About
To Lead Well Is to Form First
Every great leader begins with a single brave step. One that ventures off the well-worn path and towards uncharted curiosity, quietly signaling, “Let’s explore something new.” At Kelsie & Kiln, your brand isn't personal, but leaderful; an act of impactful representation, not polished presentation.
This isn’t louder marketing that out-shouts the room. It’s a new culture of brand standard that whispers directly to those holding their breath to listen. The kind that turns heads, drops jaws, and makes someone pause to say, “Woah, this goes way deeper than just a logo.” (If only you knew!)
Founders like us aren’t here to compete in outdated categories. We’re here to expand expectations, lead one step ahead, and shape the timeless concept of brand into a modern interpretation of the depth it deserves to carry. Like forming pottery, with wet clay possibilities. From content generating to culture shifting, from chasing relevance to creating resonance, and from transactional growth to transformational legacy.
Kelsie & Kiln was born from a lifelong fascination with the ripple effect; how one person’s act of leadership can shape not just their own path, but the communities around them.
I’m Ava Kelsie, Your Fractional Chief Brand Officer. I’m Here to Transform Your Static Personal Brand Into a Sustainable Leadership One.
This industry, built on solutions that fall short, forces founders to choose between brand design at a premium with a 12-month shelf-life (no strategy), or shallow personal brand tactics that pedestalize the founder for surface-level results (no soul). Neither honors the shifts and seasons of real human growth and leadership.
Here, a brand isn't a business card or a virality campaign. It's a living, breathing architecture that evolves with its founder, bridging micro and macro leadership. A piece of pottery: Forged like clay, shaped through co-creation, fired like kilnwork, and built to carry the weight of lasting legacy.
A dense journey of transforming private evolution into public presence, Kelsie & Kiln exists for impact-driven service-based founders ready to claim that transformation. Welcome to your leadership arc.
Kelsie & Kiln is the first co-creative leadership brand development experience that integrates high-level strategy and premium presence into one cohesive project.
Core Concept | No. 01
My Intention
The first brand investment you should make, and the last cocooned hiatus you will take. Your brand will forever evolve. Every new season will empower you to iterate, not frantically contemplate. Your private evolution is what makes your public presence so distinctive. What now feels like foggy, forced, pressureful explanation will become your most clear, natural, pleasureful expression.
Core Concept | No. 02
My Approach
I celebrate the moment a founder admits their desire to feel ready. You deserve that luxury; to feel aligned with your brand before hitting publish. While commonly shamed, allowing myself the space to incubate within a timeline was the single most supportive decision to my evolution.
Core Concept | No. 03
My People
Serving those who serve and leading those who lead, my body of work is curated specifically for impact-driven founders of service-based brands in which the product is you and your expertise. For aspiring, starting, scaling, or repositioning founders alike. Your ripple effect is high, as is my passion for expanding the depth to which your impact can reach.
ONE WAY TICKET
COCKTAIL
ORDER
CHAI HOT TODDY
Guilty Pleasure
TAKING the TRAIN, BOAT, or PLANE
NEVER
WITHOUT
A BIKINI (JUST in CASE)
ALWAYS ON BRAND
HAPPY
PLACE
READING at the BAR
current trend
DUAL CITIZENSHIP
PICK ME UP
NOTION + ESPRESSO DATE
ideal travel
BEHIND
the BRAND
Hi! I’m Ava Kelsie. Startup Founder. Brand Sculptor. Creative Marketing Strategist Turned Screw-This-There’s-a-Much-Better-Way.
Before launching this strategy house, I was forming culture from the inside – as Lead Marketing Strategist at a global creative marketing agency, a voice behind the gloss and the glamour. Now, I’m a Leadership Brand Strategist supporting brands in discovering theirs.
So I did what every great strategist must – I went back to the drawing board.
With one foot in developing my own leadership arc and the other in blueprinting a business that supports every iteration of a brand, I founded this strategy house to infuse edge, elegance, and expression into modern marketing for impact-driven founders. My primary philosophies?
Over the past seven years, from small startups to global empires, I’ve experienced the same situation repeatedly: Clients jumping from investment to investment. Clinging to outdated brand decks for dear life. Betting their entire budget on scaled content that feels like fast food. Trying a million things, only to do none of them effectively. Losing their distinctive voice completely.
Taste > Trend
Quality > Quantity
Pleasure > Pressure
Community > Audience
Authenticity > Virality
Evolution > Destination
Expression > Explanation
Romanticization > Expectation
Transformation > Transaction
Representation > Presentation
belonging + becoming = branding
If this sounds like your cup of espresso, I’m your gal.
My WEIRD OBSESSIONS include culture, fashion, architecture, food, wine, music, art, travel, convertibles, and… ducks?
HUMAN RIGHTS aren’t up for debate. If your philosophies are hateful or exclusive, then you’re very much in the wrong room.
If I didn't work in brand marketing, I'd be a POTTERY STUDIO owner. In Tokyo or Barcelona or something. Someday, I will be!
My WEIRD OBSESSIONS include culture, fashion, architecture, food, wine, music, art, travel, convertibles, and… ducks?
HUMAN RIGHTS aren’t up for debate. If your philosophies are hateful or exclusive, then you’re very much in the wrong room.
If I didn't work in brand marketing, I'd be a POTTERY STUDIO owner. In Tokyo or Barcelona or something. Someday, I will be!
GET TO KNOW THE FOUNDER
My WEIRD OBSESSIONS include culture, fashion, architecture, food, wine, music, art, travel, convertibles, and… ducks?
HUMAN RIGHTS aren’t up for debate. If your philosophies are hateful or exclusive, then you’re very much in the wrong room.
If I didn't work in brand marketing, I'd be a POTTERY STUDIO owner. In Tokyo or Barcelona or something. Someday, I will be!
My WEIRD OBSESSIONS include culture, fashion, architecture, food, wine, music, art, travel, convertibles, and… ducks?
HUMAN RIGHTS aren’t up for debate. If your philosophies are hateful or exclusive, then you’re very much in the wrong room.
If I didn't work in brand marketing, I'd be a POTTERY STUDIO owner. In Tokyo or Barcelona or something. Someday, I will be!
GET TO KNOW THE FOUNDER
The CURIOSITY CORNER
Still here? Beautiful. Since we may work together, let's go deeper! Here are the answers to those burning questions, for those curious.
WHAT FOUNDERS DO YOU SUPPORT?
WHAT INDUSTRIES DO YOU SERVE?
WHEN SHOULD I INVEST?
HOW CAN WE WORK TOGETHER?
HOW IS A LEADERSHIP BRAND BETTER THAN PERSONAL BRAND?
WHAT'S IT LIKE TO WORK WITH YOU?
HOW CAN WE PARTNER TOGETHER?
CAN WE CONNECT AS FRIENDS?
While I primarily support impact-driven founders of service-based brands, I would love to explore working with aligned and ambitious product-based founders as well. So long as you identify with having a “personal” brand in which you’re the face of your movement, let’s explore!
My clients have spanned across interior design firms, brand design studios, boutique beauty salons, health and wellness brands, health tech startups, creative marketing agencies, marketing tech startups, luxury real estate teams…
My work serves aspiring, starting, scaling, and repositioning founders alike. Sooner is better, but I can’t exactly tell you. You’ll just… feel it. That it’s time.
At the moment, available avenues include BrandNu™, my three month leadership brand development container, and its signature extension OnBrand™, my ongoing execution support container.
When your energy is directed towards not creating a stage for you, but belonging for those you support… a greater conversation of movement begins to unfold. These are the conversations where impact is born. These are the tables worth gathering around.
I am so particular, and so passionate. I work best with those who naturally light up rambling about their vision and can trust me to sort it, strategize it, and shape it into something worthy of their leadership presence.
Invite me to your podcasts, panels, publications, and parties, and I’ll invite you to mine! Would love to co-host a retreat with the right leader. Let’s brainstorm!
Always! My messages are open for any conversation. Find me on socials (@avakelsie), digest (Made to Muse), podcast (The Centerpiece), publication (The Clay Column), inquiry form, or all of the above!
"Ten Minutes Into My Working Relationship With Ava, & I Already Feel Transformed. Her Support Is Invaluable."
— Blair, Aspiring founder
“
If you’re ready to work together to develop your leadership brand, I hold a limited capacity to maintain a high-touch client experience. Once full, new clients are waitlisted for the next opening.
I'm ready
[ current enrollment:
TO BE DETERMINED ]
Instagram
Ava Kelsie: The central hub and your digital sanctuary for all things Kelsie & Kiln.
Let's Have Fun
Podcast
Publication
The Clay Column: The evolution, but in editorial. Legacies worth leaving behind.
Digest
coming soon
COMING SOON
Coming Soon
Made to Muse: The artifact of becoming. Insights worth taking shape.
The Centerpiece: The process of becoming. Presence worth gathering around.