Last month I was on a call with a restoration company owner who's been in business for 22 years. Great reputation. Solid referral network. The kind of guy who built his business on handshakes and doing good work.
He called me because something weird was happening. His phone had gone quiet. Not dead, but noticeably slower. The referrals that used to flow like clockwork were trickling in. And when he asked new customers how they found him, the answer wasn't "my neighbor recommended you" anymore.
It was "I asked ChatGPT for water damage companies in my area."
He laughed nervously when he told me this. "I don't even know what ChatGPT is, really. But apparently it knows who I'm not."
Here's what I told him, and what I'm telling you right now: The game has changed. Not a little. Fundamentally. And the businesses that figure this out in the next 18 months are going to dominate their markets for the next decade. The ones that don't are going to wonder what happened.
This isn't about becoming an influencer. It's not about dancing on TikTok or posting motivational quotes. This is about understanding how people find businesses now, and how they're going to find them in the future. And whether you're running a restoration company, selling real estate, leading a corporation, or building any kind of business, the answer is the same.
Your personal brand isn't a nice-to-have anymore. It's the foundation everything else gets built on.
The Visibility Shift Nobody Saw Coming
For twenty years, the formula was simple. Build a website. Get it ranked on Google. Maybe run some ads. Collect leads. Close deals. Repeat.
That formula worked because Google was the gatekeeper. If you showed up on page one, you got the call. If you didn't, you might as well not exist. So businesses optimized for Google. They played the SEO game. They built their entire digital presence around showing up in search results.
But something started shifting around 2023. People stopped going to Google first. Not entirely, but enough to matter. They started asking AI assistants for recommendations. They started trusting ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and a dozen other tools to curate information for them.
And here's what matters about that shift: These AI systems don't rank websites the way Google does. They don't care about your domain authority or your backlink profile. They synthesize information from across the entire internet and surface what they believe is most relevant, most trustworthy, and most associated with expertise on a given topic.
You know what they're really good at finding? People. Specific people with specific expertise who have built a body of work that the AI can reference and cite.
A study from SparkToro found that 60% of Google searches now end without a click. People get their answer right in the search results or from an AI summary. They never visit your website. They never see your fancy landing page or your testimonial carousel.
But they do see names. They see people who have positioned themselves as authorities. They see personal brands.
Why Your Company Name Isn't Enough Anymore
Let me tell you about two real estate agents I know. Both work the same market. Both have been in the business about the same amount of time. Both are genuinely good at what they do.
Agent A has a company page with his brokerage. He posts listing updates occasionally. He's got a website that looks like every other real estate website you've ever seen. Professional headshot. "Dedicated to helping you find your dream home." You know the type.
Agent B posts three times a week on LinkedIn about the realities of the housing market. She shares stories about deals that almost fell apart and how she saved them. She gives her honest opinion on interest rate predictions. She calls out bad advice she sees other agents giving. She's built a newsletter with 4,000 subscribers who hear from her every Tuesday.
Guess which one ChatGPT mentions when someone asks for real estate expertise in their area?
It's not even close. Agent B shows up in AI responses because she's created a body of work that AI systems can reference. She's become a cited source, not just another face on a billboard.
This is the shift. Company brands are becoming invisible while personal brands are becoming the primary way AI systems identify expertise and trustworthiness.
Think about how you use AI tools yourself. When you ask for advice on something, do you want the generic company response or do you want to hear from someone who clearly knows what they're talking about? The AI is reflecting what we all actually want. Expertise from real humans, not faceless corporations.
The SEO Game Just Got Personal
Here's something that should make you uncomfortable if you've been ignoring personal branding: Google itself is changing to prioritize personal expertise.
Their E-E-A-T guidelines (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) now explicitly value content from identifiable experts with demonstrable experience. The days of ranking purely on technical SEO are fading. Google wants to know who wrote the content and whether that person actually knows what they're talking about.
This means the restoration company owner with 22 years of experience has a massive advantage. But only if he packages that experience into content that demonstrates it. Only if his name becomes associated with water damage expertise, not just his company name.
I worked with a contractor last year who was skeptical about this whole personal branding thing. "I'm not a personality," he told me. "I'm just good at what I do."
We started simple. I had him write one article per month about problems he'd solved. Real jobs. Real challenges. What he found, how he fixed it, what homeowners should know. Nothing fancy. Just his actual expertise captured in content.
Eight months later, his articles were ranking above his competitors' entire websites. His name was showing up in Google's "People Also Ask" sections. And when people in his area asked AI assistants about foundation repair, his name started appearing in responses.
He didn't become an influencer. He became visible. There's a huge difference.
The Future Belongs to People, Not Logos
Let me paint you a picture of where this is heading.
Within the next three years, most people's first interaction with your business is going to be through an AI intermediary. They'll ask their smart speaker for a recommendation. They'll have their AI assistant research options for them. They'll trust an algorithm to filter thousands of options down to a handful.
These AI systems are getting better at understanding authority and expertise. They're learning to identify who the real experts are versus who's just good at gaming the system. And they do this by analyzing the totality of someone's online presence.
Do you have content that demonstrates real expertise? Have other credible sources cited you or referenced your work? Is your name consistently associated with specific topics? Can the AI trace a pattern of genuine contribution to your field?
This is why personal branding isn't optional. It's not about ego or becoming famous. It's about being findable in a world where AI systems are increasingly deciding who gets found.
The executives who build personal brands now are positioning themselves for board opportunities, speaking engagements, and thought leadership positions that will define careers. The business owners who build personal brands now are creating an asset that follows them regardless of which company they're running. The professionals who build personal brands now are future-proofing their relevance in industries that AI is about to reshape.
The Trust Transfer Effect
Here's something I've watched play out dozens of times, across every industry you can imagine.
When a business owner builds a strong personal brand, something interesting happens to their company. The trust people have in the person transfers to the business. It's almost like the personal brand becomes a guarantee of quality.
I saw this with a high-end home builder I worked with. For years, his company was just another name competing against a dozen other builders in his market. Good work, good reputation among past clients, but no real differentiation to new prospects.
He started sharing his process. The decisions he makes. Why he chooses certain materials over others. The problems he sees other builders create. Real opinions, real expertise, real personality.
Within a year, his company went from competing on price to having a waitlist. Not because the quality of his work changed. Because people trusted him specifically, and that trust transferred to trusting his company to do right by them.
This is the part that executives and business owners miss. They think personal branding is separate from business development. It's not. Your personal brand is your most powerful business development tool. It's the thing that makes people want to work with you before they even talk to you.
Every Industry Needs This
I want to address the objection I hear constantly: "That might work for coaches and consultants, but my industry is different."
No, it's not.
I've seen this work for restoration companies whose owners share behind-the-scenes content of real jobs. For real estate agents who give honest market takes instead of generic cheerleading. For manufacturing executives who explain supply chain challenges in ways that position them as industry authorities. For lawyers who break down complex cases and help people understand their rights. For healthcare professionals who educate without being preachy.
Every industry has expertise that can be shared. Every industry has audiences looking for guidance. Every industry has room for someone to step up and become the known authority.
The only question is whether that authority is going to be you or your competitor.
And here's the thing about timing. The people who build personal brands now, while most of their industry is still ignoring this, will have an insurmountable head start. It's much harder to become the recognized expert in your field when five other people already hold that position. First mover advantage is real.
The Compounding Nature of Personal Brands
This is the part that gets me genuinely excited when I talk to clients about personal branding.
Unlike paid advertising, which stops working the moment you stop paying, a personal brand compounds over time. Every piece of content you create is an asset that continues working for you. Every connection you make builds on the ones before. Every mention of your name in AI responses makes it more likely you'll be mentioned again.
I have blog articles I wrote three years ago that still drive consultations today. I have LinkedIn posts from 2022 that people still reference when they reach out. This content doesn't expire. It accumulates.
When you think about ROI, nothing beats an asset that keeps paying dividends without ongoing investment. That's what a personal brand is. It's an asset you build once and benefit from forever.
But here's the catch. It takes time to build. You can't sprint your way to a strong personal brand. You have to be consistent. You have to show up week after week, month after month. You have to let the compound effect work.
Which is exactly why starting now matters more than starting perfectly. The people who are going to dominate visibility in the AI age are the ones who started building two years ago. Or the ones who start today. Not the ones who wait until it feels urgent.
Practical Steps That Actually Work
Let me give you something you can actually use.
Building a personal brand doesn't require becoming a content machine. It doesn't require being on every platform or posting five times a day. It requires consistency and authenticity in one place, done well.
Pick one platform. For most business owners and executives, LinkedIn makes the most sense. It's where business decisions happen, where professional trust is built, and where AI systems are actively scraping for expertise signals.
Post three times per week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Short, valuable content. Share what you know. Tell stories from your actual work. Give opinions on things happening in your industry. Engage with others in your space.
Write one longer piece per month. This is your cornerstone content. Something that demonstrates deep expertise. Something AI systems can cite. Something that separates you from people just posting surface-level takes.
Do this for twelve months. That's it. Twelve months of consistency and you'll have built something most of your competitors will never have. A body of work that positions you as an authority in your space.
The mistake people make is thinking they need a fancy strategy or perfect content. You don't. You need consistency and authenticity. Everything else is just optimization.
The Real Risk Is Doing Nothing
I want to close with this thought, because I think it's the most important one.
The risk of building a personal brand is basically zero. You might put out some content that doesn't perform well. You might feel uncomfortable being visible for a while. You might have to learn some new skills.
The risk of not building one is existential.
If the trends I'm seeing continue, and every signal suggests they will, businesses without strong personal brands attached to them are going to become invisible. They're going to wonder why their phone stopped ringing. They're going to watch competitors with half their experience dominate their market.
The restoration company owner I mentioned at the start? We've been working together for four months now. He's posting consistently. He's sharing his expertise. He's becoming known in his area not just as a great contractor, but as the authority on water damage restoration.
His phone is ringing again. But more importantly, the nature of those calls has changed. People aren't just looking for a quote anymore. They're specifically looking for him. They asked an AI assistant who the expert was, and his name came up.
That's the future. The question is whether your name will come up too.
Ready to build a personal brand that actually drives business results? Let's talk about what that looks like for your specific situation. Book a call by emailing me direct at sean@tierlevel.com
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