Creating a personal brand as an independent professional: here's why you can't escape it

You've been putting it off for months. Every time someone mentions "personal branding," you cringe slightly and think about those polished LinkedIn influencers posting daily motivational content. That's not you - you're focused on delivering great work, and surely that should speak for itself?

This reluctance came up repeatedly during our recent community session with brand strategist Kat Elizabeth, where independent professionals shared their hesitations about building a personal brand.

Kat's response: Whether you actively build your personal brand or not, you already have one.

"You don't build a personal brand to get famous," Kat explained to our community. "You build it so the right people know what problem you solve and trust you to solve it." Your brand exists by default or by design. 

In this article, we share the top insights from our recent community event on personal branding. 

What is (and isn't) a personal brand

One of the biggest misconceptions Kat addressed during our session was the visual focus many people have around branding. Forget the logo design and colour palettes - your personal brand as an independent consultant isn't about aesthetics or viral content strategies.

"It's your digital footprint plus your reputation," Kat explained. "It's what people say about you when you're not pitching." More practically, it's your repeatable story - who you help, what you solve, and how people experience you before, during, and after working with you.

• Your positioning: Who specifically do you help, what problems do you solve, and how do you approach solving them differently than others in your field?
• Your proof: What visible evidence exists of your results, thinking processes, or outcomes? This includes case studies, published insights, documented transformations, and client testimonials
• Your presence: How consistently does your message appear across the channels where your ideal clients spend time? 
  
  

Vague is the enemy of excellent

When you don't actively shape your brand, you don't disappear - you just become vague and hard to refer. A contact might genuinely want to recommend you, but if they can't clearly articulate what you do, the conversation stalls. 

Reddit discussions among consultants reveal this pattern repeatedly. In one thread about landing first clients, multiple consultants shared how vague positioning hurt their early efforts. Several admitted to losing warm introductions or watching promising conversations fizzle because their online presence left people confused about their actual expertise. One consultant described losing a referral opportunity because their LinkedIn simply said "strategy consultant" with no indication of industries, outcomes, or specific problems solved.

Meanwhile, the consultants who found early success often had clear, specific positioning from day one. One Reddit user shared: "I reached out to former colleagues with a very specific offer - helping mid-size companies implement new ERP systems. Because it was so specific, they immediately knew who to connect me with." 

As Kat emphasised during our community session, "If your online presence makes people work to figure you out, they won't bother. People make decisions faster when they feel like they already know you."

Being deliberately quiet might feel safer than risking judgment, but in consulting, invisibility carries more risk than clarity. Clients don't chase consultants to understand them - they choose the ones who make understanding easy. 

Are you making your potential clients do too much work?


Forget colour palettes- what’s available to you?

One of the most practical insights from Kat's session was this: building an effective personal brand doesn't require a personal website, content calendar, or daily posting schedule. While content remains important, as Kat notes, "it's not set in stone" - the methods for building personal brands continue evolving, and there may be non-traditional approaches that haven't been fully explored yet.

"What is available to you?" Kat asked our community. "Experiment as well, because there could absolutely be some non-traditional ways that just haven't been tried yet, and you could be the person that actually makes that a thing."

For now, you need three foundational elements that most independents can implement immediately:

• A clear positioning line: Replace generic job titles with specific problem-solving statements. Instead of "marketing consultant," try "I help B2B SaaS companies double qualified leads without increasing ad spend." The specificity attracts the right people while filtering out poor fits
• Visible proof points: Share 2-3 concrete examples of your thinking or results. This might be a brief case study, a framework you've developed, or insights from recent projects. The Reddit thread reveals how powerful specific examples can be - one consultant landed their first client by sharing a detailed post about a process improvement they'd implemented at their previous company
• Consistent messaging: Ensure your positioning and proof points appear consistently across LinkedIn, email signatures, and networking conversations. You don't need daily content creation, but your core message should be recognisable wherever people encounter you
  Remember, you're not trying to appeal to everyone. 

You're making your signal clearer to the people already looking for what you offer. Narrow focus increases memorability and referral likelihood far more than broad appeal. The key is experimenting with what feels genuine to you. As Kat suggests, "what is available to you" might include approaches others haven't tried yet. Your unique combination of expertise, personality, and preferred communication style could lead to innovative ways of building recognition within your niche.

The benefits are more than just skin deep

A well-defined personal brand functions as operational infrastructure rather than just marketing activity. Clear positioning accelerates trust-building, improves conversion rates during sales conversations, and shortens the typical consulting sales cycle. When potential clients encounter your brand before meeting you, they arrive at conversations already understanding your expertise and approach. This eliminates the need for extensive credibility-building and allows you to focus on fit assessment and solution design.

Strong personal brands also create compound effects over time. Clear positioning makes you easier to remember and refer, leading to more qualified inbound opportunities. Consistent messaging builds recognition within your target market, eventually creating the perception of expertise leadership in your niche.

Perhaps most importantly, intentional branding gives you control over your professional narrative. Rather than hoping people interpret your background correctly, you can guide them toward understanding exactly how your experience translates into value for their situation.

Watch the full session here

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