Brand Strategist, Educator & Global Keynote Speaker with 25+ Years of Experience — on Launching a Six-Figure Course with The Futur as a Non-Native Speaker, Building Global Brand Authority as an Outsider, and Why Branding in 2026 Is About Being as Human as Possible
Anneli Hansson built her career in brand strategy over 25 years working with global names like Volvo, Levi's, and Coca-Cola — all from Sweden. Then, at the start of the pandemic, she made a pivot that most people in her position would never dare: she stepped onto the international stage, taught in a second language, and ended up creating the bestselling course launch The Futur had ever seen. In a conversation with Sergey on the Be Yourself Podcast, she breaks down exactly how that happened — and what most people get wrong about brand strategy, credibility, and building authority when you're an outsider.
The episode covers her earliest career chapters — a childhood on an island of 400 people outside Stockholm, cold-call sales jobs at 18, and a matchmaking gig that ended when the police showed up — through to her decision to join The Futur's pro community as a member and the step-by-step process by which she went from practicing English privately to recording a course with a teleprompter while fighting impostor syndrome. She talks about the real behind-the-scenes of a six-figure launch: the meltdowns, the anxiety, and the award she still keeps nearby.
Together they dig into what brand strategy actually is versus what most creatives think it is, why getting paid for your thinking requires facilitation skills more than design skills, and why 2026 is the year that demands brands — and people — choose radical humanity over AI-generated content and surface-level advice.
Anneli Hansson has been working in marketing and branding since 1998. She grew up on a small island of 400 people outside Stockholm, moved cities at 13, left home at 17, and spent her first years in the professional world cold-calling for sales commissions. That background in sales — understanding how to sell, how to pitch, how to read a room — became the foundation of everything she has built since.
Over the following decades she worked as a CMO and senior brand strategist on the corporate side, managing yearly budgets of six to seven million US dollars, working with six or seven agencies simultaneously, and leading brand work for companies with 15,000 employees. She worked with global brands including Volvo, Levi's, and Coca-Cola. Then the pandemic began, and she made her pivot.
She joined The Futur's pro community as a regular member who wanted to practice her English and challenge herself on an international market. Within months she was facilitating workshops. Within a year she had created Brand Strategy Fundamentals — which became the bestselling course launch in The Futur's history. She has since founded the Brand Rebels for Good community, given a TEDx talk on brands as a force for good, and continues to coach brand strategists and work with clients who want to make a positive impact.
resonate with people who are underdogs because no one thinks that we can do something and then when we shine it kind of automatically liberates other people who are underdogs
if I could do that, anyone who listen to this, you can do anything you want in life if you want it
everything about branding 2026 will be about being as human as possible