From invisible to investable: The founder’s guide to building a personal brand
by Clare Wimalasundera
You’ve built something brilliant. Now it’s time for people to know who is behind it.
In 2025, visibility isn’t optional. It’s your competitive edge.
Investors, partners, media, and potential employees don’t fall in love with a logo or website. They follow people and personalities. The ones with a point of view, a story, and the courage to share it.
82% of people are more likely to trust a company when its executives are active on social media. Being silent as a leader today feels like disengagement. It’s a signal that you’re not part of the conversation.
But visibility only pays off if it’s intentional: positioned around your business outcomes, executed via the correct channels and formats, and measured against the right goals.
So, if you want to turn visibility into real-world opportunity, here’s the three step process we use at Visible PR with founders and CEOs who are ready to be seen, heard, and remembered for the right reasons.
Find your voice
Before you post, pitch, or publish anything, you need to know what you stand for and how to express it.
This is where you clearly define your personal brand narrative. Not a long list of values, but a single, ownable line that sums up your conviction as a leader. Then build around 2–3 themes that connect that conviction to your lived experience and business journey.
Ask yourself:
What’s the message I want to be known for in a year’s time?
What stories best show that message in action?
How does this link to what my company is trying to change?
Everything from a LinkedIn post to a media Q&A should reinforce that narrative. It’s about building trust and clarity instead of noise.
Take action
Once you’ve defined your voice, it’s time to use it; consistently and strategically.
You don’t need to be everywhere. You just need to show up where it counts, with content that amplifies your voice and values.
Start small:
LinkedIn: share engaging, original posts (300–500 words) that provide insights, provoke, or invite conversation.
Newsletter: own your distribution and deepen relationships with people whos attention you already earned.
Media and events: publish a thought-leadership piece, record a podcast, or join a panel where your perspective matters.
The smartest founders repurpose everything. A single post can become a newsletter snippet, a pitch for media, or a talking point on stage - leveraging visibility.
One key point to always remember is that authenticity beats polish every time. Audiences have had enough of corporate spin or business speak. When you talk about what you’ve learned, where you’ve failed, and how you’re figuring it out. That’s what earns attention.
Tangible outcomes
Visibility isn’t about vanity metrics, it's about gaining momentum that you can measure.
Look for signals in three categories:
Resonance: Engagement, comments, saves provide the proof that your message is landing.
Reach: Podcast invites, press requests, speaker slots are all proof people are paying attention.
Results: Investor introductions, connections, hiring applications and new business leads are the proof that visibility is driving value.
After six months of focused effort, if you get that right, you will see:
More inbound opportunities from journalists, investors, and collaborators.
A content library that actually sounds like you
Confidence to speak publicly about what matters,and be recognised for it.
That’s the compound effect of consistency: it turns your story into currency.
Visibility is about trust and timing. When people already know what you stand for, every introduction, pitch, or conversation starts warmer and goes further. It’s leadership in public and in 2025, that’s what cuts through.
At Visible PR, we’ve helped founders and CEOs do exactly this, turning their lived experience into credible, memorable thought leadership that drives business growth.
We don’t just make you visible.
We make you impossible to ignore.
Discover how Visible PR’s Visibility Programme helps founders and CEOs build personal brands that turn awareness into advantage. Drop us a line today to find out more: Clare.Wimalasundera@visiblepr.co.uk