About

Karen Leland is a leading expert on how to maximize your customer focus in today’s technological era. She addresses the issues of forging long-term customer loyalty, building a strategy for service excellence and keeping the human connection despite the rampant growth of technology. Karen has experienced first-hand the value of developing and promoting a personal or organizational brand in order to thrive in the modern, fast-paced communications world of business.

When you have Karen as your speaker, your audience comes away with solid action steps to use to achieve higher brand reputation. She shows leaders how to enhance their value and reputation using her proven methods for establishing brands. In the Information Age, nothing builds your value or establishes you as a thought leader or industry leader faster than the strong online presence strategies Karen shows your audience how to build.

Additional Services

• The Brand Mapping Process©
• The Brand-Centric Company Assessment

Companies We’ve Impacted

Testimonials

Videos

Candidates Promoting Brands & Social Media

Photo Gallery

Stream Energy – Women of Power Summit

Speaking Topics

Are you Prepared for the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

The Top 5 Skills You Must Master by 2020 to Survive and Thrive

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is just around the corner – but are you prepared to survive and even thrive in it? According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum, by the year 2020, over one-third of skills (35%) that are considered important in today’s workforce will have changed dramatically.
Factors including advanced robotics and artificial intelligence will transform the way we live and work. They will also require leaders and workers alike to master some new abilities and align their skillset to keep pace. This highly engaging presentation presents scenarios and strong suggestions for mastering the 21st Century skills needed to compete in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Why A Compelling C-Suite and CEO Brand is Not an Option in Today’s Wired World:

Driving Reputation Management, Leadership Presence & Market Influence

A personal brand is not just a single statement or a clever quip but a multilayered, congruent narrative told across multiple channels — online and off — within the organization and out to the larger business community. The power is in knowing how to tell the story.
 
Far from being a luxury, an exercise in ego or even a nice-to-have, building an executive or CEO brand is a requirement in our digital world. According to the Burson-Marsteller “CEO Reputation Study,” close to 50 percent of the reputation of a company can be attributed to the standing of its CEO. Like it or not, today’s CEO has been pre-cast in the role of their company’s Chief Brand Ambassador.
 
How can today’s CEOs powerfully get their messages across, motivate others to action and be authentic — all while simultaneously shepherding initiatives from creation to implementation in high-demand work environments? Personal branding is one of the key success factors today’s leaders need to master to gain greater influence, generate engagement and achieve peak performance.
 
This keynote presentation helps audience members understand how they can create a parallel CEO brand that works in harmony with their company brand. Topics include: Creating a unique CEO/C-suite branding proposition and promise, the six core qualities of executive presence, four tools for powerfully presenting your CEO/C-suite brand online and off, and defining and refining the three expressions of a CEO/C-suite brand.

Three Steps to Industry and Thought Leadership:

Expand Your Reputation, Reach and Top Line Revenue from Brand Development to Business Acceleration
 
Most experts, entrepreneurs and small business owners are so busy working in their day-to-day business that they don’t take the time or develop the knowledge needed to do the branding and marketing required to build their business.
 
The Modern Marketing Pyramid© – introduces a strategic and comprehensive approach that integrates business development, branding, content/Internet marketing, public relations and social media.
 
This program (presented as either a keynote or more in-depth breakout session) explores the key elements of platform development, the essential actions of brand and buzz building and the content marketing activities critical for thought and industry leadership. This session is packed with actionable information that will help any business move to the next level in its marketing and brand building. Karen explores 4 significant shifts in branding & marketing, assessing where you are in the pyramid & determining how to move your business to the next level and the 3 most costly brand-building mistakes.

Personal Branding for Individual Leadership:

Design, Build and Accelerate Your Brand

Your personal brand is not just a single statement or a clever quip, but a pathway to positioning yourself as a natural leader in your company, community, and career. The power is in knowing how to tell your story – online and off.
 
This means moving beyond the contribution gap in your personal brand; learning to live beyond the scripts of your roles, knowledge, and results and, instead, tapping into the heart of your unique contribution. 
 
This program (presented as either a keynote or more in-depth breakout session) explores the best ways to create a personal brand that helps everyone from the secretary to the CEO stand out as a leader and give their natural gifts. Karen explores why having a personal brand is not an option in today’s online world. She also includes steps to creating a powerful personal brand and best personal branding practices on social media.

Building A Personal CEO Digital Brand:

3 Steps to Creating A Powerful Presence Online

A CEO brand is not just a single statement or a clever quip but a multilayered, congruent narrative told across multiple channels — off and online — within the organization and out to the larger business community. The power is in knowing how to tell the story.

In one survey 68% of journalists said that they use social media sites such as LinkedIn to research story sources. And according to BRANDfog’s Global Social CEO Survey the major benefits of leadership participation in social networks include better communication, improved brand image, more transparency, and improved company morale. Specifically, the survey reported that 75 percent of those surveyed believe that C-Suite and executive leadership is improved by participation on social media. 
This presentation helps CEO’s and C-Suite executives understand how they can create a personal digital brand that works in harmony with their company brand. Karen explores how to create unique online branding propositions to stand out from the crowd as well as four tools for powerfully presenting your personal brand online and defining and refining the three core expressions of a personal brand online.

Book