What happens when you’ve built an incredibly successful business, but outside your existing network hardly anyone knows who you are?
Your clients know you’re good.
Your team knows.
The people who have worked with you know.
But somebody new searches your name and finds very little that reflects the experience, expertise, and authority you’ve spent years building.
That was the starting point for my conversation with Debora Prossomariti, a strategic partner and fractional Chief Brand Officer who works with established CEOs and founders whose online reputation hasn’t caught up with their offline success.
And there was one distinction that kept coming up:
Visibility is not authority.
Being Seen Isn’t the Same as Being Respected
We live in a world obsessed with numbers.
Followers. Likes. Comments. Views.
But Debora made a point I loved:
Attention is not intention.
Someone can attract thousands of views without becoming the person people trust to solve a serious problem.
Equally, you can be brilliant at what you do and have years of results behind you—but remain almost unknown outside your immediate network.
Neither position is ideal if your goal is to create commercial opportunities from your reputation.
The goal isn’t simply to be seen.
It’s to become known for something that matters.
Personal Branding Starts With Identity
One of Debora’s strongest ideas was that personal branding should be:
Identity first. Strategy second.
That’s almost the opposite of how many people approach it.
They begin with:
“What should I post?”
“Should I make reels?”
“What hooks are working?”
“How many times should I publish?”
But those questions come later.
First, you need to understand who you are.
What do you believe?
What do you stand for?
What values shape the way you lead?
And does the person you’re presenting online resemble the person your employees, clients, and colleagues actually know?
I’ve experienced this myself.
At one point, I thought I needed to present myself in a more corporate way because of the audience I was working with.
But that’s not me.
I ride a motorbike. Freedom is important to me. I built a business that allows me to work from different places.
Those things aren’t separate from my story.
They’re part of it.
Stop Trying to Appeal to Everyone
Showing more of yourself does create another challenge.
Not everyone will like it.
Debora believes that’s something leaders need to accept.
If you have a genuine point of view, some people will disagree with you.
But trying to avoid all disagreement creates another problem:
You become forgettable.
You produce the same safe content as everybody else.
You might be visible, but people still don’t know what you stand for.
Authority requires clarity.
Why Long-Form Conversations Matter
This is also why I believe so strongly in podcasting.
Information is everywhere.
But a real conversation gives someone an opportunity to understand how you think.
They hear your stories.
Your opinions.
The lessons you learned through experience.
And that’s difficult to communicate through another generic social post.
Debora put it simply: people buy stories.
Long-form conversations give those stories somewhere to live.
And over time, those conversations can help the right people associate your name with your area of expertise.
Turn Your Reputation Into an Asset
Your reputation isn’t the final goal.
It’s an asset that can support the wider goals of your business.
When the right people understand what you know, what you believe, and what you stand for, you create trust and respect.
And that can help create opportunities that invisibility can’t.
You don’t need to become internet famous.
You need to become visible to the right people for the right reasons.
Connect With Debora Prossomariti
Debora is developing a free CEO Brand Architecture Audit, a 10-minute diagnostic designed to help established CEOs identify gaps between their offline authority and public brand.
Find Debora Prossomariti on LinkedIn and DM her “STRATEGY” to request the resource.
www.linkedin.com/in/debora-prossomariti
🎁 Mini Course for Coaches & Experts
Want to grow your business through podcast guesting without cold pitching or awkward sales calls?
Get access to Karen’s exclusive 4-part mini-course, The Podcast Profits Funnel, and learn how to turn listeners into high-ticket clients—automatically.
(Complete it in 5 days to unlock a bonus automation training that’s normally part of Karen’s $5K program!)
You can also get my free Storybank GPT there to uncover and organise the experiences that demonstrate your expertise.
Because you probably already have more authority than you realise.
The next step is making sure the right people know about it. 👉 podcastprofitsunleashed.com/free
Podcast Network
