Demystifying brand management became my life’s work.
Who I Am
I’ve spent the better part of my career doing one thing: helping organizations understand and harness the power of their brand. Not as a marketing exercise, but as a fundamental business strategy. That work has taken me to boardrooms, university classrooms, and conference stages on several continents — and it has never gotten old.
My firm, Brand Tool Box, which I founded in 1984, became the vehicle for putting these ideas into practice. Over the course of nearly four decades, I had the privilege of working with some of the world’s most recognized organizations — from 3M, IBM, FedEx, and American Express to Target, BMW, Sony, Stanford University Medical Center, and Walgreens, among many others. Each engagement deepened my conviction that brand building is not the exclusive domain of large companies with big budgets. It is a discipline available to any organization willing to commit to it.
My Work
My consulting practice focused on two interconnected areas. The first was helping organizations — large and small, for-profit and nonprofit — develop and execute brand strategies that were practical, culturally grounded, and built to last. The second was training: developing the internal capacity of leaders and marketing professionals to think and act like brand builders.
Over more than 35 years, my workshops and development tools have been used by tens of thousands of leaders across 23 countries. That reach has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career — seeing brand thinking take root in organizations around the world, across vastly different industries and cultures.
One of my most significant contributions to the field has been the discovery that aligning leaders’ personal brand values with corporate brand values is a remarkably powerful tool for organizational alignment. That insight became the foundation of our internal brand building programs and, ultimately, the basis for my best-selling book.
Be Your Own Brand
My book, Be Your Own Brand, opened an entirely new conversation about personal brand and its role inside organizations. Translated into 12 languages and with over 100,000 copies sold, it has been recognized as a foundational text in the personal brand movement. I am also a contributing author of Leading Authorities On Business: Winning Strategies from the Greatest Minds in Business Today, and more recently the lead author of My Brand My Future, a college textbook.
Thought Leadership & Teaching
For more than 30 years I have delivered keynote speeches to leadership and marketing audiences around the world. My perspective on brand has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The New York Times, NPR, NBC, CBS, ABC, and many other publications and media outlets globally. I also serve as an expert witness in legal cases involving brand-related matters.
I hold a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Minnesota. I have taught in the MBA programs at the University of Minnesota and Saint Thomas University, and have been a guest lecturer at the University of Westminster in London, ESADE University in Madrid, and Capella University, among others.
Beyond the Boardroom
My boardroom experience has included serving as a board member of Mesa Holdings, VocalEssence, MAP Consulting, and the National Eagles Center, as well as chair of the board of The Design Management Institute.