Someone just referred you.
Then they looked you up.
You will never know how that went.
The referral did the hard part. They vouched for you, said something
specific, and sent someone your way. That person then did what
everyone does. They opened a tab and checked you out.
What they found had about five seconds to back up
what they were told.
Paste your homepage. We will tell you honestly what a
referral sees when they land there, and where it stops
matching what they were promised.
Someone just referred you.
Then they looked you up.
You will never know how that went.
The referral did the hard part. They vouched for you, said something specific, and sent someone your way. That person then did what everyone
does. They opened a tab and checked you out.
What they found had
about five seconds
to back up what they
were told.
Paste your
homepage. We
will tell you
honestly what
a referral sees
when they land there, and where it stops matching what they were promised.
"But my business runs on referrals, not my website."
That is exactly why this matters.
A referral is not a lead. It is a promise someone else made about you, and it gets checked. Every time. The check takes seconds and it happens somewhere you cannot see.
When it goes badly, nothing happens. No bounce. No email. No decline. The person just goes quiet, and the partner who referred you never hears why. The deal you lost looks exactly like the deal that never existed.
You have been inside this work for years. Every word on your site makes
sense from where you are standing. But someone who has never met you gets a screen and five seconds, and what is obvious to you does not survive the trip.
Could a five-year-old tell you what you do?
Before: Her homepage called her firm "collective growth design." Ideal clients thought she ran an interior design business.
After: She changed what the page said. Over the next two years, went from 1 employee to 4.
MaryAnn M. — Leadership Consultant
Before: One of the strongest cases we'd seen for why someone should hire her, and it was invisible on her site and her LinkedIn. She was underselling herself and she knew it.
After: Attracts the referral partners she wants. And she sends people to her profile now without wondering what they'll make of it.
Andrea L. — Insurance Cost Consultant
Before: His LinkedIn read like a résumé of where he'd worked. Nothing on it told a stranger what he did now or who he did it for.
After: We rewrote it. He sent a screenshot of a booked call the same day it went live.
Michael H. — Investment Consulting
We record these conversations.
Watch them →
WhO ARE WE?
You got an email from us. Fair to wonder who's behind it.
We're Mike L. Murphy and Van Rais. Two people, not an agency.
Mike runs every call himself. Our real names and faces are on
everything, including this page.
Nothing on this page costs anything.
Mike on LinkedIn · MikeLMurphy.com · Van on LinkedIn · VanRais.com
WhO ARE WE?
You got an email from us. Fair to wonder who's behind it.
We're Mike L. Murphy and Van Rais. Two people, not an agency.
We run every call ourselves. Our real names and faces are on
everything, including this page.
Nothing on this page costs anything.
Mike on LinkedIn · MikeLMurphy.com · Van on LinkedIn · VanRais.com
hollywood
stories
that stick
Mike L. Murphy
Mike animated Gollum.
Senior animator at Weta Digital on The Two Towers and Return of the King. Eighteen years in film, part of the Oscar-winning visual effects teams on Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Iron Man.
You knew who Gollum was in about five seconds. Nobody gets a paragraph, so every choice is about what you leave out. Same problem your homepage has.
wall street
designed
to LAST
Van Rais
Van led the message at Microsoft, GE, and Starbucks, where it has to land the same way at every touchpoint. He builds the part that keeps working when you're not in the room.
hollywood
stories
that stick
Mike L. Murphy
Mike animated Gollum.
Senior animator at Weta Digital on The Two Towers and Return of the King. Eighteen years in film, part of the Oscar-winning visual effects teams on Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Iron Man.
You knew who Gollum was in about five seconds. Nobody gets a paragraph, so every choice is about what you leave out. Same problem your homepage has.
WALL STREET
designed
to LAST
Van Rais
Van led the message at Microsoft, GE, and Starbucks, where it has to land the same way at every touchpoint. He builds the part that keeps working when you're not in the room.
FAQ
Is this audit actually free, or is there going to be a pitch at the end?
Is this audit actually free, or is there going to be a pitch at the end?
It's free. No credit card, no required call, no drip sequence that won't quit. You paste your homepage URL, the tool scores it, and you get the diagnostic. Takes about two minutes.
If you want to talk through the results, you can book a call with us. If you don't, the diagnostic is yours to keep and we won't chase you.
We built it as a filter. The founders who find it useful are the ones we want to talk to. Pressure tactics would defeat the point.
My clients come from referrals. Why does my homepage matter?
Because the referral is not the end of the process, it's the start.
When someone recommends you, they say something specific about you out loud. That sentence is doing the selling. Then the person they said it to goes and checks whether it holds up.
Two questions usually settle it. When someone refers you, what do they actually say you do? And does what they find online say the same thing?
If those two answers don't match, you're paying for it in extra meetings and in the referrals that quietly go nowhere. The homepage is just the part of that gap you can actually see and measure, which is why we start there.
Who's actually behind this? I've been burned by cold email before.
Fair question.
Mike L. Murphy spent 18 years in film, part of the Oscar-winning VFX teams on Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Iron Man. He runs the messaging side.
Van Rais led the message at Microsoft, GE, and Starbucks. He runs the systems side.
We're based in the US and Europe. We put our real names and real faces on everything. You can find us on LinkedIn, on our own sites (MikeLMurphy.com and VanRais.com), and on every call, which we run ourselves.
What does the audit actually check?
Three things a stranger looks for in the first five seconds.
One. Can they tell within seconds who you serve. Two. Are you describing a measurable result or a vague benefit. Three. Is there a reason to pick you over the four other firms open in their other tabs.
The tool scores each one, shows you what your page currently says, what a visitor is likely thinking when they read it, and where the gap is. It's specific to your site, not a generic checklist.
Is this for someone like me?
If you're a consultant, fractional executive, boutique law firm, dev shop, or expert-led B2B service firm, yes. Usually 3+ years in, already have clients, growing past referrals into something that needs to scale.
Where it doesn't help: e-commerce, B2C brands, agencies running paid traffic, or pre-revenue founders still working out their offer.
If your work is strong but what people find online doesn't show it, this is built for you.
What happens after I see the results?
Two paths.
One. You read the diagnostic, see the gaps, fix them yourself. It's detailed enough that a sharp founder or their dev team can act on it.
Two. You book a Work Session with Mike to talk through what the results mean for your situation. Sixty minutes. It's a working session, not a pitch, and it's free. If after that you want help implementing, we run a 30-day program. If you don't, you don't.
The diagnostic is useful either way.
have your business match your expertise.