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Perception Shapers Founder Steven Drapkin Meets Good
News Broadcast’s Paul Sladkus at SoCom Summit, Leading
Featured Interview
Within a day of meeting in New York City, the brand strategist rebuilt the Pause the
World for Peace homepage and sat down for a Veterans Day special
NEW YORK, N.Y. — November 11, 2026 — Steven Drapkin, brand strategist and founder of
Perception Shapers, was featured today in a Veterans Day special interview with Paul Sladkus
of Good News Broadcast.
A MEETING AT THE SOCOM SUMMIT
Paul and Steven met the night before at the SoCom Summit, a social commerce event in New
York City. When Paul mentioned that his team was struggling to update the homepage of Pause
the World for Peace, the organization behind the annual International Day of Peace concert in
Times Square, Steven offered to help. By the next day, he had rebuilt the homepage so Paul’s
team could update it themselves, as the event prepares for its 25th anniversary next year.
Paul then invited Steven onto Good News Broadcast to talk about his work.
“He’s a man of honor. He’s a responsible person,” Paul said. “If you get a chance to work with
this brilliant man, I can only recommend him extraordinarily highly. He was smart, he was
attentive, and he made our site look better than it did previously.”
ABOUT PERCEPTION SHAPERS
Perception Shapers is a brand strategy practice in Northern New Jersey that helps established
businesses get seen for what they’ve become. Its clients are often the better choice in their
market, yet they lose close calls to bigger competitors because buyers can’t see what sets them
apart. Steven calls this the Perception Gap™.
Every engagement begins with the Perception Audit™, which finds where buyers stop telling a
business apart from larger competitors. Steven then closes the gap in three phases. The first
step is building the strategy, which starts with defining the ideal buyer, auditing the competition
and identifying what sets the business apart. Next, expression gives that difference a verbal
identity, covering messaging, storytelling, the tagline and, when needed, a new name, along
with a full visual identity system. Deploy carries it through the website, search, and marketing
collateral. The result is one clear difference, said the same way by a company’s website, its
sales materials and its team.
“You can’t just say you’re better than them, because everyone says they’re better,” Steven said.
“You have to show how you’re different, consistently and cohesively, in a way that’s relevant to
your audience.”
His recent work with GRF Training, a CPR and first aid training company, shows the approach
in action. While competitors talked about certification, Steven aligned GRF Training’s three
owners on one position: being truly capable of saving a life in a real emergency, in a warm,
welcoming class. A new identity followed, built on warm, caring colors instead of the red that
dominates the industry, along with a new website.
CREDENTIALS AND BACKGROUND
Steven began as a graphic designer five years ago and grew his services into full brand strategy
and web design as he saw what companies needed to build brands that scale. He holds:
- Adobe certifications in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign
- Brand strategy and workshop facilitation certifications from Brand Master Academy
- Digital marketing certifications from the American Marketing Association and the Digital
Marketing Institute
Outside his business, Steven serves as Public Relations Manager for Toastmasters District 83,
which covers more than 100 clubs across Northern New Jersey, parts of New York and
Connecticut, and as president of a Toastmasters club. He was named the district’s 2026
Toastmaster of the Year. He is co-chair of the Emerging Leaders Network at the Meadowlands
Chamber of Commerce. He also serves as Graphics, Marketing and Website Associate for the
Cauliflower Alley Club, a benevolent fund that helps people in the professional wrestling industry
who have fallen on hard times.
WORK WITH STEVEN
Perception Shapers works with companies that have grown through word of mouth and are now
ready to scale and stand apart from their competition.
“If you find that your company has grown a lot, but you’re really looking to scale and differentiate
yourself against your competition, I’d love to talk to anyone, anytime, about marketing or helping
your company out,” Steven said.
To schedule a conversation, visit perceptionshapers.com or email
info@perceptionshapers.com. He can also be found as Steven Drapkin on all major social
platforms.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Steven Drapkin, Perception Shapers, info@perceptionshapers.com, (347) 541-4115, perceptionshapers.com
Paul Sladkus, CEO, Milestone Broadcast Corporation, paul.sladkus@goodnewsbroadcast.com, (917) 687 1790, www.pausetheworldforpeace.org
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