I don’t “do marketing.” I fix businesses that should be winning but aren’t.
Most people spend their careers trying to fit into the system. I’ve spent mine breaking it, rebuilding it, and proving that clarity beats complexity every single time. When perception is broken, the message is off, or the business has drifted into noise and confusion, I’m the one they call.
“I rebuild businesses that should be winning but aren’t. I cut the crap, find the real constraint, and reposition them to dominate.”
Long before DaneShakespear.com and Division VII existed, everything started with pure curiosity — breaking things, rebuilding them, and writing code before most people understood what a computer could do, all on machines with less memory than a modern watch.
It was the golden era of hacking: dial-up tones, command lines, and discovery through trial and error. I slipped into a university system just to see if I could.
“The movie WarGames was in theaters the same week the authorities showed up at my door –I was 13.”
It wasn’t a career path; it was instinct.
The spark that would shape everything later was already there.
In the 90s I started building counter-terror software and enterprise systems for airlines and air-cargo companies — real, mission-critical infrastructure where failure isn’t an option. That world trained me to think in systems, constraints, and consequences. If the design is wrong, people feel it immediately.
The work was fast, scrappy, and far ahead of what most airlines were ready for — and that’s exactly what made it interesting. It was the first time I saw an entire industry running on outdated assumptions and realized how much could be transformed with better software and real-time data.
From there, I moved into strategic marketing, and behavior-driven communication – technology & psychology, rebuilding perceptions online. I built software, ran design teams, engineered digital ecosystems, and helped organizations in crisis rebuild trust and momentum. Different industries, same core problem:
Typical reasons I get called in:
Rebuild. Repair. Rebrand. Reposition.
I rebuild, repair, rebrand, and reposition businesses, products, and services — then I engineer the systems that make those changes real.
That usually looks like:
“Simplicity scales faster than complexity ever will. We cut what doesn’t move the needle so what matters can finally do its job.”
When they’ve tried everything else and the needle still isn’t moving.
Companies don’t call me when things are smooth. They call when something is broken and no one inside can explain why. When they’ve hired agencies, consultants, and specialists… burned money on tactics… and still ended up exactly where they started.
I’ve learned to say no to companies that haven’t suffered through enough failed fixes to actually listen. Until they’ve hit rock bottom, they’re still trapped in self-diagnosis, self-prescription, and shiny-object syndrome — and you can’t help people who aren’t ready to hear the truth.
My job is to give them the one thing they can’t get internally:
Unbiased judgment and strategic clarity.
“You’re too close to see it. I’m not. My work starts where your internal perspective stops being useful.”
Strategy on one side. Engineering on the other.
Dane Shakespear & Associates is where I rebuild and reposition companies.
Division VII is where everything gets engineered, hardened, and brought to life online.
That includes:
“We make things real on the internet. No permission required.”
Clarity over complexity. Subtraction over more. Ownership over approval.
Success, for me, is not about more noise, more tactics, or more complexity. Simplicity scales. Success is subtraction:
I’ve watched too many entrepreneurs and executives collapse under weight they never needed to carry. Layers of complexity, conflicting advice, bloated offers, and branding that confuses more than it clarifies.
My work gives them a way out — a clearer path, a stronger identity, and a business built to win on their terms.
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Finding the signal in the noise.
I’m at my best when the situation is messy, high-stakes, and not responding to obvious fixes. When the owners feel stuck, when the brand is misunderstood, when the market is not seeing what’s really there.
If your business is stuck, overlooked, misunderstood, or underperforming, there’s a reason. You’re too close to see it. I’m not.
“I make what matters impossible to ignore — and I rebuild everything else until the market can’t look away.”
