Most personal branding starts in the wrong place. It starts on the surface, with the headshot, the tidy profile, the clever tagline and the posting schedule. Real influence works the other way around. It starts at your core, with who you actually are, and it builds outward from there.
A couple of weeks ago I was coaching one of my DIAL clients, Tania. We'd started the call talking about LinkedIn. Before long, we were talking about her Matariki weekend instead. She was telling me about building a fence with her family, getting handed the power tools, her nephew proudly digging the post holes and her partner quietly leading everyone because he already had a plan.
Halfway through I stopped her. 'There's your LinkedIn post.' She looked at me slightly puzzled. 'The fence?' Exactly. Because that conversation told me more about who she was than another carefully crafted leadership post ever could. Family. Community. Humility. Teamwork. That's where her authentic personal brand was hiding.
I've watched a lot of capable people pour effort into the surface and quietly wonder why it never lands. The profile looks good. The posts go out. But it reads like they're wearing someone else's clothes, and people can tell.
Here's what I've learnt over 20-odd years of working alongside business owners and leaders. You can't build a personal brand on a foundation you haven't laid. If you're not clear on what you stand for, no amount of polish will make you sound like you.
That's why I use a framework called DIAL. Four layers, built from the inside out. DNA, Identity, Authority, Leverage. Most branding advice jumps straight to the outer layers. DIAL starts at the core, because that's the only place it holds.
DNA: Start at the core
DNA is your purpose, your values and your beliefs. The core of who you are.
This is the layer everyone wants to skip because it's the hardest and the least visible. It's also the one that decides everything above it. When you get clear on what you actually stand for – the real version, not the one that sounds good on a website – the rest gets easier.
When Tania told me the story about building the fence, she didn't think it had anything to do with LinkedIn. She thought it was just a weekend. I heard something different. I heard what mattered to her. That's the difference. Your best content usually isn't hiding in a marketing strategy. It's hiding in the stories you've dismissed because they feel ordinary.
Most people don't have a content problem. They have a clarity problem. Sort the core, and the words follow.
Identity: Make it visible
Identity is your personal brand made visible. Your DNA, out where people can actually see it.
This is where most advice starts, and it's exactly why so much of it falls flat. Your headline, your profile and the stories you tell should all be expressions of the core, not decoration bolted on top.
One of my favourite moments from coaching Tania was when she stopped trying to sound like an expert. She laughed and said, 'Actually… this is what my opinion is. I'm not trying to teach everybody something.' That was the breakthrough. She'd stopped performing and started sounding like herself.
You'll see across all of my personal brand material my love for sport and exercise! It's a huge part of my identity and I proudly display it (photos aren't always glamorous, but they're uniquely me!).
Authority: Get known for the right things
Authority is your presence and reputation, built up over time, so you're known for the right things.
Authority isn't loud. It's consistent. It's what happens when your Identity shows up often enough, and clearly enough, that people start to associate you with something specific.
When Tania published one of her first authentic posts, she was surprised by the response. We worked on the voice she was using, how she prepared a post. This allowed it to feel human, so people responded like humans.
You don't claim authority. You earn it, one honest, repeated signal at a time. That's why the reps matter far more than the highlight reel.
Leverage: Turn it into momentum
Leverage is what all of this becomes. Turn the dial, build the reputation, and turn it into opportunities, influence and growth.
The biggest shift wasn't that Tania became more consistent on LinkedIn. It was that she started seeing stories everywhere. A conference. A conversation. A client. A coffee. A lesson from the weekend. Instead of asking, 'What should I post?' she started asking, 'Which story should I tell?'
That's leverage. It isn't something you force. It's what naturally happens when your DNA, Identity and Authority are aligned.
You can't outsource your voice
Keeping it very real here. I can't hand you a voice to use. Nobody can. But, your voice is already there. Underneath the years of experience and the stories you've stopped noticing because they feel so ordinary.
When I apply the DIAL framework to clients, I'm not inventing their voice. We work through a process that allows them to find it, name it and help them to trust it enough to use it out loud.
One of the things I hear most often is, 'I've got nothing interesting to say.' I seriously don't believe that! I think people stop noticing what they could say. Think about it, your best stories are sitting inside conversations you've already had this week.
That's why DIAL starts where it does. Get the core right, understand what drives you, and everything above it stops being a performance and starts being you, turned up.
If your personal brand has been living on the surface, no wonder it feels like hard work. Start at the core, and see how it can start to carry itself.
That's the work I do with leaders. If it's the thing you've been putting off, let's have a chat.
FAQs
What is the DIAL framework?
DIAL is LifeWOD's framework for building an authentic personal brand from the inside out: DNA, Identity, Authority and Leverage.
How is a personal brand different from a company brand?
A company brand is built around a business. A personal brand is built around a person and their point of view.
Do I have to be on LinkedIn?
No (but it is recommended!). LinkedIn is simply one place your personal brand becomes visible.
How long does it take to find your voice?
Our process involves an interview, finding patterns in your language and style, and then getting your reps in. It's usually much faster than people expect. The bigger challenge is trusting yourself enough to use it consistently.
Jacqui Gage-Brown is a Fractional CMO. She works with business owners who are still wearing the marketing hat – stepping in to set the strategy, lead the work and make sure the right things actually get done.
With 20+ years in strategic marketing and business leadership, Jacqui co-founded and directed an award-winning agency before founding LifeWOD. She believes in Working On Dreams and building a thriving, healthy business and life.
Connect on LinkedIn · Work with Jacqui
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📷 At my core? Building a healthy, thriving life (smashing out another Hyrox when I swore I wouldn't do another...)
