Proper is a philosophy, it’s a spirit. It's our commitment to quality and discernment.

Liz Olson is the founding consultant and lead strategist at Proper Work. With over 17 years of brand-building experience—including Dove, Huggies, Hertz, Caterpillar, Liberty Mutual, Nestlé, Samsung—Liz has worked across categories and industries to help companies solve business problems with creativity. 

Liz spent the early part of her career at Ogilvy, where she was a brand strategist and head of new business for the Chicago office. With a background in qualitative research and behavioral psychology, Liz has lead strategy and narrative creation for consumer brands and portfolio companies, financial service firms and biotech start-ups. 

Liz is a translator, a dot-connector, a sense-maker. Committed to living her life in widening circles, she is a certified permaculturalist, certified birth doula, former barefoot marathon runner, and current keeper of @yearwithmary and Letters To Hadley—which remains her most meaningful and ongoing labor of written love.

Bianca Smith gives brands a voice and a point of view. With a background in journalism and design research, she has the unique ability to cut through complexity, uncover truth, and articulate the essence of a company, a culture, a product.

A pragmatic optimist and an effortless collaborator, Bianca has spent her agency and consulting career partnering with start-up founders and consumer brand CEOs to clarify positioning, define brand values, and craft messaging that sticks. As Le Guin might say: words are her matter.

Beauty and abundance are sustaining forces in Bianca’s life. She is a thread-puller, a curiosity-follower, a view-seeker. She is a founding admin of Distant Community, a co-founder of Spritzi, a recreational vintage collector, and a hobbyist film photographer.