete within one to two months). The urgency is people wanting something they can share.
Gates
Positioning & vocabulary (written by Ernest) · Architecture (the home, the entry points, the pyramid) · Visual system (type, palette, photo treatment) · Phase-one site live. Reopening one reopens the ones after it.
Budget posture
To be discussed (see Fees). Phasing is designed so the first thing that ships is small and whole; depth, email gates and courses can be bought later.
What we hold constant
The path is the brand; Ernest is its human face and one-to-one door. His words, unparaphrased. His photographs, unretouched. “We don't leave people alone on their screens” — nothing purely asynchronous without a live cohort around it. One home: no second site in six months.
Section 02
Six phases — draft, durations for Steve to set
Sequenced from the call: words first, then the shape of the home, then how it looks, then a small whole site, then depth. Nothing after phase four blocks launch.
1 · Positioning & vocabulary
Written prompts to Ernest; his answers become Section 05. Settle the names: personhood · left-handed · the Institute · the School · what the site itself is called. Deliverable: a one-page foundation in his words.
2 · Architecture
Content inventory (site, book, school curriculum, retreats, tributes, 2016–17 essays) → the home and its rooms; the three entry points; the pyramid applied to each topic; what the site asks people to do, in order. Deliverable: sitemap + page-by-page content plan.
3 · Visual system & photography
Light brand guideline: type, palette drawn from the photographs, photo treatment, the role of illustration/icons, the wordmark (Section 07). A shoot — New York, September, if the calendar allows. Deliverable: the system, and the frames the site will be built from.
4 · Phase-one site
Design and build the top of the pyramid for every topic, the three doors, one application ritual, the tributes, the essays, the retreat and school pages. Deliverable: a live site that is small and whole.
5 · Depth & the list
Second-layer teaching per topic, the email gate, a cadence Ernest can keep (the book as corpus). Deliverable: pyramid layers two and three, live, topic by topic.
6 · Beyond the site
Optional, later: hybrid courses inside the “never alone on a screen” rule, school enrolment flows, the book launch runway toward fall 2027.
Section 02
The brand wheel
How the rings map to the phases: the inner ring is the foundation — phase 1, Ernest's own words, and the naming; the middle ring is the iconic assets — phase 3, type, palette, photographs, wordmark; the outer ring is activations — phases 4 to 6, the site itself, the list, the courses. Work moves outward; nothing in an outer ring is decided before the ring inside it.
Section 02
The calendar
Draft, pinned to the dates from the call. Weeks are placeholders until Steve sets the durations; the fixed points are the retreat, the cohort and the book.
September 2026 · weeks 1–3
Kickoff · positioning prompts out and back · architecture begins · New York retreat: photo day if we can make it.
October · weeks 4–7
Architecture signed off · visual system · wordmark decision · school cohort under way (its pages designed with real dates).
November – December · weeks 8–13
Phase-one site designed and built · copy set from the existing writing · launch before the holidays, or in early January ahead of Tucson.
2027 · after launch
Depth layers and the email list, topic by topic · Tucson retreat (January) · book runway toward fall 2027 · courses if wanted.
Section 02
Three scales
Small · The door
Phases 1–4: positioning, architecture, visual system, phase-one site. Every topic at the top of the pyramid; three entry points; one application ritual; tributes; essays; retreat and school pages. Existing photography, re-set. Something Ernest's people can share.
Medium · The house
Adds a photo shoot and the light brand guideline; pyramid layers two and three for the core topics; the email gate and a sending cadence built from the book; the 2016–17 archive properly published.
Large · The institute
Adds the school's enrolment and cohort flows, hybrid course infrastructure inside the “never alone on a screen” rule, retreat booking, and the book-launch runway (pre-sale, list, press page) toward fall 2027. Named for whatever the home turns out to be called.
Section 02
Fees & pricing
To be discussed.
SECTION 03
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
Not yet built. Asked for sites that inspire him, Ernest said “not very many” — he is “trying very hard to be left-handed in a world of right-handedness”. So the reference set is ours to propose: teachers, schools and institutes whose sites hold a body of work rather than sell a person. Draft to follow.
Section 03
The white space
Competitive Landscape
The Reference Ten — audits
Ten best-in-class titles, each audited across brand, design, photography, graphic elements, and positioning. Select a title.
Section 03
Positioning map —
Axis 1
Axis 2
Where the client sits
Section 03
Five patterns of the tier
01
02
03
04
05
SECTION 04
CREATIVE CONCEPTS
Section 04
Three territories
The unifying thread
SECTION 05
POSITIONING
Ernest's written words only — taken verbatim from ernestmorrow.com as it stands (17 Aug 2026). Provisional: where he writes again in answer to our prompts, his new writing leads and this section is replaced, not paraphrased. Note: on the August call he said the vocabulary is moving from “the Left Hand Path” to left-handed and personhood; that stays out of this section until he writes it (see Section 09).
Part one · the definition · source: ernestmorrow.com
The home-page hero, in full. It is the only line on the site that appears more than once (again on Contact) — the closest thing to a mission Ernest has already written down.
SHORT DESCRIPTION · ABOUT PAGE
“I am a mentor and lifelong student on the Left Hand Path.”
WEBSITE DESCRIPTION · HOME, ‘THIS IS INITIATION’
“You can go many places for good information. For therapy. For healing. This is not that. This is initiation. Into Life. Into Love. It changes everything from the inside out and the ground up. For good.”
Part two · purpose
The Foundation — the path of direct experience
THE POINT · ABOUT PAGE
“For nearly 30 years I have devoted myself to learning how to live from my heart in a world where everything changes and nothing we are taught to do to achieve happiness actually works.”
“I have devoted my life facilitating this direct encounter with each person's own unique humanity because it is the best solvent I know for all suffering and the only true path to intimacy and love.”
THE ROOT HYPOTHESIS · ABOUT PAGE
“Chasing fulfillment and satisfaction through control of external outcomes was never going to work.”
“The medicine of the Left Hand Path is brewed in the cauldron of our own direct experience. It is immediate, sudden, transformational and available to anyone willing to slow down and notice the truth of their own present moment experience.”
“Everything changes when we contact the reality of our own life. Everything.”
About · the sentence the whole site could be built around.
Part three · values
The Purpose
Ernest has not written a values list. What follows is the order in which his own words put things — the four nouns he returns to on every page — and two beliefs quoted as they stand. To be confirmed or rewritten by him.
THE STACK · IN THE ORDER THE SITE USES
01Freedom
“Together we create sustainable access to freedom, beauty and love in your daily life.” — Home
02Beauty
“The Left Hand Path Community is a weekly immersion into the beauty of reality.” — The Collective
03Truth
“True love requires TRUTH.” — How Love Works · “Finding our whole human hearts wide open through telling the truth” — The Collective
04Love
“Life works. Love works. Inner freedom and true intimacy are everywhere if you know where to look.” — Home
BELIEFS · VERBATIM
“There is no curriculum or script. This isn't religion or a spiritual practice. YOU are the beginning and the end of the story. Every human journey is unique. One size never fits all.”
Home · This Is Initiation
“Because the purpose of life is to experience the rapture of being alive and to share that in our relationships.”
How Life Works · Why? — repeated word for word on How Love Works
Part four · how it works
The Initiations — a mentorship container, one on one, in a community of finders
“A one on one mentorship container with Ernest Morrow. Expect to examine your relationship with reality and enjoy the freedom of ever more intimacy with your life and how it works.” — How Life Works · What?
“Regular Zoom or in person sessions (1x, 2x or 3x/week) plus ongoing text, email and voice support. Initiation is 24/7.” — How?
Three doors, one path
How Life Works (individuals) · How Love Works (couples) · The Left Hand Path Collective (community, two gatherings a week, Sep–Jun). Plus one course, Empowering Intimacy, that anyone can buy.
THE SIMPLE REASON TO SAY YES · IN HIS WORDS
“The path is apprenticeship to reality. Full stop. Not a story or a good idea or things you can't see, taste or touch. You get to prove it to yourself every step of the way.” — How Life Works
“On this path our own direct experience is the teacher and the only rule is that it works.”
Home · Hi, I'm Ernest Morrow
Part five · character & voice
Voice
“I have been called many things in my life – mentor, guide, coach, counselor, priest, teacher – but at heart I am simply my earnest Self. Passionate, curious, irreverent and mischievous.”
Home · Hi, I'm Ernest Morrow. And in the third person, on the course page: “Direct, irreverent, powerfully skilled and passionate.”
VOICE · REGISTERS FOUND ON THE SITE
The plain declaration
“Life works. Love works.” · “No levels. No steps. No secrets.” · “The path is apprenticeship to reality. Full stop.” Short sentences, three at a time.
The mischief
“Most people have taken more math classes than intimacy classes. And it shows.” · “He has made many mistakes. Proudly. So you don't have to.” · “So definitely don't sign up if you don't want life to change.”
The sacramental
“Today is a beautiful day to live and love and die!” · “I dedicate my life, my work, my song, to my students, my ancestors and all beings.” · “my font and summit of sacramental Christianity.”
WHAT IT IS NOT · IN HIS WORDS
Not therapy.
“This isn't couples therapy. Therapists, psychologists, coaches and teachers come to Ernest for their struggles in relationship.”
Not religion or a spiritual practice.
“This isn't religion or a spiritual practice. YOU are the beginning and the end of the story.”
Not a bypass.
“You are called to live your inner/spiritual life in the real world – you aren't looking for a bypass.”
Part six · differentiation
Points of Differentiation
Three claims the site already makes, in Ernest's words. Whether these are the three he would choose is a Section 08 question.
01Finding, not seeking
“For years I was a student and a teacher of the right hand path – the path of seeking improvement and healing. Until I discovered that there was never an end. We could be seeking and healing forever. So I threw it all out the window, took the road less traveled and traded seeking for finding.” — Home
02Direct experience, proven by the student
“The path is apprenticeship to reality … You get to prove it to yourself every step of the way.” — How Life Works · “No healing is required. No evolution. Nothing but your willingness to throw all you thought you knew out the window.”
03The teachers' teacher
“Therapists, psychologists, coaches and teachers come to Ernest for their struggles in relationship.” — Empowering Intimacy · Borne out by who the tributes are from: Regena Thomashauer, Layla Martin, Peter Meyers, Lauren Harkness, Ann Wilson — teachers, founders, coaches.
SECTION 06
POSITIONING V2
A second pass at the same truths, on a proven skeleton — brand foundation, equity, beliefs, points of differentiation, values, character, voice, and the reader.
Brand foundation
Brand Foundation
1.Brand equity
2.Values
3.Beliefs
4.Character
5.Points of differentiation
Brand foundation
Welcome to
Brand foundation
Brand Equity
01PurposeWhy we exist
02MissionWhat we do
03VisionWhere we are going
Brand foundation
Brand Beliefs
Brand foundation
POD
Brand foundation
Values
Brand foundation
Our Character
Brand foundation
Tone of Voice
+
+
+
Brand foundation · voice
We are,not
We are,not
We are,not
We are,not
We are,not
Character: our target
Character: our target
THEIR MINDSET
THEIR LIFESTYLE
SECTION 07
BRAND EXPLORATION
Working studies toward the system. Nothing here is a recommendation yet — it is the range, laid out at one scale so the eye can do the choosing.
The wordmark
Logo
The current mark, then 0 typographic variations of it — same case, same tracking, same scale. All true vectors. Scroll.
Shortlist Tick Ernest or Steve beside any option below — it appears here.
Ernest
— nothing yet —
Steve
— nothing yet —
00 · CurrentLogo-2023-2.png from the site header · navy serif wordmark either side of a knot monogram · PNG only, no vector found — ask Ernest for the source file
— run tools/gen_wordmarks.py to populate —
ALL VARIATIONS SET IN OPEN-LICENSE WEB FONTS (SIL OFL) · TRUE VECTOR · FREE TO USE IN THE FINAL MARK
SECTION 08
QUESTIONS FOR ERNEST
The decisions only Ernest can make — raised by reading the site, not by guessing at him. Draft: to be finished with him.
Section 08 · what stays open, on purpose
The central tension — a therapist who says ‘this is not that’
“You can go many places for good information. For therapy. For healing. This is not that.”
Ernest is a therapist, coach and spiritual teacher — and his site spends its first screen refusing all three frames. That refusal is the brand's engine and the redesign's hardest brief: how does a site signal seriousness and safety without borrowing the visual language of the clinic, the coaching funnel or the retreat centre? Everything below follows from it.
‘The Left Hand Path’ — answered on the call
Ernest is retiring the capital-letter phrase for left-handed and personhood; the site will follow the book. Still open: what the home is called — the Institute, the path of personhood, the School of Becoming Human, or Ernest Morrow — and how those names nest.
Candour vs. conversion
‘Not so much that you can't afford it’ beside a $2,000-value stack and three Enroll buttons. Both are Ernest; they don't yet share a page well. Which register leads?
The writer and the teacher
Twenty-five essays from 2016–17 that the current site neither links nor continues. Does the new site have a writing life — and does the old writing come with it as it stands?
Still open.
Which door goes first. One-on-one has been the only doorway for years; Ernest would rather the retreat or the school be the entry. And the ratio he was asked for on the call — of visitors he hopes become clients, retreat-goers, students, readers — is not yet answered.
Section 08
Six questions for Ernest
01What is the site for — first?
Applications for one-on-one work, retreat sign-ups, the school cohort, or a place to read. The current site tries to be everything in equal weight; on the call you leaned toward the retreat or the school as the entry. Which one is first?
02Whose words are these, and will you write again?
Section 05 assumes the site copy is yours. If it is, we protect it; if some of it was written for you, tell us which. And: are you willing to answer written prompts so positioning is in your hand, not ours?
03Which offers are live, and at what price?
Three Initiations (‘let's have a conversation’), Empowering Intimacy ($222), the Collective ($297/$197/$97 a month), the ‘Intimacy Key Initiation’ (no price), a free guide, retreats. What ships in the new site on day one?
04What is the home called — and does the knot monogram come with it?
If the brand is the path rather than the man, the wordmark may not be your name. The Institute, the path of personhood, the School of Becoming Human, ernestmorrow.com — which is the address, and which are rooms? The 2023 knot mark exists only as a PNG; Section 07 will show the range.
05Do you want to stay on WordPress — and what must keep working?
Divi + WooCommerce + LearnDash + FooEvents is a lot of machinery for two products and four forms. Contact and inquiries come to you directly; the list is in Mailchimp. Who maintains it, what has to survive (course access, Stripe, the list), and what could go?
06Is there more photography — and would you shoot again?
Fourteen frames from two sessions carry the site. A new site will want the Collective, the coastline and Victoria in the same register.
NEXT · WRITTEN POSITIONING PROMPTS TO ERNEST · THE BOOK MANUSCRIPT + SCHOOL CURRICULUM AS CONTENT CORPUS · WORDPRESS, MAILCHIMP + ANALYTICS ACCESS · A PHOTOGRAPHER FOR NEW YORK IN SEPTEMBER · THE COMPETITIVE SET FOR SECTION 03
Section 08
What we need from Ernest
The schedule holds only if both sides carry their half. Draft — dates and gates land once Section 02 is set.
Before kickoff.
WordPress admin and hosting access · Mailchimp · analytics (if any) · the original photographs from both shoots, full resolution · the logo as vector if it exists · the course files and the free guide · a list of every live offer with its price · the book manuscript and the School of Becoming Human curriculum, as the content corpus.
Week one.
Written answers to the positioning prompts — in your own words, at whatever length. One working session to walk the current site together and hear what you would keep.
Collaborative implementation.
A named person (you, or someone you trust) who can approve copy and test checkout, course access and the application flow before launch.
Content on schedule.
Any new copy (or the decision to keep the current copy as is) by the date we set in Section 02, so design isn't waiting on words.
48-hour feedback during design weeks.
Design decisions compound; a two-day turnaround keeps the calendar honest and the fee where it was quoted.
Decisions that stay decided.
Positioning · architecture · visual system — three gates. Reopening one reopens the ones after it.
SECTION 09
CALL NOTES
Summaries of the conversations that shape this proposal. These are paraphrase, kept apart on purpose: nothing here is positioning, and nothing here outranks what Ernest writes down.
Call 01 · August 2026 (date TBC) · Steve, Ernest, Court · attribution inferred from an unlabelled transcript
The site as afterthought — and the path as the brand
A discovery conversation. Ernest on how he relates to the current site and where the work is going (a book, a school, retreats, an institute); Steve on how a site could hold all of it without being rebuilt every six months. The mood: relief. Ernest, on centring the methodology rather than himself: “That feels like a relief. Say this out loud.”
The site, in Ernest's words
“I forget most of the time that I even have a website.” It was built years ago by “some dude designer guy”; it has been “probably intentionally standoffish”. In the last two weeks several people have told him, in effect, your website sucks — “I don't know how to share you, Ernest, because your website sucks.” His clients come anyway: he is “really good at the first call” and people “rep him hard”. Word of mouth from one-on-one work has been the only doorway for years.
The vocabulary is changing
Ernest is stepping away from “the Left Hand Path” (capital L·H·P, tantric roots, the occult association — “I am not willing to be Aleister Crowley 2026”) toward left-handed, lower-case: the book's subtitle is “a left-handed path to a life worth living and a world worth living in”, and the word he keeps returning to is personhood — “the path of personhood”. Steve: an unnecessary obstacle, gone.
Brand the path, not the man
Steve's proposal, Ernest's yes: build the brand of the methodology (the IDEO / design-thinking analogy), so the site can lead with questions and propositions rather than credentials. Ernest: “I can speak so boldly about the path of personhood and confidently and mean every word of it … so different than the Ernest Morrow celebrity teacher vibe.” Not erasing himself — “positioning myself as a servant of the path”, and “the primary one-to-one entry point”.
One home for everything
Nobody wants another site in six months. The site should be the home for the book (fall 2027), the School of Becoming Human (a cohort launching late September 2026), the retreats (New York in September; Tucson in January), the emerging Institute (which may house the retreats and the school), a page about Ernest, and the one-on-one door. Three entry points: one-to-one (Ernest), group (retreats, school), self-guided (reading, the book).
The content pyramid
Steve's answer to “how much is enough?”: three levels of depth per concept — a headline and two paragraphs · a click into the fuller teaching (video, long-form, illustration) · a third click to engage (sign up, homework, a question to take into your life). An email gate between two and three builds a list by topic. Phase one ships only the top layer for every topic; depth is added later without blocking launch.
What matters, in proportion
Steve's rule of thumb: the words are perhaps a tenth of whether a site reads as professional; the rest is layout and — above all — imagery. Cobbled-together photographs are the usual reason a site looks like “a guy who threw a bunch of photos on a template”. A light brand guideline (photo treatment, role of illustration or icons, type hierarchy) and a new shoot — possibly at the New York retreat in September — are on the table.
Call 01 · what was decided, what was learned, what stays open
Decisions, facts, open items, next steps
DECIDED · OR AS GOOD AS
Methodology first, Ernest as the human face
The site centres the path; Ernest is its one-to-one door and “servant”, not the celebrity.
“Left Hand Path” retires; “left-handed” and “personhood” arrive
Ernest's call, already made for the book. Enters Section 05 once he writes it.
One home, phased
Top of the pyramid for every topic first; depth, email gates, courses later.
“We don't leave people alone on their screens. Ever.”
Ernest's rule for anything digital: asynchronous only inside a live cohort. Steve's Esther precedent (four $119 courses, built in 3–4 months) fits as a later phase — levels unlocked by showing up in person.
OPEN · AND NEXT
Open — then next
The ratio of intended actions (client · retreat · school · read) · what the home is called · sites that inspire him (“not very many”) · a photographer in New York · a writing cadence he can keep. Next: Steve and Court shape this proposal from the notes for Ernest to respond to.
FACTS & DATES
Book
Editing done in the next month or two; publication fall 2027. Working vocabulary: personhood · a left-handed path.
School of Becoming Human
Curriculum written; maps to the book; next cohort late September 2026. Ernest has considered recording it for a hybrid format.
Retreats
Started ~2 years ago. New York, September 2026 · Tucson, January 2027. A weekly group of retreat alumni already meets; many will join the school cohort.
Communication today
Contact form and inquiries go straight to Ernest; the list is in Mailchimp. No newsletter in 7–8 years; blog never updated; Facebook was the blog 2016–2020, “really successful”. No recent video or podcast.
Preferred pathway
Ernest would rather the retreat or the school be the entry and one-on-one not be the gatekeeper — “that's not the way it has been”.
Call 01 · spoken, not written — quoted for tone, not for positioning
Ernest, on the call
01“I forget most of the time that I even have a website.”
And: “it's always been a little, probably intentionally, standoffish.”
02“I'm trying very hard to be left-handed in a world of right-handedness, and I know that my website right now sucks for that.”
On why he could name so few sites that inspire him.
03“I am maintaining that it's left-handed — so I've put the -ed in there, which seems to soften it for people.”
The rename, in one sentence. “Not capital L, capital H, capital P — just the left-handed approach.”
04“I can speak so boldly about the path of personhood and confidently and mean every word of it.”
“Which is so different than the Ernest Morrow celebrity teacher vibe.” Then: “Not about erasing myself … positioning myself as a servant of the path.”
05“We just don't leave people alone on their screens. Ever.”
“It's about humanity, it's about each other … what is possible when we gather is essential and we can't lose that.” On courses, and on the AI wave: “who are we and what do we do? … we're in bodies and we gather.”
06“I don't know how to share you, Ernest, because your website sucks.”
What people have told him in the last two weeks — the urgency, in their words rather than his.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
Terms, payment schedule and intellectual property — the plain-language version, for review together.
Appendix
Terms & conditions
Boilerplate for review — not legal advice; final language to be confirmed by both parties
01 · Engagement
Steve Tam ("Designer") is engaged by Ernest Morrow ("Client") to deliver the brand and design program described in this proposal, at the tier selected in writing at kickoff. The project commences Monday, July 20, 2026 and runs the twelve-week schedule herein, subject to the dependencies listed in "What We Need From Sam."
02 · Payment schedule
Fees are invoiced as follows: the first payment upon kickoff (July 20); the second payment at the four-week mark (week of August 17); and monthly thereafter through project close (weeks of September 14 and October 12). Installment amounts per the selected tier, agreed in writing before kickoff. Invoices are payable within 15 days.
03 · Intellectual property
Upon receipt of payment for the relevant phase, all work product created for this engagement — including the wordmark, design system, data-visualization language, layouts, guidelines and production files — is assigned in full to Client. Client owns all project IP. Designer retains the right to display the work in portfolios and case studies, and retains ownership of pre-existing tools, processes and know-how used to create the work.
04 · Third-party materials
Typeface licenses, stock assets and similar third-party materials are licensed in Client's name and billed at cost with Client's prior approval. Client is responsible for maintaining such licenses beyond the engagement.
05 · Revisions & approvals
Each phase includes up to two rounds of revisions before its gate. Approval at a gate (positioning 8/7, design system 8/28, final files 9/4) locks that work; reopening locked decisions, or requests beyond the stated scope, are handled as change orders that may adjust schedule and fees, agreed before work proceeds.
06 · Client responsibilities
Client will provide the materials, access, decisions and feedback described in "What We Need" on the stated schedule. Delays in Client dependencies extend deadlines day-for-day and may shift the print date, which Designer will flag in writing as it occurs.
07 · Exclusions
Unless expressly included in the selected tier, this engagement excludes editorial writing, photography production, distribution and go-to-market services, ongoing production of Volumes 8+, print and merch production costs (billed directly by vendors to Client), and website hosting fees.
08 · Termination
Either party may terminate with 14 days' written notice. Client pays for all work performed and expenses committed through the termination date; completed work product transfers to Client per Section 03 upon payment.
09 · Warranties & liability
Designer warrants the work is original to the best of their knowledge. Neither party is liable for indirect or consequential damages; total liability is capped at fees paid under this agreement.
10 · General
Designer acts as an independent contractor. Both parties will keep non-public information confidential. This document plus the accepted tier constitutes the agreement; amendments in writing. Governing law: State of [___].
