Hi, lovely people!
Coming into your inbox on a Thursday (surprise!!) with a fun one.
Essentially, I’ve thought about personal branding more this year than probably ever before.
If you’re new here, or you just subscribed for the baby content (no judgement), over the last ten years, I’ve intentionally built a personal brand that’s directly led to four multi-million-pound businesses, investing in and co-owning businesses with nine-figure exits, speaking all over the world, and growing my corner of the internet to over 3 million people. No, I don’t always sound like this much of a see-you-next-tuesday, but after doing this for the last 10 years, I’ve really become convinced that your personal brand is the single biggest multiplier for your career, whether you’re freelance, climbing the ranks in corporate, running your own business or growing a following as an expert.
The problem is that most of the advice out there either vaguely tells you to “put yourself out there,” or it’s obsessed with follower counts and virality. And the thing is, that’s very different from a practical strategy that actually helps you create the opportunities you want for yourself.
So late last year, I decided I was going to put everything I’ve learned into one place. It was the one business/extracurricular thing I said I wanted to do in 2027, without fail. So I sat down and started writing, and the document kept growing until it was over 50,000 words.
So when I found out baby girl was on her way, I decided to move mountains (aka blocking out a full week in my diary in my second trimester) to make this project happen. We recorded it in June, and this week, that very exciting thing is launching. (More on that at the end of the email.)
So, in celebration of that, I’ve written down my golden personal branding rules for anyone on here who’s looking to really put themselves out there. Some took me years to learn, others I’ve done since the start. Here it goes!!
In my opinion, the people with the most opportunities right now are the ones who started building in public before they “needed” to. I did it the other way round, and it’s the reason my businesses had a head start from day one.
To be clear, I don’t think a personal brand should ever replace doing the actual work. It takes extraordinary effort to get extraordinary outputs, and you can’t manufacture expertise with a good content strategy.
But being intentional about my personal brand has been one of the biggest multipliers of my career. When I founded my businesses, it was essentially a free marketing grant for all of them. And transparently, I would never have had a fraction of the opportunities I’ve had if I’d done all of the same work quietly, without a strategy behind it. I’ve been very intentional about what I want to be known for, what I put out into the world, and making sure the work I’m doing is visible to the right people. Which is quite literally why I want to be transparent about it.
People move around companies a lot more now than they ever did, and the level at which you will be hired by your next employer is shaped by everything you say about yourself publicly, whether that’s online or at a networking event.
I’m a firm believer that the people getting the best opportunities, both inside their company and out, are the ones who’ve decided to take control of how they’re positioned. That might be TikToks, it might be speaking at industry events. Either way, they’ve stopped leaving it to chance.
Your hook, whether that’s the first line of your caption or the first frame of your video, decides whether anyone sees the rest of it. It’s worth thinking about whether you’re announcing your new role on LinkedIn, or a founder with thousands of followers.
Most people write the whole post and then figure out how to start it, which is categorically the worst way round. I write the hook first. Every. Single. Time.
When the TikTok ban nearly happened in 2025, it showed u all just how much we’re all relying on platforms we don’t own.
This isn’t me saying to give up on social media (adapting is part of the fun), but it does mean you need to diversify. An email list is the one thing nobody can take away from you. So start building it now, before you “need” it. (I’ve filmed a whole tutorial on how to do this, which is part of the special project below).
My posting strategy is very specific: I plan about a fortnight ahead and always leave slots for trends and reactive content. The aim is to be structured enough to stay consistent, but loose enough to actually be relevant.
And if you’re outsourcing, never hire a content manager who’ll create a month’s worth of content for you without building in any reactivity.
It’s so easy to be paralysed by what people think, and it’s the number one thing that holds people back from creating opportunities for themselves. You can be the juiciest peach in the world, and someone still won’t like peaches.
At one point in my life, I tried to please absolutely everyone, and I realised I wasn’t actually saying anything. I remember thinking at the time about who I admired online, and I realised they were all women who weren’t afraid to say what they thought. So say what you think, and let your people find you.
In my opinion, getting on a stage, even a tiny one, does more for your positioning than almost anything else. And you don’t have to wait to be invited. At the beginning, I literally just sent emails and asked. Don’t be afraid of a cold email.
The bit we often forget is that doing things in real life is what gives you something to actually talk about. The events you go to, the people you meet, the conversations you have over coffee, the panel you nearly said no to is where your best ideas and stories come from. If your whole world is your laptop, it’s really hard to have an interesting point of view, and you end up just reacting to what everyone else is already saying online.
This came up in Grace Andrews’ episode of The Future Self Series on the podcast. It really stuck with me, because the most interesting people I know online are almost always the ones living the most interesting lives offline.
So I’d encourage you to say yes to the things that get you out of the house. Go to the dinner, introduce yourself to the speaker, send the cold email. Your online presence will be so much better for it, because you’ll finally have something to say that nobody else does.
The aspiration used to be one job for 20 or 30 years. Now people are building portfolio careers, and the ones doing best are the ones who’ve built something outside the company they work for.
Frankly, being brilliant at your job isn’t enough anymore if nobody knows you exist. Attention is the currency now, and the tools to build a presence have never been more accessible, so the time is really now.
So, onto that exciting project…
Everything above is the stuff I’ve learned the hard way, across four businesses and years of building in public. And for a long time, people have been asking me how I actually do it: the specific strategy behind it, not just my opinions.
So today, I’m so excited to finally announce The Personal Brand Method. It’s 29 classes and over 35 resources covering literally everything I’ve learned from a decade of building in public: the exact strategy and frameworks I use. Including:
How to leverage an audience
How to position yourself for speaking and actually network
How to turn an audience into customers
The templates I use to script every video
My editing hacks
How I approach the algorithm on every platform
My definitive guide to starting and growing a newsletter
How to fit it all into a week when you’re doing everything else alongside it
I wanted it to be genuinely practical, with no filler, and built around actually getting you somewhere, whether you’re in corporate, freelance or building your own business. It’s launching next Thursday, and we’re doing a limited run of 1,000 places with £100 off the full price.
And because you’ve read this whole email, I’m giving you all seven of the resources from inside it for free, including the exact content calendar I use. They’re all in a mini free seven-day email course which you can sign up to by clicking the button below.
Anyway, I hope you have a lovely rest of your week and I’ll see you on Tuesday!
