You Are the Brand Now
The rise of the personal brand and what it means for everyone working today
Hello from my perch in the woods of northern Maine (where I first started this Substack, last summer!). I’m looking forward to a few weeks of quiet time and writing, listening to loons call across the water and inhaling nothing but the scent of balsam (and hot buttered lobster rolls). 🦞
It’s been a whirlwind few weeks—last we chatted, I attended Mutiny's Marketing Leadership Summit in Northern California, hosted a very impromptu meetup of a dozen brand marketers on Comun’s rooftop in the Flatiron, and at work, kicked off some exciting brand refresh work and a positioning sprint with Fletch PMM (been a fan of
’s for a while now—excited to learn from his approach). I got to meet other marketers and creators at Passionfroot’s NY Tech Week breakfast in SoHo and planted a few seeds for partnerships you might see soon here on On Brand. It’s been so rewarding to see this community grow—making today’s topic extra close to home.You’re here because you recently subscribed or signed up for one of my resources—my course waitlist on Maven, lightning lesson, or Notion templates.
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In my role at Later, where I lead corporate marketing for the platform that powers social media and influencer marketing for thousands of mass consumer brands, I have a front-row seat to a rapidly unfolding shift in corporate brand strategy (among other things) that many of us have felt, but few brand teams have fully leaned into.
Let’s review a few facts: Traditional advertising is steadily losing effectiveness. Consumer trust in institutions has been trending down for years. CPM prices are up and algorithms change faster than ever. And AI-generated imagery is flooding the market…but not necessarily driving conversion.
With all that noise, what’s left? What still works?
Creators. Or, let’s drop the jargon: real people.
If you go as far as
, you believe that people are the new brands. Individuals are increasingly more influential than the brands or companies they represent or partner with.This is a shift that is no longer just relevant for “influencers” (defined here as people with enough social reach that a brand will pay them for exposure) and professionalized content creators who don’t have a full-time day job. This shift impacts everyone in today’s workforce, from executives to entry-level employees, freelancers to full-time staff.
Your personal brand now matters just as much as your skills do. Or, maybe, even more.
How the trust economy shifted
According to the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in institutions (governments, media, businesses) keeps hitting new lows, while trust in “people like me” remains comparatively high. This sociological trend has been reshaping entire marketing budgets for years but rapidly accelerating now. As of this month (following new CEO hire in March), Unilever is shifting 50% of ad spend to influencer marketing and looking to work with 20 times as many influencers as before. Global spend on influencer channels is projected to exceed $24 billion in 2025, up from $16.4 billion in 2022—which I interpret as a clear signal of deeper cultural transformation.
What gave rise to the power of the personal brand? A few key trends have accelerated this shift:
Information overload: In a world where everyone has a platform, we know that attention becomes the scarcest resource. Standing out (usually) takes both content and consistency.
Democratized creation/production: When everyone has access to the same tools (AI, smartphones, Canva, Substack, TikTok), the barrier to entry drops from technical capability to how well you can build an audience.
The rise of remote work and the passion economy: As more people work independently, personal brand becomes a critical differentiator and lead generator.
The breakdown of institutional authority figures: We’re witnessing the rise of individual personalities who transcend traditional institutional boundaries. Two of the most inescapable examples today are Elon Musk and Donald Trump, who have broken away from conventional corporate or political party constraints to establish personal brands that command massive influence. They’re way beyond being “representatives” of their companies or the Republican party (especially given Elon’s latest actions); they’re standalone forces that completely overshadow the institutions they’re associated with.
The decline of institutional trust: Also according to the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer, 61% percent globally have a moderate or high sense of grievance, which is defined by a belief that government and business make their lives harder and serve narrow interests, and wealthy people benefit unfairly from the system. After waves of corporate scandals, media polarization, and perceived institutional failures, people increasingly look to individuals they can relate to as trusted curators, guides, and perspectives.
Should they? There’s an irony on this last point: while brands face scrutiny for their transparent commercial motivations, we’ve become more receptive to those same messages when delivered through creators—even though their financial incentives are often less transparent and regulated.
A Fortune 500 company has legal teams ensuring disclosure compliance, while individual creators may promote products without clear attribution of financial relationships. Yet despite growing consumer pushback against traditional consumerism and brand messages, we’re more likely to trust purchase recommendations from someone with 50k followers than from a brand’s official account.
This trust can be misplaced—creators can spread misinformation, lack expertise in areas they comment on, and operate with fewer checks and balances than established institutions. But the personal connection still feels more authentic, even when the underlying motivations are identical. (Something for brand strategists to keep in mind as consumer skepticism starts to rise here, too—some great insights in Typeform’s new “Get Real” campaign to learn from.)
Regardless, this migration of trust has created tangible business implications—and personal ones. In the marketing world, money follows attention, and this shift is evident in corporate budgets. Traditional advertising spend (TV, OOH, print) is increasingly being redirected toward individual partnerships: newsletter sponsorships, podcast ads, influencer collaborations, and creator marketing. As businesses invest more in individual voices over institutional channels, personal brand becomes a competitive advantage for professionals at every level. Companies are hiring executives with strong LinkedIn followings, partnering with employees who have engaged audiences, and recognizing that their team members’ personal brands can drive business outcomes in ways that traditional corporate communications can’t.
Content marketing strategies are shifting from SEO-driven educational posts to personality-driven series—stories, interviews, hot takes, personal perspectives. Companies are investing in individuals with engaged audiences rather than renting attention through traditional channels.
Hinge’s
Substack, for now packaged as a limited series featuring stories from actual writers and Hinge users, is a prime example of how brand marketers have leaned into this opportunity—and others are following suit (see ’s post: Should Your Brand Join Substack?). This shift is mostly led by beauty and fashion brands for now, but I expect we’ll see all industries landing here soon.
Best? Or best-known? Why you need a personal brand
The rise of personal branding is why the “best” (or best-known? 🤔) agencies still have awards and PR budgets. It’s why 30 Under 30 lists have hung around even though most of them are transparently pay-to-play.
Consultants, like brands, need mental availability among their target audience in order to be in the consideration set at all.
Mental availability applies to people the same way it applies to brands. I’ve worked with brilliant product marketers and strategists who struggled to gain recognition while watching others with stronger personal brands secure higher-profile opportunities despite having less experience (or being flat out worse at the job). The gap often isn’t skill. It’s visibility.
When you fall down a comparison rabbithole, you can remember that the people who are best at marketing themselves aren’t necessarily the ones with the deepest expertise. Yet without that self-marketing component, or extremely non-commodified skills and knowledge, even the most experienced professionals are likelier than ever to find themselves overlooked.
This reality can feel profoundly uncomfortable, especially for those of us who believe expertise and quality work should speak for themselves, or those who don’t want to spend the time it takes to develop a public-facing personal brand. But what’s happening has been coming for a long time. It’s a total restructuring of how value and trust are created and distributed. As the lines between creator economy and “the economy” blur, the ability to build an audience is becoming a meta-skill that transcends industries and traditional career ladders.
How to think about your personal brand
If even the phrase “personal branding” makes you cringe, I get it. I started my career in social media management and burned out on content creation for a few years afterward. I’ve never identified as an Instagram girlie because the carefully-calculated grid felt too high stakes, not to mention too performative. I enjoy design and photography and curating aesthetics, but doing that under the constraints of an unyielding algorithm made those things feel like work instead of creative expression. Longer-form writing has been more fun and come more naturally for me, so that’s where I’ve focused my energy.
I believe the healthiest approach is to view building a personal brand not as self-promotion, but as a form of service: creating value that helps others while also practicing and establishing your expertise. (For further reading, I appreciate
’s take here: selling yourself shouldn’t be icky).But it does often feel icky. So many LinkedIn posts talk about embracing the cringe.
’s restack on ’s post “The Rise of the TikTok Oracle” gets at the tension many professionals are feeling right about now:
I don’t think building a personal brand necessarily means you have to become a part-time content creator or even commit yourself to one platform (though the latter makes it easier). At its core, personal branding is the intentional management of how others perceive you and your work.
Others have written much more about this than I will here, and there are so many great resources on marketing yourself. But I think the best advice (and what has worked for me, so far) often boils down to these few things:
Define what you want to be known for. Know your own narrative. Clarity about your unique perspective is essential, and you’ll use this in interviewing, networking, getting to know your coworkers, managing up, and creating content if that’s the path you go down. What’s the intersection of what you know deeply, what you care about, and what others want to learn? Why does it matter right now? Who will care most? How can you reach them?
Build in public. Share your process, not just your outcomes. The journey is usually more interesting than the destination, and it demonstrates your thought process, which is the most relatable part.
Create a content flywheel. Find sustainable ways to create value consistently. All of my post ideas come from the experiences or discussions I’m having at work or with friends and those discussions help validate my ideas. What are you doing in your day-to-day that others are dealing with too? How can you repurpose what you’re already creating? Remember the rule we use in marketing—brands need to reach a prospect at least ~5-6 times before they become “brand aware.” If you repeat your same concepts or frameworks (the way I talk often about brand-market fit and the brand vs. growth myth), it’s more likely that people will start to remember them and associate them with you. You’re probably the only one who feels like you’re repeating yourself.
Connect generously. The strongest personal brands are built on relationships. Comment thoughtfully on others’ work, collaborate when it makes sense, and create space for participation/dialogue with your audience. I haven’t really started a Subscriber chat on Substack yet…should I?!
Choose your channels intentionally. You don’t need to be everywhere for it to feel like you’re everywhere, especially if your audience is niche. If you are going to curate an online presence, pick 1-2 platforms where your audience already exists and focus there. Collab with channels who have audience overlap. For me, that’s on Substack and LinkedIn. Your creator persona doesn’t have to reflect every single aspect of your interests or personality, and that’s fine!
The upside of the personal brand economy
This shift has its challenges (and annoyances). But there are also broad benefits to where this could be going:
More diverse voices can build platforms, bypassing traditional gatekeepers
Specialized or niche expertise can find its audience more easily
Knowledge-sharing accelerates as more people document their work
Professionals with strong personal brands have more career leverage and long-term flexibility
Companies have to treat talent better when employees have their own platforms ;)
Where do we go from here?
The shift toward corporate investment in personal brands raises important ethical questions that have significant bearing on the future of…our society?
Questions I’m asking myself, with my brand strategist hat on:
How do we make sure substance isn’t overshadowed by style?
How do we balance the need for differentiation with authenticity? If it’s not authentic, it won’t be sustainable.
What responsibility do platforms (like Substack and LinkedIn) have in determining who gains visibility and whose content is suppressed?
What happens to brilliant people who don’t want to participate in the attention economy and who find it competes with their right to privacy?
What are the political implications when individuals amass more influence than institutions? (This one’s taking us down a pretty scary path right now.)
There are no easy answers, but I do know this: the trend toward personal branding isn’t going away. The key is finding ways to engage with it that are authentic and sustainable for you without sacrificing depth or integrity.
The most successful people I know have found ways to share their expertise generously while building audiences that create new opportunities. They’ve made peace with the fact that visibility matters, but they don’t let it compromise their standards or values.
Political and cultural changes aren’t slowing down; we’re moving from an era dominated by institutions to one where individual voices carry unprecedented weight. This brings both democratization and fragmentation, both opportunity and responsibility.
When attention is scarce and trust is earned, investing in your personal brand is one of the best bets you can make. The question isn’t whether you’ll have one. You already do. It’s up to you to shape it intentionally. 🪵
Thanks for reading.
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I really loved this post. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what “building in public” actually means for me, and how to make it valuable without just adding more digital clutter. This gave me the substance I needed. It feels so much deeper than just “get over the cringe.” As someone who hasn’t posted on Instagram since 2023, it still terrifies me that I’m starting to build in public. But this made me feel more motivated to keep going. Thank you!
I absolutely loved this piece