Disrupt the status quo, reconnect to your values, and embody an inclusive brand and leadership styleÂ
ALIGNED is my signature 1:1 coaching program for high-achieving, values-driven leaders and entrepreneurs who crave clarity, confidence, and integration in their leadership approach and personal brand.
Apply For AlignedI have capacity for only five ALIGNED leadership and personal branding consultant clients at a time, so I recommend applying as soon as you’re ready.
ALIGNED is for those who seek alignment between their external presence and internal values
Including leaders within organizations and entrepreneurs running their own business
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SPEAKERS ✦ INDEPENDENT CONSULTANTS ✦ COACHES ✦ MARKETERS ✦ CEOS ✦ WEDDING PROFESSIONALS ✦ NONPROFIT LEADERS ✦ FOUNDERS ✦ PROFESSORS AND DEPARTMENT CHAIRS ✦ CREATORS ✦ COMMUNITY CURATORS ✦ CREATIVES
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Lead with more awareness, inclusivity, and accountability as an ally and advocate for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks
When you don’t have complete clarity in your values, it’s hard to know how to show up as an ally in a genuine way, as a leader and in your brand messaging.
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Feel fully seen and supported to lead confidently from your lived experience as a BIPOC or LGBTQ+ leader
When you don’t feel able to fully own or express your identity in professional spaces, you might instinctively hold yourself back both in leadership and your brand presence.
Gently, I want to tell you: any mismatch between who you are and how you’re showing up is felt.Â
Wavering in decision-making.Â
Shying away from bigger roles to play.Â
Downplaying your power.Â
Flattening who you really are.
Staying silent or saying words that aren’t yours.
Your community, your team, and your audience feel it.Â
They need you to be brave and be you.Â
You need you.
This is why ALIGNED exists.
Kirstie Wheeler, Educational Consultant and Professor at Berklee College of Music:
"Crystal is amazing. She asks the hard questions and helps you work through the hard answers. Crystal understands that inclusion is a necessity for every human to have a voice at the table. She lives her work at the very core of her being and is one of the most genuine people I know. I was able to dive deeper and keep clarifying what is most important to me and that translated to my messaging becoming more clear. Crystal has made me a better human and business owner. I fully recommend Crystal if you're ready to do the work!"Â
ABOUT ALIGNEDÂ
Using The Aligned Values Framework®, ALIGNED is a six-month 1:1 coaching mentorship designed to give you the tools you need to confidently lead with your values, whether you own your business or lead in an organization.

Month 1: Clarify
This work starts with developing internal clarity. We explore shared language to understand how your lived experience has influenced your relationship to identity, privilege, and values.
In this first month, we start building your solid internal foundation to clarify what you truly value.
Month 2: Connect
With your values taking shape, we start extending your foundation outward, toward others, reflecting on questions of connection and belonging.
What creates a feeling of belonging for you and those you engage with? How can you be brave to create more human-centered connections?Â
Month 3: Root
Building on your work so far, we create your anchor, or root.Â
A written “source of truth” you can return to when you’re not sure what to do: your core values, commitments to others, and beliefs.
This isn’t surface level. We dig deep so that you feel confident in your decision-making and build stronger, more aligned relationships.
Month 4: Disrupt
Now crystal clear in your values, commitments, and beliefs, we look at what might be in the way of truly living them out: bias.Â
We all have bias — on a personal, professional, and community level. Identifying your bias without judgment clears the path to leading through your values.
Month 5: Embody
Putting everything into action, you explore what it’s like to embody your values as a leader.
You write your personal mission statement, vision statement, and inclusive philosophy. And we identify any gaps in how you’re currently showing up as a leader and how you want to be — then practice.
Month 6: Create
It’s finally time to integrate everything we’ve done together into your external brand.Â
You create messaging to connect with your ideal community and promote your mission in a way that feels genuinely connected to your core values.
We finish by writing your strong mission, vision, and inclusive brand statement you will use across public-facing channels (either for your company’s brand or your personal brand).
Timeline: 6 months
ALIGNED is paced over six months to help you honor your energy, engage at a sustainable pace, and allow for the space needed for transformation to take root.
- Bi-weekly coaching sessions with me (clients often tell me it feels like inclusive leadership “therapy”)*
- Slack and Voxer access to ask me questions or seek support in between coaching sessions
- Invitation to a community container, where you will be able to connect with past coaching clients doing this work alongside you
Investment: $4,500 ($750/month)Â
*For clarity, I’m not a therapist; this is values-centered coaching.
Past ALIGNED clients have emerged with:
- More confident, integrated messaging that attracts like-minded clients and speaks to their values with ease
- Website and visuals they created that feel enduring and truly reflective of their values and identity
- Transformed confidence, clarity of leadership identity, and alignment between their personal values and business
- Organically and intuitively knowing how to show up as a values-aligned leader, in any situation

Hi, I’m Crystal. (She/her)
Leadership Coach and Personal Brand Consultant | Creator of The Aligned Values Framework® | Trauma-Informed | Neurodivergent
This is healing work that is done out of love.
It's not just about building an inclusive, empowered brand. We go deeper than that, because we need to.Â
Focusing only on the brand or leadership behaviors is an outside-in approach that’s ultimately a band-aid for what you’re really here for: to feel rooted in your values as a leader and a human.Â
In ALIGNED, we take an inside-out approach. Doing this internal work can feel challenging at times, and that's why having me there to guide and support you matters so much.Â
I'm not just going to leave you with a bunch of lessons to take in on your own. You'll have access to me for clarification, guidance, and space to ask questions without judgment or shame.
It takes love to do this work. Love for ourselves. Love for our communities. And love for humanity. When we dig in, we disrupt what's familiar to us so we can heal and move forward for the sake of the collective.Â
By operating from this perspective of love, it becomes more natural to integrate your values and identity into your business, because they will come from within.Â
I can’t wait to welcome you in.
Author and Speaker, Dr. Portia Preston:
"If I had not worked with Crystal, I would have risked ending up with something that didn’t clearly articulate my values. Through Crystal’s work, she was able to drill down and really find me. By the time we did the photoshoot, she already had such a deep understanding of me that she knew exactly what kinds of images would truly serve me.
She’s so good at leading you through the process, and on the back end, she’s a beast — a perfectionist in the best way. My bar is really high, and I often find myself redoing what others produce, but not with Crystal. She’s razor-edge sharp and cares about doing things right. She’s also kind, but she doesn’t spare the gold. She makes her values clear and holds that line with integrity."

Courtney “Dazzler” Ibarra, Beatsource:
"Crystal Lily Creative is an expert in training and facilitating conversations with organizations, small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to make diversity, equity and inclusion a cornerstone of their messaging and branding. Crystal's approach in motivating her students to identify core values and create clear messaging and tangible action plans allows for the experience to obtain a higher level of intention and self awareness applicable to any professional format and practicing those elements learned.
I highly recommend Crystal's education program as well as guest speaker services to train and touch on imperative discussions surrounding diversity, equity, inclusion and human-focused initiatives.” ~Courtney “Dazzler” Ibarra, Beatsource
DEIA Consultant, Arthur Padilla:
"It is refreshing to have the complex conversation broken down into manageable and doable strategies that can have profound impacts. She also emphasized the need for focusing on our internal selves and silencing our minds as relevant and necessary elements of "exercising" our ability to include everyone. Thank you for the insights and the wisdom! Everyone should be calling Crystal Whitaker!"

Frequently Asked Questions About Aligned
I've gone through leadership development programs or worked with a personal brand consultant before. What makes this different?
I’ve done DEI training before that felt surface-level. What makes this program different?
I don't own a business. I'm a leader in an organization. Can I still join ALIGNED?
I don’t have a team. Should I still join?
I have no clue where to begin wI have no clue where to begin when it comes to inclusion. I'm afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. Will I really be able to say I'm an inclusive leader or my brand is inclusive at the end of this?hen it comes to inclusion. I'm afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. Will I really be able to say I'm an inclusive leader or that my brand is inclusive at the end of this?
I'm a person who is a part of a marginalized community and I'm not sure if I really need guidance on inclusive branding or leadership. How do I know if this will benefit me?
I don't have a website or social media presence yet. Can I still go through this process?
Do you have experience working with neurodivergent and/or highly sensitive people?

Nina Stoller-Lindsey, Social Media and Content Strategist for Mission-Driven Brands:
"Learning about inclusive branding from Crystal has been one of the most eye-opening and empowering experiences I’ve had as an entrepreneur *and* as a person.
Her core values-based approach helped me crystalize my belief that, as a business owner, you shouldn’t have to choose between making money and doing good. Now, I help other business owners use social media to do both.
Crystal is deeply insightful, always compassionate, and never judgemental. So when it comes to the challenging work of disrupting your own bias, you could not find a better person to guide you. I cannot recommend her enough!"Â ~Nina Stoller-Lindsey, Social Media and Content Strategist for Mission-Driven Brands
Paige Ray Creative:
"WOW! Her program was introspective and evolutionary; it made me feel like I had the tools to evolve myself, my business, and my values and express them in the way I really want to. I HIGHLY recommend doing her program for every and any business. She answered my questions and created a beautiful, supportive space to learn."Â ~Paige Ray, Paige Ray Creative


Leah Weinberg, Attorney:
"Working with Crystal was an incredible experience! I worked with Crystal on making sure that both my website and the new book I'm writing are inclusive and rooted in my core values. The feedback she provided on both was invaluable to making sure that I'm cultivating safe and welcoming spaces for all humans with shared values. She also inspired me to take a deep dive into my (and my brand's) core values, which was something I marinated on for several weeks and that resulted in some pretty significant a-ha moments for me. Crystal is incredibly kind, funny, thoughtful, professional, brilliant, and an all-around amazing human. I cannot recommend her and her work more highly!!!"Â ~Leah Weinberg, Color Pop Events
Krista Walsh Copywriter:
"I worked with Crystal on brand coaching, and it was far more transformative than I could have imagined. She creates such a warm space to feel safe getting honest with yourself, which is what you need to make real progress. As I begin a rebrand this year, I'm going to be referring to our work together constantly--and I don't know where I would be without it. I HIGHLY recommend reaching out to Crystal if you know you want to be inclusive in your business or brand... but don't know where exactly to start." ~Krista Walsh, Krista Walsh Copywriter


Justin McCallum Photography:
"Crystal's thoughtful mentorship and uncanny ability to foster others confidence and creativity completely helped me reshape my business. The mix of challenging but important coursework and discussions with her over the course of a few weeks helped me break down barriers and reach a new place in my business that I hadn’t been able to achieve in nearly six years on my own. Not only is Crystal incredible at helping brands realize their truest potential as inclusive, holistic enterprises, she’s also just a kickass person! I can’t wait to continue working with her in the years to come to make my business flourish even more." ~Justin McCallum, Justin McCallum Photography
Modern Rebel & Co.:
"Crystal is A PRO! I worked with Crystal this past year to dive deep into my branding and core values as a company working in the wedding industry. We worked one on one through issues, trouble spots, and growth opportunities. She was supportive, professional, and wise in her approach and practice. Crystal possesses a unique skill to not only get at the heart of the issue by creating a safe space for vulnerability but also challenging you with actionable next steps - not afraid to nudge when it's necessary. I cannot recommend Crystal highly enough and frankly, wish I had her when I started my business six years ago. But I know that I will certainly be a repeat client, however, and recommend her to anyone + everyone." ~Amy Shack Egan, Modern Rebel & Co.


Passion Flower Sue:
"The SINGLE BEST THING I did for myself and my business this year was to work with “brand therapist” Crystal Whiteaker. With clarity on my motivations for being a florist and teacher, I can better communicate through my work, navigate my path with purpose, and make tough decisions with ease. I wish this for everyone!! I believe this is also how we tap into our own unique creative expression. I highly encourage learning from and working with Crystal–it will immediately elevate your professional and personal impact." ~Susan McLeary, Passion Flower Sue
Kara Evans Photographer:
"I worked with Crystal to reexamine and dive deep into my business and brand all through the lens of creating a more welcoming, inclusive brand. I would 100% recommend Crystal's inclusivity coaching and cannot recommend her more highly! Crystal helped me rediscover parts of my brand that I'd pushed aside and gave me the needed encouragement to share my heart on a deeper level within my brand and life. Before this, I didn't know anyone that I trusted to do  this work alongside, so I was thankful when Crystal shared the opportunity. If you're looking to rediscover your brand values, share your heart with your community, and walk a daily journey to a more inclusive brand all within a safe, encouraging space - Crystal is your go-to guide!" ~Kara Evans, Kara Evans Photographer

ALIGNED COACHING
A brave space to disrupt the status quo and embody an inclusive leadership style that aligns with your core values.
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