Brian Kagan

Ask Brian Kagan, “What do you do?” He’ll respond with something to challenge you like, “What do you need?” The conversation moves like an adventurous ride that stirs new ways of thinking about branding and leadership. “The commerce of life happens in one large mall; we’re all selling and buying something. When a bridge between people is established, you can then exchange your goods.”

Serving clients and industries from Fortune 500 companies to incubator businesses, from product development to high profile entertainment or from literacy causes to major faith movements, Kagan applies his passion for communicating through advising, writing, facilitating and inspiring people to discover and release the power of their story. “We all have a thumbprint, the only one like it in the world. It is our most precious treasure,” says Kagan.

Kagan’s professional style is driven by his natural gifting for guiding High Impact leaders and organizations through his iterative process of 1) taking the time to ask the right (and often tough) questions, 2) facilitating dialogue through his distinctive style of group vision- casting, 3) uncovering hidden brand triggers, 4) defining an organization’s unique Brand Story and 5) offering relevant and measurable go-forward actions; oftentimes Kagan will help form and lead what he terms the Brand Catalyst Team, whose responsibility it is to drive the defined brand path within an organization.

Kagan is passionate about “Vision-Casting, Defining and Releasing” innovation, characteristics that he believes are inherent in all leaders and teams. Clients often use terms like “maverick, fun, whimsical, entertaining, disarming” when describing his counter-intuitive methods. “I use humor, movies, Tootsie Roll Pops and even Play Doh to help people let go of their serious demeanor when engaging our process. While this may appear frivolous to some, we are very serious about serving our client’s goals.”

Kagan’s new book, Its Your Way, or the HI Way: The 5 Ways High Impact Leaders Excel, captures the processes embodied in “doing business the HI Way.” This workbook offers insights, case studies and team interactions to develop and sharpen leadership skills.”