There are only a few ways to get clients in 2025:

1. You can cold email them (and get ignored).

2. You can run paid ads (and bleed margin).

3. You can hope for referrals (and play the waiting game).

Or…

4. You can build a personal brand that attracts the right people to you.

This last one is the only path that gives you leverage and longevity.

The problem is most business owners are still sleeping on this method and don’t treat it like a real acquisition channel.

They treat it like an experiment.

They dabble…They copy other people’s voices…They post a few tweets and wonder why nothing’s working.

I won’t lie to you personal branding is a long game because it’s the only one that compounds overtime.

Like Warren Buffett once said about money:

“The key to building wealth is earning while you sleep.”

Personal branding is the same. It earns you trust while you sleep. So the main thing you need to learn is HOW TO BUILD THAT TRUST.

Jeff Bezos famously said:

“Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room.”

If you haven’t consciously built that narrative, the market is guessing who you are. And if you’re a founder, that means missed leads, poor positioning, and lost revenue.

The good news?

There is a system for doing this right.

We’ve tested it across 30+ high-level personal brands and we’ve learned that 4 personal branding archetypes work:

1. The Newsman. This is the person who’s always ahead of the trend. People check his page like they check TechCrunch. He adds opinion and insight with every update.

   Founders forward his tweets to their teams.

2. The Cool Contrarian. This is the person who doesn’t follow templates. His tone is sharp.

   His takes are bold. And because he’s built something before, people listen. He grows fastest when big names engage with him.

3. The Builder in Public. This is the founder showing the behind-the-scenes of building something real and isn’t afraid to show the process. This archetype builds trust faster than any other. People root for him.

4. The Flexor. This is the flashy, brash, and loud. It works, but only if you’ve done something impressive. And the cost for this one is your long-term reputation.

So which one should you pick?

It depends on your stage.

• Early-stage founder? The Builder gets attention and credibility.

• Scaling founder? The Newsman or Cool Contrarian increases perceived value fast.

• Selling to Gen Z or mass market? The Flexor can work, but it’s not for most.

But the pièce de résistance is to pick one that aligns with your truth.

Because personal brands only work when they’re personal. And once you pick your angle, consistency becomes the goal so you are visible repeatedly, strategically, and with clear positioning.

Psychologists have explained authority bias for years, which says we believe those who appear credible.

This means that trust is signaled through:

• Testimonials

• Visual credibility (logos, assets, design)

• Proof of work

• Clarity of message

• Consistency of presence

All of it stacks. All of it compounds.

The more someone sees your name attached to signal-rich content, the more their brain shortcuts to one conclusion:

“This person is legit.”

That’s how signal detection theory works where our brains are wired to make fast judgments with little information. It’s a survival mechanism but it can also be used in business as a leverage machine.

The founders who scale with ease don’t architect belief of themselves in their audience.

And once the market believes in you? That’s when all your goals are one post away from being hit.

Talk soon,

Wiz

P.S. If you’re ready to build a brand people trust before they ever hop on a call with you, I’ve got two options:

→ Utopia: Our DIY system where I give you all the frameworks and playbooks

→ Mogul Media: Our DFY agency where we do it for you, start to finish

Just reply to this email and I’ll point you in the right direction.