What does personal branding actually mean in 2026? And more importantly, why are so many brands suddenly investing in it?

That was the focus of the latest Power to the People LinkedIn Live, where Katie Street was joined by Ash Jones, founder of Great Influence, whose work spans leaders and brands including Steven Bartlett, Gary Neville and Booking.com.

The session moved beyond surface-level advice and into a more honest conversation about what personal branding really looks like today, how it’s evolving inside organisations, and why it’s becoming one of the most important levers in modern marketing.

It’s not about being famous anymore

One of the biggest shifts we talked about is this:

Personal branding used to feel like it was about going viral, building an audience, becoming “known”.

That’s not the game anymore. Now, it’s about being useful.

Ash put it really simply: we’re moving away from trying to be famous, and towards trying to actually help people. And in a world where everyone’s posting (and a lot of it is AI-generated noise), that shift matters even more.

Because the people who win are the ones who are actually saying something worth listening to.

Why this matters (especially in B2B)

Let’s be honest: most B2B marketing still hides behind the brand.

But buyers don’t trust brands in the same way anymore. They trust people.

When you’re making a big decision - spending serious budget, putting your reputation on the line - you’re not going to rely on a polished PDF or a generic campaign. You’re going to look for signals from real people.

That’s where personal branding comes in. It’s not replacing brand marketing, but it is making it far more credible.

The shift happening right now

For a long time, this space was dominated by founders and CEOs. They were the “face” of the business. The ones posting, speaking, building visibility.

What’s changing now is the scale.

We’re seeing a real move towards employee-led content - not just leadership, but people across the business showing up, sharing perspectives, building their own presence.

And here’s the interesting part: a lot of big brands are already investing in this.

They’re just not talking about it yet.

Give it 12–18 months and we’ll start seeing the case studies, the conference talks, the “this worked” posts. 

Why most people overcomplicate it

This is where people get stuck. They think they need a strategy, a content plan, a full rebrand of themselves before they even start.

But actually, the simplest way to think about it is this:

You’re just building your own marketing channel. That’s it.

You’re showing up, sharing what you know, contributing to conversations and doing it consistently enough that people start to recognise you for something.

Consistency is key here.

Where to start

Ash broke it down into three questions, which honestly is all most people need:

• Who do I want to be known as?
• Why does that matter (what’s the outcome)?
• Who do I actually need to reach?

If you can answer those, you’re already ahead of most people.

Because from there, your content becomes a lot clearer. You’re not posting for the sake of it, you’re posting with a purpose.

Content right now is… a mess

They also talked about the state of content, especially on LinkedIn.

There’s a lot of it and a lot of it sounds exactly the same.

You can spot AI-written posts instantly. You can feel when something isn’t real.

Which actually creates a massive opportunity.

Because if you show up as yourself - in your own voice, with your own perspective - you stand out straight away.

The bar is “does this actually sound like a human?”

Scaling it without losing yourself

At some point, especially if you’re busy, you’ll need help.

That might be a team member, an agency or someone supporting on content.

But the key thing we talked about here is: you can’t outsource the thinking.

You can get help shaping ideas, turning conversations into content, editing, distributing.

But the perspective, the opinion, the actual substance, that has to come from you.

That’s the bit people connect with.

The real opportunity: your people

Probably the biggest opportunity right now sits with employee advocacy.

Not in a forced, “everyone post this company message” kind of way.

But in a genuine, people-first way.

When employees understand how building their own presence benefits them - their career, their network, their opportunities - they’re far more likely to engage.

And when that happens, the impact for the business is huge.

The takeaway

If there’s one thing to take from all of this, it’s this: Don’t overthink it.

You don’t need a perfect plan. You don’t need to “launch” a personal brand.

You just need to start showing up!

Share what you know. Talk about what you’re learning. Be useful. Be human.

And keep going.

Because this is a long game but it’s one that compounds in a way very few other channels do.

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