Kelli Binnings of Build Smart Brands: 5 Things You Should Do To Become a Thought Leader In Your Industry
An Interview With Dina Aletras
Be supportive of others through collaboration and shared experiences. Thought leadership isn’t just about what you share, but rather what and who you support. Surround yourself with variety and input from others you respect. Invite them to collaborate and grow with you. Supporting other thought leaders in your industry through engagement and shared experiences will no doubt elevate your collective communities and extend the value you offer by contributing to something bigger than yourself.
As part of our series about how to become known as a thought leader in your industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kelli Binnings.
Kelli Binnings is a multi-disciplined creative who loves talking and writing about brand, psychology, and leadership. She is founder and Chief Brand Strategist at Build Smart Brands, soon-to-be author of her first book, The Breakout Creative, set for release late ’25, and currently completing her Master’s in Psychology of Arts, Neuroaesthetics, and Creativity at Goldsmiths in London.
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us! Our readers are eager to learn more about you. Could you provide some background information about yourself?
Sure! Well, I’m Kelli, a New Orleans native with a dash of Los Angeles grit who now lives in London pursuing my MSc in Psychology and am loving every minute of it. I’m a 15+ year entrepreneur in brand strategy and creative consulting with a background in visual design, communications, and photography, which has served me well in my multi-disciplined creative career. I’m also an avid “design your life” believer, firm supporter of others leading their lives and businesses through principles and values, and a devoted fitness enthusiast and 2x Wellness body-building competitor. Through everything I do, I hope to lead and inspire others through my love of psychology, brand, and relationship building. Over the last 5 or so years, I’ve deeply enjoyed writing as a form of expressing the cause-and-effect relationships between authentic brand experiences and human connection as well as working on my first book titled, The Breakout Creative… More on that coming soon.
What establishes you as an authority on thought leadership? Could you briefly share your expertise with our readers?
For the last 15 years, I’ve designed across a variety of industries from Travel and Hospitality to Fitness and Lifestyle to Skincare and Beauty to Longevity Science and Optimized Healthcare; it’s all over the place, I know. But, I’ve seen it all and specialize in getting to the core of a brand’s identity to shape its meaning and define its impact on audiences and teams. I have extensive experience in visual design, communications, and photography and have spent the better part of my career partnering with clients to implement brand strategies and effective business/brand relationships. Given my experience and insatiable appetite for digging deep, my thought leadership focus has been on the psychology side of brand and how it influences, impacts, and inspires us throughout our daily lives.
Can you recall a funny mistake you made when you were first starting out? What lesson did you learn from it?
Entrepreneurship is a highly personalized journey. We all enter it with different expectations (frankly you should have few haha) and levels of experience (from complete newb to second career post corporate). While there is no “right or wrong” way to become an entrepreneur, lessons from day 1 can resonate with just about anyone. When I was first starting out, I had no clue how to package myself or my talent and as a result did a lot of work for free or for minimal cost. I wouldn’t necessarily say this was a mistake because I did learn a lesson … to be respected as a professional equal you have to own who you are and build a personal brand people like and respect enough to value what you offer and what you’re worth.
What are the most significant disruptions you foresee in your industry over the next five years, and how can businesses adapt to these changes?
At the sake of echoing every industry’s “worry,” I think AI will become increasingly more prevalent in brand building and strategy development. While AI is a helpful tool, it can’t replace the uniqueness that human creativity and real-life experience bring. I’m a big fan of the time optimization AI offers us, if and only if, there are humans there to interpret the results and connect the dots when creating brand experiences.
Can you explain the benefits of becoming a thought leader? Why is it valuable to invest time and resources into this?
The benefits of thought leadership are far and wide. It offers credibility, instills trust, and helps you stay relevant within your core market. Being a thought leader gives your audience the chance to learn from you, grow with you, and connect through shared interests and viewpoints, all of which create richer and deeper bonds over time. When it comes to building a personal brand rooted in value, thought leadership is the long-term play that proves your value, rewards your effort, and earns you the respect of your peers and core market.
Can you share an example of a significant challenge you faced in your career and how you leveraged innovative thinking to overcome it?
I’m not sure if at the time I knew how impactful this shift would be for me but deciding to move away from “freelance” and/or project-based work and into more of a partner-specific role with my clients, was an absolute game-changer. The depth of this approach goes beyond the visual/execution role of brand and allows me to integrate deep into the business side of brand, providing valuable brand input where they need it most, at the top. Realizing the opportunity here, I’ve shaped my business in a way that allows me to support my clients from ideation (strategy and creative thinking) to ongoing execution within a flexible agency-like model.
Now that we have covered that, we’d love to hear your advice on becoming a thought leader. Can you share five strategies that someone should follow to gain recognition as a thought leader in their industry? Please include examples or stories from your own experience for each strategy.
1 . Be able to articulate your experiences and connect them to real world value. People love stories because they are easy to relate to and remember. Thought leaders can pull lessons and insights from just about any experience, providing a valuable perspective for others to share in their learning.
2 . Be consistent in how you share your knowledge with others. People respect those who hold themselves accountable. When you consistently deliver valuable insights to your audience, they start to depend on your perspective, your viewpoint. Whether it’s for entertainment or simply sourcing your opinion, your audience starts to invest in you, and in turn, establishes a trusted, loyal bond — don’t break it.
3 . Be credible by owning your learning and citing your sources. With so much content coming out and the use of AI to assist in scaling our efforts, we can sometimes forget where we collect our knowledge and experiences from. The intention of a thought leader should always be to spread innovative ideas and knowledge that’s relevant to our industries, while citing where our inspirations come from. In citing our sources, we also give our readers and communities the opportunity to extend their research and learning.
4 . Be real in your tone and own your voice. There is only one you. The way you see, interpret, and understand things is entirely unique and influenced by your experiences, culture, learning, etc. The way you share and deliver information is reflective of your personality and style and no one else’s. Being authentically you helps your audience connect with you through your signature style, making your voice memorable and marketable in its own way.
5 . Be supportive of others through collaboration and shared experiences. Thought leadership isn’t just about what you share, but rather what and who you support. Surround yourself with variety and input from others you respect. Invite them to collaborate and grow with you. Supporting other thought leaders in your industry through engagement and shared experiences will no doubt elevate your collective communities and extend the value you offer by contributing to something bigger than yourself.
How do you foster a culture of innovation within your organization, and what practices have you found most effective in encouraging creative thinking among your team?
While my team is small, I’m always encouraging them to pursue and try new things. You never know what you can learn from doing something out of your “ordinary” to do. I encourage them to own their time, explore areas of creative interest, and provide input into projects for an outsider perspective.
Who do you think is an outstanding example of a thought leader? What specific qualities impress you about this person?
Steve Bartlett, for his early entrepreneurial successes, extremely thoughtful and valuable Diary of a CEO podcast interviews, and his ability to effortlessly articulate his thoughts, experiences, and questions to others. I also greatly admire his depth of curiosity and pursuit of learning, which you can easily see in his shares and how he engages his community.
How do you stay informed about the latest trends and developments in your field, and how do you incorporate this knowledge into your strategic planning?
As a lifelong learner, avid reader, and writer/researcher, I’m constantly challenging myself through curiosity. Whether it’s listening to podcasts, reading books or statistical reports, contributing articles and interviews to publications (like this one), or continued education through certification courses or currently going to grad school, I’m always looking for ways to expand my knowledge and the value I offer to my clients and community. The more I learn, the more I can connect, making me a valuable strategic partner in ongoing brand development.
Some people feel that the term “thought leader” is overused and has lost its impact. What are your thoughts on this?
Frankly, I feel a lot of words are overused and have lost their impact, but I think that’s the result of living within the noise. The market is a bit oversaturated with “content.” Hell, even the word “content” has become diluted as everything and everyone becomes a content creator. I think the biggest loss of impact comes from the fact that anyone can call themselves a thought leader, but it’s through an individual’s actions that earn them the title of being a thought leader. There is no thought leader certificate, degree, or field of study, it’s just you, the community you create, and the value THEY feel you provide. Outside of obsessing over the semantics, there’s not much we can do to change the way people refer to thought leadership; we just have to develop a better filter for those who respectfully earn the title.
How do you balance short-term business goals with long-term strategic vision, especially in a rapidly changing market?
Long-term strategic vision always leads to short-term business goals. The goals of a business regardless of how long or short to complete, should always reflect the highest vision and purpose of the company. While a market may continue to evolve, so too should the goals and opportunity to create value, but the vision stays the same. Vision is your northstar, your reason for existing, the thing you want to be known for. Goals are how you express and connect that vision to reality through action.
Now that vision and goals have some context, I balance them by reminding myself of the bigger picture. Identifying needs, assigning them a level of importance towards reaching the long-term vision, then strategically outlining the measures it will take to achieve the goal. Whether that’s for my own business or that of my clients. A great personal example is my decision to go back to school to develop my analytical understanding of consumer behavior to create a more measurable and complete picture of brand psychology. It wasn’t an easy decision as I knew how much work was ahead, but it’s a short-term business goal that reflects my long-term vision of reframing the way people understand brand, their role in it, and how we measure the value and influence of brands in our lives.
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? How has it been relevant in your life?
Stop comparing yourself to people. If you don’t, you spend more time seeing the best in others when you should be focusing on being the best you.
This is a quote I wrote to myself years ago during a very transitional time in my life. I was comparing myself, my successes, and my failures to that of my “peers” and coming up short (or so I thought). It sent me down a path of mindfulness and positive psychology that today I still reference when struggling to see my own potential.
I also apply this concept to the brands I work with in that competition may be all around, selling the same products, services, etc. but there is potential in packaging how you do what you do that’s different from others; that’s branding. Oftentimes we need to remove the idea of competition to focus on achieving our highest potential because chasing others will only dull our opportunity to lead.
Many influential figures in business and entertainment follow this column. Is there someone you’d love to have lunch or breakfast with? They might notice if we tag them.
Honestly, I have a long list of influential figures from musicians and brand leaders to psychologists and authors. If I had to choose, I’d probably go with Robert Greene. Author of one of my favorite books, Laws of Human Nature, I’d want to talk about all things human behavior and psychology and soak up as much of his perspective on the world as possible. I simply find his work and lens on human behavior absolutely fascinating and know however long our conversation would be, I’d pull countless nuggets of wisdom. Selfishly, I’d also love to get his perspective on branding, how our social experience contributes to it, and how our perceptions shape our realities through consumer culture.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I share articles regularly on LinkedIn so readers can follow me there https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellibinnings/ or they can read more of my thoughts on my website at www.buildsmartbrands.com
Thank you so much for your insights. This was very insightful and meaningful.
About the Interviewer: Dina Aletras boasts over 20 years of expertise in the corporate media industry. She possesses an in-depth understanding of growth, strategy, and leadership, having held significant roles at some of the UK’s largest media organizations. At Reach PLC, the UK’s largest tabloid publisher, she served in various director capacities. Additionally, she held leadership roles at The Independent Magazine Group and DMGT. Her extensive knowledge spans editorial, digital, revenue, sales, and advertising.
Upon relocating to Switzerland, Dina took on the responsibility of managing and promoting the international section of Corriere del Ticino — CdT.ch pioneering the English page “onthespot.” She also was the Co-Editor of Southern Switzerland’s first official Italian and English bilingual magazine.
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