CHANGE HOW COMMUNICATIONS IS

Understood & Activated IN YOUR COMPANY

Communications advisory services for senior-level leaders whose teams are capable of driving the business… and are tired of having to prove it.

CHANGE HOW COMMUNICATIONS IS Understood & Activated IN YOUR COMPANY

Communications advisory services for senior-level leaders whose teams are capable of driving the business… and are tired of having to prove it.

You’re Not Underperforming. You’re Being Underused.

There’s a difference between being looped into a decision and being part of making it.

This isn’t about doing more.It’s about being engaged differently.

You and your team have the capability

Most Communications teams are experienced. Thoughtful. Doing the work.

Yet they’re:

Brought in after the decision instead of before
Treated like great executors not exceptional advisors
Asked to support decisions instead of co-authoring them

Piling on more explanation documents, more content, more frameworks, more work? That won’t fix the problem.

So what will?

Change how Communications is understood and activated, and everything else follows.

That “everything else” looks like:

You’re brought into decisions earlier
You co-author decisions, not just support them
You have clear priorities and less reactive work
Your team is trusted to advise, not just execute
You have increased investment in the function, including budget and headcount

You already know the difference between being “looped in” and being expected in the room. It’s time the business knew it too.

This Is Usually Where It Starts

Something needs to change, but you can’t quite name it yet.
Or you’ve been asked to deliver strategy but need a thought partner to build it with.

Your team may be capable, but still primarily operating as executors.
Or you don’t want to think through high-stakes decisions alone anymore

That is where I come in.

You don’t have to figure this out in your head alone.

The best thinking happens in conversation, not in a vacuum. I work alongside you, challenging and shaping how you think through priorities, decisions, and tradeoffs.

It’s about shifting from doing more work to making what you’re already doing count for more, and adjusting focus when you need to, with full backing from leadership.

How We Can Work Together

Sometimes the shift starts with you. Sometimes it starts with your team.

Either way, the goal is the same:
Changing how Communications is understood, valued, and treated inside the business.

Communications Business Advisor Strategy & Activation
For communications leaders ready to take your function from exceptional execution and occasional advising to consistently required at the table before business decisions are made.

How we work together: Working in the TMC Communications Business Advisor™ framework, we build a strategy rooted in your real business priorities and leadership dynamics. Then we work through what it takes to bring it to life, including making the case internally and getting leadership aligned.

Throughout the process we:

Interview your executive team using our proven approach, alongside you, so the plan reflects what leadership actually cares about, and they become advocates and allies, not skeptics.
Run working sessions with your communications team throughout the process to build the strategy alongside them, not for them.
Present the completed plan to leadership and the team to get alignment that makes it stick.
Activate the strategy through ongoing team counsel and a signature engagement approach to ensure the plan delivers real change, not just good intentions.

Clients have come out of this process with larger teams, doubled budgets, and a seat at the table before decisions get made. Their executives start having conversations about the impact of communications… in rooms the communications leader isn’t even in. That’s not a side effect of the work. That’s the point of it.

Communications Business Advisor Counsel
For the communications leader who's the most senior person in the room and needs an outside advisor who gets the field and the stakes.

How we work together: This is an ongoing 1:1 advisory relationship built around your real situations as they unfold. It’s like having an advisor at your level who can pressure-test your thinking, offer perspective, and see what you can’t … because you can’t read the label when you’re inside the jar.

The focus is always on whatever is in front of you, including:

Leadership conversations you need to get right
Decisions you’re not sure how to position
Challenges you can see coming but aren’t sure how to navigate
Ideas you want to test before you act on them

We work together on a regular call cadence, with access between sessions for the things that can’t wait.

The leaders who work with me this way stop reacting and start deciding. That’s the kind of shift that builds a different kind of presence in the room and changes what you’re known for.

Communications Strategy Catalyst
For communications leaders who need a strategic plan, fast.

How we work together: This is a focused full-day planning experience that maps out your strategic communications plan. Through a facilitated session with communications leadership, we define: objectives tied to business goals, strategies, channels, tactics, measurement and team structure. After our session, I deliver the plan, and together, we map out how to put it in motion.

You’ll leave the experience with:

Clear direction grounded in business priorities
An actual plan you can use to rally your team and align executives on your value
A path forward on what to act on … and what to say no to

The Communications Strategy Catalyst is for comms. leaders who need a quick path to clarity on priorities and direction. If you’re looking for a full reset with more in-depth strategic planning and counsel that drives behavior change with executives, check out the Communications Strategy & Activation.

Communications Business Advisor Team Intensive
For leaders ready to level up their team's reputation and actions as critical advisors, not just exceptional executors.

How we work together: The challenge isn’t usually capability, it’s consistency across the entire team. The Communications Business Advisor Team Intensive is a half-day in-person custom workshop that gets your team on the same page about what it actually means to be an advisor, then works through the real blockers keeping them from doing it consistently.

You can expect:

A pre-session questionnaire and leader interview so we’re working with your team’s actual challenges, not generic ones
Shared language and a common understanding of what advisory counsel looks like at your organization
Hands-on work through the specific blockers your team is already navigating
Commitments made by the team, in the room, for how they’ll bring it to life

When the whole team starts operating from the same understanding, the shift from skilled executors to trusted advisors stops being a goal. It’s just how they work.

Communications Team Structure
For communications leaders who know their team structure needs to change to match where the business is going.

How we work together: This engagement builds the team model the business needs, grounded in your company’s goals and ambitions:

Here’s what we tackle:

Assess the current team structure, including how work flows, where the gaps are, and whether the operating model is advancing the function or limiting it
Build a structure recommendation grounded in your business priorities, team size, company financial goals and challenges, and where the function needs to go
Develop the advocacy approach you’ll use to present it to leadership and defend it with evidence
Address the budget, scope, and resourcing questions executives will raise before they say yes

Leaders who complete this work walk away with a clear, defensible structure recommendation… and the confidence to make the case for it. Executives start understanding why communications needs to look like this. And headcount conversations that used to go nowhere move forward.

Real People. Results. Impact.

“We were able to get executive buy-in (on new strategy) and used it to get more resources for our team, including additional team members and doubling our budget for external resources … I would highly recommend for any Corporate Communications leader to work with Tara McDonagh to map out their strategy and how to align resources and teams.”

“I trusted [Tara] with things I would never trust another consultant with. She brought such good, new ideas for strategic communication that I went further on strategy with her than with anyone else.”

“This is really the (brand messaging and content strategy) playbook we need. This goes well beyond content into everything. We can even use this for team training and getting new team members set-up right. This is exactly what we needed. I’ll absolutely recommend and refer you.”

“I was confident putting Tara directly in front of other teams in the organization. I took her to meetings with executives because her professionalism and credibility represented our team so well. I considered her part of the team, and I don’t normally do that with consultants.”

“Tara was particularly key in coming up with strategies for areas where we had gaps. She never hesitated to be frank and direct in a way that was always beneficial to what was best for us. If she saw we were pursuing a direction that wasn’t the best for the company, she would stop and speak up and make recommendations…We knew she always had our back… In the end, all she wants is for you to be successful.”

You don’t need a better team or new executive leadership.

You need the business to see your team

the way you do.

Tara McDonagh

Your Expert Advisor & Comms Strategist

I’ve spent nearly 30 years changing how the communications function is understood, engaged, and used at some of the world’s largest companies.

That’s what this work is built on.

When Communications is finally engaged at the level it deserves, the whole business benefits. I’ve seen the ripple effect firsthand, and it’s what I want for every Comms leader and team I work with.

Level Up Your Inbox

Strategic thinking for communications leaders who are done being the best-kept secret in the company. Don’t worry, I hate spam too. I’ll only show up when I have something worth sharing.