Personal Branding, pt 3

Greg Wyatt • May 14, 2024

This is the final part of this mini-series.

If you want to write content that gets you closer to a job it has to support, contribute to and start conversations with the right people.

With that in mind, I’ve had a change of heart in this post.

I was going to share some content writers who I think nail personal branding; however, the problem is that all it does is reflect my own interests.

There is no one right way to write content on LinkedIn, and we all have different strengths and weaknesses, personalities and goals.

Some authors focus solely on thought leadership, some on selling, some on humour, some combining them in a variety of ways.

You can try and copy others, but isn’t it better to help you find your own rhythm, that works for you?

Today’s article is about these points:

finding content writers who may inspire you, and using that as a catalyst for your own words
the vulnerability of writing
how and why to write a flair post that promotes you
fine-tuning to form a habit
what else?

If you are new to this newsletter, don’t forget to check out the archive , and Part 1 & Part 2 of this mini-series.

finding content writers who may inspire you, and using that as a catalyst for your own words

There are broadly two ways to find writers that can seed your ideas for content.

Firstly, if you’re thinking about writing on LinkedIn, you are presumably already reading content.

What inspires you? What do you enjoy reading? Which authors resonate with your career, your values, your goals and the problems you solve?

When you read their content, do you engage and comment? Do you connect with them? Do you ask them who they recommend as writers in your field?

Secondly , look within.

What are the key criteria you want to be known for in your career?

Maybe it’s procurement or your CIPD membership. React or agile. “5 Whys” or Gemba.

If these are areas that interest you, use the LinkedIn search bar to find posts on these topics.

Now filter the results by ‘Posts’ and ‘Sort by’ latest

Read through the results both for posts that interest you personally, and those that have high engagement (less likely on a niche topic).

When you’ve found inspiring content, what next?

One first step in content creation is to respond to these posts with your own ideas. Less ‘Agree’ and more how you might respond in a real-life conversation on this topic.

Replying to other people’s posts is a great way to find your voice, particularly if they reply to your comment.

Like any skill, writing takes practice, and comments are a low-profile way of developing your tone.

If a comment sparks interest from other readers, it can be a great concept to build on as a post in its own right.

The other benefit of this kind of niche content is that those who engage are likely to have similar interests to you.

Make sure to read other comments and see if there are more conversations to be had.

Check out their profiles - do their interests and values reflect yours?

Great people to connect with, then DM to continue the conversation. Check out their posting history which will be available on their profile - there may well be a lot of interesting content to absorb.

With conversation comes content. Ideas and discussion that grow are a great way to share your voice.

Here’s a suggestion for how you can do this in practice:

Look for 5 posts daily that interest you professionally - manually, using a search, or checking what your valuable connections are up to
Engage and comment on each
Check out new authors’ profile - connect and follow their content, if you like what you see
On each post, look at who is engaging, and respond naturally.
Try to connect with 5 new relevant people from these interactions
Perhaps follow up with a message continuing the conversation
Take note of the most interesting conversations, and at the end of the week pick at least one to try and write your own posts
You don’t need to publish them if you aren’t comfortable - save for later if not

Personally, I’d avoid the viral content that combines relevance + relatability + entitlement + readability. These writers mainly aren’t interested in your engagement specifically, just the numbers.

You can see the truth of their words in how they respond in the comments sections.

the vulnerability of writing

You can be a content creator without ever publishing a post, if you continue conversations through comments, connections, DMs and real-life comms.

This avoids sticking your head above the parapets, and is low risk, but misses the gain of publishing your own content.

I know that some people are held back for fear of failure, and I can tell you that clicking “send” is always a high point of anxiety for me in sending these newsletters.

What’s the worst that can happen with a carefully thought-out post?

Tumbleweed ?

If no one reads it, you can always try that post again later.

Disagreement ?

Loads of people disagree on my posts - you’ll see from my comments, that I am always constructive in my dialogue and typically this supports the intent of my post.

Everyone has an opinion, and they are welcome to theirs - as long as it’s constructive there’s always a learning opportunity.

Trolls ?

These people exist and will at some point rear their ugly heads. I imagine them naked on the Underground, which takes the sting out of their vitriol. I’m sure it’s their unhappiness that drives their behaviour too.

Marriage requests?

Unfortunately, dubious and toxic behaviour isn’t uncommon. I’m fortunate I’ve only come across a handful of loons in my time on LinkedIn, but you may well come across them.

Don’t be afraid to block and report, if you receive harmful messages.

As long as you are constructive in what you write, and you work to build a conversation, it’s unlikely anything bad will happen, while you open yourself up to the opportunity of new relevant people starting conversations with you:

hiring managers, recruiters, peers, fellow job seekers, and friendly strangers.

how and why to write a flair post that promotes you

If you only ever write one LinkedIn post, it can be the one that announces your availability to the world.

I’ve no doubt you’ve read the many posts highlighting that someone’s position has been made redundant / laid off, and that they are excited for the next challenge. Perhaps they are even grateful for the time they had with their now former employer.

These often get a ton of engagement, primarily from fellow job seekers, recruiters and friendly strangers.

If their real-life network sees this, they may not even be aware that person was soon to be available. In a lucky coincidence, they may even have a vacancy or know someone recruiting for a suitable role.

But when you read these posts yourself, what can you tell about that person’s credibility from what they’ve written, if all you have is the evidence of their words?

Writing a post that announces your availability is a good idea.

Writing something similar that highlights what you are looking for, your key strengths and how you can help - that’s a post you can take forward.

Because as well as announcing your availability, you’ll show people you don’t know what you are suited for, helping them potentially help you.

While people who check out your profile first, say if you’ve sent an application, may read that post in support of the other information they have. And you can share it in DMs with your real-life network when you catch up with them.

I’d write this post in the classic advertising framework - AIDA: attention interest desire action. It’s the basis of many adverts that influence you to buy.

Attention.

This is your elevator pitch to set the scene. It can be clever or to the point.

“Following the layoffs at ABC Corp I’m now available for my next HR Director challenge, where I can set the people strategy and help scale your business by hiring great people who will improve your bottom line”

Interest.

Highlight your key qualities, which make you stand out.

“I’m MBA and CIPD qualified, with experience growing venture backed Biotech companies as they commercialise, through workforce planning and fostering a great culture”.

Desire.

Turn the screw on what makes you great.

“At ABC corp, I was instrumental in growing their team from 50 people at R&D stage to 350 with a turnover of £110m, leading to the sale of the business to Evil Overlord ltd, who promptly scrapped my job”

Action.

Make it easy for them to contact you (although don’t include email addresses or websites in the post, which LinkedIn will penalise).

“Please get in touch if you know of a suitable role or agency. I’d be grateful if you could like, comment and share for your network”

In your own words, of course.

I helped one of my connections with her first flair post.

As someone who had low engagement (less than ten reactions and few comments per post), this form of flair post led to:

Impressions: 12128
Reactions: 106
Comments 39
Reposts: 13
Additional profile views since posting: 188
Additional connection requests since posting: 50

Within a week of posting.

You may think of this as a salesy approach (there’s nothing wrong with selling btw, it’s a noble art), but I look at it as raising awareness with your network, to help them help you. Few decent people will judge you for asking for help.

fine-tuning to form a habit

It’s a good idea to set a sustainable plan for content writing, which you can adjust on the fly.

Maybe it will look something like this:

Comment on 5 posts a day
Send 5 connection requests a day
DM 5 existing connections a day
Write 5 posts a month

Gamifying helps.

Expectation setting is a good idea too. I see many great writers get zero engagement and it takes time to build - LinkedIn is a hungry beast and penalises time away, especially early on.

But even if you have a long-term plan, posts that fly, such as a timely flair post (make sure to DM me if you write one), can galvanise you to write more.

While, there will be times you don’t have the motivation to write, in which case you can re-purpose your previous content.

If someone didn’t see your flair post, for example, the first time around, you’re helping them by re-posting. While those who have seen it will only be reminded of your availability.

Besides, few people remember or notice repeated content online. While, when you watch TV adverts, you’ll always enjoy seeing a good one again.

what else?

Writing content is, for me, a low-friction way of promoting yourself. From relationships I’ve started through content, I’ve been invited on podcasts, LinkedIn lives, and other marketing activities.

It’s led to many real-life conversations where I’ve been able to help employers and job seekers, including paid recruitment.

However, it is easy to get swept up in LinkedInnitis, where you do it for its own sake.

If you find you’re on LinkedIn because of how it makes you feel, it’s worth taking a step back and revisiting what you want to achieve.

LinkedIn is a business and wants to trap you into its platform - check out the Social Dilemma on Netflix for why and how this happens.

But if you keep intentional, it’s a wonderful marketing platform, research tool, and community. And something you can take advantage of.

That’s the end of this mini-series. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, or need some help writing content.

Thanks for reading.

Regards,

Greg

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Introduction to personal branding

By Greg Wyatt • March 30, 2026

What follows is Chapter 39 of A Career Breakdown Kit (2026) . It's 10 months old, so surely the algorithm has moved on right? Indeed, my own content performance has tanked if you compare 2026 to 2025. Around 12 million views of my content last year, while if I extrapolate my year to date performance, it looks like a little shy of 640,000 views. My LinkedIn feed is quieter, yet real life relevant conversations go from strength to strength, many of which stem from my content. Look, I don't love the term, but I am a fan of putting your message out there, across multiple means, so that your most relevant audience might become aware of you. And perhaps your relevant audience is an audience of one, a person who can put you nearer that job. Which is the only algorithm you need. This is a three part series, with part 2 on " Content strategy and philosophy " and part 3 on " A flair post ". Click on the links for the unedited versions on Substack. 39 - Introduction to personal branding Whatever you think of LinkedIn, you shouldn’t overlook its nature as a free marketing platform, where you can build a reputation through the words of your posts, comments and messages. Personal branding is a viable tactic as part of a multi-channel approach to your job search and it can bring opportunities to you. I'll start off by saying I'm not a fan of the term personal branding. It can lead to make-work which can even get in the way of what you should be doing. Writing and using content to create experiences that support a job search is a great idea and calling it personal branding - as a discrete activity - isn’t a bad thing. I expect there are many mediums through which you can build a personal brand. I'll focus on LinkedIn because of how entrenched it is in other job search activities. What a personal brand is For businesspeople the idea is that by building awareness of your personality, lifestyle and what you're promoting, you also build trust. So that when people are ready to buy, they'll buy your products. The brand might be personal. The goal is sales. When you see personal branding on LinkedIn it’s often a business that promotes their services through the account of the author. ‘Here’s my puppy, buy my stuff.’ Take note that the target audience for these advice posts is the businesspeople above. And these posts often seek to part them from their money. Your goals are similar. If there’s a commercial outcome you want, it’s likely a single job, not a throughput of leads. You’ll also see that controversial content gets huge engagement and can also repel readers. If you need a job, what’s the danger of writing overly spicy content? Could a reader make a decision against you based on your words? How much you need any job should inform the experience you want to create for your readers. How it sits in your wider job search Publishing content is about raising awareness and starting conversations with the right people. This can be your profile, written posts, newsletters, (bestselling) career breakdown kits, videos, you name it - anything you can become known for. In many ways the hierarchy of relationships your content appeals to is the same as with networking. Content can be publishing posts, commenting on the posts of others, sending direct messages. I’d argue even your applications and interviews are part of your personal brand. I think of LinkedIn posts like a plumber’s van driving around town. Most of the time you’ll disregard the van unless it cuts you up with noxious fumes. When you have a leaky pipe, you’ll surely take note of their number. It can support an application if a hiring manager decides to surreptitiously stalk your profile. And it can work against you if it suggests problem behaviour. A good balance for content is the poster in my daughters’ primary school from a few years back: THINK. Is it True? Is it Helpful? Is it Inspiring? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind? Achieve those five points and content will rarely work against your job search. Content should be consistent with your wider activity. Which means that everything people (potential employers) experience of you is a complementary and non-contradictory message. Content that contradicts your CV or cover letter may lead to red flags, whether that’s fair or not. Content should be intentional. HOW TO GO viral, and why you shouldn’t Anyone who writes content will enjoy the sweet, sweet flow of dopamine when you see reactions and comments trickle in. Such as that first flair post announcing you are available to help your next employer with examples of your achievements and what you are looking for. Do that and you’ll get loads of engagement. Why haven’t you done it yet? Tag me in and I’ll support you. Or you can do what most people do and say, ‘I’m sorry to announce I’ve lost my job, please help’ and that will get loads too. Because it is relevant and relatable to fellow job seekers, recruiters and sympathisers. Then you feel the soul-crushing defeat of a well-thought-out post, highlighting a problem in your industry, with tumbleweed to follow. Both types of content have a place. That tumbleweed post is relevant and relatable to a niche audience. I try to take a land and expand approach to content - job seeker advice, recruitment advice and stories, ponderings and satire, which I use to tackle topics from different directions. Over the past three years I’ve had between 3m to 11m views of my posts and I’ve gained a bit of business through them too. What I don’t do is try to go viral anymore. Because when I have gone viral with a few 1m impression posts, it’s taken weeks to extricate myself from them and there hasn’t been real benefit. I find my tumbleweed posts start better conversations from lurkers - those that never engage publicly. I promised you I’d show you how to go viral. Here you go. Relevance + relatability + readability + entitlement. Maybe add a selfie. If that seems too simple, search for this sentence on LinkedIn: “An employee asked me if he can WORK from HOME permanently.” You’ll need to use the double speech mark to search on the phrase, and rank by Posts. ‘Does it really work?’ asked Charles. I told him to try it as an experiment. He rarely got more than a few hundred impressions per post. 170,000 impressions, 2,000 reactions. Pretty viral for a first timer. It is the wrong path. What do these posts actually say? Who are they aimed at? And if they don’t appeal to people who can help you reach your objective, what’s the point?

Nothing but the truth. Innovation from Iteration, pt 4

By Greg Wyatt • March 26, 2026

I was tempted to use another Tom Cruise AI image for this article, but his hands ended up looking like feet, which wasn't a true representation of him. Probably not fair to use AI in this way either, stealing copyrighted material without permission. And so I use this AI 'stock image' instead, which is probably also highly unethical, but feels more suitable and sufficient . Anyway here's an article about why the same principles are crucial for good recruitment: ‘True and Fair’ is an accountancy concept that lies at the heart of reporting, and can be applied effectively in recruitment. Its meaning is that any financial statement made about a company should accurately and completely represent its financial position and performance. The role of auditing is to confirm that documentation meets this definition. Do so and everyone knows what they are dealing with. HMRC, shareholders, customers, suppliers, employees – useful, and in many cases necessary, to have access to a true and fair view of a company’s accounts. Can something be true and not fair? In 2001, Enron went bust, a huge scandal with real-life repercussions that led to new legislation in the US. Their accounts were true, in that they conformed with the required laws and standards. However they had an incredibly complex reporting structure which made it impossible to see the overwhelming debt they had. Poof! Bye-bye a $100bn company when this all came out in the wash. How about fair but not true? This can happen if a situation is described which gives a fair picture but lacks accuracy. An example here could be the UK politician who HMRC deemed behaved fairly but made errors in his tax reporting. Only a few million quid plus penalty. What types of recruitment documentation does this apply to? Three key ones that spring to mind (although there’s no reason it can’t be applied everywhere): The job description. The job advertisement. The CV. If these three documents were always a true and fair representation of either a job or a candidate, you’d interview and hire better candidates who stick around longer. With the caveat that these documents should also be ‘suitable and sufficient’, if you remember last week's edition. Documents are the first step in a recruitment process, relating to a decision to apply and the decision to interview. Is it not the case, that the second most common complaint in recruitment is “not what we expected”? Therefore, if we nipped this complaint in the bud, with true and fair documentation, wouldn’t life be better for everyone in the recruitment process? What does true and fair mean in recruitment documentation? I think it has to cover three points. 1/ factually correct 2/ shows context suitably 3/ describes sufficiently An immediate objection might be that job descriptions are always true and fair, but I’d argue this is actually rarely the case. If you recruit for a new role, do you audit your job description against the current context? If you have a generic job family description does it show the specific day-to-day duties of a role? Have things changed in the current role that makes it different to the last time you recruited? A common scenario in recruitment is that Greg resigns, and the hiring manager says “we’d love someone just like Greg”. Yet if Greg resigned, wouldn’t someone just like Greg be at risk of resigning for the same reasons in future? Would now-Greg have applied for the same role that then-Greg applied for? Which definition of Greg is the true and fair one you’d hire? It feels strange writing my name like this. There are lots of different situations in which a job description that was true and fair a few years ago is no longer so. The only way to ensure it is true and fair, is to audit documentation prior to going live. You may think a fully representative and accurate contextual analysis is too time-consuming for most vacancies, especially where it doesn’t actually matter if there is some inaccuracy. “Oh yeah, that’s not relevant anymore”. But if you have a key hire that can make a difference in your business, ‘true and fair’ should be the starting point, each and every time. If you have a systematic process that finds truth and fairness, you’ll see the benefit of applying the same across any vacancy – for the reason that the time invested at the outset is offset by interviewing fewer unsuitable candidates and wasting less time and resources overall. And what should be the more important reason of better recruitment outcomes. For any project I take on, this is the first step – getting the documentation in order. Get it right and everything flows from there. It’s a key reason behind my nearly 100% fill rate. It’s also one of the reasons my average tenure is over 4 years for key hires. These achievements don’t come down to chance. They come from my process. If you've forgotten why suitability and sufficiency is the other pillar, here's an example that isn't suitable: Nineteen experiential bullet points might be true and fair but will also encourage ideal candidates to run away screaming. See you next time. Regards, Greg p.s. While you are here, if you like the idea of improving how you recruit, lack capacity or need better candidates, and are curious how I can help, these are my services: - commercial, operational and technical leadership recruitment (available for no more than two vacancies) - manage part or all of your recruitment on an individually designed basis for one client. This can be a large as end-to-end delivery of a programme of vacancies, or as small as writing one job advert for a key hire- recruitment strategy setting - outplacement support