Brenda Bence is passionate about two things: branding and leadership—and how the two work together. After earning her MBA from Harvard Business School, she spent 20 years building billion-dollar mega brands across four continents for Fortune 100 consumer giants like Procter & Gamble and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Brenda then started her own business to help companies and individuals define and grow their own successful leadership brands.
Brenda combined her years of expertise in brand-building along with her passion and experience in corporate leadership to create a proprietary, step-by-step personal leadership branding system that is based on the same methods used by household name brands. This system has become the foundation of building brands for leaders in companies across the globe.
Now sought after across six continents as a C-Suite Coach and Keynote Speaker, Brenda has been inducted into the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame and is one of only a handful of professional speakers worldwide who have also earned the coveted Global Certified Speaking Professional title from the Global Speakers Federation. This reflects Brenda’s mastery in addressing diverse, multi-cultural, and multi-generational audiences around the world.
Amber Erickson-Hurdle works with companies that want to drive employee engagement, profitability, and brand awareness. Meeting planners and organizations hire Amber for her straight-shooting and humorous advice that empowers leaders, unites teams, and inspires action to achieve bottom-line results.
The founder of Employer Brand Central, Amber’s agency and subscription service, turns branding on its head to ensure each employee upholds their company’s brand promise to foster customer satisfaction and loyalty. EBC’s winning formula strengthens brands from the inside out, focusing on reducing talent-related expenses and increasing revenue through an engaged team to increase margin. Her philosophy is that strong personal brands lead strong employer brands so that highly engaged teams deliver an elevated business brand experience.
Amber has a special knack for working with middle-market businesses and investors in the M&A space who need to quickly and effectively merge brands while communicating the vision and strategy to the teams who get the work done.
With several business awards received, Amber Hurdle’s speaking, consulting, and coaching clients include large brands such as FedEx Ground, Marriott Hotels, Opry Entertainment Group, and Cintas, as well as small to medium-sized businesses that want to play big.
Donald Miller is the CEO of StoryBrand and every year helps more than 3,000 business leaders clarify their brand message. Combined, Don’s books have spent more than a year on the New York Times Bestsellers list. His books include: Blue Like Jazz, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, and Scary Close.
Don is widely considered one of the most entertaining and informative speakers in the world. His audiences are challenged to lean into their own story, creatively develop and execute the story of their team, and understand the story of their customers so they can serve them with passion. Don’s thoughts on story have deeply influenced leaders and teams for Pantene, Chick-fil-A, Steelcase, Intel, Prime Lending, Zaxby’s, and thousands more.
Don lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Betsy, and their chocolate lab, Lucy.
Jane Anderson is a Branding and Strategic Communications expert. With over 20 years’ experience in corporate communications, personal branding, and business growth, she has worked with over 150,000 people, especially women, on building more trust and influence in their businesses and brands.
She has won more than 50 marketing and business coaching awards.
She is the host of the iTunes podcast “The Jane Anderson Show” interviewing people like Seth Godin and has been featured in Business Insider, Sky Business, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She is also a contributor to Forbes Magazine.
Her clients have included some of the world’s leading experts in their field as well as iconic brands such as Virgin Australia, Lego, Ikea, Rio Tinto and Origin Energy.
She is the author of 13 books including “Exceptionality: How to Build a Personal Brand that’s Wildly Unique and World Class”.
A Fast Company expert blogger and the subject of numerous articles in Forbes, ADWEEK, Huffington Post and Business Insider, David Brier is the recipient of the Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship medallion, presented to David by Shark Tank star and NY Times bestseller Daymond John.
An award-winning veteran (recipient of over 330 international industry recognitions) in branding, rebrands, design and brand strategy, David has designed and transformed global brands, regional and local brands, and brands for startups and even cities.
David also wrote the new “branding bible” and Amazon bestseller, Brand Intervention, 33 Steps to Transform the Brand You Have into the Brand Need, with a Foreword written by Daymond John of Shark Tank and FUBU.
David is also a highly sought-after guest on podcasts and live streams on the topic of branding, and his popular One Minute Wednesday series found on YouTube.
Martin Lindstrom is sought after as a branding/marketing/keynote speaker and workshop leader by companies and organizations throughout the world. The rapid rise of his career has made him one of today’s most respected branding speakers in the world according to the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He sits on several boards globally, and his clients include Disney, Mars, Pepsi, American Express, Mercedes-Benz, Reuters, Visa, McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, Ericsson, Yellow Pages and Microsoft.
He energizes audiences with his creative genius and dynamic, motivational style. Lindstrom’s reputation for earning “a guaranteed standing ovation” at his compelling lectures on branding accompanies his popularity as an Advertising Consultant, keynote speaker, Branding Consultant, workshop leader and in-house trainer. Martin Lindstrom is the author of 5 books, including collaborative works with industry icons such as Dr. Philip Koter Kotler on Marketing), Paco Underhill Why We Buy), Dr. Don Peppers, Martha Rogers 1to1 Marketing) and Patricia Seybold (Customer.com). Buyology – Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (Doubleday, New York), has been translated into over 40 languages.
William Arruda is a motivational speaker, entrepreneur and the world’s leading authority on the topic of personal branding. He’s the bestselling author of the definitive books on the topic: Career Distinction and Ditch. Dare. Do! His latest book, Digital YOU helps readers translate their real-world brands for the virtual world. William is the CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer) of Reach Personal Branding and the co-founder of CareerBlast.TV – a personal and digital branding video learning platform for innovative organizations. His products have been used by over a million people across the globe. He’s honored to work with many of the world’s most revered brands, including 20% of the Fortune 100. William regularly shares his thoughts on workplace trends and branding in his Forbes column. He holds a Master’s degree in Education.
Dr. Jerome Joseph is an award-winning Brand Strategist, Global Speaker and Thought Leader focused on Brand Strategy, Digital Branding, Internal Branding & Personal Branding. With his past experience as a CEO & Board Member of a public listed brand agency & global group, he brings real life brand expertise through keynotes, workshops and consulting.
He is a bestselling Author of 8 books on Branding including the acclaimed “Internal Branding: Growing your Brand from Within” & “The Brand Playbook”. Dr. Jerome has over 25 years of experience and has impacted over 1000 brands, majority of which are Fortune 500 companies, in 35 countries. The combination of real-life consulting experience, global expertise and proven speaking skills, makes Jerome a highly sought-after speaker in the market. Some of the brands that Jerome has worked with include: Hitachi, Novo Nordisk, Dell, SAP, Pfizer, Prudential, BASF, HSBC, OCBC, DHL, LEXUS and many more.
Sunny Bonnell is an American bestselling author, leadership and brand expert, and motivational speaker. She is also the CEO & Chief Visionary of Motto, one of the leading branding companies in the country.
Sunny has been called a “visionary thinker with a rare breed of talent.” As a leadership and strategic brand advisor for CXO leaders, Sunny aims to dismantle business-as-usual, think around corners, challenge convention, and break what needs to be broken.
Under Sunny’s guidance, Motto’s award-winning work has disrupted every category imaginable for brands such as Microsoft, Google, Hershey’s, the NFL, and Twentieth Century Fox.
Her work and thought leadership has been featured in Forbes, The Verge, ESPN, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, and hundreds more publications.
Sunny is a author of RARE BREED: A Guide to Success for the Defiant, Dangerous & Different (HarperCollins) is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Books-a-Million and wherever books are sold.
Alina Wheeler engages enterprises in a dynamic process to build their brands and embrace best practices. Wheeler inspires the whole branding team to seize every opportunity to design compelling customer experiences at every touchpoint. Designing Brand Identity, now in its fifth edition, is the first book to deconstruct the branding process into a universal, five-phase methodology. Her signature mantra is “Who are you? Who needs to know? Why should they care? How will they find out?” Designing Brand Identity demystifies branding and gives practitioners a roadmap to create sustainable and successful brands. It is published in 7 languages, and is used by clients and their branding and design firms to educate their staffs.
Sally Hogshead is a New York Times bestselling author, Hall of Fame® speaker, and the CEO of How to Fascinate, helping companies develop messages that persuade and captivate. By age 24, she became the most award-winning copywriter in the United States, and she’s been described by the press as “an advertising mastermind” who “changed the face of North American advertising.” Her campaigns for brands such as MINI Cooper, Nike, and Coca-Cola have fascinated millions of consumers. To develop the science of fascination, Hogshead measured over one million professionals over the course of a decade. Using this research, she built a marketing system that now lives inside organizations such as IBM, Twitter, and Porsche. Her two most recent books, Fascinate, and How the World Sees You, are both national bestsellers.
Jenny Fernandez is an Executive Coach, CMO, and Professor at Columbia Business School & New York University. Her mission is to help leaders and teams position themselves to drive exponential growth by unlocking strategic resilience, team collaboration, and innovative thinking.
Jenny is a member of Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches and is certified on Stakeholder-centered Leadership. She has over 20 years of experience leading, launching, and growing brands, from multi-million-dollar businesses within Mondelez International, Kraft Foods, Merlin Entertainments, Loacker and Accenture. She is a Board Advisor at the American Marketing Association and Board Chair of the award-winning non-profit Global Connections for Women Foundation. Jenny is a contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Forbes. She speaks in engagements, and panels about leadership, Personal Branding, Executive marketing, and business growth.
Her book “Zig-Zag to the Top – How to Master the Habits, Behaviors and Mindsets to Succeed” will be published in 2023.
Richard Sauerman is The Brand Guy. He acquired his brand expertise working in the ad industry for multi-national ad agencies Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy & Mather, DDB, McCann-Erickson, and George Patterson Partners.
He left advertising in 2004 to pioneer a new way of doing branding, where everything you do and say as a company, business or organisation must be driven by and aligned to your brand strategy – especially your people and culture.
He has worked closely with CEOs and Executive, HR and Marketing teams to create, reboot and reshape over 200 brands and businesses in Australia and internationally, across just every business category: from iconic brands (Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Vodafone, and Levis) to international brands (Laborie, Allegis Global Solutions), Australian brands (QBE, Arnott’s, Tourism Australia, Mortgage Choice, Penfolds), not-for-profits (CSIRO, Data61, Breast Cancer Trials), and start-ups (LeukBook, T-shirt Ventures).
Leonard Kim’s TEDx Talk, Why You Should Let Your Fears Guide You, has been internationally recognized as one of the best TED Talks by Forbes and Inc. Magazine.
Leonard is recognized by Forbes as a Top Marketing Influencer, Inc. Magazine as a Top Digital Marketer and Top Youth Marketer and by Entrepreneur as a Top Personal Branding Expert. Adweek recognized him as one of their Socially Strong Entrepreneurs Every VC Should Be Following. He went from being almost homeless to becoming a personal branding expert whose content has been read over 10 million times. He has amassed a social media following of well over 500,000 people. He’s been featured in a huge list of publications, including Mashable, Inc, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fortune and more.
Leonard is managing partner of InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.
Strategize, guide, advise, integrate. Serial entrepreneur, investor, speaker, leader, and former private investigator (not the Sherlock Holmes kind) Lisa has a unique set of skills most advisors don’t have.
Known for her unique ability to quickly make complex principles simple and then execute, so entrepreneurs can reach their full potential in their business.
Fearless, scrappy, passionate, full of grit, and unstoppable. No hurdle is too high and no ask is too small when looking to get a strategic edge on your future.
Rick Jetter, Ph.D. is an educator, author, speaker, trainer and national education consultant. He has worked in the field of education for over 21 years and has held the positions of: alternative education teacher, English teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent of schools before pursuing a career in consulting, speaking, writing and publishing. Known as “Dr. J.,” he is also the co-founder and lead consultant at Pushing Boundaries Consulting, LLC and a 2020-2021 fellow for the NY Education Policy Fellowship Program sponsored by Teachers College, Columbia University and Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES. Dr. J. is currently one (of a very small handful) of scholars and thought leaders across the nation who develops narrative theory research models for transforming school culture and carrying out school reform initiatives.
Erik M. Francis, M.Ed., M.S., is an international author, educator, presenter, and professional development provider. He has over 25 years of experience in education working as a classroom teacher, a site administrator, an education program specialist for a state education agency, and a trainer of teachers and school leaders.
Erik is the author of Deconstructing Depth of Knowledge: A Method and Model for Deeper Teaching and Learning published by Solution Tree. He is also the author of Now That’s a Good Question! How to Promote Cognitive Rigor Through Classroom Questioning published by ASCD. His areas of expertise include inquiry-based teaching and learning using good questions, Depth of Knowledge (DOK), cognitive rigor, standards-based learning and grading, authentic learning (project-based, problem-based, product-based), differentiating instruction, individualizing and personalizing learning, and talent development.
Dr. Joseph S. Renzulli is a leader and pioneer in gifted education and applying the pedagogy of gifted education teaching strategies to all students. The American Psychological Association named him among the 25 most influential psychologists in the world. Dr. Renzulli received the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Award for Innovation in Education, considered by many to be “the Nobel” for educators, and was a consultant to the White House Task Force on Education of the Gifted and Talented.
Joseph S. Renzulli is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut, where he also serves as director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. His research has focused on the identification and development of creativity and giftedness in young people and on organizational models and curricular strategies for total school improvement. A focus of his work has been on applying the strategies of gifted education to the improvement of learning for all students.
Dr. Renzulli’s work on the Three Ring Conception of Giftedness, the Enrichment Triad Model and curriculum compacting and differentiation were pioneering efforts in the 1970s, and he has contributed hundreds of books, book chapters, articles, and monographs to the professional literature, many of which have been translated to other languages. Dr. Renzulli’s enrichment-based and differentiated teaching model has been utilized by more than 35,000 teachers from around the world since 1978.
Robert j Marzano PhD, is cofounder and CEO of Marzano Resources in Colorado. A leading researcher in education, he is a speaker, trainer, and author of more than 30 books and 150 articles on topics such as instruction, assessment, writing and implementing standards, cognition, effective leadership, and school intervention. His books include The Art and Science of Teaching and Effective Supervision. His practical translations of the most current research and theory into classroom strategies are internationally known and widely practiced by both teachers and administrators. Dr. Marzano received a bachelor’s degree from Iona College in New York, a master’s degree from Seattle University, and a doctorate from the University of Washington.
Dr. Todd Whitaker has been fortunate to be able to blend his passion with his career. Recognized as a leading presenter in the field of education, his message about the importance of teaching has resonated with hundreds of thousands of educators around the world. Todd is a professor of educational leadership at the University of Missouri and professor emeritus at Indiana State University. He has spent his life pursuing his love of education by researching and studying effective teachers and principals.
Prior to moving into higher education he was a math teacher and basketball coach in Missouri. Todd then served as a principal at the middle school, junior high, and high school levels. He was also a middle school coordinator in charge of staffing, curriculum, and technology for the opening of new middle schools.
Jimmy Casas has been an educator for over 30 years, serving 22 years as a school leader, including fourteen years as Principal at Bettendorf High School. Under his leadership, Bettendorf was named one of the Best High Schools in the country three times by Newsweek and US News & World Report.
Jimmy was named the 2012 Iowa Secondary Principal of the Year and was selected as runner-up NASSP 2013 National Secondary Principal of the Year. In 2014, Jimmy was invited to the White House to speak on the Future Ready Schools pledge. Jimmy is also the author of ten books, including the best-selling books Culturize, Live Your Excellence, Handle with Care, and Recalibrate the Culture. Jimmy’s newest release, Words on the Wall, is already a top-selling book on Amazon.
Jimmy is the owner and CEO of J Casas & Associates, where he serves as a professional leadership coach for school leaders across the country. In January 2020, Jimmy launched ConnectEDD, a publishing company aimed at giving back to the profession by supporting educators to become published authors.
is an award-winning educator, best-selling author, TEDx speaker, coach, husband, and father. He is the author of, Bold School, Breaking Bold, co-author of The Learning Transformation: A Guide to Blended Learning for Administrators and the creator and host of Teaching Keating; one of the most downloaded podcasts for educators and parents on iTunes. Weston has worked in collaboration with innovative tech and publishing companies (Google, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Apple) to redefine teaching and learning in the digital age.
As such, he’s advised educators from every state in the US and more than 30 countries around the world. Districts where Mr. Kieschnick has designed content, implemented initiatives, and trained educational leaders have been recognized by the Learning Counsel as being among the top ten in the nation for their work in blended learning. You can find Weston’s work published in EdWeek, EdTech Magazine, The Spark, and featured on TED, the 10-Minute Teacher, Teaching Tales, Kids Deserve It, and LeadUp Teach.
Professor John Hattie is a researcher in education. His research interests include performance indicators, models of measurement and evaluation of teaching and learning. John Hattie became known to a wider public with his two books Visible Learning and Visible Learning for teachers. Visible Learning is a synthesis of more than 800 meta-studies covering more than 80 million students. According to John Hattie Visible Learning is the result of 15 years of research about what works best for learning in schools. TES once called him “possibly the world’s most influential education academic”.
John Hattie has been Director of the Melbourne Educational Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, since March 2011. Before, he was Project Director of asTTle and Professor of Education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He holds a PhD from the University of Toronto, Canada. You can find a full CV of Professor John Hattie (PDF) at the website of the University of Auckland.
Doug Fisher is a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University, where he focuses on policies and practices in literacy and school leadership. Additionally, he is a teacher leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College, an award-winning, open-enrollment public school in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego that he cofounded in 2007. His areas of interest include instructional design, curriculum development, and professional learning. A passionate educator, Fisher’s work is dedicated to impacting professional learning communities and nurturing the knowledge and skills of caring teachers and school leaders so they may help students improve their learning and attain their goals and aspirations.
Fisher is a member of the California Reading Hall of Fame as well as the recipient of an International Reading Association William S. Grey citation of merit and Exemplary Leader award from the Conference on English Leadership of NCTE. Previously, he was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. He has published numerous articles and books on literacy and leadership, teaching and learning, and improving student achievement.
Carol Ann Tomlinson is William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Policy and co-director of the Institutes on Academic Diversity at the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia. She works throughout the United States and internationally with educators who want to create classrooms that are more responsive to a broad range of learners.
Tomlinson’s experience as an educator includes 21 years as a public school teacher working with preschoolers, middle school students, and high school students. At the secondary level, she taught English, language arts, German, and history. She also administered district-level programs for struggling and advanced learners and was Virginia’s Teacher of the Year in 1974.
Trevor Muir is a passionate educator, speaker, and author who believes in the transformative power of education. He has gained international recognition for his innovative teaching methods and inspiring content, which empower teachers and students to unleash their full potential.
Trevor began his career as a teacher in Michigan, where he taught middle and high school using project-based learning. While continuing to teach pre-service teachers at Grand Valley State University, Trevor also delivers keynote speeches and conducts workshops at schools and conferences all around the world.
Trevor’s dedication to education is reflected in his books, videos, blog and podcast which showcase his work in the classroom and the effectiveness of purposeful learning. He is also the founder of The Epic Classroom, his social media where he connects with millions of educators who share his passion for teaching and learning.
Trevor believes in the potential of every student and teacher, and his work is driven by his desire to create positive change in the educational landscape to unlock more of that potential.
Bryan Goodwin is the president and CEO of McREL International, a Denver-based nonprofit education research and development organization. Goodwin, a former teacher and journalist, has been at McREL for 15 years, serving previously as Chief Operating Officer and Director of Communications and Marketing.
He has authored or co-authored several books, including Simply Better: Doing What Matters Most to Change the Odds for Student Success, The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching: A Checklist for Staying Focused Every Day, Balanced Leadership for Powerful Learning: Tools for Achieving Success in Your School and The Future of Schooling: Educating America in 2020. Goodwin writes a monthly research column for Educational Leadership and presents research findings and insights to audiences across the United States and in Canada and Australia.
Michael Fullan is a Canadian researcher on education and the former Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He is one of those who reform educational system to achieve moral purposes of all children learning. As an award winning author, he also received several awards through his books including Leading in a Culture of Change, Breakthrough with Peter Hill and Carmel Crevola, Turnaround Leadership in Higher Education with Geoff Scott and Change Wars with Andy Hargreaves. Winner (with Andy Hargreaves) of the Grawemeyer Award in 2015 for the book Professional Capital of Teachers—award for “the power of a single creative idea that can impact on the world”.Latest two books ar the bestsellers : Coherence (with Joanne Quinn), and Deep Learning ; Engage the world Change the world (with Joanne Quinn, and Joanne McEachen).
Brad Weinstein founded TeacherGoals in 2014 as a way to inspire educators who do such important work with students. Brad is a publisher of education and children’s books as well as leads the strategic vision of the organization.
Brad is the co-author of the Washington Post bestseller Hacking School Discipline and has been featured in numerous publications and podcasts. He is also a co-author of the #1 best-seller, The AI Classroom. He has spent the last several years working with schools across the world with the implementation of his work.
Brad has dedicated his career to empowering students with the skills they need for success in a rapidly changing world. He first carried out this vision as an elementary and middle school teacher before later becoming the principal of a high school on the east side of Indianapolis. Brad went on to be the founding Director of Curriculum and Instruction for a STEM-focused network of schools dedicated to authentic learning by tackling real-world problems.
Tom Miller understands the unique set of challenges facing both aspiring and experienced charter school leaders today. Tom has spent more than two decades at the forefront in school leadership. Tom got his start as an exceptional children’s teacher who, over time and personal growth, worked his way into becoming the executive director of one of the most successful charter schools in Florida. When he wrote his dissertation on the characteristics of effective charter schools, he was recruited by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to be a statewide consultant. Through his multiple leadership and influence certifications, he started his own business, Leaders Building Leaders, facilitating elite-level leadership development and executive coaching to schools. Tom lives in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, and he is the father of two and the lucky husband of one beautiful wife, Jennifer.
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