Personal Branding Is Dead.
What’s Next?
For years, personal branding was a powerful tool. If you had a skill, copywriting, design, marketing, you could share your expertise, build trust, and attract opportunities. It was a way to stand out based on what you knew and how well you could help others.
But over time, personal branding stopped being about expertise. It became a formula. A shortcut. A way to manufacture authority instead of earning it.
Michal Malewicz captures the problem well:
"We’re dangerously close to having only influencers left on the social media platforms. It means they don’t have anyone to actually influence anymore."
Influence used to be about impact. Now it’s about reach.
And when reach is the goal, depth disappears.
The Corruption of Personal Branding
Personal branding was meant to be a signal of credibility—proof that someone had valuable insights, real-world experience, and something worth paying attention to.
Today, it’s been corrupted.
The goal is no longer to share knowledge. It’s to control perception.
If you know how to game the algorithm, you can make people believe you’re an expert, even if you aren’t.
Now, personal branding is something you can buy:
Likes.
Followers.
Comments.
Engagement pods.
With the right budget, you can look like an industry leader—even if you have no real expertise.
And that’s exactly what’s happened.
Social media has created an environment where the illusion of authority is more powerful than actual expertise.
Instead of proving credibility through real results, many personal brands rely on carefully curated optics. They post high-performing content, chase trends, and repeat the same advice over and over because it gets engagement.
And the result?
A sea of influencers who look successful but offer nothing substantial.
The Hijacking of Personal Branding
Let’s rewind to 2020.
Back then, personal branding was straightforward. People built their brands by sharing insights from direct experience. A copywriter taught copywriting. A designer shared design principles. A strategist broke down marketing frameworks.
Then, personal branding became a business.
A wave of social media-savvy creators—many from Instagram and TikTok—jumped in. They weren’t experts, but they understood how to steal attention.
They started selling personal branding services to people far ahead of them in skill and knowledge.
And it worked.
Because credibility became something you could fake.
The people who should be leading, actual experts, were now competing with those who had mastered the illusion of expertise.
Today, you see it everywhere. People with massive followings who, when you actually listen to them, have nothing meaningful to say.
They sound important. They look successful. But if you put them in a real business meeting with experienced professionals, they wouldn’t last five minutes.
That’s why personal branding, as we knew it, is dead.
What’s Next?
Dan Koe raises an important question: If personal brands are dead, what do we build instead?
In his breakdown of modern online work, he defines three categories:
Influencers thrive on attention. They don’t necessarily create anything of value. Their success comes from reach, not depth.
Creators produce content, but many get stuck in a never-ending grind, constantly posting just to stay relevant.
Personal brands have become one-dimensional. They are obsessed with making money and nothing else. They recycle the same high-performing topics over and over to keep their funnels full.
None of these are sustainable models for long-term credibility.
The alternative? Authority branding.
Authority Branding: The Future of Credibility
Authority branding isn’t about perception. It’s about proof.
It’s built on:
Real experience.
Deep expertise.
Credibility that lasts.
Dan Koe makes an important distinction: Unlike influencers who sell attention or creators who chase engagement, an authority builds something real.
They don’t rely on gimmicks or viral content. They stand out by solving real problems.
And that means staying focused on what actually matters.
If you’re a strategist, talk about strategy.
If you’re a designer, share design insights.
If you’re a coach, teach from experience.
Don’t chase trends. Don’t post content just because it’s “performing well.” Don’t dilute your credibility by jumping on whatever topic is popular today.
Because the personal branding industry will move on.
The same people selling you personal branding today will be selling something else tomorrow.
But real authority? That lasts.
The Bottom Line
Personal branding has been hijacked.
It’s no longer about expertise, it’s about controlling perception.
But the internet is still a powerful tool. It’s still a place where you can build something real.
The future belongs to those who go beyond branding and build authority.
So the real question is: Are you chasing visibility, or are you building something real?
Let me know what you think.
See you in the next issue.