On this week’s Dear Katie, we’re tackling the question: I see other firm owners building personal brands, but I don’t want to be the face of everything. Can a brand still work without me front and center?.
You can have a strong brand and not be the only one showing up.
I’ve seen plenty of firms build a brand with many faces from team members who contribute and share the company’s mission.
A multi-face brand is one of the best ways to grow sustainably.
But before I go any further, I encourage everyone reading this to incorporate what I’m going to cover into their strategy.
Why?
You don’t know what tomorrow holds.
You may be the face of your brand today, but what happens if you want to sell or get sick?
Firms that thrive only when you show up struggle when you can’t show up.
Getting others involved future-proofs your firm.
How do you get others involved so that your firm’s success isn’t riding on you being present 24/7?
I’m sharing my low-visibility, high-impact framework to make it all happen below.
Before you can even start thinking about asking your team to post or show up to create content, you need to get a clear picture of what your firm stands for.
Define your:
Your clearly defined POV will become your Brand Playbook.
Don’t want to be the main face of your brand? Appoint someone who does.
Maybe it’s a rising senior or your client success lead. Let that person represent your brand with your values and tone but using their voice.
But when you do appoint someone to be your brand’s face, make sure that you do two important things:
The last thing anyone wants to do is take on the major task of creating content at the expense of their free time.
Now that you have a brand face, you can start incorporating others into your content as well. Get your team involved.
Share:
Diversifying your content in this way will show off your firm’s culture and leadership without relying just on you.
Your brand is built on the outcomes you achieve for clients. So why not share them? Let your client success stories and testimonials speak for themselves.
Have someone on your team create your client success story content, or you can have your clients create it.
Not sure how to ask clients for a review? I have a whole guide here.
Even if you don’t want to be the face of your brand, sharing occasional personal insights can be powerful. When I say occasional, I mean like once a month.
These posts will help you stay in the picture without you having to be the entire picture.
It’s fine to post on company pages, but make sure that you’re also posting on your personal profiles.
Here’s why:
Company pages are great to have, and they should be active. But make sure that you also share content on your personal profile to start building that trust and humanizing your brand.
You don’t personally have to write content, post or even log into LinkedIn every day to build a strong brand.
You can have someone manage your profile for you to authentically and strategically grow your presence without feeling like you’re putting yourself out there.
The person managing your profile can:
Think of this strategy as delegating visibility. You get the benefit of being present online without having to be the one doing it.
Remember that this isn’t about becoming an influencer. The goal is to ensure your leadership is showing up consistently, even when your attention is focused elsewhere.
If you’re doing great work, your target audience should know about it. But you don’t necessarily need to record videos, write posts or “create content” in the traditional sense.
Instead, you can capture what you’re already doing by:
Then, you can take these recordings and send them to someone who can turn them into content, like:
You’re already showing up as a leader, so let someone else make sure your leadership is visible online.
You can use this same process to capture content from other team members at your firm.
Ultimately, being the face means that the brand revolves around you.
But having a face simply means that your brand feels human and trustworthy.
So, you don’t have to be the face of your brand to succeed, but you do need a strategy.
Start building a visibility system that will work with or without you, and you’ll thank yourself later.
And, that’s a wrap on this Dear Katie question.
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Now I want to hear from you. Do you have a question?
Until next time, cheers to your success!
Katie
Yes, you can have a strong brand by involving multiple team members who can represent your firm’s values and mission.
Start by defining your firm’s core values and messaging, then train team members to create content that aligns with your brand.
Consider sharing staff features, day-in-the-life videos, and ‘meet the team’ posts to highlight your firm’s culture and leadership.
Encourage your team or clients to create content that showcases your success stories and testimonials, which can enhance your brand’s credibility.
While it’s beneficial, you can delegate this task to someone else who can manage your profile and share content on your behalf.
You can capture existing work, like meetings or presentations, and have someone else turn that into content, saving you time while promoting your brand.