Real talk: having a personal brand can be exhausting.
Marketing yourself online, strategically amplifying your own work and accomplishments, and turning your internal monologue into daily social media posts can feel cringy, self-congratulatory, and even a little dystopian.
But for today’s creatives, building and maintaining a personal brand is no longer optional. It’s a necessity that ensures your survival in the present-day job market.
Last week, I was featured on the front page of Fast Company, talking about the power of personal brands in 2026.
Here are some of my key takeaways on how to most effectively leverage your own personal brand to accelerate your career and impact:
1. Make yourself visible
These days, the algorithm dictates what and who we know exists. This makes it crucial to show up digitally, and to do so consistently.
If you don’t already have an intentional online presence, you’re missing out on tons of opportunities that you won’t be able to find elsewhere, all because potential clients and connections just don’t know who you are.
As simple as it sounds, making active LinkedIn posts, publishing on Substack, and sharing your work on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok can open up entirely new horizons.
I can credit at least a third of any revenue I’ve made in my career to showing up online. At least 40% of my clients over the last year can be traced back to my LinkedIn presence. When I meet folks in-person at industry gatherings whom I haven’t seen in a while, they often mention my LinkedIn presence. This matters.
When you’re posting actively, the community you want to see you does.
Yes, making yourself unapologetically visible online can be humbling. A lot of the time, it feels like a performance.
But the discomfort is worth the payoff.
2. Build your portfolio
When building and maintaining your personal brand’s online presence, your goal shouldn’t just be to hear yourself talk. You want to make sure the right people are hearing you, and that means being intentional with the content you curate.
It’s important to ensure that your skills, expertise, and projects — both previous and ongoing — are readily discernible to any potential collaborators and clients scrolling through your online profiles.
This means being unafraid to post about the new things you’re creating, a course you’re taking, or whatever else you’re working on. All of this information showcases who you are as a professional, and can be valuable to folks who might be looking for someone with your exact experience.
You don’t have to wait around for work either. Part of the beauty of a personal brand is the way it encourages you to create opportunities and passion projects for yourself.
Through Team DSB, I started the Create for Change Podcast because I wanted to chat with other creative changemakers about the ultra-specific chaos that is our industry.
I’ve built a community of folks who care about the same thing by expanding the series’ visibility. The podcast doesn’t just live on streaming services. I post episode summaries on Substack, clips on YouTube and LinkedIn, and even share those clips with my podcast guests so they have something to publish on their own platforms.
It helps to think of your online presence as an interactive exhibition for all your work. This doesn’t just increase its visibility; it opens up further opportunities to collaborate with folks, who are able to learn who you are through your work.
3. It isn’t as daunting as it seems
The most important thing to remember about your personal brand is that it shouldn’t take away from the work you already do. Think of it like a supplement: something to elevate what’s already there.
Building a personal brand doesn’t mean you have to reinvent the wheel. You’re already sitting on mountains worth of content just by doing the work, putting thought into it, and meeting and learning from other folks who are doing the exact same thing.
At the end of the day, a personal brand boils down to a celebration of your craft and your artistry — and everything you need to create one is already in you.