Family By Design

Welcome to Family By Design

Helping good families
become great.

See clearly. Plan intentionally. Live your values. Create your legacy.

You can love your family deeply and still want to understand one another better, communicate more openly, and bring more intention to everyday life.

Family By Design exists to support that growth. We equip family leaders with insight, practical learning, and tools to build on their strengths, navigate differences, and create the family life they envision together.

Karl and Ann Barham, co-founders of Family By Design, smiling together among autumn trees
“By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.”
Proverbs 24:3-4, NIV
Karl and Ann Barham walking arm in arm across a grassy field, smiling
Every family has a story

Our story

Why we're building Family By Design.

We're Karl and Ann Barham: husband and wife, parents of two daughters, entrepreneurs, and followers of Jesus Christ.

Our professional lives have taught us the value of listening carefully, setting a shared direction, and turning good intentions into consistent action. Marriage and parenting give us daily opportunities to practice those lessons and keep learning.

We believe family leaders deserve accessible support for that work: a way to understand where their family is today, decide what matters most, and build the skills and habits to move forward.

Family By Design combines our experience in leadership, consulting, business ownership, and transformation with our education, our Christian faith, and our commitment to helping others grow.

Our approach

A coaching approach,
built for a connected world.

Even the best athletes have coaches. Feedback builds awareness. Training develops skills. A plan provides direction. Practice turns knowledge into progress.

Family leaders can benefit from that same approach. Family By Design focuses on family leadership and development. We help you learn, reflect, practice, and make thoughtful decisions for your own family.

As coaching and training have moved online, support no longer has to wait for a meeting room or a scheduled session. Digital tools can bring feedback, learning, planning, and progress together in one experience, ready as everyday life unfolds. We are bringing that opportunity to family leadership.

The journey begins with Family By Design Insights. Each family member shares their perspective individually, helping family leaders recognize strengths, differences, and opportunities that can be hard to see in everyday conversation.

As the platform grows, our vision is to connect those insights with a digital coaching companion: practical resources, guided planning, everyday activities, and check-ins that help families apply what they learn and see their progress over time.

Your family's journey

01

See clearly.

Understand how each person experiences family life. Recognize what is working and what deserves attention.

02

Plan intentionally.

Clarify your shared purpose, values, and priorities. Choose meaningful, achievable next steps.

03

Live your values.

Practice through conversations, routines, and everyday choices. Check in, celebrate progress, and adjust together.

04

Create your legacy.

Make the love, wisdom, character, and traditions you hope to pass forward part of how your family lives today.

You bring your family's values, relationships, and hopes. Family By Design helps you turn that understanding into intentional action.

Our approach is educational and developmental. Family By Design does not provide clinical assessment, diagnosis, or therapy, and it does not replace professional counseling or advice.

Meet our founders

Real family. Shared vision.

Meet Karl and Ann Barham, the husband-and-wife team behind Family By Design.

Ann Barham

Co-Founder of Family By Design

Ann brings experience as a consultant, business owner, and business transformation project manager to the work of equipping families. Her background helps her understand different perspectives, guide meaningful change, and turn a shared vision into practical steps.

Those skills shape Family By Design resources that help families clarify priorities, make useful plans, and build habits that support lasting growth.

As a wife and the mother of two young daughters, Ann knows that plans have to work amid busy schedules, changing needs, and the individuality of each family member. A lifelong student of the Bible and follower of Jesus Christ, she brings compassion, wisdom, grace, and a heart for service to helping family leaders grow in confidence and capability.

Karl Barham

Co-Founder of Family By Design

Karl brings experience in executive leadership, business ownership, strategy, and organizational development to Family By Design. He holds an MBA from Emory University's Goizueta Business School.

His experience shapes resources that help family leaders ask better questions, set a shared direction, and connect long-term purpose with everyday action. He focuses on turning leadership lessons into simple practices families can use to communicate, follow through, and grow together.

As a husband, the father of two young daughters, and a follower of Jesus Christ, Karl sees leadership as a responsibility to serve and develop others. He is committed to helping families strengthen relationships, build capability, and thoughtfully shape what they pass on to the next generation.

Our foundation

Rooted in Christian faith.
Welcoming to every family.

Our Christian faith inspires why we build and how we serve. We believe God intends family life to nurture love, belonging, character, and purpose.

Principles such as honesty, grace, forgiveness, service, and stewardship shape our approach. For us, this work is an expression of discipleship: putting faith into practice in everyday life.

Family By Design welcomes families of every faith and families with no religious affiliation. You do not need to share our beliefs to benefit from our resources. Your family's story, values, and priorities guide the direction you choose.

Our roots are Christian.
Our invitation is for every family.

Who we serve

  • A Christian foundation at the center
  • Faith-oriented families
  • Values-driven families
  • All families

How we serve them

  • Be transparent
  • Focus on shared values
  • Give choice
  • Deliver practical tools
  • Keep the door open
Our foundation and the breadth of families we serve.
100%
Nested circles: Christian Foundation at the center, then faith-oriented families, values-driven families, and all families. Our approach: be transparent, focus on shared values, give choice, deliver practical tools, keep the door open.

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What guides us

Timeless values.
Everyday impact.

Strong families are shaped by the small choices we make each day: how we listen, love, serve, forgive and care for one another.

These virtues inspire our work. They are invitations to reflection and growth, not prerequisites for participation.

  • Love
  • Service
  • Stewardship
  • Integrity
  • Honor
  • Wisdom
  • Grace
  • Purpose
  • Legacy
The values that inspire our work.
100%
A tree with leaves for love, service, stewardship, integrity, honor, wisdom, grace, purpose and legacy around a heart labeled Stronger Families

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Our vision

A vision bigger than us.

Over the next decade, our goal is to equip family leaders to strengthen their families and pass on a legacy of love, wisdom, and purpose to the next generation.

Our prayer is that Family By Design becomes a vessel God uses to help transform families toward what He intends, through stronger relationships, wiser leadership, and everyday acts of love.

We seek His guidance in what we build, how we serve, and the partnerships we develop. We commit to working faithfully, listening humbly, and trusting Him with the outcome.

We hope the growth that begins in one household will extend through generations, as family members carry forward what they have learned and lived.

Karl and Ann Barham

Our commitment

Thoughtfully built. Respectfully shared.

Every voice matters

Every family member's perspective deserves to be heard and treated with care.

Be transparent

We openly acknowledge the beliefs and values that inspire our work.

Offer practical tools

We focus on useful insights, conversations and small steps families can take.

Keep the door open

We welcome families from different backgrounds and respect their choices.

Your next chapter

Your family's next chapter
starts with understanding.

Build on what is good. Discover where you can grow. Take one intentional step together.

Karl and Ann Barham standing together by a wooden gate in autumn