FOR SMALL BUSINESSES AND NONPROFITS
We wrangle your information and put it to its highest and best uses: words that build trust, ads that bring in new business, and AI tools that save hours. Plain talk, honest advice, and a team that stays in touch.
We wrangle information.
SERVICES
Every engagement starts with your information. Where it goes depends on what you need.
The people you serve can't choose you if they can't find you.
We start with a Brand Inspection to get the lay of the land online, refresh or rebuild your website, and plan and run social media and ad campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. You'll always know what's running, what it costs, and what it's bringing in.
You know things the people you serve need to hear.
The Branding Iron. Put your mark on what you know. One post at a time.
One interview and a short conversation each month become LinkedIn posts, newsletters, client letters, and articles, written in your voice. You approve every word before it goes out.
Busywork eats the hours you don't have.
We find where AI and simple tools can give you time back, set them up in accounts you already own, and train your team to use them well. Sometimes the answer is software you already pay for.
HOW WE WORK
Every engagement starts the same way. We gather what you know: how your business runs, the people you serve, what you've tried, and what's working. We organize it and study it with the best tools available, AI included. Then we put it to its highest and best use: as words that build trust, as campaigns that bring in new business, and as tools that give your team its time back. One understanding of your business, pointed wherever it pays off.
The invoice is never the only thing you hear from us.
START HERE
Two ways in, depending on what you need most. Each one ends with a written report and a clear list of next steps, many of which you can handle yourself.
GET FOUND
We get the lay of the land on how your business shows up online: your website, Google listing, social media, ads, and what happens after the phone rings. You get a one-page roadmap of what to fix, test, or stop.
WORK SMARTER
A short, structured look at how your business works and where AI fits: where the hours go, how your team uses AI now, what needs protecting, and what you already own. You get a plan, not a sales pitch.
Want both? We can do a Brand Inspection and an AI Checkup together.
Book a free intro callWE USE WHAT WE RECOMMEND
Every Friday at 6:45 a.m., an AI agent we built does our reading for us. It checks the official update pages for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Muse, and Grok, scans the newsletters we trust, and writes up what changed that week and why it might matter to a small business. At 3 p.m., Trey spends thirty minutes sorting it: keep, watch, or ignore. Once a month, the keepers become The Roundup, our free newsletter. It's the same kind of setup we build for clients: a clear job, careful permissions, and a person making the final call.
Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.
Gustave Flaubert, letter to Gertrude Tennant, 1876
FREE RESOURCES
Practical, one-sitting reads. The guides download right away when you enter your email.
A writer is someone who pays attention to the world.
Susan Sontag, The Paris Review, 1995
BE HEARD
A prompt and a first line for each idea, grouped into five themes, plus a one-minute ready-to-post checklist.
WORK SMARTER
Without an enterprise budget: how each task works today, how it works automated, and the smallest first step, plus ten questions to ask before you build.
WORK SMARTER
What an AI agent is, what it can do for a small business, and how we build one safely. One page, no sign-up.
Read it nowTHE ROUNDUP
The AI news that matters to small businesses, without the hype. One email a month, about a ten-minute read; unsubscribe anytime.
WHY BAR M
Most small businesses juggle a web person, an ad agency, a social media freelancer, and a nephew who “knows computers.” Nobody sees the whole picture, and you end up managing all of them. We work the other way.
THE TEAM
Founder and Principal
Trey is a former trial attorney, nonprofit executive director, and teacher. Every chapter came down to the same work: taking something complicated and making it clear enough for people to act on.
In late 2025, a family situation gave him a few months to step back and think about what came next. In that time he became fascinated by the AI landscape, thanks in part to two of his sons, who work in the industry. After studying a range of opportunities, he landed, somewhat serendipitously, on helping professionals share what they know and helping small businesses put AI to practical use. Bar M Data Lab grew from there.
Trey was born and raised in Liberal, Kansas. He earned a B.S. in Business Administration, with emphases in finance and economics, from the University of Kansas in 1996, and his law degree from KU in 1999. He has been a youth and high school sports official for more than thirty years, with a full schedule of high school varsity football, basketball, and baseball for the past ten. He's the proud father of three sons, Drew, Tate, and Reece. In his rare spare time, he reads, cooks, and roots for the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, and Kansas Jayhawks.
Director of Sales
Matt was born and raised in Oklahoma. After playing basketball and golf in college, he earned his PGA club professional certification, sinking a 20-foot putt on the last of 36 holes to qualify. Over the next 25 years, he managed golf clubs in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Georgia, and he still gives golf lessons today, sharing the game he has loved since he was a kid.
Matt attended the University of Kansas, where he studied sports nutrition and minored in history. At Bar M, he leads sales and client relationships and runs our Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns. He brings the same discipline he learned on the course to a new field: artificial intelligence. He works hands-on with AI tools and assistants every day, helping clients share what they know and put AI to work.
His second act is as on-camera talent in print and film for the fashion industry; you can see that work at mattedavids.com. In his free time, Matt lives the healthy lifestyle he talks about. He hits the gym, loves to cook, listens to music, and travels whenever he can, always looking for the next course, the next city, and the next door to open.
Three things: we help businesses and nonprofits get found, be heard, and work smarter. That can mean a website refresh and ad campaigns, LinkedIn posts in your voice, or AI tools that save your team hours. It all starts with understanding your business, so the work in each area fits together.
Usually with a Checkup. A Brand Inspection looks at how you show up online; an AI Checkup looks at how you work and where AI fits. Each ends with a written report and a ranked list of next steps. Not sure which? Book a free 20-minute call and we'll tell you honestly.
Often, no. Sometimes the answer is software you already pay for but aren't fully using. Sometimes an off-the-shelf product is the best fit, and we'll help you choose and set it up. We build something custom only when nothing else does the job.
The Branding Iron is our thought leadership and LinkedIn writing service. It starts with a short questionnaire and a first interview about your goals, your expertise, and your stories. After that, a short conversation each month keeps the ideas coming. We draft the posts, newsletters, and letters; you review and approve every one; and you publish from your own accounts. Each post arrives ready to paste, with a suggested first comment.
That's the point of the interviews. We write from your stories, your opinions, and the way you actually talk, and nothing goes out until you've approved it. Most clients find the voice settles in within the first month or two.
You do, always. Your pages and ad accounts stay in your business's name, and you pay the platforms directly for ads. We work inside them with access you grant and can remove at any time, so nothing is ever held hostage.
Often. Every client gets a check-in at least once a month on what's running, what it costs, and what it's doing for you, in whatever form you prefer: phone, Zoom, in person, or a written summary. Between check-ins, questions go to a real person who knows your business. The invoice is never the only thing you hear from us.
No. We never ask for your passwords. For social media and ads, you add us through each platform's own partner access. For thought leadership, posts arrive ready for you to publish. For custom tools, we build inside accounts you own, using our own login, which you can remove at any time.
Yes, we use AI as a tool, with care. It helps us organize information, draft, analyze, and check our work, and a person reviews everything you see. Your information is used only for your work. We use AI services whose business terms don't use your data to train their models, and we keep each client's material separate. When our work together ends, for any reason, we hand back everything that belongs to you and delete your files from our systems, keeping only the records we're required to keep, like invoices and our agreement. Just ask, and we'll confirm in writing when it's done.
The ones you're most likely to have: ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Meta's Muse, and Grok. We work in whichever platform your business already uses rather than asking you to switch.
Practical ones: client portals, intake and onboarding forms, invoice and payment reminders, document request trackers, internal dashboards, staff knowledge assistants, AI agents like a daily briefing or an after-hours appointment setter, and connections between the tools you already use, like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and QuickBooks.
You do, and we make that easy. Websites, tools, and agents live in your accounts and on your domain. We hand over a plain-English guide and a walkthrough for whoever handles your technology, fix anything we got wrong for 30 days, and offer ongoing support if you want it. For a variety of business and technology reasons, your website will be hosted with a well-established provider, in your own name and account. You own it outright, it's looked after by a company whose whole job is keeping sites running, and you're never dependent on us to keep the lights on.
It depends on the work, so every engagement starts with a free conversation. Checkups and projects are quoted up front, and you get a written estimate before any work begins. Ongoing services run month to month. For ads, you pay the platforms directly for ad spend.
Yes. Donor letters, board updates, appeal campaigns, volunteer communications, and social media, plus tools that give a small staff back its time.
El Dorado, Kansas, in the Wichita area. We work with businesses and nonprofits anywhere, in person nearby and by video call and email everywhere else.
CONTACT
Tell us what you're working on. A free 20-minute call is the easiest way to start, and you'll talk with a real person who'll give you a straight answer, even if the answer is that you don't need us.
Prefer email? hello@barmdatalab.com
THE BRANDING IRON · THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
It starts with a short questionnaire about where you are today, your goals, your current approach, and where you'd like support. That way our first interview can go straight to what matters most: your expertise, your voice, and your stories. After that, a short conversation each month keeps the ideas coming.
Who do you most want reading your work? What should they do after reading it?
What do you know that most people in your field don't? What do you believe that your peers might disagree with?
A client you really helped (details changed). A mistake you see people make over and over. The question you answer every week.
How do you want to come across? What's off-limits? Who reviews content before it's published?
What did clients ask about most? What surprised you? What's coming up that we should write around?
Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.
Jack London, “Getting into Print,” 1903
WORK SMARTER
A short, structured look at how your business works and where AI fits. You get a plan, not a sales pitch.
Who does what, and which tasks eat the most time.
Which tools, which accounts, and what information goes into them.
Client information, passwords, and settings that should change.
Software you pay for but aren't fully using.
Ranked by time saved, cost, and effort.
How it works: a kickoff call, a short questionnaire for your team, and brief interviews with two to five people. About two to three weeks from start to finish.
What you get: a written report and a meeting to walk through it. Many next steps are things you can do yourself. If you'd like our help, the Checkup's cost counts toward your next project with us.
Inspiration is for amateurs—the rest of us just show up and get to work.
Chuck Close, interview with Joe Fig, 2006
GET FOUND
On a ranch, a brand inspector makes sure every animal carries the right brand. We do the same for your business online. We get the lay of the land and make sure that wherever the people you serve look for you, they find a person they want to call.
What you offer, who you serve, what a job is worth, and how much more work you can take on.
Your Facebook page, ad account, Instagram, website, domain name, and Google listing. You'd be surprised how often the answer isn't “you.”
What's running, what it costs, what it brings in, and how you know.
Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok: what you post, how often, and what's working.
Your Maps listing and reviews, where you show up in local search, and how your site works on a phone.
How fast calls and messages get an answer, after hours too, and whether you know where each job came from.
How it works: It starts with an hour-long conversation about your business and your goals. Then you add us to your accounts using each platform's own invite. We never ask for passwords. Then we do the inspection.
What you get: a one-page roadmap showing what's working, what's leaking, and what we'd fix, test, or stop, with exact prices. Nothing runs and nothing gets spent without your written approval.
FREE GUIDE
Tell us where to send it. You'll get one quick email to confirm your address, then the guide.
Almost there.
Check your inbox for an email from Trey at Bar M Data Lab and click Confirm your email. Your guide arrives right after.
Don't see our email in a few minutes? Check your Promotions or Spam folder.
START A CONVERSATION
A few details are enough to get the conversation started. Your message will go to hello@barmdatalab.com.