About eight months ago, Bhav was spiralling about LinkedIn.

She had left her job without a plan and was trying to figure out how to find freelance clients. The obvious answer (at least, the internet’s answer) was: Build a personal brand online. Post consistently. Show up. Be visible.

So she was gearing up to become a LinkedIn girlie. New posting schedule. Content ideas. The works.

And I said: don’t.

💬 The Argument That Lasted a Week

It wasn’t exactly a fight. More like a very persistent back-and-forth that stretched over multiple days.

Bhav was insistent. LinkedIn was the way. Everyone says so. It’s how you get noticed. It’s how you find clients in 2025.

Becky kept pushing back. Not because LinkedIn is bad (she’s been on there since 2014, she’s hardly going to trash it), but because she thought this wasn’t the most strategic move.

Every time they caught up, Bhav would casually mention doing a Zoom call with a creator who has like 300k subscribers. Or bumping into someone at an event. Or co-working with a former colleague who’d started something new. She had this incredible web of relationships built naturally over years of working in the creator space.

People knew her. People trusted her. People liked being around her.

That is her personal brand! It just happens to be offline.

🤝 Two Flavours of Visibility

We think “personal brand” has become way too synonymous with “posting online.” And that’s a problem, because it makes a lot of people feel like they’re behind before they’ve even started.

Becky’s version is the textbook one. Active on LinkedIn for over a decade. Sharing work projects, behind-the-scenes moments, learnings from every role. Financial journalist, in-house marketing at a bank, YouTube producer. The flywheel built itself over 12 years of just showing up and talking about what she was doing.

It started out of necessity, actually. At her first publication, articles didn’t carry a byline. No author name underneath. But she needed sources to know who she was, so the only way was to post about her articles on LinkedIn. And it just never stopped.

Bhav’s version is quieter but equally powerful. She built her reputation through working with incredible people, attending events, nurturing genuine relationships, and being someone others naturally refer work to. When former colleagues come across someone who needs operations help, Bhav is one of the first names that comes up.

Neither approach is better. They’re just different flavours of the same thing: being known for what you’re good at.

🎯 For the Offline Crowd

If you’re not a natural poster and the thought of creating content makes you want to crawl under your duvet, this might be the best news you’ve heard all week.

You don’t need to post online to build a personal brand.

You need to be in the right rooms. Talk to the right people. Attend events (online ones like our Creator Office Hours count). Join communities. And when you do meet people, build those relationships because you genuinely want to, not because you’re mining them for client leads.

Nobody wants to be networked at. But everyone appreciates someone who’s generous, curious, and good at what they do. That reputation spreads further than any LinkedIn post.

And if you do have a network already (former colleagues, school friends, people from that birthday party three years ago), tap it. A simple “Hey, I’m available for X, do you or anyone you know need help?” goes a long way.

📱 And If You Do Want to Post...

Keep the bar low. Like, on-the-ground low. (Maybe we should make this our new tagline…)

Share something small every day. A project you’re tinkering with. Something you’re learning. A behind-the-scenes moment. We are both personally allergic to “5 tips to...” posts from people who’ve been doing something for six months. Don’t do that. Just talk about your experiences.

We’re big fans of Austin Kleon’s “show your work” philosophy. Share the process, not just the product. Nobody needs your framework. They just want to see what you’re actually doing.

One thing that genuinely changed things: setting up a simple calendar booking link (Becky uses cal.com). Suddenly, people from her audience could just book a chat. That single thing turned passive followers into real conversations. And real conversations turned into clients.

So which type are you? The online poster or the offline connector? (Or a bit of both?) Reply and let us know. We’re curious.

Becky & Bhav x

📺 For those of you who prefer to watch on YouTube 👇

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