Olivia Barajas

Olivia Barajas, Partner and Marketing Director at Keyser, has built a career around connecting creativity, communication, and business strategy. Her journey began after graduating from Grand Canyon University in 2017 with a degree in digital design and a minor in marketing.

She entered the creative marketing field at a design, build, and construction firm before moving to a technology startup. She later joined Keyser, a commercial real estate advisory firm exclusively representing tenants and occupiers, where she has spent nearly eight years helping build the firm’s brand and marketing capabilities while growing into an organizational leader.

At Keyser, Barajas progressed from marketing manager to marketing director and now serves as partner and marketing director. During her tenure, the Inc. 5000-recognized firm has experienced 87.5 percent revenue growth. Barajas has helped shape the brand behind that growth, leading the marketing team through a full company rebrand and overseeing strategy spanning corporate positioning, creative direction, executive communications, thought leadership, content strategy, sales enablement, and digital visibility.

Working closely with executive leadership and business development teams, she translates business priorities into compelling brand narratives and communications that strengthen Keyser’s market position, reputation, and ability to win new business. Her work has included ghostwriting executive contributions appearing in national publications including Inc., Forbes, and The Business Journals, as well as supporting the launch of a No. 1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book authored by Jonathan Keyser, Keyser’s founder and managing partner.

Creating a Ripple Effect

Barajas’ approach to brand and communications has evolved from seeing marketing primarily as a creative discipline to understanding it as a way to connect people, ideas, and solutions. She believes effective communication starts with understanding the audience: what they need, what challenges they are trying to solve, and what information will help move them forward.

“ The work we do creates a butterfly effect. As a leader, i can help someone find greater purpose and satisfaction in their work. As a marketer, i can connect people with solutions to meaningful challenges. In either case, the impact should extend far beyond me. “

“The work we do creates a butterfly effect,” Barajas says. “As a leader, I can help someone find greater purpose and satisfaction in their work. As a marketer, I can connect people with solutions to meaningful challenges. In either case, the impact should extend far beyond me.”

For Barajas, that ripple effect connects brand, leadership, and service. Strong communication can help a client discover a solution, help an organization articulate its value, or give an employee greater clarity and purpose in their work.

Transforming Ambiguity into Action

One of Barajas’ greatest strengths is her ability to bring structure to complex and ambiguous situations. Working closely with executives, she translates ideas, business priorities, and emerging opportunities into actionable brand, communication, and business strategies. She understands that leaders frequently have innovative concepts but need someone who can identify the underlying objective, develop the narrative, create a clear framework, and move an idea from conversation to execution.

At Keyser, where her work touches everything from corporate positioning and executive thought leadership to reputation, client communications, proposals, and high-stakes business development opportunities, that ability to move between strategy and execution has become particularly valuable. Her approach allows brand and communications to function not simply as a marketing resource, but as a strategic contributor to organizational growth.

Building Teams through Trust and Respect

Beyond brand and business outcomes, Barajas considers team development one of her proudest achievements. Keyser’s culture is built around core operating principles centered on selfless service, presence, and coachability. She applies these principles within her own team by giving employees ownership while ensuring people at every level feel valued and recognized for their contributions.

Her leadership has contributed to more than five years of top-talent retention through mentorship and collaboration. For Barajas, successful leadership means creating an environment where people are trusted to contribute, grow, and find satisfaction in their work.

Preparing Brands for the Future

As technology and artificial intelligence reshape how organizations communicate, Barajas emphasizes thoughtful adoption rather than chasing every new trend. Her work incorporates AI and LLM-informed strategies designed to strengthen Keyser’s visibility across traditional and generative search while maintaining the human judgment and creativity necessary to build brand trust.

Looking ahead, Barajas is focused on strengthening Keyser’s brand and reputation as a source of commercial real estate expertise while adapting its communications strategy to changing audience behaviors. As decision-makers increasingly use AI and generative search to discover information, evaluate expertise, and identify potential business partners, she is helping position Keyser to remain visible, credible, and relevant.

Her advice to future brand and communications leaders is to stay relentlessly curious, not only about marketing, but about business, technology, leadership, people, and the changing ways audiences make decisions. The broader a leader's understanding of the organization and the people it serves, Barajas believes, the better equipped they are to identify opportunities, communicate value, and turn ideas into meaningful action.