Catherine Kaputa

Catherine Kaputa

Catherine Kaputa is a personal branding strategist, speaker, workshop leader and author. She is the founder of SelfBrand, a NYC-based personal branding company (www.selfbrand.com ).

From Madison Avenue to Wall Street to the halls of academe, she perfected how to brand and market products, places and companies. Catherine learned brand strategy under Al Ries and Jack Trout at Trout & Ries Advertising. She led the award-winning “I Love New York” campaign at Wells Rich Greene. For over ten years she was SVP, Director of Advertising and Community Affairs at Citi Smith Barney, and taught advertising at NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Yet Catherine discovered that the most important application for branding is not products, places and companies – it’s for individuals to define and own their career identity.

Personal branding can help people create more success for themselves and the companies they work for, the topic of her book, “You Are a Brand, How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success” (youareabrandbookcom), winner of the Ben Franklin award for Best Career Book 2007 (www.youareabrandbook.com ) and a top 10 business book in China.

Catherine is also active as a speaker and workshop leader on women’s leadership, the topic of her book: “Women Who Brand: Using the Female Mindset for Business Success” (Nicholas Brealey Publishing), June 2012, www.womenwhobrand.com ). Here book for entrepreneurs on building a business brand is “Breakthrough Branding: How Smart Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs Transform a Small Idea into a Big Brand” (breakthroughbrandingbook.com) The book won the Silver Medal in the Book of the Year Awards 2012, Business Category.

Catherine was struck by the number of new grads and young professionals she came across who were having difficulty finding a job in today’s competitive job market and up-and-down economy. Many have large student debt burdens, and when they do find a job, it can be part-time or contract based work with no benefits in the gig economy. This exploration led to her newest book “Graduate to a Great Career: How Smart Students, New Graduates and Young Professionals Can Launch Brand You” (www.graduatetoagreatcareer.com) 2016, Nicholas Brealey Publishing)