[Top Agency Series] Branding and Storytelling Strategies with Kellee Johnson of The Ballast Group

Kellee Johnson is the Principal of The Ballast Group, an award-winning, integrated communications strategy firm. The Ballast Group helps leaders shape and articulate stories while reaching audiences and channels that matter. They have helped well-known companies such as Hyatt, Kaiser Permanente, Stericycle, Safeway, Target, and Cisco in all aspects of marketing, consumer products, healthcare, and high tech. Kellee founded The Ballast Group after serving as Director of Corporate Marketing for Abbott Laboratories and managing corporate communications for Tropicana, a multi-billion dollar division of PepsiCo. 

Kellee's company also excels at positioning these organizations and others as thought leaders, featuring them on the US News, News and World Report, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and other traditional media. In addition to her work at The Ballast Group, Kellee is a mentor for DePaul University's Coleman Entrepreneurship Center and 1871 Chicago, a board member of the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation, and a former member of the Rollins College Board of Trustees.

You’ve done the hard work of starting a great business but still face the struggle to create your story and put it in the news. The thought of it leaves a sour taste in your mouth and makes you think: ‘why do I have to do that? Shouldn’t I just wait until my brand gets noticed and talked about organically?’

Today’s guest, Kellee Johnson, says the chances of getting in the news organically often require you to do something beyond being a fantastic business; you’ve got to earn it. It starts by knowing how to create your story to make it newsworthy and knowing who to share it with. 

Learn more about branding, storytelling to take your brand to the next level on this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast. The host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz, sits down with Kellee Johnson, Principal at The Ballast Group. She explains their six-step process of getting brands on the news using the paid, earned, shared, and owned media model. Stay tuned to catch the details about it — and lots more!