The Employee’s Guide to Building a Personal Brand

Develop your voice. Share your expertise. Grow your opportunities—without risking your job.

Why Your Personal Brand Matters

In today’s professional landscape, your personal brand is more than a buzzword—it’s your reputation, your body of work, and your opportunity magnet. Whether you're looking to:

  • Attract career opportunities,

  • Share your ideas with a broader audience,

  • Launch a side project, or

  • Build long-term credibility in your field,

a strong personal brand helps you stay visible, relevant, and in control of your own narrative.

But doing so while employed—especially at a high-visibility or high-growth company—requires intentionality and care.

Part 1: Foundations of a Personal Brand

1. Define Your Brand Pillars

Start by identifying 3–5 core themes you want to be known for. These should reflect:

  • Your expertise

  • Your values

  • Your interests

  • Your career goals

Examples:

  • AI ethics and innovation

  • Mental health in leadership

  • Women in tech

  • Remote work culture

  • Personal productivity

These become the foundation for your content and public conversations.

2. Understand Your Audience

Who do you want to reach and resonate with?

  • Potential employers

  • Industry peers

  • Clients or customers

  • Community or mentees

Knowing your audience helps you tailor your tone, content formats, and channels.

3. Choose the Right Channels

Focus on 1–2 platforms to start:

  • LinkedIn (for professional positioning)

  • Twitter/X (for real-time insight and thought leadership)

  • Medium/Substack (for long-form writing)

  • YouTube/Podcasts (for high-leverage, evergreen content)

Make sure your profiles are:

  • Up to date

  • Visually consistent (photos, bios, links)

  • Clearly reflect your expertise and interests

Part 2: Creating Content That Builds Trust

1. Use the 70–20–10 Rule

  • 70%: Your own voice (insights, experiences, frameworks, lessons)

  • 20%: Industry commentary or responses

  • 10%: Mentions of your company (projects, wins, values)

This ensures balance and avoids looking like a PR mouthpiece.

2. Share What You’re Learning, Not Just What You Know

You don’t need to be an expert—just a student who shares openly.
Content types that work:

  • “What I learned this week”

  • Behind-the-scenes of solving a tough problem

  • A framework that helped you make a decision

  • Personal story tied to a career or leadership lesson

3. Engage Thoughtfully

  • Comment on others’ content with genuine insights

  • Amplify peers’ posts who reflect your values

  • Start conversations, not just monologues

This builds community—not just visibility.

Part 3: Navigating Employer Relationships

1. Be Transparent (When Appropriate)

Depending on your visibility, it may be wise to have a conversation with your manager:

“I’m working on building my presence around [topic] to grow professionally and stay engaged in the industry. Let me know if there are any guidelines I should be aware of.”

This proactive approach earns trust and opens the door to collaboration rather than restriction.

2. Respect Confidentiality and Reputation

Avoid:

  • Sharing unreleased product features

  • Quoting internal conversations

  • Discussing internal challenges or strategy

  • Taking credit for team work without attribution

Use the rule: “Would I post this if I weren’t working here?”

If your company has a content policy or social media guidelines, review them thoroughly.

3. Use Disclaimers Where Needed

Add:

“Opinions are my own.”
This doesn’t remove legal risk, but it signals autonomy and helps set boundaries with your audience.

Part 4: Protecting Your Time and Energy

1. Set a Posting Rhythm

You don’t need to post daily.
Instead:

  • Weekly thought post

  • Biweekly article or thread

  • Monthly podcast or video

Use tools like:

  • LinkedIn’s scheduler

  • Typefully or Hypefury for Twitter

  • Notion or Google Docs for drafts

2. Don’t Build at the Expense of Your Job

Your employer is paying you to perform—respect that.
Keep your content creation to early mornings, lunch breaks, evenings, or weekends unless it’s:

  • Aligned with your role (e.g., you’re in marketing, sales, or leadership), or

  • Agreed upon as part of your responsibilities

If your brand starts earning income or taking up significant time, consider:

  • Moving to reduced hours

  • Pitching a partnership

  • Planning an exit with transparency

Part 5: Expanding Your Brand Beyond Content

1. Speak, Write, and Teach

Look for:

  • Podcasts to guest on

  • Conferences to speak at

  • Workshops to lead

  • Newsletters or publications to contribute to

Start by sharing your content, then pitch yourself as a contributor.

2. Create Assets You Own

Eventually build:

  • A personal website

  • A mailing list

  • A personal portfolio or case study library

This gives you long-term independence from platforms—and employers.

3. Track Your Impact

Keep a record of:

  • Engagement growth

  • Speaking gigs

  • Inbound job or client leads

  • Content that gets reshared or featured

This proves your influence—and can be used in salary reviews, negotiations, or even your resignation letter.

Case Study: Grace Andrews – The Powerhouse Behind The Diary of a CEO

From Team Player to Power Player

Grace Andrews wasn’t just a marketer working behind the scenes—she was the driving force behind one of the world’s fastest-growing podcast brands. As Brand and Editorial Director for The Diary of a CEO, she helped scale the show from 8,000 subscribers to over 11 million on YouTube. But her real legacy? Building a creator-first, content-flywheel machine that blended performance, psychology, and authenticity at scale.

Her journey reveals the potential (and challenges) of growing a massive personal brand inside someone else’s business—and what happens when that brand becomes too big to contain.

Key Lessons from Grace’s Journey

1. The Brand Behind the Brand Is Often the Quiet Force

Grace helped shape The Diary of a CEO into more than a podcast. She reverse-engineered what made content stick:

  • Obsessive focus on emotional storytelling

  • Layered editing and narrative pacing

  • Titles and thumbnails designed to earn attention

  • Repurposing content into bite-sized insights that traveled fast

She took Steven Bartlett’s voice and turned it into an international media product—without diluting its soul.

"Your personal brand is your digital reputation—and you have to shape it intentionally. That’s what we did every single day."

Her fingerprint was on every moment that made fans cry, share, and subscribe.

2. Naivety Was a Secret Weapon

In interviews, Grace emphasizes how not knowing the “rules” helped her invent new ones.
She wasn't bound by traditional media playbooks—instead, she built organic systems around human attention, curiosity, and psychology.

“We weren’t trying to look professional. We were trying to feel human. And that’s why it worked.”

This gave her credibility not just as an executor—but as a visionary in her own right.

3. She Grew a Brand That Outgrew Her Role

After years of building The Diary of a CEO, Grace chose to leave—publicly. In her YouTube video “Why I Quit The Diary of a CEO”, she walks viewers through her final week and announces her next bold move: launching her own content and committing to a weekly vlog for 52 weeks.

"I’ve grown the biggest creator show in the world, but posting my first personal video felt more terrifying than any campaign I’ve ever run."

It was the classic tension: She had mastered building someone else’s brand—and now it was time to own her own.

Her personal brand had become so visible, so respected, so in-demand, that staying in the shadows was no longer sustainable—or fulfilling.

What Employers Can Learn

  • Investing in employee visibility pays dividends. Grace brought immeasurable brand equity, growth, and narrative precision to Steven Bartlett’s empire.

  • Allow employees to own their wins. Grace didn’t just execute—she shaped the DNA of the brand, and she was publicly credited. That visibility helped her and the brand grow faster.

  • Recognize when it's time to support, not contain. When an employee like Grace reaches escape velocity, the best employers open the door to transition—not control.

What Employees Can Learn

  • Start by building someone else’s brand with care and conviction. Grace didn’t just show up to work—she poured craft into every second of the content.

  • Document the process, not just the outcome. Her rise was made public post-fact—but her new personal brand journey is being documented in real time. That transparency builds trust and momentum.

  • When the opportunity knocks—step forward, not away. It’s normal to feel fear when launching your own content. Grace had already “made it” in someone else’s business, but starting fresh was still terrifying. She did it anyway.

The Takeaway

Grace Andrews is proof that building a personal brand inside a high-performance environment is possible—and powerful. She shows that with strategic alignment, creative autonomy, and deep commitment, employees can become essential builders of someone else’s vision while quietly preparing for their own spotlight.

When done right, your personal brand doesn’t compete with your employer—it complements, elevates, and eventually graduates into something even greater.

Final Thoughts

A personal brand doesn’t mean becoming an influencer.
It means taking control of your professional story, creating a legacy of contribution, and opening doors you didn’t know existed.

Done right, your personal brand will:

  • Accelerate your career

  • Attract like-minded people

  • Give you freedom of choice

But it requires intention, humility, and professionalism—especially when built alongside a full-time role.

Personal Branding, Employee AdvocatesFrancesca Tabor