About Us
Growth Experts
Not just campaigns. Not just websites. A connected, human-led, AI-powered growth engine built around your business, optimized for your market, and measured by one thing: results.
We Build Marketing Systems That Grow Businesses.
OUR ORIGIN STORY
Started in a Living Room. Still Going Strong.
Lazarus Design Team started the way a lot of good businesses do. Two friends, a shared apartment, and a willingness to figure it out.
Brennen Smith and Jonathan Carpenter weren’t running a company when they first started building websites together after college. It was a side hustle that turned into something real, one client at a time. They built a reputation for doing work people were proud of, and that reputation compounded. Almost 11 years later, it still is.
Brennen and Jonathan remain silent partners in Lazarus today. The foundation they built, the early clients they earned, and the culture they established still show up in how we work.
WHERE WE ARE TODAY
A Lot Has Changed. The Standard Hasn’t.
We’ve built over 500 websites and worked with more than 100 companies on ongoing marketing retainers. We started in the Carolinas, grew into St. Louis, and somewhere along the way, clients found us well beyond any geography we originally planned for.
A great website matters. What you build on top of it matters more. At Lazarus, web design and our full suite of marketing services, SEO, paid search, paid social, content, email, RevOps, GEO optimization, are designed to work together as one connected system. Every channel has a job. Every dollar is accountable to results.
Our clients are founder-led businesses and growth-stage companies that want a real marketing partner, not a vendor who delivers a monthly report and waits to be told what to do next. We sit inside their business strategically and stay accountable to the results.
Behind that work is a team of marketers, strategists, designers, developers, and analysts who bring genuine craft to every engagement. Different disciplines, one goal: build something that performs.
THE NEXT CHAPTER
A Strong Foundation, Built to Scale.
When Brett Honerkamp joined as CEO and Managing Partner in September 2024, Lazarus already had what most agencies spend years trying to earn: a loyal client base, a talented team, a track record that spoke for itself, and a culture people actually wanted to be part of.
Brett’s background is in private equity and commercial leadership, with deep experience in sales and marketing. He’s spent his career evaluating businesses, building operating models, and finding where the real leverage is. What he saw in Lazarus was a business that had earned its reputation the hard way and was ready to grow beyond the markets it knew.
The focus since then has been on building the systems and processes that ensures Lazarus delivers consistently, at scale, the same quality of work that built its reputation in the first place.
HOW WE WORK
Human-Edged.
AI-Centered.
Every workflow at Lazarus is built around a simple idea: human thinking leads, AI accelerates.
AI doesn’t replace what makes great marketing work. It doesn’t replace the strategist who asks the right question, the creative who finds the angle no one else saw, or the conversation where the real insight lives. What it does, when it’s applied well, is clear the path for all of that.
We use AI to accelerate execution, tighten workflows, and get our team out of repetitive work so they can focus on what they’re actually here to do: think clearly, push back when the strategy needs it, and build work worth executing.
Every engagement starts with human intent and ends with human accountability. The AI is in the middle making the work faster, sharper, and more consistent. That’s how a lean, expert team can deliver at a level most businesses couldn’t build in-house, even with a much bigger budget.
Our approach
We Don’t Assume. We Learn.
90% of what we do in digital marketing is consistent across every industry. SEO, paid search, paid social, content, email: the fundamentals don’t change depending on what you sell or who you sell it to.
What changes is how we apply those fundamentals to your specific market, your buyers, and the competitive environment you’re actually operating in. That’s not something we figure out on our own. It’s something we work through with you.
No two businesses are exactly alike, even in the same industry. A regional home services company and a national franchise have different buyers, different margins, and different conversion challenges. A B2B services firm and a direct-to-consumer brand both need SEO, but the strategy looks nothing like each other. We’ve seen enough of both to know the difference.
We’ve built depth in certain industries over the years and we bring that context to every engagement. But assumed industry knowledge never replaces the real work of understanding your business, your buyers, and where you’re trying to go. That collaboration is where the strategy actually comes from.
Our Process
What We Believe
These aren’t values we put on a wall. They’re how we actually operate.
01
Client Obsession
We optimize for client revenue, not vanity metrics. Every strategy starts with one question: does this drive real growth? If the answer isn’t clearly yes, we go back to the drawing board.
02
Speed With Strategy
We move fast, test fast, and learn fast. Speed without a clear direction is just activity. We deliver both, and we don’t let one get in the way of the other.
03
Low Drag
Friction kills good work. We remove it from our own processes and from every client relationship. Clear communication, clean handoffs, no surprises.
04
Double Down on What Works
We find the execution strategy that’s driving growth for your business and we concentrate effort there. We scale it hard, push it until the market tells us we’ve hit the ceiling, and then we recalibrate and go again. Concentrated effort on proven execution beats spreading budget thin across untested ideas every time.
05
Radical Transparency
We let data lead. If something isn’t working, we say it out loud and fix it fast. No hiding behind activity reports. No spinning results that don’t hold up.
06
Complete Ownership
If it impacts results, we own it. No passing the blame, no waiting for someone else to solve it. We just solve it.
About
The Team
Brett Honerkamp
CEO, Managing Partner
Brett is the CEO and Managing Partner, where he leads with a strategic focus on growth, innovation, and client impact. With a background in private equity and business leadership, Brett brings a deep understanding of scalable business operations and creative excellence.
Brett Honerkamp
CEO, Managing Partner
Coeli O’Connell
Director of Design & Development
Coeli (“chae-lee”) directs the design and development engine behind every Lazarus project, turning strategy into high-performing websites. With a sharp eye for design and functionality, she ensures every build is as technically sound as it is visually striking, keeping the creative and web teams in lockstep.
Coeli O’Connell
Director of Design & Development
Laura Siebenman
Director of Marketing
Laura directs the marketing strategy behind every Lazarus client engagement, turning big-picture goals into campaigns that actually perform. She brings a sharp mix of creative vision and data-driven discipline ensuring our marketing efforts stay focused, cohesive, and consistently results-oriented.
Laura Siebenman
Director of Marketing
Chantal Wells
Project Manager
Chantal serves as the key liaison for clients, with seamless communication that keeps projects on track from kickoff to launch. She’s also the steady hand behind support, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks. Her dedication to detail and follow-through keeps projects running smoothly on all fronts.
Chantal Wells
Project Manager & Support Admin
Amanda Pagán
Design Lead
Amanda leads the design team with a keen eye for brand identity and visual storytelling. She ensures every project maintains a cohesive, polished look from concept to launch. Her leadership and creative range keeps the Lazarus design standard sharp and consistent across every client.
Amanda Pagán
Design Lead
Jenna Kirkland
Senior Marketing Strategist
Jenna turns client wish lists into marketing plans that actually deliver, pairing genuine creative passion with a strategist’s insight and follow-through. She’s driven to understand exactly what makes each client successful in their industry. Her enthusiasm for the craft shows up in results, not just ideas.
Jenna Kirkland
Senior Marketing Strategist
Liv Vitale
Marketing Strategist
Liv crafts marketing strategies that turn clicks into customers and campaigns into growth stories. She thrives on translating client goals into clear, actionable plans that deliver measurable results. Her strategic instincts keep every campaign focused, data-informed, and on target.
Liv Vitale
Marketing Strategist
Tara Meadows
Marketing Strategist
Tara builds marketing strategies designed to move the needle, not just the metrics. She partners closely with clients to turn their goals into results-driven campaigns. Her attention to detail and communication ensures every strategy is as polished as it is effective.
Tara Meadows
Marketing Strategist
Rayhaan Joseph
SEO & Marketing Strategist
Rayhaan blends technical SEO know-how with marketing savvy to help clients climb the rankings and stay there. He digs into the data behind every campaign, turning search algorithms into growth opportunities. His specialty is making sure clients aren’t just found online, but found first.
Rayhaan Joseph
SEO & Marketing Strategist
Roxana Portillo
SEO Copywriter
Roxana writes copy that search engines and humans both want to read. She has a knack for weaving keywords seamlessly into content that actually engages and converts for clients. Her words don’t just rank — they resonate.
Roxana Portillo
SEO Copywriter
Alex Thipkhosithkun
Lead Developer
Alex leads the development team in building fast, functional, and future-proof websites. He turns complex technical challenges into clean, reliable code that keeps client sites running smoothly. His leadership ensures every build meets the highest technical standard.
Alex Thipkhosithkun
Lead Developer
Scott Hartley
Developer
Scott writes the code that keeps Lazarus websites fast, functional, and reliable. He tackles technical challenges with precision, ensuring every site performs as good as it looks. His behind-the-scenes work is what keeps client sites running seamlessly.
Scott Hartley
Developer