Bear North Digital
CLIENT: NORTHLAND AIR / 2026-05-26

Northland Air: Onboarding Call Recap

Call: Tuesday, 2026-05-26, ~2h 17m Attendees: Kris Higgins, Josh Kimmes, Colleen Castellani Fireflies ID: 01KS32GK5P9632WTFGHAJYS3M6 Status: Launch Monday 2026-06-01 if access lands by Friday 5/29

Major shifts from pre-call assumptions

  1. CJ is the previous owner + technician Kris is acquiring the business from. Access to GBP, LSA, Google Ads, and Meta currently sits with CJ. All legacy-account transfers go through CJ, not Kris directly.
  2. Launch date moved up to Monday 6/1 (was Tuesday 6/2). Friday 5/29 is the access-complete + website-done deadline.
  3. Channel priority reranked: LSA #1, Meta #2, Google Ads #3 (was Search-first in pre-call agenda).
  4. Office address confirmed: 225 North 11th Avenue East, Duluth, MN. Billing addresses on Google Ads + GBP update once new signage is installed. LSA video verification pending signage.
  5. In-call wins: A2P SMS registration submitted and approved. 2FA enabled on Kris’s Google accounts. Manager link requests in motion. Dummy Google Ads account created to capture promo credits ($3K spend unlocks $6K credit).

Budgets locked

Channel Spend CPL (Duluth) CAC Notes
LSA $1,200 / week $25 to $55 $125 to $175 Top priority. Pay-per-lead, no waste. 60% booking rate assumed.
Google Ads $1,750 to $2,500 / month $60 to $100 $250 to $350 Dummy campaign live to unlock promo credits, paused until access cleared.
Meta $500 to $600 / month initial n/a n/a Brand + lead gen. Scales to $900 to $1,200 once creative is proven. Video preferred.

Reporting consolidates into the GHL portal (call tracking + HCP attribution + ad performance). Compass AI handles automation + budget reallocation, human-reviewed for strategic moves.

Action items

Kris

Josh

Colleen

CJ (Kris is the conduit)

Revised launch sequence

When What
Wed 5/27 PM or Thu 5/28 AM Feedback tool live on dev site for Kris to annotate
Thu 5/28 Logos in, COI uploaded, CJ access requests sent
Fri 5/29 Website build complete. All account access secured. Negative keyword list shared. Cloudflare DNS routing live.
Mon 6/1 LAUNCH. LSA, Google Ads (real campaigns swap in for dummy), Meta all live. Site live on northlandairco.com behind Cloudflare.

Open compliance + verification items

Conventions update

Pre-call agenda (kept for reference)

Pre-call prep (Josh, before the call)

Section 1: Staging walkthrough (20 min)

Screen-share the staging site. Walk Kris through each page in order, ask “what do you want to change, what’s missing, what’s wrong?”

Decisions to capture per page: copy edits, photo swaps, CTA wording, what’s missing entirely.

Section 2: Open decisions from 5/19 (10 min)

Walk the list, force a yes/no on each. Anything still open by end of call gets a deadline.

Section 3: Access checklist (15 min, live on Kris’s laptop)

Knock these out in real time. Anything that can’t be collected on the spot gets a name and a deadline. Bold = launch blocker (we cannot go live 6/2 without it).

A. Domain + DNS + hosting

B. Google ecosystem

C. Meta / social

D. Field service + CRM + email

E. Other directories + listings

F. Customer list + revenue asset

G. Brand + creative assets

H. Compliance + LSA docs

Section 4: GHL + Twilio + HCP integration status (10 min)

Walk Kris through where this stands, not in the abstract.

Section 5: Ads launch sequencing (10 min)

Lock the day-1 (2026-06-02) ad posture.

Google Search. Day-1 live. - Service-level ad groups (heat pump, furnace/boiler, AC, mini-split, commercial) - Negative kw discipline locked (no “cheap” / “free estimate” / “affordable”) - City modifiers on high-intent searches

LSA. Application submitted? Status? - Verification typically 2-4 weeks, so realistic LSA live date is mid-to-late June - Confirm all docs in (license, insurance, background checks for techs)

Meta. Day-1 live. - Pixel installed on staging build, verified firing - Custom Audience from Superior Fuel list uploaded (needs the list) - Lookalike 1-3% built on top - Day-1 campaigns: Custom Audience (warm + $150 welcome offer), Lookalike (prospecting, 50-mi Duluth radius), site retargeting - Creative: logo + hero photos in hand. Truck photos use stand-ins until photo shoot.

Budget split: pending Section 2 budget confirmation, propose Search 50% / Meta 30% / LSA 20% once LSA is live.

Section 6: Cloudflare + DNS cutover plan (10 min)

This is the highest-risk step of launch. Walk Kris through it slowly.

Why Cloudflare and not GoDaddy DNS: BND-standard stack. Free CDN + free SSL + APO for WordPress (page-cache + HTML edge caching, big TTFB win on Flywheel) + DNS speed + bot filtering (we use this on Caster Central to deflect scraper traffic). Also gives us clean domain-property verification for Search Console and easy 301 redirect rules at the edge.

Sequence

Cloudflare account ownership decision

Two options to pick on the call:

  1. BND-owned, Kris invited: Cloudflare zone lives under bearnorthdigital@gmail.com. Kris added as Super Admin. Cleaner for ops (Colleen + Josh can manage without bothering Kris).
  2. Kris-owned, BND invited: Zone lives under kris@northlandairco.com. BND added as Super Admin. Cleaner for asset ownership (per agreement Section 6, client owns the domain stack).

Recommendation: Option 2 (Kris-owned). Matches the agreement’s asset-ownership posture and matches what we do for other clients. BND can still do everything we need as Super Admin.

Section 7: Launch checklist (this week) (5 min)

Read aloud, confirm owners + deadlines. Each item gets a name and a day.

Section 8: Reporting + cadence (3 min recap)

What Josh leaves the call with

Open questions to push on if they come up