Lightmakers engineers the rooms where brands lead culture. Senior-operator execution across creator, events, PR, and partnerships. $111M+ closed inside Fortune 500 rooms.
Specialist partners do excellent work in their lanes. Multi-agency setups still carry an industry-average 8%–16% in coordination overhead plus the moments lost in handoffs. Lightmakers consolidates the four lanes onto one accountable operator. Useful when speed and integration matter more than depth in any single lane.
I spent twenty years closing Fortune 500 partnerships. $111 million in signed deals at IBM, Gartner, and Evanta. Every one of them defended in front of a CFO who didn't care about reach.
I started Lightmakers because creator marketing is maturing into a pipeline discipline, and I'd spent twenty years building that exact muscle elsewhere. A bot generates an impression. Your CFO knows this. By 2026, "we got 50M impressions" no longer defends a line item in a budget review.
So we built Lightmakers to scope every engagement for revenue from day one. The same operating system that closed enterprise deals, applied to brand culture work.
Every engagement is led by a senior operator with me as the accountable lead, backed by the wider Lightmakers operator network and the proprietary AI infrastructure we run on internally. The same operating system used to close $111M+ in Fortune 500 partnerships at IBM, Gartner, and Evanta, applied to brand culture work.
The boardroom and the cultural moment. One accountable team. One contract. One report on your CFO's desk.
Tell us your revenue goal. We'll work back to the campaign infrastructure that gets you there: creators, views, videos. Based on the planning methodology that closed $111M+ in Fortune 500 partnerships.
Based on Lightmakers' proprietary planning methodology and industry conversion benchmarks. Multi-path planning (creator + email + paid) and category-specific benchmarks available with the full audit. Free for industry use.
Pick a single lane, or hand us the whole build. Every engagement runs through the Method.
Creator partnerships engineered for commerce, not just impressions.
Red carpets, dinners, pop-ups, and launches. We engineer the room and the amplification.
Brand-to-brand deal architecture and earned media. 24-hour deal velocity from cold ask to signed.
Senior advisory and operating support across AI strategy, creator partnerships, press, and revenue operations. Embedded inside your brand team.
A senior-led core team plus a curated operator network, deployed by project. Every engagement is led by Karen Diaz as accountable operator, and staffed with the senior specialists best matched to the room. No junior staff. No capacity ceiling. No retainers paying for people who aren't on your account.
Operator credentials by role. Names and photos withheld until engagement.
Plus an extended network of senior operators we deploy by project. Every engagement is staffed with the right talent for the room.
A select sample of recent engagements across our four lanes. Every one moved fast, ran lean, and was measured against revenue, relationships, or both. Full case dossier available on request.
Private screening of Infinite Icon. We curated the room, ran RSVP architecture, and built the creator amplification layer that turned one night into a multi-platform earned moment.
Casa Dani creator dinner architected, contracted, and shipped in 24 hours. From cold ask to signed activation inside one of LA's most coveted hospitality groups, with full content amplification engineered into the night.
Multi-format launch for Chera, the new entertainment platform. We produced the room, secured media partners including Getty and Shutterstock coverage, and curated a guest list of operators, press, and creators who carried the launch beyond launch day.
A new Lightmakers engagement is currently shipping. Case study lands shortly. Want to be the next case study? The application takes three minutes.
Additional engagements include Kim Kardashian's Ulike campaign, Kalodata, Soho Works, IBM, BeeHiiv, US Robosen, TEDx UCLA, Gabriela Ceballos, and Dr. Joe Dispenza.
Apply to join the Lightmakers roster. A curated bench of talent we activate for brand campaigns when the fit lands.
Apply to the roster →
Karen Diaz is a Fortune 500 sales operator turned founder. Twenty years at IBM, Gartner, and Evanta. $111M+ in closed enterprise sales. An MBA from UCLA Anderson. AI-first operator since 2023. The playbook brands actually get bought on, turned loose on the founders, brands, and creators building what's next.
She learned the operating system from the inside. How Fortune 500 partnerships actually get built. How press gets earned. How a single relationship at the right table can change a company's trajectory. Lightmakers takes that machinery and points it at culture, where the next decade of brand revenue is being decided.
Recent rooms: Paris Hilton's Infinite Icon, SBE's hospitality activations, and Club Chera's launch at Zouk LA. Same rigor a Big Four consultant would bring. Same warmth as a friend who picks up the phone.
The Lightmakers operating system is built on twenty years of Fortune 500 enterprise sales discipline, twenty-one years of NLP-trained buyer psychology, and proprietary AI infrastructure that gives our senior operator team agency-scale capacity. All applied to brand culture work. It's what powers our category leadership in Cultural Commerce.
Partners at Gartner, doctors, founders, and 100+ creators on what it's actually like to work with the team.
"As a doctor of public health, I was not trained in marketing. I hired Karen because she's a successful marketer with an MBA from UCLA, and she skillfully gave client relations all the biggest marketing companies, like IBM and Gartner. The reason Karen stood out is the unique combination of her genuine compassionate personality, science-backed strategies, and relentless hard work. We benefited from Karen's keen market strategy and practical tools that streamlined our endeavors. If in need of growing or scaling your business, hire Karen."
"I've had the privilege of knowing Karen for over 10 years, and during that time I've watched her grow into an incredible force for helping others succeed. Karen's talent for organizing and bringing people together is unmatched. Whether it's an event, a strategy session, or a collaboration, she's able to make it all happen seamlessly. If you're looking for someone who can help you grow your business, navigate the complexities of social media, and build meaningful relationships, Karen is the person you want in your corner."
When you partner with Lightmakers, you tap a community of HNWI, founders, and tastemakers who actually convert.
The annual ranking of the brands shaping the cultural economy. Brands are scored across three dimensions and plotted in three concentric tiers.
Where your brand sits is the difference between competing on price and competing on category. Brands inside the Icons ring close faster, raise easier, and acquire at premium valuations.
International brands entering the US market, US brands chasing cultural relevance, and operators building category leaders. Strong fit in beauty, wellness, lifestyle, luxury, entertainment, hospitality, and consumer tech. If you're already moving and need a senior partner who can ship, we're built for you.
One sharp intake call. Strategy and scope within seven days. Live in market shortly after. Most engagements run as a project-based scope, a quarterly retainer, or a Fractional Operator inside your team. Bigger builds get a custom blend.
Yes. LA is our base and our edge for in-person rooms, but creator campaigns, PR, and Fractional Operator engagements run remote-first. We've worked with brands and operators globally.
We come from the enterprise sales floor. Every engagement is scoped for P&L impact from day one. Run by senior operators only. No junior account team learning on your budget.
Premium agency rates, structured around the lane and the scope. Apply for a call and we'll walk you through ranges that fit your goal. We work with brands where the investment makes sense to both sides.
Yes. That's the Fractional Operators lane. Fractional Chief AI Officer, Head of Partnerships, Head of Creator, or Head of Press. Each role is filled by a senior operator, embedded in your team, backed by the wider Lightmakers operator network. Plug into your tools, ship in week one.
Lightmakers runs on a senior-led core team plus a curated operator network. Karen Diaz is the accountable lead on every engagement. The senior specialists deployed to your project are matched to the work, not assigned by who happened to be on staff. No junior layer.
Yes, through our Fractional Operators lane. The Fractional Chief AI Officer role embeds with your executive team to audit operations, build an AI implementation roadmap, and stay on through deployment. It's the same operating system that runs Lightmakers internally, applied to your business. Apply for a scope call to discuss fit.
Fast. Brand partnership in 24 hours. Activation calendar built in seven days. Red-carpet production in two weeks. We move because culture moves, and we've already done the relationship work.
We strategize and integrate paid amplification into creator and activation work, and we partner with media buyers when a campaign warrants. We won't pretend to be your performance agency. We will make sure the work that comes through us is worth amplifying.
Paris Hilton. SBE. IBM. Gartner. UCLA. Chera. The rooms are real. The receipts are public. The bench is selective. If you know what you need, the application takes three minutes.