Your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room. “If you don’t define your brand, someone else will.”

Your brand is not a single statement or a clever quip but a multilayered and congruent story told across multiple channels, both online and off.

Define your brand

We help CEOs, executives, authors & entrepreneurs dramatically turn up the volume on their personal brands.

SMG has helped their clients:

Get noticed
  • Get profiled in Arianna Huffington’s latest book, “Thrive.”
  • Get booked on The Today Show, resulting in closing a multinational client.
  • Secure a six-figure book deal based on a well-positioned book proposal.
  • Make the New York Times Best Seller list.
  • Score media coverage on CNN and MSNBC.
  • 25% increase in investor funding over prior capital raise.
  • Quickly attain the perfect CEO job in a highly competitive field.
  • Achieve promotion to a prestigious international C-suite position.

Let SMG use our personal branding services to help you move the needle on your brand.

The SMG Brand Mapping Strategy© Process

This is a starting point for all of our personal branding services work.

This process focuses on discovering and honing the nine essential elements of an engaging and effective executive, CEO or personal brand. We powerfully assist our clients in clarifying their unique brand narrative, promise, and position. Then we translate that position into a wide variety of results, including:

  • Robust social media
  • On-target PR placement
  • Podcast bookings
  • Published books
  • Impactful websites
  • Featured conference speaker and panelist

Meet Karen Leland

Karen Tiber Leland is the founder of Sterling Marketing Group, a branding & marketing strategy firm helping CEO’s, executives, and entrepreneurs, build stronger personal, team and business brands. Her clients include: Apple, AT&T, LinkedIn, Marriott, and Google.  She is the best-selling author of twelve traditionally published books, which have sold more than 450,000 copies. Her latest is The Brand Mapping Strategy: Design, Build and Accelerate Your Brand. Karen has spoken at Harvard, Stanford, American Management Associaion and TedX.  She is a frequent guest of the media and has been interviewed by New York Times, Today Shoe, Fox, CNBC, Fortune, Inc., Entrepreneur and many others. 

Headshot of Karen Tiber LeLand
I must confess that your session on executive branding was the biggest eye opener I have had in years. It was also one of the best presentations I have had the opportunity to attend.
H. Cowell, Managing Director
SC Johnson Wax
I could not have achieved this level of quality on my own. I am grateful to you for your expertise and for setting me up for success with my personal brand and book on a world stage. As a mentor you are helpful, fun to work with, responsive, and efficient.
B. Schulte, CEO
Center for Equestrian Performance and High-Performance Coach
I can’t thank you enough for the guidance and expert advice you have provided me in re-branding my LinkedIn profile and strategic use of the site. Since revamping my presence and following your recommendations, the number of contacts that have reached out to me have increased on a weekly basis. I am blown away.
T. Souers, Partner
Corcoran Global Living, CA
I must confess that your session on executive branding was the biggest eye opener I have had in years. It was also one of the best presentations I have had the opportunity to attend.
H. Cowell Managing Director
SC Johnson Wax
Your generous support and expertise have helped us to overcome many obstacles and achieve enduring growth and success in building a world class brand.
R. Ingrasci, Founder
Hoffman Institute
Your webinar on executive presence was dynamic, vibrant, and absolutely packed with actionable insights! Our community of C-Suite professionals had only wonderful feedback about the presentation, saying that they feel empowered and capable to now take ownership over their own personal and professional brand.
M. Fahl, Content Manager
IVY Exec.

More Testimonials

7 Reasons Why SMG is a Good Partner to Bring Your
Brand to the Next Level.

20+ Years of expertise

in the area of personal, CEO, & business branding/marketing.

Management consulting background

Karen has worked on employee engagement, leadership development, and customer engagement projects around the world. We deeply understand how to create Branding From The Inside Out.

Private concierge service

Unlike many firms where the people who head the project don’t do the work, our projects are exclusively executed by our founder Karen Tiber Leland.

Proven track record

of best practices & success in a wide variety of organizations & industries around the world.

Long-term brand equity

A one-time investment with us yields a distinctive brand identity, messaging, and strategy and helps secure a strong, long-term brand position.

Knows how to tell a story

Karen Tiber Leland is an award-winning writer, best-selling author, working actor, television reporter, and exhibiting artist.

Unparalleled performance guarantee

that says the work we do is not complete until we deliver what we promise. We don’t work on a retainer model, but rather on mutually agreed-upon deliverables.

Ready to define your personal brand?

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