Branding
Your personal brand is not your logo
Why the way you show up on LinkedIn matters more than the mark you paid a designer for — and what to fix first.
Most people who ask us for a personal brand start by asking for a logo. It is the wrong first question, and answering it first is why so much of that work gets thrown away six months later.
What people actually see first
Before anyone sees a mark, they see a LinkedIn headline, a profile photo, the first two lines of a post, and whatever your website says above the fold. That is the brand. The logo is a small part of the packaging around it.
If those four things disagree with each other — one says consultant, one says agency, one says freelancer — no amount of design fixes the confusion.
The order that works
- Positioning. One sentence on who you help and what changes for them.
- Proof. Two or three pieces of evidence that the sentence is true.
- Surfaces. Make the profile, the site and the content say the same thing.
- Identity. Now the mark, the colours and the type have something to express.
What to fix first
Rewrite your headline so it names the outcome rather than the job title. Replace the stock photo. Make the first line of your website match the first line of your profile. Those three edits move more than a rebrand does, and they cost nothing.
Once the words are settled, identity work gets easier and cheaper, because the designer is dressing a decision instead of guessing at one.
Working on something like this?
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