I used to think “personal brand” was mostly a personality contest.
Not because it’s inherently bad, but because the loudest examples are usually loud for a reason. It’s easy to associate it with self-promotion, inflated certainty, and people who post like they’re narrating a documentary about their own life.
Running an agency changed how I see it.
Not because I suddenly wanted attention, but because I got an up-close education in how fragile business really is, even when you do good work.
This post is the simplest explanation of what I’m doing now and why.
The agency lesson no one puts on the website
Agencies sell stability. Recurring retainers, long-term relationships, “trusted partner” positioning.
And sometimes that’s true.
But the lived reality is that an agency can be healthy and still feel like it’s standing on a trap door.
Here are a few things you learn fast:
Relationships are often one-person deep
You can have a great client, a solid contract, and real results, and still lose the account because your internal champion leaves.
No drama. No scandal. Just a calendar invite that starts with “Quick update…”
Strategy changes faster than performance
A lot of agencies assume churn is caused by poor results.
Sometimes it is. Often it isn’t.
A new VP comes in with a new playbook. The company decides to build in-house. Budgets freeze. Priorities shift from growth to margin. Someone’s cousin knows a firm they “want to try.”
Your work can be objectively good and still become irrelevant to the new story they’re telling themselves.
Procurement is its own universe
If you’ve never dealt with procurement, it’s hard to explain how surreal it can be.
You can go from being a core partner to a line item under scrutiny because a spreadsheet cell got highlighted.
That’s not bitterness. That’s just how large organizations work.
Platforms move under your feet
If your services are tied to distribution platforms, ad systems, search, social, app ecosystems, or tooling, you’re building on shifting ground.
The rules change. The incentives change. The gatekeepers change. Sometimes the entire category changes.
Agencies feel that whiplash early and often.
“Retainers” aren’t a moat
They’re a billing format.
They help. They’re not protection.
When the client decides they’re done, the retainer doesn’t save you. It just defines the end date.
Put all of this together and you start to see the problem clearly:
Even well-run agencies contain a lot of hidden dependency.
The real risk is dependency, not competition
Most smart operators don’t lose sleep because they’re afraid of competitors.
They lose sleep because they’re aware of how many things they don’t control.
If your business depends on:
- A few key clients
- A few relationships
- One platform
- One distribution channel
- One partner
- One employer
- One gatekeeper
…then you’re not just building a business. You’re building a stack of permissions.
And permissions can be revoked.
Sometimes slowly. Sometimes instantly. Usually at the worst possible moment.
That’s the part that sticks with you after you’ve been through enough cycles.
What “personal brand” actually means to me
I don’t think of personal brand as “content.” I think of it as owned trust.
It’s the difference between:
- Being known only through a company, title, or client roster, and
- Being known for the way you think and operate, independent of those things.
A strong personal brand does a few practical things.
It reduces your reliance on intermediaries
You’re not starting from zero every time you switch projects, businesses, partnerships, or directions.
People don’t need an introduction to understand your worldview.
It creates inbound opportunity that isn’t platform-specific
If someone finds you through Google, a podcast, a referral, a newsletter, or a random link, the point is the same: they can understand you without a meeting.
That matters more than “followers.”
It makes trust portable
Companies can get acquired, shut down, rebranded, or simply drift.
Trust that’s attached to you travels.
That’s the insulation.
Why I’m doing this now (and why this isn’t a rebrand)
This isn’t me pivoting into “creator mode.”
I’m not interested in performing productivity.
I’m interested in building an asset that survives changes in:
- Clients
- Platforms
- Business models
- Partners
- Market cycles
- Internal priorities
Running an agency taught me that a lot of value gets created in places you don’t own.
You do the work, you solve the problem, you move the needle, and you get paid. All fine.
But the compounding benefit often accrues to:
- The client’s brand
- The platform you used to deliver the result
- The company name on the invoice
- Someone else’s distribution
If you step away, a lot of what you built goes dark.
A personal brand is one way to stop losing all that surface area every time you turn a page.
What this site is (and what it isn’t)
This site is not a portfolio.
A portfolio is backward-looking. It’s curated. It’s usually designed to sell.
I’m not against portfolios. They just aren’t the point here.
This site is a public operating system.
Meaning:
- I’m going to write about what I’m building.
- I’m going to share the frameworks I use to make decisions.
- I’m going to document lessons that would have saved me time if someone had written them clearly.
- I’m going to make my thinking legible to the kinds of people I like working with.
If you’re a potential partner, investor, collaborator, or client, this should help you answer a simple question quickly:
Do we see the world the same way?
If yes, great. If not, also great. That’s the benefit of clarity.
The quiet takeaway
Most people don’t notice how conditional their stability is because things usually feel fine, until they don’t.
But if everything you have depends on someone else’s platform, company, or approval, you don’t own it.
You’re renting it.
This is me choosing to own more of the stack:
- The ideas
- The distribution
- The relationships
- The long-term trust
Not loudly. Not performatively.
Just intentionally.
