About Karen Porter 

Professional Marketing Bio

Karen Porter has enjoyed a professional career that has coupled over 20 years of extensive marketing experience, with a creative bent and entrepreneurial spirit that has always flourished within. Her career has taken her from teaching marketing and advertising at the university level, to coaching hundreds of small business owners on marketing effectiveness, to owning her own advertising agency, and heading multi-million dollar marketing departments at Fortune 500 size organizations. She has also created and marketed her own products which are retailed and wholesaled across the United States and abroad.

During her years in academia, Karen taught advertising and marketing at The University of Montana. Among the numerous courses she taught were Principles of Marketing, Principles of Advertising, Copywriting, Campaign Strategy, and Marketing Research. Her greatest accomplishment during that time was leading her team of advertising and marketing students to a first place win in a national advertising competition in which they pitched a multi-million dollar campaign to VISA. (Second place went to the University of California at Berkeley.)  She was also appointed to the American Advertising Federation’s national academic advisory board and was honored with an AAF Outstanding Advertising Educator Award.

During all of her teaching years, Karen provided consulting services for a variety of local and regional clients. During 1992 and 1993 she owned an advertising agency and expanded her marketing services. Although she worked with clients large and small, she has a particular interest in helping small businesses and non-profit organizations achieve their marketing goals with less-than-ideal budgets.

In late 1993 she was offered the position of Director of Marketing for the Texas Lottery and she found herself transplanted to Austin, Texas.  In that position she oversaw all aspects of marketing the country's #1 lottery where she and her team were responsible for increasing sales by 62% in a three year period.  In 1997, Karen moved back to her roots in education when she assumed the Director of National Marketing position for a corporation that owned 1400 child care centers and before- and after-school programs located throughout the U.S.

After exiting corporate America in 2003 following a corporate acquisition, Karen spread her entrepreneurial wings once again. Parleying a lifelong interest in arts, crafts and personal expression, she launched Scents of Decor, Inc. She opened a retail store and also began wholesaling a specialty line of products. Scents of Decor, Inc. creates and markets a unique line of candles made of cosmetic-grade ingredients that become a warm moisturizing lotion when lit. Her trademarked line of candles is wholesaled to retailers, salons, and spas across the U.S. The Skinny Dip lotion and massage candle is also available at retail on her website: www.SkinnyDipCandle.com.

While Karen has served in a variety of marketing positions over the years, she particularly enjoys consulting and working on short-term projects and continues to offer those services to select clients. As a consultant, facilitator, and marketing coach, her passion is helping businesses and organizations grow and prosper by improving marketing continuity and overall effectiveness.