thoughts to feed your mind

You’ve defined your brand. You know what you stand for. Now comes the second half of the work — showing up.

This is where most leaders hesitate. Visibility can feel ambiguous or performative. But done right, it’s neither. It’s about making sure the right people understand your value before you ever...

So You’re Thinking About Building a Personal Brand. Start Here.

At Brand of a Leader, most of our clients don’t come to us with marketing decks and personal logos. They come with a proven track record — and a quiet realization that staying behind the scenes may be holding their business back.

If y...

by Marina Byezhanova

About Paper Napkin Wisdom

Paper Napkin Wisdom is a podcast for entrepreneurs, leaders, and difference makers that proves you don't need lengthy seminars or thick business books to revolutionize your thinking. Each episode features a guest who shares their most profound insight...

by Marina Byezhanova

At Brand of a Leader, we build personal brands for founders and CEOs. Not influencers, not figureheads, not aspirational personas. Actual leaders running actual companies.

Most of our clients didn't come looking for visibility. Visibility found them through a business need, a ...

 What does it take to build a global business while raising a family—and still stay grounded in your roots?

In a recent feature by Featured.com, our Co-founder Marina Byezhanova opens up about the powerful intersection of personal branding, entrepreneurship, and parenting. From bringing her childre...

By Marina Byezhanova

After four years of building Brand of a Leader and eleven years as an EO member, I experienced a significant first: we became an event sponsor.

Sponsorship had never been part of our strategy at Brand of a Leader. Having attended countless EO events across the globe, I underst...

Building a strong brand reputation takes more than excellent products or services—it requires authenticity, transparency, thought leadership, and a commitment to creating genuine value. In a recent article for CMO Times, industry leaders, including our Co-founder Marina Byezhanova, shared actionable...

by Marina Byezhanova

Growing up in Soviet Ukraine, I was intimately familiar with constraints—hard, inflexible barriers designed to keep people in and ideas out. Today, as my team at Brand of a Leader works with founders and CEOs on executive branding, I'm struck by how fundamentally limitless this...

By Marina Byezhanova

I love the moment after my speaking engagements when someone inevitably approaches me to confess how much they dreaded my session on personal branding before it started. These conversations have become so predictable that I now wait for them with anticipation, because what foll...

 It’s the most wonderful time of the year –– a brand-new episode of Voice of Leader has arrived! This month, we’re thrilled to spotlight the incredible Jenny Feterovich, a DJ, entrepreneur, and first-generation immigrant with a truly inspiring story.

In this episode, Jenny sits down with Lanisa Far...

By Alanna Fairey

Back in June, I was asked to speak at a conference my alma mater, Nottingham Trent University, was hosting. They saw me speak at the UN earlier this year, and invited me to give that same talk. 

Having completed my masters there in 2022, being asked to come back as an industry spe...

by Alanna Fairey

Most of my early career has been spent on a set. 

Whether it was for Fashion Week, magazine editorial shoots or fashion campaigns for different brands, I became very comfortable on a set, and loved being a creative director. Once I knew what the vision and goal of the shoot were, ...