Sunny Bonnell

Founder & CEO, Motto® • Top Global Brand & Visionary Leadership Expert • Bestselling Author, Rare Breed • Co-Founder, VisionCamp® • GDUSA Top People to Watch • Top 30 GlobalGurus in Brand • High-Octane Keynote Speaker

Sunny Bonnell is the co-founder and CEO of Motto®, a strategy and innovation firm, and Thinkers50 Radar, which, in partnership with Deloitte, awards the brightest minds in the world. 

Named a ‘Visionary Brand Icon’ by SWAGGER, she is a Top 30 Global Gurus in Brand, GDUSA's Top 25 People to Watch, and a WEBBY Award winner. The WEBBY Awards described Sunny as “Setting the standard for innovation and creativity.”

Sunny works with executive leadership teams to set visions, create big ideas, and inspire their culture to take action on that vision. 

Clients include:

Minnesota Vikings
Virgin
Google
Microsoft
Klaviyo
NFL
Hershey’s
Legendary Digital
Disney
Twentieth Century Fox
Choice Hotels
NCM
Andela
Goodnotes

Sunny is an internationally acclaimed keynote speaker for organizations like MasterCard, Microsoft, Dale Carnegie, Fast Company Innovation Festival, Inc., and Inspiring Workplaces. 

She's been featured in every major publication, including Forbes, Entrepreneur, and The Wall Street Journal. She has appeared on Closing Bell on the NY Stock Exchange, The Breakfast Club, and Yahoo Finance. She writes a popular and provocative leadership column for Fast Company with her Co-founder and partner in crime, Ashleigh Hansberger.

Sunny and Ashleigh are the authors of Rare Breed: A Guide to Success for the Defiant, Dangerous, and Different (Harper Collins, 2019) which flips the script on business as usual and carves a path for unconventional success.

“The top 5 career books of all time.” — New York Post
"Brazen and a ruckus to make things better.” — Seth Godin
“An entire windstorm of original thinking.” — USA Today

Sunny's work is focused on dismantling status-quo practices and inspiring others to do big things.

Founder, speaker, author, vision leader.

👉 wearemotto.com
👉 sunnybonnell.com

Co-Founder & CEO

Motto® is a vision-partner and strategic brand transformation company. We believe in the power of big ideas to clarify vision, rally people, and inspire action.

We guide CEOs, founders, and teams through times of growth and transition to unlock their Idea Worth Rallying Around®— the signature idea that sits at the heart of the business and makes it famous.

Internally: Our work drives the culture strategy for how you do things—by aligning leadership around vision and purpose, codifying values, creating plans to evolve, inspiring employees with a strategic narrative, and weaving brand-building behaviors and mindsets into your company DNA.

Externally: Our work drives the brand strategy for how you're positioned—by creating competitive difference, establishing key narratives, casting creative direction, and activating the brand across touchpoints.

Since 2005, we’ve collaborated with the brightest minds to solve their toughest strategic challenges. Leaders seek us out to clearly communicate what their company is about. Our unique advisory approach helps your brand and culture work together so your company thrives.

CLIENTS
Virgin
Google
Microsoft
Hershey
Andela
Goodnotes
Earnest
ServiceTitan
Brooklyn Brewery
Disney
Ninjas in Pyjamas

Founders. CEOs. Brand leaders. Creatives. 👋 How do you stay relevant when speed is messy, and sameness is a prompt away? 

Motto® Future of Brand Report 2026 is now LIVE.

And yes, it’s free.

We built it for leaders navigating the most accelerated era in modern business.

→ AI is turning output into a commodity. 
→ Culture is shifting faster than playbooks can keep up. 
→ Differentiation is harder to hold onto.
→ The brands that win will build meaning that scales and alignment that sticks.

Here’s what you’ll get:

→ Fieldnotes: sharp signals across tech, design, culture, and leadership
→ Forces: the big shifts reshaping how companies create value
→ Questions: prompts to pressure-test strategy and spark better decisions

This is a decision tool to help you think, build, and lead in the year ahead. 

Read it, share it, debate it.

Just don’t ignore it.

If you want to win at business and brand in 2026...

Like this post and drop FUTURE OF BRAND in the comments, and I’ll send it your way.

#brand

Good Agency

Chief Growth Officer

The Scatter Joy Project

Support the vision, mission, and direction of the organization through brand, strategy, and event support.

Advisory Board Member

PARABLE Brand

People don't lead from qualities or positions, they lead from their story. We help businesses tell their story by building their unique parable.

Storyteller & CEO

One Chapel

Led, grew, and managed volunteer teams to serve throughout the week and for various events. Led trainings and workshops once per quarter. Built up new operational system for vetting, training, and managing people and skills. 
Led youth group leaders through training, development, communication, and preaching each week.

Team Director & Youth Pastor

Depression2Extinction

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Co-Founder & Creative Director

The WHY Blog

www.thewhyblog.com
Creating Connections Through Conversations

Host and Creator

CURO Coaching Solutions, LLC.

Co-Founder & Partner

CURO Coaching Solutions

Personal Development Coach

Bryn Athyn College of the New Church

Leading a team to build a fully functioning media program designed by students to help reach a larger audience of past, current, and future students.

Audio Visual Technician

Be Well Bakery and Cafe

My opportunity is one that allows me to continuously learn and improve myself, my teammates, and the company.

Social Media and Catering Manager

Radical Brand & Content for B2B | Brand Strategist | Storyteller | Brand Pastor | ☕️ & 🌵 Enthusiast

🌵 Follow me for daily insights into building, growing, and crafting the story-backed marketing that drives revenue🌵

Craft coffee and inspiring stories? I’m in. 

I help legacy brands build thriving brand strategies and brand stories.

Don't believe me?

Just ask Dale Dupree.

Luke Frazier 🌵

When he was 17, he traveled through Europe on a one-way ticket, with a single backpack, and $100 for a month.

In his 20s, he and his wife had their first few kids (twins!). Right around the same time he needed to go back to school to get a degree to upscale future work. While that was happening, the family needed to get by (do you know how many diapers twins use up?!). 

So, he ran a school dining hall, was on the fire dept., was the captain of the ambulance crew, also served on the police dept. -- all while in school and supporting two newborns. 

My grandfather was telling me the other day that it wasn't easy. My grandmother added that she really only ever say the back of his head for that season. But they both said it was worth it.

They had financial peace, they were getting set up for better future work, and they were radically involved in the community.

Needless to say, I'm kind of blown away by my grandparents the more I spend time with them. I realize we have it way better than they did in so many ways and there was a different kind of hard work pre-tech. 

Have you gotten to have these kinds of stories/conversations with your grandparents yet?


p.s. He was pretty suave sailing that boat

Luke Frazier ☕️ 

Helping service-based Founders build clear marketing funnels | Brand Pastor | Fractional Revenue Executive | ☕️ & 🌵 Enthusiast

My coffee life and LinkedIn life are not separate. In fact, they might be too well connected (says my wife)...

That's besides the point - why I'm really here is to say that if people like Collin Mayjack ask for my address... I'm giving it. 

Radically grateful this morning as I enter the "manual grind" (which really doesn't feel like a grind) with my freshly brewed Manual Grind. I heavily endorse this specific Ethiopian brew and will leave a solid review in the comments. 

Keep your eyes on what Sybill is doing folks 👀

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I did something I'm ashamed of and needed to publicly repent. 

This is strictly for research and I can tell you this:

Dunkin ain't keeping anybody "runnin". Avoid at all costs. 

You're welcome.

We pray over every episode. That it reaches the right people. That God would give us the wisdom, words, and heart we need. That He be glorified in the work. That it speaks to you so that you can grow and give where He's called you to do so.

And I believe this conversation with Brad Pearse went above and beyond all that we could have asked or prayed for. 

Brad shares some wildly amazing stories from building a $700M company to his time with OtterBox to what drives him today in Sales Consulting and Coaching. 

Loved this episode and if you're a Founder or Sales leader, this one's for you: https://lnkd.in/gWSqk7sE

There's something electric about Scott Frazier.

And it's not just the 3 oat milk cortados he's already had today... no, it's something else.

The man has been in almost every seat imaginable from working at the family business to running ministry to jet-setting across the country with real estate to founding companies and more...

But honestly, after sitting down with him for a few hours, I think this is the one thing that truly sets him apart:

He deeply cares about who is in front of him.

From owning businesses to selling them and leading men and women to guiding young entrepreneurs - Scott sat down with Clay and me to share a few decades of wisdom. 

If you're an entrepreneur or aspiring to be, this podcast is for you.

Tune in: https://lnkd.in/g5Yv86U9

This might be my all time favorite season we launched and it started at a pretty high bar with my boy Scott. Thanks to everyone who shared thorough and beautiful feedback, support, and love this week. Keep it coming!

Thanks also to the team that makes this amazing thing possible: Clay, Daniel, Stephen, Jack, and more!

In my teens and early twenties, all I wanted to do was start a business. I did a few things that never really got anywhere. So, I started my first podcast where I simply interviewed entrepreneurs, creatives, pastors, and people who were doing things they loved - we talked about their "why" in live. 

But along the way, I still felt a desire to "do my own thing". I remember chatting with a few people further along in the journey and they told me, "don't feel like you have to risk everything early, find good leaders and partners and work for them until you can't."

I hated the advice at the time. 

But boy were they right. There's just nothing that can replace raw experience when you're not at the helm. It teaches a different kind of ownership and leadership. The boots on the ground, gritty kind. 

There's nothing like creating your own experience, but really, there's nothing like learning the successes and failures of someone else's thing. 

Don't feel like you gotta jump too early, it's worth the journey and never too late 🤘

When things don't seem clear, it's easy to stay put. It's tempting to take the easy way out. 

And a lot of marketing feels like this: tons of unknowns and a huge waste of money. 

But that's if you don't have a good partner. That's if there isn't full clarity and education of strategy and execution. Not all marketing merits a direct ROI tomorrow. But a good partner helps prove it over time and gives you a consistent path towards growth. 

Stop feeling unclear about marketing and get connected with a partner who dives in deep with you.

Ride into the storm.
Man in the arena.
Growth at all costs.

Bounce between ideas.
Somehow, get lost.

I used to write more,
as a practice of thought.
Poetry, creative, business,
for an aim of less rot.

But life fills
and choices collide.
Eventually,
Some dreams die.

And as they do,
others arise.
For the man in the arena
Constantly survives.

As the buffalo go,
trudging the storm.
Growth at all costs
is our dying form.

It's wild to live under the premise that everything on this platform should be business. 

I know I'm preaching to the choir a little bit here, but also just important to remember.

For example, everything I do in business, directly impacts my family, my church, and friends. On top of that, anytime I travel to meet with clients. I have genuine opportunity to make impact greater than just business. And don't get me wrong I want people to make more money, revenue is our game.

But to be really great at business, there's a side of that where you have to be really good with people. And guess what, most of our lives aren't solely focused around business. Because of that, because of the fact that we can build commonalities on other fronts, we actually have the opportunity to do more business.

So, I guess this is just my caffeinated rant to give you permission, again, to be your full self in business. It might just help you in the long run.





p.s. yes, it is absolutely kosher to drive in the car with a normal mug.

p.p.s. Rocking an Ethiopian today brewed through my trusty chemex

p.p.p.s. (Is this a thing 🤷‍♂️) if you haven't checked out our Coffee & Conversion podcast you're missing out on all things marketing, revenue, and (you guessed it) coffee.

I'm in marketing, but help me out: 
What does "fastest growing company" actually mean and who cares??

Traveling later this week, so I just wanted to remind y'all:

Don't drink airplane coffee. 

You're welcome.

I didn't think they used to matter much, but words matter a whole heck of a lot. 

They could mean the difference between new clients and lost leads. 

A bought in community or a bad Reddit thread. 

You could gain a lot or lose everything with words. 

So why would you leave them to chance on the "digital billboards" of for your company? 

Why would you be cute when you could be exact?

Why would you be clever when you could be clear?

Choose words that are clear, compelling, and drive people to action. You don't need a lot of them, you just need the right few for the right people at the right time. 



Welcome to Memphis....

Driving cattle is a dream job....

Second best is marketing the land 🤷

Check out Talise, Texas

The wide-open South Texas landscape is our favorite place to work: moving through the pastures, checking water, and watching over every calf. 🌾 

This steady care shapes the Walker family’s life on the land, and it guides their vision for the future of Talise.

If you dream of having your own piece of land to ranch on, The Springs will offer estate homesites with room to breathe and space for the lifestyle you want.

Explore the interactive map for available lots in The Springs: https://lnkd.in/emhPGVNz

Marketing stats and data are all over the place these days. It used to be so much easier

I put in a dollar and get out $5 - $10.

And even though it never *really* was that way, there are so many saturated channels, competitors, and confusing metrics that it's frustrating to not know where you should be.

What's worse? A lot of business owners I talk to who are winging their budgets going into that mess. How will you ever know what's "working" and what isn't?

We love some kind of structure like the EOS strategy. Because it helps give frameworks and guideposts and goals for all the Revenue-focused efforts you have. Even down to salaries. 

I hope you're not flailing like some I've talked to, but if you have some glimpse of an unknown, I'd love to talk to you.

taplio

The Battle

Sunny Bonnell

Luke Frazier 🌵

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreSunny Bonnell's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreLuke Frazier 🌵's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Sunny Bonnell

Luke Frazier 🌵

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sunny Bonnell's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreLuke Frazier 🌵's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreSunny Bonnell's LinkedIn Performance