“Wade professionally led fun discovery workshops to help us identify needs, then helped to build strategies to deliver against customer needs and our business goals. He has an amazing ability to bring fresh new thinking, and his contributions led to passionate customers and incredible performance results. He also provided ongoing industry insights and detailed post campaign analysis to inform future strategies to keep us on the innovative edge. Wade always shows up as a team player and friend, is enthusiastic and full of energy and creativity; I truly admire his collaborative spirit with me, my team, and everyone at Starbucks!!!”

KEVIN RIFFLE

Group Manager, Games and Mass Offers, Marketing at Starbucks

“Wade has a system for honing in on the most important messaging you can be putting out to your potential customers. While you're in the weeds building a product, it's so easy to think our widget factory makes twice the widgets in half the time! But you need Wade to help you understand that your customers don't care about that, they have their own aspirations and worries. They want to be the most reliable widget polisher in town, or they want to avoid an embarrassing widget failures like they had last year. Messaging is better built around those things.”

CHRIS COYIER

Co-Founder at CodePen

“Wade was great to work with while finalizing my company's brand script. I had an idea of the direction I wanted to go towards, but Wade really helped me take it to the next level. He was great at making sure I understood each step, and amazing at offering other suggestions and helping me really capture the total essence of what I was trying to say. The process was painless, and I left feeling more and more sure in my ability to relay my message effectively and efficiently after each session. I have the upmost confidence now that our brand script is great and have Wade and his expertise to thank for that.”

CODIE CARTWRIGHT

Co-Owner & Inventor at Secret Swig

“I am thrilled to wholeheartedly recommend Wade Sugiyama and his new company, Guide The Hero. Having had the pleasure of working alongside Wade at Merkle for over five years, I witnessed firsthand his exceptional talent in helping major brands like Starbucks, KFC, and Samsung create groundbreaking loyalty programs that drive outstanding brand outcomes.

Wade's expertise lies in empowering sales and marketing teams to craft compelling stories that maximize their chances of success. His remarkable ability to transform complex ideas into engaging and persuasive narratives consistently gives teams the edge they need during their most critical moments. With Wade, you can be confident that your team will be equipped with the strategic storytelling prowess to achieve exceptional results.”

JAMES RIESS

Senior Vice President General Manager, Loyalty & Messaging at Merkle

“Wade is the ultimate partner. He is an expert collaborator and supercommunicator who consistently brings a thoughtful, fresh and focused perspective. He elevates the level of work and, in doing so, lifts up everyone around him, changing the expectation and giving confidence to clients and colleagues alike to step up and shine in their areas of expertise. Not only did he create these incredible peak moments for our clients by planning and executing insightful and valuable workshops that allowed them to better communicate with their customers, offering thought provoking ways to solve their most pressing challenges, or even bringing sweet treats to every meeting, he also infused every interaction with colleagues with the same level of joy, passion, optimism and focus. He's on an endless search for new sources of inspiration, which guarantees that his thinking is fresh and innovative, hyper-relevant to his target audience. He's an absolute gem of a human being, and a trustworthy and valuable business partner - he really shows up for people.”

LISE GOECKNER

Vice President, Group Account Director at Merkle