Ati Grinspun’s mission as a personal brand coach and speaker is to empower women to build personal brands that are as unique and soulful as they are, helping them embrace their message and confidently step into their beliefs within their respective industries. Her journey began with photographing women in business, where she quickly realized that many were holding back—playing it safe and blending in despite having strong opinions and innovative ideas. This experience inspired Ati to create a platform encouraging women to stop playing small, embrace their uniqueness, and fully express their purpose.
For Ati, being a ‘Transformative CEO’ means leading by example, showing the courage to take bold steps first, and inspiring her clients to follow suit. She believes leadership continually grows and pushes boundaries while encouraging others to do the same. Her business disrupts the industry by offering an inclusive, growth-oriented environment where women are encouraged to be themselves, grow into their dreams, and make an impact while maintaining integrity.
Through her events like Be You Brand Live! Ati fosters collaboration, mentorship, and real connections, focusing on the power of community to help women grow. She emphasizes that personal branding is about building meaningful relationships, not just follower counts, and that growth happens when women own their power and authenticity. Her vision is to see all women in business embrace their brand, align it with their purpose, and turn it into a thriving, impactful venture.
With a focus on inclusivity, social impact, and personal growth, Ati is committed to helping women grow into their full potential while disrupting the status quo of the business world. She aims to leave a legacy where women are empowered to build purpose-driven brands and businesses that resonate deeply with their values, allowing them to succeed on their terms. Take a look at the interview below for insights into Ati’s outlook on topics important to individuals seeking personal branding, growth, and ascension in their business endeavors.
Interview questions (bulleted and Italicized) by Lauren Jones, Alter New Media; Ati’s answers are written in bold below:
- Can you share the mission behind your business and what inspired you to pursue it?
My mission is to empower women to build personal brands with souls as unique as they are, own their message, and fully step into what they believe in their industries. It all started with me photographing women in business and realizing how many were still playing small, how many were playing it safe, how many had strong beliefs and opinions in their respective industries but were still blending in with everyone else…and it just all grew from there.
- What does being a ‘Transformative CEO’ mean to you, and how do you embody that in your leadership?
For me, being a Transformative CEO means going first. As CEOs of our businesses and lives, we are always making decisions, and as a coach, I cannot ask women to do the things that grow them if I don’t do them first.
- In what ways is your business disrupting the industry or market it operates in?
My business is disrupting the industry by being inclusive to women wherever they are in their journey, accepting and encouraging them to be who they already are and, from there, grow, not “change” but grow into the direction of their dream and be accepted through that process.
I am disrupting the industry by providing a community where women operate with integrity entirely based on who they are and what they believe. I bring that into their heart- and purpose-led businesses.
- How do you maintain a mission-driven approach while ensuring the business remains innovative and competitive?
By building a personal brand, which is the whole base of our strategies, we stay mission-driven because we make business personal at every level, even while scaling.
We do this through live events, networking, and community calls for our clients, past and present, so we can keep the personal touch as we grow.
- Tell us about Be You Brand Live!—how does it align with your mission, and what impact do you hope it has on your audience?
I realized early on that not only do I get great joy from bringing people together to collaborate, but also that the way we grow is by being in environments that are growth-oriented, where we can see other women who are ahead of us and also behind us in the business building process, I realized this had had an immense impact on me and my growth that I could not wait to pass it along.
My most sincere desire is for women to walk away with the conviction that they can do what scares them the most and find the connections to help them achieve them, from clients, mentors, collaborations, and more.
- What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a leader, and how have you overcome them?
Self-doubt, for starters, and the thought that my accent was a barrier. With self-doubt, it has been a lot of inner work, working on my own inner dialog, doing things ” in spite of,” and realizing the huge difference I am making in the world.
The key to flourishing was being able to change the way I saw myself at the beginning of my journey, as opposed to how others saw me and how I saw myself.
The accent, while I do not care anymore, I had to practice talking slower and enunciating some words so they are more understandable.
- How do you integrate social impact into your business strategy?
We try to have some sort of non-profit associated with many of the things we do. For example, at Be You Brand Live, we donated a booth to a local non-profit to spread the word. All proceeds of our mastermind book are going toward a global non-profit called Dress for Success.
- Can you provide an example of a pivotal moment when your vision disrupted the status quo in your industry?
I think the biggest moment was when we closed 80 thousand dollars on sale at my event. While I still have under 5k followers on Instagram, women realized right there and then that followers, audiences, and buyers are three different things.
I care about the lives I can change, and those are mostly my buyers and true audience. Followers for just the sake of followers don’t mean anything to me.
- What advice would you give to other mission-driven entrepreneurs looking to disrupt their field?
GO WITH YOUR GUT. Do not care about what others are doing. BLINDERS ON.
- How do you ensure your company’s culture aligns with its mission and vision?
We are a very small operation at this point. But part of how we are building our culture is staying true to what we preach… An example of that is additional mental health days as needed, days off on days there is no school, full three weeks off during the holidays, and two weeks off during the summer. I know this sounds more like logistics, but the truth is that we are modeling that inside our business and to our clients.
Empowering our team through trainings and learning , team building and collaboration outside our work is huge for us too …enter SPA days lol.
- Looking ahead, what disruptive innovations or trends do you see shaping the future of your industry?
There should be more live interactions, more live events, more books, more women speaking on stages, and also more women not giving a dam about follower count but YES to real connections online.
- What legacy do you hope to leave as a transformative, mission-driven CEO?
I would like to see ALL women in business have the freedom to do personal branding their way, lean into their purpose, and be able to monetize that. People think of personal branding as just posting on social media, but the money is not made there but through their offers, connections, and visibility/sales strategies.
I want to see all women in business OWN their power and build their brands and businesses from there.
To find out more about how Ati can help you with personal branding and photography needs or to book her as a public speaker for your events, click here: Ati Grinspun-Personal Branding coach-Speaker
To learn more about Be You Brand Live! and stay up-to-date on the 2025 edition, click here: Be You Brand – Ati Grinspun Branding Coaching and Photography