Ken Braun
- 35 Years in Digital Marketing
- Black Belt Marketing Master of Defeating Digital Competition
- Turned a $50/month marketing budget into 50 million in revenue
- Veteran Webby Awards Judge
- Forbes Contributor
Ken Braun Speaker Biography
Ken Braun is a digital pioneer, creative visionary, and entrepreneur who has been shaping the online landscape since founding Lounge Lizard Worldwide in 1998. What started as a freelance banner ad business became one of the most award-winning digital agencies in the United States, with offices across New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington D.C., Nashville, and beyond.
As Co-Founder and Chief Brandtender, Ken has led the creation of hundreds of award-winning websites, digital ad campaigns, and performance-driven marketing strategies for enterprise and mid-market brands worldwide. His work spans web design and development, branding, SEO, AI content strategy, and omni-channel digital marketing always, with an eye toward measurable growth and lasting brand equity.
A trusted voice in the industry, Ken serves as a judge for the prestigious Webby Awards and contributes regularly to Forbes, writing on website design trends, user experience, and digital growth strategy. His insights have shaped how brands around the world think about storytelling, strategy, and online performance.
Ken attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where his passion for advertising art and design was first ignited. He brings more than three decades of hands-on leadership to every engagement combining a deep understanding of brand identity with a relentless drive for results.
Outside the boardroom, Ken is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, a pursuit that informs his leadership philosophy. He applies the same discipline, resilience, and strategic precision of martial arts to business, building brands with clarity, strength, and competitive focus.
- Agency: loungelizard.com
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kenbraun
Featured Videos
Speech Topics
SIGNATURE TALKS: THE BLACK BELT SERIES
Black Belt Series: Keynote
Black Belt Marketing: How to Tap Out the Competition Online
In BJJ, the black belt isn’t given. It’s earned through technique, discipline, and the willingness to be submitted thousands of times. Ken shows how the same principles separate winning brands from those who keep losing ground to smarter, faster competitors.
Black Belt Series: Strategy
Grip First, Win Later: The Discipline of Digital Positioning
Before you can submit a competitor, you need control. This session covers how to establish dominant positioning through SEO, design, and brand strategy, and how to hold it when competitors try to escape.
Black Belt Series: Creative
The Big Idea Armbar: Why Boring Brands Always Lose
Most websites are defensive, built not to lose rather than built to win. Ken reveals how the “Big Idea” in digital creative is the equivalent of a finishing move: it stops users mid-scroll, converts attention into action, and turns customers into advocates.
Black Belt Series: AI & Innovation
Rolling With AI: Adapting or Getting Swept in the New Digital Landscape
AI hasn’t made brand strategy easier. It’s made the gap between good and great more unforgiving. Ken breaks down how forward-looking brands are using AI in content, SEO, GEO, and design to gain a positional advantage their competitors can’t recover from.
Black Belt Series: Entrepreneurship
From White Belt to $1M: The Entrepreneur’s Path to Digital Mastery
In 1998, Ken quit his Madison Avenue job and started Lounge Lizard in a spare bedroom. By the end of that year, the company had made its first million. This is a raw, honest account of resilience, reinvention, and the relentless pursuit of mastery in business and in life.
Black Belt Series: Customer Experience
Sweep the Leg: How to Win Customers Before Competitors Even Engage
The best fights are won before they start. This session reveals how world-class UX, brand storytelling, and conversion-driven design take customers off the table entirely, leaving competitors fighting for whoever’s left.
The Black Belt Philosophy
On the Mat
- Control the position before you attempt the finish
- Technique beats strength every time
- Drilling basics creates championship instincts
- Getting submitted is how you learn to submit others
- Read your opponent, not your game plan
In the Market
- Own your niche before you expand
- Smart design outperforms bigger budgets
- SEO fundamentals create compounding organic growth
- Failed campaigns teach more than comfortable wins
- Understand your audience, not your assumptions
