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An authentic commitment to relevance, cultural competency and audience understanding. Sierra is a highly innovative, multi-disciplinary strategic leader and industry challenger.
With over a decade of experience spearheading strategy across the brand, innovation, creative and startup spaces, Sierra is uniquely positioned to understand and deliver against multidimensional needs ranging from market differentiation, audience understanding + growth, brand development and more.
The core of Sierra’s practice is rooted in making a real, credible space for clients today and tomorrow - approaching the work with curiosity, impact and integrity she is a partner who consistently delivers strategies that walk the walk.
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Champion for a process rooted in truth and proof - brand is business. Unmatched foresight, a believer in the power of true partnership. A dynamic, powerful and integrated leader.
Bringing 17 years of agency, brand, and consulting experience to the table, Vanessa has worked across virtually every category to craft compelling brand stories and strategies designed to exemplify each company's unique position, engage their ideal audiences, and enthuse their teams. With listening as her superpower and connecting as her calling, the focus of Vanessa's work is to go deep and unearth what each brand truly stands for so they can stand out among the crowd, stand out in people’s minds, and stand strong in their truth across every function of the business.
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A track record of organizational transformation, deep expertise in authentic community-building, an ever-evolving practice grounded in cross-functional excellence and fearlessness.
Joe Cardillo is an operations & brand strategist with 14+ years of experience in startups, tech, and media, and serves as founder and coach at The Early Manager. Their areas of expertise include marketing and communications strategy, internal communications, project management, and operations modeling. Joe is also a co-founder of Coffee + Creatives, community lead for Albert's List Careers & Jobs Community, and advisor to NM Local News Fund, Black Remote She, and Fundada Labs.
| AKGRE? Pronounced akog·a·re, the name is derived from the Japanese noun meaning to yearn for, aspire to, or admire. |
As a deeply collaborative collective AKGRE brings a distinctive edge to our work through our unflinching commitment to culture and belief in centering audiences too often left in the margins. Success in today's evolving business landscape requires a unique understanding of the interconnected worlds of culture, the people who create it and your own context.
Our team of experts not only brings years of experience in strategic planning, organizational development and resonant creative communications, but also possesses a keen awareness of the nuances and intersections that different cultures and communities bring to the table. This unique perspective enables us to craft strategies and experiences that resonate, differentiate, and make engaging, credible space for your organization with the audiences of today.
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"Sierra represents the strategy discipline’s ideal. We’re often held captive to the hustle; churning out ideas too fast and to our detriment. But Sierra manages to make us take a much needed pause to think and develop a creative strategy that is human AND business-driven. She is masterful at it. Working with Sierra is a thing to behold. She is commanding but empathetic and collaborative. She inspires both internal and client teams. She will make clients think hard and feel confident that the work is in good hands. "
Linda Palacios, Strategy Director, Media.Monks
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Vanessa has a unique ability to grasp client challenges and produce thoughtful, strategic solutions that build upon a thorough intake process and creative soultioning with colleagues or in her own zone. I was delighted to sit through strategy alignment sessions because I knew she'd leave no stone unturned.
Jessica Keegan, Chief Of Staff, Guild Education
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I met Joe through a mentorship platform supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs, but Joe quickly became a coach, mentor, and advisor to my work as a startup founder with a mission-driven enterprise. Joe has remained an ally and advocate to my work over the past 3 years, and continues to be a reliable, committed, and incredibly talented business coach. Their support and advising has yielded increases in my business revenue and streamlined my operations as a solo founder. I highly recommend working with them at any business stage.
Jasmine Jacobs, Founder BlackRemoteShe