How to Stand Out Without Selling Your Soul
The Antidote to Personal Branding
Earlier this year, Canva went viral for all the wrong reasons. Headlines like 'peak cringe' flooded the internet after their executive team performed a rap song to unveil new software features.
All I could think was, 'God no, please make it stop' and ‘who the f*ck advised them this was a good idea?!’
As an ex-corporate girlie myself, I've been there. As an executive team member, I was forced into cringe-adjacent activities—like delivering staged jokes or presenting financial plans as if I was revealing unicorns were real when really I was just announcing a 20% increase in sales targets.
No one was buying it. Including me.
Here's the thing—while working for a brand, I could separate myself from these moments. It was part of my role, not necessarily me. But when you're building a personal brand, everything is YOU. Your actions, posts, videos, everything becomes a direct reflection of who you are.
This realisation crippled me. It stopped me from being visible online and showing people who I was and what I stood for. The thought of strangers on the internet judging me was paralysing.
And then there's the other end of the spectrum: the professional personal branders who everyone simultaneously hates and hangs on to their every word. You know the ones—their social media is full of "let’s normailse working 20hrs a day cause we love it" (Hormozi, I’m looking at you) and humble brags about "what I learned building my 7-figure business in 4 months while working from Bali." If this makes you want to shut down, crawl into a corner, and never post online again, trust me—you're not alone.
But here's the reality: In today's professional world, having no presence is itself a statement—and often not a helpful one.
Over the last 4 years of building my own personal brand, I've discovered an approach that doesn't require you to become everything you hate about social media.
I call it The Anti-Brand, Brand.
In this article, I'll share the key elements of The Anti-Brand Brand and practical anti-branding techniques that (I hope) will help you feel more comfortable showing up as yourself online, minus the cringe factor.
Here are the strategies I used to develop a genuine, integrity-based online presence:
1. Document, Don't Perform
In the corporate world, you're taught to polish turds no matter how bad they look (and smell). Didn't hit the revenue numbers? Simple—just slash every cent from the expense line so next quarter looks like you've smashed it.
Being 'performative' in a business context was in my blood. However, when building a personal brand, this becomes an undesirable and unlikeable characteristic. So instead of crafting a perfectly curated narrative, I began to document my journey in real-time—including the stuff that wasn't working (and there was a lot that didn’t work).
Take the early days of the twofeetin newsletter (my first online newsletter launched in January 2020). I wrote openly about my struggle to find a job that 'lit me up' and shared how I was using different personal development tools to unpack why I felt so unhappy in my corporate career. There wasn't a perfectly neat bow at the end of each week—just an honest exploration of where I was at.
To my surprise, people deeply resonated with this approach. I started receiving emails saying things like "I feel like you are in my head and we are living parallel lives."
Try this:
Share genuine challenges you're wrestling with
Ask real questions you're exploring
Discuss failures and what you've learned
Write about challenges you haven't solved yet
2. Be the Guide, Not the Hero
As you ascend the corporate ladder, you don't necessarily become smarter—but you start to believe your own bullshit. Because you're so far up this fictional ladder, you must be kind of special, right?
Unfortunately, not only are you not special, but you can come off as annoying if you position yourself as someone who's 'been there, done that'. So rather than positioning myself as the expert who has it all figured out, I chose honesty. I admitted when I didn't know the answers and referred my followers to people who knew far more than me on various topics.
One of the principles I use when writing articles or sharing on social media platforms is to ask myself: "Am I delivering value to the person on the other side of the screen?" I try not to reinvent the wheel if there's already great content out there, and I love sharing work from others in my field who offer alternative perspectives. This approach has led to numerous work opportunities and dream collaborations.
Try this:
Share useful resources you discover
Highlight others doing interesting work
Ask thoughtful questions that spark discussion
Admit when you don't know something
3. Focus on Curiosities, Not Achievements
Ever notice how some people's feeds are just an endless parade of achievements? Post after post about their wins, successes, and milestones? I don't know about you, but my skepticism starts to kick in. Are they paying for this attention? Is this another multi-level marketing scheme in disguise?
Don't get me wrong—I love celebrating people's genuine wins. But when success stories are all someone serves up, it becomes both boring and distasteful. This rings especially true when you factor in cultural differences, which I learned the hard way.
Picture this: I'm an Aussie working for an American PE firm based in the UK, primarily dealing with Nordic countries. (Yes, it was as complicated as it sounds)
My American boss consistently pushed me to promote our achievements loudly in the UK marketplace—a notably conservative business culture. There I was, an Australian (tall poppy syndrome already on high alert!) trying to sell these mediocre 'achievements' to an audience that valued understatement. As you might guess, our messages landed about as well as Katy Perry’s ‘Woman’s World’ Anthem. We were completely missing the mark on cultural communication needs.
This experience became an important moment for my personal branding. If I found the constant achievement broadcasting exhausting and ineffective, others probably did too. So instead of trying to be interesting, I focused on being interested. I shifted from showcasing achievements to sharing curiosities, and that's when things got exciting.
This new approach led me down an unexpected path of exploring the connection between Inner Development and Career Transition—a journey that eventually birthed The Portfolio Career Club. By following my genuine curiosities rather than chasing impressive milestones, I stumbled upon something far more meaningful.
Try this:
Write about what fascinates you
Share your learning process
Explore ideas publicly
Connect dots between different fields you're studying
4. Build in Public (Messily)
You know that classic tech start-up anthem "move fast and break things"? Yes, it makes me cringe too—it's peak 2015 tech bro hustle culture. But beneath all the ping pong tables, free drinks, over-inflated valuations, and black t-shirts, there's actually some wisdom there.
When I first started this journey, I was still operating in corporate mode. You know the drill: those late nights at the office aren't because of some exciting deal—they're because your boss has the whole team perfecting a PowerPoint deck for the executive team. Every bullet point polished. Every transition seamless. Everything perfect.
I carried this perfectionist mindset into my personal brand initially. I thought I needed my story to be flawlessly crafted before sharing it with the world. But here's what I discovered: if I'd waited for 'perfect', I'd still be waiting.
What really surprised me was the content that resonated most wasn't my polished pieces—it was the honest stories about things that hadn't worked out. The hard moments. The failures. The lessons learned. There's something deeply human about being served a humble pie and then writing about that experience while you're still tasting it.
It turns out that sharing your journey—messy bits and all—creates far more genuine connections than any perfectly crafted narrative ever could.
Try this:
Share your work in progress (rough edges and all)
Document your revision process openly
Show people the messy middle of projects
Invite feedback and actually engage with it
Let others learn from your mistakes in real-time
Putting The Anti-Brand, Brand Into Practice
Building a genuine online presence in a world of "crushing it" posts and performative LinkedIn essays feels like swimming upstream. But that's exactly why an authentic voice cuts through the noise.
Voicenote with Jules: Bullsh*t-Free Principles to Live By When Building Your Personal Brand
The Anti Brand, Brand Approach [4:48]
Bullsh*t Free Personal Brand Principles to Live by [10:32]
The 3:1 Rule
The "Would I Care?" Check
The Dinner Party Filter
The Future You Test
Just Start (Please) [13:53]
Pick ONE platform (you don't need to be everywhere)
Show up weekly (consistency beats perfection)
Share what you're actually learning/struggling with RIGHT NOW
Talk to people like they're, you know, people
Final Thoughts
That knot in your stomach about traditional personal branding? It's not anxiety—it's your BS detector working perfectly. Listen to it.
And if you are looking for support to help build your own anti-brand, brand here are some ways to work together:
Find out more about my one of kind Club for women looking to launch their Portfolio Career in 2025, The Portfolio Career Club - find out more here
Access your FREE 64-page guide on How to Kickstart Your Portfolio Career using Human Design
Get your Hyper-Personalised Human Design Career Insights Report: Personalised analysis revealing your innate work style and leadership potential, blending Human Design with strategic frameworks
Check out my Portfolio Career Mentorship: Corporately-honed, consciously-led portfolio career mentorship for visionary women
This is so good, thank you
Another incredibly useful and helpful post! Thanks Jules! I particularly love your point about curiosities — and the reminder that no brand is a brand too.