I'm the person people call when the stakes are real — when they're building something and need it to last, or when it's being tested and they need someone who can see what no one else can. Part brand strategist, part fixer, part the one person in the room who will actually tell you the truth. I read a situation from every angle before I say a word, and by the time I do, I already know what you should do next. I don't sugarcoat. Clients have called it brutal honesty meets hand holding. I call it the job.
It shows up two ways. Privately, through Leave Your Mark, I counsel founders and senior leaders through the moments that test them — investigations, board conflict, reorganizations, departures, press exposure — and through the ongoing work of building a reputation that can survive contact with reality. Publicly, I do the same work for companies: brand strategy, positioning, communications, social media, and the decisions that shape how the world sees them. Warby Parker is one of the companies I currently work with, as a Senior Advisor.
I learned to do this at Donna Karan, over seventeen years, fourteen of them under LVMH — years spent in rooms where a single sentence could make the news or bury it. I created DKNY PR GIRL there: the anonymous voice that got a luxury house to talk like a person, before anyone thought that was something a brand should do. It taught me that people don't follow brands. They follow people. From there, I led global marketing and communications at alice + olivia before moving into consulting full time. I also advised companies at the intersection of fashion and tech — Fashion GPS, Launchmetrics, and Awear, to name a few.
Somewhere along the way, I started writing down what I knew. Leave Your Mark, because people wanted my career advice. On Brand, because they wanted to know what to do with it. Both won awards and became bestsellers. Now I'm doing it again in real time — writing my first novel, Off the Record, Secrets of a 90s Fashion Insider in New York, chapter by chapter on Substack, with more than 6,000 people reading over my shoulder as I write it.
Producers call me to analyze breaking news in fashion, media, and culture. I write for The Times of London and the New York Post. Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Inc. have all called on me to make sense of a moment. Forbes named me one of the top personal branding experts in the world.
And when I'm not doing any of that, I'm online saying what I actually think — about the news, the story behind it, and the fight against antisemitism, which is personal: I'm the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors.
I'm a born-and-bred New Yorker with two nearly grown kids, a husband, two dogs, and absolutely no shortage of opinions.
Notable media:
Live on Good Morning America: “Level up in life by establishing a personal brand.”
Live on Good Morning America: “Career Advice for 2023”
Harvard Business Review: “Building social capital when you work remotely.”
INC. “Five ways staying on brand can help grow your business.”
Award-winning creator and voice of DKNY PR GIRL social media personality
New York Times feature: “PR Girl Revealed as PR Executive”
New York Times feature: “America’s Next Top Mentors”
Business Insider: “Top 20 Most Innovative Career Coaches”
Time: Five Women Who Rule the Fashion World
What to expect:
30 minute session:
– A read on your brand, your situation, or both
– A straight answer on the specific thing you came with
– What I'd actually do next, and why
– Where you stand, without the version that's easier to hear
– Feedback you can act on same-day
60 minute session:
– A full read on your brand, your situation, or both — not the headline version, the real one
– Room to work through more than one issue if there's more than one
– A clear next move, not a full plan
– Where you stand now, and where it goes if you don't act
– Live feedback on a pitch, a decision, or how you're about to show up in a specific room
– A same-day list of what to do next
Example questions:
Executive Counsel (individuals)
– How do I decide what my personal brand is?
– Something happened at my company and it's about me — what do I do?
– How do I get ready for a high-stakes interview or press moment?
– I'm not in a crisis — can you still help with positioning?
– I'm doing good work, but I'm not getting the visibility I need to move up. What do I do?
–Corporate Advisory (companies)
– How do I decide what my brand should actually say?
– How do I improve my social media?
– Should I bring in an agency, or is that the wrong move right now?
– I have a launch (or relaunch) coming up, where do I even start?
– Is this basically fractional CMO work?
General / diagnostic
– Is this a brand problem or a leadership problem?
– What's the fastest way to get an outside read on my situation?