Renia Carsillo
Founder of Realign Consulting and business strategist for leaders who’ve decided growth and integrity aren’t in competition.
Renia (pronounced REE-nah) has spent more than two decades helping founders and executive teams build businesses that hold up under pressure, without abandoning what they care about. She writes and speaks widely on what it actually takes to build a business that lasts.
Renia takes a holistic approach to strategy. That means looking at the whole business, not just the next tactic, and the whole leader, not just their next win. Sustainable habits, financial well-being, and grounded leadership carry as much weight in her work as the marketing plan does. Marketing isn’t treated as a piece of the business sitting off to the side. It’s woven into everything else, and it’s the same perspective she brings to the stage and the page.
Expertise
- Business Strategy
- Brand Strategy
- Marketing Messaging Strategy
- Values-Driven Marketing
- Business Consulting & Coaching
- Leadership Development
- Team Training Facilitation
- Finance
Renia started her career in Retail and Small Business Banking with SunTrust Bank (now Truist), where she became the youngest AVP in the company’s footprint at the time. It’s also where she picked up an idea that’s shaped everything since: It’s business, not politics, that actually moves the world. That conviction sent her looking for a bigger stage to put it into practice.
Renia spent the mid-2000s as a director, trainer, and early social media strategist at what was then the world’s largest networking organization. She was part of the team that helped bridge in-person, formal networking with the emerging digital world. It was the golden era of SEO and Web 2.0, and Renia cut her marketing teeth right in the middle of it, pushing back even then against an industry that was already starting to forget its own lessons.
In 2008, right in the middle of the Great Recession, Renia struck out on her own and founded Realign Consulting. She believed small businesses needed better tools to change their own trajectories, and their communities’ trajectories right along with them. Since then, she’s built two proprietary frameworks around that same whole-business, whole-person view:
More About Renia Carsillo
- Do Better Business™: an approach to business strategy built on sustainable habits and grounded leadership, not just growth targets.
- Values-Driven Marketing: an approach to marketing that treats it as a critical element woven into the business, not a department bolted onto the side.
Renia has brought that same lens to impact-driven companies, multinational franchises, and B2B brands, often in industries that don’t usually get called values-driven, from industrial manufacturing to government contracting. More than 100 small and mid-sized companies have worked with her to build operating models that prove profit and people-first impact can coexist.
Growth comes from integration, not isolation. That’s the contrarian bet Renia’s built her whole practice on, and two decades in, she hasn’t found a reason to bet differently.
Education & Credentials
Renia is an inaugural year graduate of the South Florida State College Honors Program (2002) and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of South Florida (2005). She was part of the inaugural cohort of USF’s Digital Marketing Science Certificate program and later served on its board (2015–16).
Her additional training includes Tara Moore’s Playing Big Facilitator certification, the 300-Hour Ayurvedic Health Coach certification, and the 600-Hour Ayurvedic Health Counselor certification. She’s also an NASM-CPT Certified Personal Trainer and a graduate of Foundations of Social Justice and Self-Awareness for Social Justice, a program led by Dr. Tee Williams.
Who She's Worked With
Publications
Renia has been a featured speaker for organizations like Inbound by HubSpot and UNC Chapel Hill’s MBA program. Her writing has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Entrepreneur, Nasdaq, Motherly, and the Tampa Bay Times, among others.
And long before Do Better Business™ had a name, Renia was already writing her way toward it:
- One Man, One Show: 21 Weeks to Profitable Self-Employment: The early version of what would eventually become the Do Better Business™ framework. Renia is candid that some of the theories in it haven't aged the way she'd like, but the core "why" and the core actions still run straight through to her work today.
- Born Hungry: Stories About Sweet Love, Bitter Greens, and Losing My Religion: Renia's origin story, told as honestly as she could tell it. The print edition is currently offline for reformatting, but it remains a book she's proud of.
Neither title is currently available for purchase online. Renia’s two upcoming books, including Marketers Make the World, are further along and open for early access.
Let's Talk
Whether it’s a retreat, a keynote, or something to read, the throughline stays the same: strategy that treats the whole business, and the whole person leading it, as one integrated powerhouse for change.
Latest Articles By Renia Carsillo
Great podcast guesting isn't about slick soundbites; it's about prep, clear positioning, and real connection. A step-by-step process to find, pitch, and book shows that actually fit your work....
AI is changing how marketers work, but it's not making skilled humans obsolete. Here's why roles rooted in critical thinking, ethics, and relationships stay essential, and how to future-proof yours....
If you've ever stared at a blank ChatGPT window wondering what to type, this one's for you. You'll find 13 clear, ready‑to‑use prompts designed to sharpen your strategy, clarify your...
Used well, ChatGPT can give you back hours each week, but it can’t replace your values, judgment, or lived experience. This post walks through specific, values‑aligned use cases so you...
In a landscape obsessed with shiny tools and formats, small business owners are often told that video is the magic fix, when the real advantage still comes from clear, human‑centered...
Every small business owner leads differently, and those differences shape what growth feels sustainable for you. This article helps you name your owner type so you can choose strategies, systems,...
