About

Decisive, Resourceful, Experimental, Skilled, Substantive

Becca Braun, President

Becca is the founder and president of Braun Ink, a ghostwriting firm that also publishes the acclaimed Braun Collection – memorable and adventurous stories for a hybrid audience of business enthusiasts, business professionals, and business students.

Becca is an innovator and writer whose longtime passion is capturing the voices of executives and entrepreneurs in new and unexpected ways. As a prolific executive biographer, Becca has ghostwritten hundreds of biographies, memoirs, storyboards, comic books, speeches, scripts, articles, books, essays, and white papers for clients who appreciate her knack for capturing their story in their voice.

Her work (ghostwriting, writing, editing) has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Providence Journal, Harvard Business Review, KevinMD, national sports magazines, best-selling global travel guides, and more. A professional storyteller, Becca has presented to many audiences in a variety of venues such as in New York’s Central Park, on television, in front of congressional delegations, on college campuses (commencement addresses and university classrooms), and elsewhere.

The daughter of two educators (a high-school Spanish teacher and college business professor), Becca is passionate about the transformative power of education. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Linguistics degree from Harvard University and received her MBA from Harvard Business School. She created the Braun Collection in order to provide contemporary storytelling materials to business educators around the world. She believes in the positive power of business done well, and she is passionate about supporting business educators so they can work their magic ofinspiring business students towards a better business world.

Becca has also been a business innovator and leader. She has co-founded, led, grown, and/or served as a director or advisor of many companies and organizations, including JumpStart (a leading venture development organization), SupplierInsight (a supplier management software and services company), Custom Rubber Corp., World Trade Center Cleveland, and Braun Ink. She loves running, nordic skiing, cycling, sailing, dancing, and taking improv acting classes. Becca has four children and lives with her husband in Cleveland, Ohio.

Team

At Braun Ink, we work with skilled professionals who specialize in various aspects of delivering a terrific product—research, writing, scripting, editing, illustrating, formatting, design, production, publishing, videography, marketing, distribution, and more. Some of the experienced professionals who have worked with us include:
Joel Benjamin
Illustration & Design
Jennifer Bulmer
Layout & Design 
Ben Small
Layout & Design 
Mary Vanac
Research, Writing, & Editing
Carlo Wolff
Research, Writing, & Editing
Harvard Student Agencies*
Research & Writing

*This photo is of Brammy Rajakumar, former Publisher at Harvard Student Agencies (HSA). However, Braun Ink has worked with other students at Harvard Student Agencies.

Our business operations, strategy, and growth are assisted by these fantastic vendors and advisors:
Sue Canfield
(Ausoma)
Social Media Marketing
Dan Collins
(Daniel Collins Design)
Design & Marketing
Joanne Gordon
Publishing & Media Consultant
David Gray
(Gray & Co)
Publishing & Media Consultant
Marc Guirand
Marc Guirand
Laura Sheridan
(Viva La Brand)
Marketing & Branding Consultant

Operating Style

Working With Braun Ink

At Braun Ink, we speak and act with honesty and have respect for all people. Additionally, our clients, colleagues, and partners can expect us to be:

  • Decisive – We work with urgency; we make decisions; and we keep moving.
  • Resourceful – We access experts and knowledge so that we solve problems and generate answers.
  • Experimental – We encourage and test new styles, structures, and ideas in our work.
  • Skilled – We do our work with effort, care and technical knowledge. We’re artisans.
  • Substantive – We are drawn to and we shape topics of meaning and substance.

Using Comic Books in the Classroom

When using a comic book, business educators have the opportunity to develop these business competencies in students. Such competencies are in high demand in the business workplace.

Ask students to:

  • SUMMARIZE and SYNTHESIZE the actions, images, people, and topics.
  • DEVELOP ARGUMENTS about and CRITICALLY APPRAISE key actions and decisions made by executives.
  • OFFER SUPPORT for their arguments using text and facts.
  • REFLECT ON how the comic book characters’ views and actions compare and contrast to their own.
  • SHOW CURIOSITY about business leaders through asking questions of the main subject/CEO, if the LIVE VIDEO VISIT option is chosen by educators.

Using CEO Memoirs & Biographies in the Classroom

Memoirs and biographies combine the case method with more immersive and experiential learning because readers are immersed in the story and narrative. Narratives are arguably the most effective way to teach and learn in general. Studies have shown that students consistently recall information tied to storytelling better than material presented without storytelling. Organizational psychologists have found that learning from a well-told story is remembered “far longer” than learning derived from facts and figures and that facts are 20 times more likely to be remembered if they’re part of a story.

Braun Collection books and comic books enable business educators to use narrative to enhance the learning experience of their students. Further, it seems that people who read narratives that “oscillate” (i.e., the narratives do not offer a story of clear ascent or descent but rather a story of oscillating successes and failures) have better resilience later in their own lives and careers when making their own decisions. This is because they have reference points (the prior narratives) that consist of patterns of oscillation as opposed to clear-cut ascent or descent2. As we know in real life, decisions rarely involve clear-cut ascent or descent situations. Braun Collection materials do  show neither deeply flawed heroes nor perfect decision makers, rather people who deal with the ups and downs of the issues and
opportunities in their lives and careers.

When using a True Business Adventure Tale (CEO memoir or biography), business educators have the opportunity to develop these business competencies in students. Such competencies are in high demand in the business workplace.

Ask students to:

  • SUMMARIZE the actions, people, and topics and SYNTHESIZE all the information into the theme of the book. Synthesizing key topics and themes is important in business.
  • DEVELOP ARGUMENTS about and CRITICALLY APPRAISE key actions and decisions made by executives. Being able to develop and appraise various actions is important in business.
  • OFFER SUPPORT for their arguments using text and facts as opposed to pure opinion and conjecture. Knowing how to offer factual, even if not scientific, evidence is important in business.
  • REFLECT ON how the subjects and authors views and actions compare and contrast to their own. A level of appropriate reflection is shown to build a level of warmth and relationships that matter for business.
  • SHOW CURIOSITY about business leaders through asking questions of the authors, if the LIVE VIDEO VISIT option is chosen by educators. Asking good questions is a vital business skill.