Driving a female-led, women-driven new-age model
Acclaimed Brand Strategist & Coach Shreya Karia has spent 15+ years proving you don’t have to follow the rules to make an impact—just the guts to rebrand your life. As founder of SHK Consulting, an award-winning studio known for taking brands and people from “meh” to magnetic, she’s all about bold ideas and premium experiences. Raised in Nairobi, London, and Sydney, Shreya brings global flair and a passion for helping ambitious women smash the rulebook and show up as their boldest selves.
As a Brand Strategist, Shreya Karia understands that gone are the days where a company’s success hinged solely on its products. In today’s world consumers care about hyper personalisation, connection and status. They no longer seek out commodities but brands. Brands that they remember, relate to, and build into their daily lives. In this new era, just selling just isn’t enough. And those building these brands need to be highly tapped in.
As the Founder and Chief Brand Strategist of SHK Consulting, she puts this connection at the heart of her work – guiding businesses to craft clear, compelling and high impact brand values that resonate with the right audience in the right manner. Work that has led the studio to many coveted campaigns and accolades.
She infuses energy, expertise, and a playful twist into everything she does. When she’s not leading strategy sessions or mentoring future female leaders, she’s coaching high-energy spin classes—reminding everyone that life, like the bike, is about finding personal rhythm
The Birth of SHK Consulting
Before stepping into coaching and speaking, Shreya Karia founded SHK Consulting, where her experiences as a businesswoman and female leader shaped her philosophy on how women can in fact create businesses that thrive financially, are good for families and communities.
With a background in luxury goods across three continents she developed a global perspective, refining her creativity, attention to detail, and ability to craft exceptional experiences. Along the way in her early 20s, she observed that many corporate environments were siloed, with limited collaboration and a lack of passion especially when it came to female roles. Paper pushing and people pleasing was not fulfilling for her.
Her transition from luxury fashion to luxury real estate in the UK, just before the 2008 financial crash, proved pivotal. Confronted with an “old boys’ club” culture that overlooked young, vibrant, ethnically diverse women, she realized that instead of waiting for a seat at the table, she needed to create her own if she was ever to leave a mark or put her name to work that she could be proud of.
This insight shaped SHK Consulting into a brand studio built on a female first approach, diversity, creative thinking, and excellence, launched in Kenya 14 years ago. Speaking emerged naturally, allowing Shreya to share her real-life experiences inspiring other women to embrace courage, and to rethink what success could mean to them personally.
There is a power in owning your worth
In the early days of her career, Shreya Karia quickly learned that success often requires creating your own opportunities. Not every room welcomed her, and not every table had a seat meant for her, so she built her own. Even after founding SHK Consulting, she continued to face these challenges.
As a young woman, she often walked into meetings where clients assumed she was a junior reporting into a more ‘capable male counterpart’ asking questions like, “Is your boss joining us?” or “Will the company head be here?” Instead of being discouraged, Shreya Karia used these moments to establish her authority and confidence, making it clear that she was the decision-maker.
“You learn the hard way. Very quickly you’re confronted with your own internal questions such as – are you willing to compromise and shrink who you are to fit into someone else’s version of you? Or are you going to stand out for what you bring? The most important lesson whether it’s walking into a room not ready to give you a seat, charging your worth or saying no to business that does not align with your values is knowing who you are”.
Creating a Life You Don’t Need a Vacation From
These experiences shaped the way she leads SHK Consulting today, intentionally building it as a female-led, female-driven company that equips its team to navigate the real world challenges. There has to be an understanding that in today’s world work and personal life isn’t separate – they are highly interconnected. What happens in one, impacts the other.
By creating a company culture that puts women’s mindset, wellbeing and self-development first, the quality of work, passion and commitment transforms. It’s not about ‘bumper sticker motivational phrases on walls’ or one-off team building experiences. But rather, conscious daily practices and habits that are built into the working day.
For example, weekly debriefs are not just centred around work deliverables but also call on each individual to set personal mindset goals for the week. Dedicated personal time each month outside of the workplace is set aside for new practices that are then shared with peers for further learning. No topic is too crazy or unrealistic. Past peer learnings have even include life lessons learnt from chicken farming!
“With our approach what you find is that over time colleagues begin to own a quiet self confidence and personal power. They step into projects with a full belief and backing, are able to deliver efficiently and impactfully. Beyond this they become change advocates to other women in their communities outside of work. And this is where the real magic happens for the longer term”.
SHK Consulting is living proof that successful businesses can be female founded, women driven and can deliver strategies that are rooted in adding value for brands and consumers.
Market Excellence Award for Brand Strategy
Excellence at SHK Consulting is earned, not claimed. They’ve received many accolades including most recent MEA Market Excellence Award for Brand Strategy is a reflection of their unwavering commitment. At SHK Consulting, strategy is more than just a plan—it’s an art form that blends insight, storytelling, and purpose. Every brand they build is designed to captivate, endure, and stand out in a fast-evolving marketplace.
Under her leadership, SHK Consulting has successfully completed over 300 stellar projects for more than 40 clients, establishing itself as a trusted partner for premium and sustainable brand solutions. Beyond working on some of the most coveted brands, they run a programme designed to deliver tailored brand strategies for women-led start-ups and ventures—helping them not just survive but thrive, and reinforcing SHK Consulting’s reputation as a purpose-driven, results-focused company that puts women at the heart of every initiative.
What truly defines SHK Consulting is the philosophy behind their work:
- Aligned Values: For projects to succeed there has to be harmony in the values we hold and those of prospective clients. Without this, there will never be synergy or respect towards creating meaningful strategy. We are very clear that if values do not align, we do not take on the work.
- Adaptive: We live in an ever changing world, what worked yesterday is irrelevant today. Our mindset has to be one geared towards adjusting to change. Being resource oriented and agile is the key to managing expectations delivering to a high standard.
- Lifelong students: We’re not just upskilling with tech, we’re upskilling our mind, our collaborative approach and our creativity. At the root of our work is a quest to learn, dissect and implement. Life = evolution and so too must our work ethos.
- Cross-functional collaboration: We’re all about the opposite of a siloed work process. Colleagues will get pulled into projects outside of their usual roles and comfort level. This deliberately fosters problem-solving, fresh perspectives and mutual respect.
Beyond Boardrooms
Taking everything Shreya Karia has learnt along the way, she’s established herself as a credible, highly-respected female change maker. Her focus has always been on helping individuals create lives that align with their vision and purpose.
What she noticed through conversations with women: 60% had lost their self-confidence and belief in building a life that felt really good for them. 74% no longer felt self-worth or pride in their current daily life. And yet, these were smart, capable women who had all followed the “rulebook and yet were left wondering who they truly were”
So she developed the shethrives program. Designed for ambitious women in search of rebuilding their identity and reclaiming their purpose. An intentional guide to building a roadmap to a life that is deeply fulfilling and enriching.
- 300+ projects completed
- 14 years of experience
- 188% average annual growth
- 50+ satisfied clients
- Coveted Brands worked on include: LOUIS XIII, Rémy Martin, Forbes Africa, Marriott International, William Grant & Sons, Standard Bank, Knight Frank,
Shreya Karia—Personal Recognitions:
- MEA Brand Strategist of the Year 2023
- Women to Watch, Global Women Achievers 2022
- Africa Women Leaders 2020
Shreya Karia’s 5 Impactful Business Mantras
- Build Your Own Table: You don’t need to wait for a seat at someone else’s table. Build a table that celebrates your worth and capabilities. The right people will take a seat with you.
- Know Your Worth: Never underprice your value to fit in. True growth begins when you recognize and charge what you deserve.
- Live With Purpose: Always leave a place better than when you came. Focus on impact, not just profit.
- Perfection Is An Illusion: Staying hung up on perfection will limit growth and stops action. It’s fear in disguise. If you don’t start somewhere, how will you improve? So bank on yourself and take the risk.
- Saying No is Valuable: Not every prospect is worth it. If you don’t intentionally create space for high-value ones, it will never come. You’ll stay stuck in low value work that doesn’t reflect your capability.
