What is PUNCH!media?
PUNCH!media specializes in empowering professionals and companies so that they are effectively telling their professional brand story.
Whether it’s through LinkedIn Training, LinkedIn Profile Writing, Social Selling or strategic development, we’re passionate about making you look good online.
Our Happy Clients






About Leslie Hughes

Why I Do What I Do
I’m really (and I mean REALLY) passionate about educating others to feel empowered about their professional presence. I spend a TON of time researching, reviewing, and learning about digital marketing and social psychology – so you don’t have to.
As a public speaker and corporate trainer, my toughest audience is my college students at Durham College. While most of them are digital natives, they often don’t know how to use Social Media for BUSINESS.
I help professionals — just like you — PUNCH up their presence so they can CREATE a strong first impression, CONNECT with higher paying clients (using the proper etiquette) and then dominate their niche by CONVERSING with & CONVERTING clients. I’m here to save you time, so you can make more money.
Within the past few years, I’ve narrowed my niche as a LinkedIn Specialist. It may not be the SEXIEST out of all the Social Media channels, but it sure is the most POWERFUL.
LinkedIn is where business people are INVESTING time, not wasting it.
MY (brief) STORY
I started working in digital media back in 1997. I was wildly interested and fascinated about how this new technology could allow us to connect with people and businesses from all over the world.
In my past career, I worked with well-known brands such as Visa Canada, and the beautiful, award-winning Weddingbells and FASHION Magazine.
In 2009, PUNCH!media was one of the first “digital agencies” in Toronto and right away worked with brands such as TVO, The Children’s Wish Foundation (and many more) to develop their strategy and policies in Social Media.
I also became a part-time professor of Social Media at Durham College and was a corporate trainer for the Social Media certificate at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology’s Management Development Centre.
My three core values are education and empowerment through entertainment. I bring a lot of enthusiasm to my presentations and am chuffed to have been called a “Social Media Guru” by CBC Radio and have also appeared on CTV’s “The Social”.
I’m a self-proclaimed marketing and media nerd. When I’m not developing strategies, training, or presenting, I’m usually listening to podcasts or reading up on the latest case studies. When I DO spend time away from the computer, you’ll find me binge-watching Scandal, Orange Is The New Black or Suits.
3 THINGS VERY FEW PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT ME:
- My first attempt at entrepreneurship, I launched “Diaper Disco”, where I converted a nightclub into a daytime disco for kids under the age of 12. Using Social Media and strategic partnerships, I was able to get 350+ out to our events – without spending a single dime on traditional advertising.
- I rode in the “jump seat” of the cockpit on a flight from Miami to Toronto (because the flight was sold out)
- I shot an uzi machine gun and a glock at a gun range AND went skydiving on the same trip to Las Vegas
(I called it my “Charlie’s Angels weekend”)
Want to work with me?