Personal LinkedIn Branding Drives Agency Growth Through Authentic Connection

This conversation with Greg Star on the Build a Better Agency Podcast reveals a critical, often overlooked, truth: authentic personal branding on LinkedIn is not a vanity project, but a fundamental driver of business growth and connection. The hidden consequence of neglecting this platform is leaving significant opportunities for sales, recruitment, and genuine client relationships on the table. Agency owners and leaders who embrace this strategy gain a powerful advantage by cultivating trust and visibility in a way that generic company posts simply cannot. This is essential reading for anyone looking to move beyond passive online presence and build a truly impactful personal and professional brand.

The Billboard vs. The Conversation: Why Your Personal LinkedIn is the Real Deal

The prevailing wisdom for many businesses, including agencies, is to pour resources into a polished company LinkedIn page. Greg Star, founder of Driven Branding, argues this is a fundamental misallocation of effort. While a company page serves as a necessary billboard--a professional placeholder--it’s the personal LinkedIn profiles of executives and leaders that truly move the needle. This isn't about sharing personal vacation photos; it's about leveraging your individual voice to build authentic connections. Star emphasizes that business is done by people, and people connect with people. A personal account, treated as a "professional diary," fosters trust and relatability in a way a corporate account never can. The immediate payoff is stark: personal posts receive eight times more engagement than company posts.

"People care less about driven and they care much more about what greg starr has to say."

-- Greg Star

This distinction is crucial for agencies. While clients expect their agency partners to champion marketing and content for their businesses, they often neglect to apply the same principles to their own online presence. Star highlights that the "why" behind your business--your origin story, your motivations, your values--resonates far more deeply than a generic update about a new service. Conventional wisdom suggests focusing on thought leadership pieces about AI or industry trends. However, Star contends that without first establishing a human connection and demonstrating trustworthiness, these pieces fall flat. The true magic happens at the intersection of your company brand and your personal brand. This is where delayed payoffs, such as stronger client relationships and easier recruitment, are cultivated.

The "Human Sandwich": Crafting Authenticity with AI Assistance

The rise of AI presents both an opportunity and a challenge. Many are tempted to offload LinkedIn content creation entirely to AI, leading to a flood of mediocre, inauthentic posts. Star’s approach, both in his ghostwriting services and his developing software, is built around a "human sandwich" philosophy. This involves aggressive outlining and prompting, followed by rigorous human editing. The goal is to capture the individual's unique linguistic profile and authentic stories, ensuring that the final output sounds undeniably like them, not a generic AI.

"There's a race to the mediocre middle... it sounds like ai and that is the last thing you want to do."

-- Greg Star

This method directly counters the pitfalls of AI-generated content, which often lacks personality and genuine insight. Star’s process involves deep interviews and questionnaires to unearth the stories that matter: the origin story, the first client, the breakthrough moments. These are the narratives that build credibility and foster connection. For instance, Star notes that an "origin post" accompanied by a portrait picture can generate significant views and engagement, far surpassing a standard company update. This highlights how focusing on the personal narrative, even when assisted by technology, creates a durable competitive advantage that generic content cannot replicate. The delayed payoff here is the deep well of trust built over time, making future sales cycles significantly shorter and more effective.

Consistency Over Perfection: The Unsexy Secret to Visibility

Many aspiring LinkedIn users fall into the trap of treating the platform like a New Year's resolution--bursts of activity followed by long silences. Star stresses that consistency is far more important than perfection. Posting just once a week, he observes, already places an individual in the top 4% of content creators on LinkedIn. This low bar for entry underscores the missed opportunity for those who are not actively participating. The ideal cadence, according to Star, is between one to three posts per week, with each post being succinct--three to eight sentences--to accommodate scrolling behavior.

However, simply posting updates is not enough. The real power lies in sharing the "why" behind your actions and your business. This requires introspection and a willingness to share more than just surface-level information. Star advocates for a structured approach, dedicating a specific slot in your weekly planning for LinkedIn content, much like sales or client management. This ensures consistent visibility without becoming overwhelming. The "soft metrics" of this consistent presence are invaluable: being invited into industry circles at conferences, having past clients reach out with new opportunities, and building a network of people who genuinely follow your journey. This long-term play, while requiring patience and effort, builds a robust reputation that translates into referrals and a more efficient sales process.

"The hardest part is just starting. It doesn't have to be perfect, just got to start. Get your shots up."

-- Greg Star

The engagement that follows posting is also critical. Star recommends dedicating about ten minutes a day to commenting thoughtfully on others' posts, not just with generic affirmations but with genuine insights. This reciprocal engagement not only boosts your visibility but also cultivates relationships and showcases your expertise in real-time conversations. The key is to maintain professionalism, avoiding divisive topics like politics or overly personal disclosures that could alienate clients. The goal is to be relatable and trustworthy, demonstrating that you are a human being with valuable expertise. The irony, as Drew McLellan notes, is that agencies often preach the importance of marketing to clients but fail to invest in their own. Committing to a consistent, authentic LinkedIn presence is not just good practice; it's treating your own brand with the seriousness it deserves.

Key Action Items:

• Commit to Posting: Aim for 1-3 posts per week on your personal LinkedIn profile. Prioritize consistency over perfection.
• Craft Your Origin Story: Develop and share your "why" -- why you started your business, your motivations, and key early experiences. This is a powerful anchor for authenticity.
• Focus on "Professional Diary" Content: Share insights, observations, and lessons learned from your business journey, maintaining a professional yet personal tone.
• Engage Daily: Dedicate 10 minutes each day to thoughtfully comment on other people's posts, fostering relationships and extending your reach.
• Plan Your Content: Integrate LinkedIn posting into your weekly planning, treating it with the same importance as sales or client work.
• Embrace the "Human Sandwich" (Self-Service): If posting yourself, outline your ideas, write them in your own voice, and then review and edit them critically before posting.
• Long-Term Investment: Understand that building a strong personal brand on LinkedIn is a marathon, not a sprint. The payoffs in trust and opportunity compound over time, paying off in 12-18 months and beyond.