This Isn't About Personal Branding. It's About Power.
Why I give a shit about helping women (and the overlooked) be seen, heard, and paid.
Let me be clear about something.
I'm not here because personal branding is trendy.
I don't follow trends.
I wear sequins and bright colours any time of year, which should tell you everything you need to know about my relationship with what's "appropriate" for a woman over 50.
If I had one departing gift to leave the world, I hope it's that I broke a load of rules and rewrote a few while I was at it.
So no. I'm not jumping on a bandwagon to give you a few tips because I think it's lols.
I'm here because I'm bloody angry.
In case anyone hadn't noticed, the world is most definitely run, overrun, corrupted, and destroyed by people who are self-serving, fake, dangerous, and disinterested in humanity.
The kind of people who'd sell their grandmother for a board seat and then write a LinkedIn post about "lessons learned in leadership."
And the ones with actual talent?
The ones with creativity, kindness, stories, wisdom, gifts they genuinely want to share?
The ones who recognise that with several billion people on this planet there's an abundance of space for all of us?
They've been forced into the shadows.
Through life circumstance. Through upbringing. Through environments that told them to stay small. They might be terrified to step out and be seen for who they actually are.
I see you.
The ones fed up of being ignored. Passed by. Refused. Gaslit. Diminished. Questioned. Ridiculed. Because you don't look or sound or come from the same background as those deemed to have power and influence and authority.
That's why I care about building personal brands.
This isn't new for me.
For at least the last 20 years of my career, I've cared passionately about supporting women and anyone from a group that's been underestimated or overlooked.
When I was at Google, I was inspired by the Geena Davis Institute, who showed how representation of women in films and media has such a huge and significant detrimental impact on how women see themselves in society. How it gives permission to misogyny and abuse of power. (Spoiler: it's not great when every female character's main line is "What do we do now?" while the building burns down.)
I also saw how democratisation of technology and tools could help so many people achieve not just their potential, but create opportunities for their entire communities.
That's why when I left Google I wanted to double down on this mission.
To help women be seen, heard, considered, appreciated and valued (with money not just words).
To give them space to learn, to stumble, to experiment without being put on some kind of failure list.
If we can't recognise the desperate need to shift the power balance, the narrative, the focus...
If we can't hand the pen, the mic, the camera to others...
If we can't see the beauty of our world and humanity in the richness of its nuance...
Then we're failing each other and generations to come.
That's why I give a shit about this.
That's why I co-founded HERA Media.
The UK's first female-led and focused video podcast network.
If video podcasts are proven to be one of the most influential media in the world, growing in influence and reach every day, then we need to make sure there are more than just a few voices and companies creating those stories.
We need to hand the mic, the pen, the video camera to more people. So we can see things through different perspectives. Learn from different experiences. Choose who we want to follow because we were given a choice, not forced into blindly following one or two blokes called Dave with a podcast about "the rest is what’s left of the future of everything."
That's why I created Glittersphere.
A community where women can safely practise being unmissable. Where they can build their personal brand, learn, and support each other to become more visible.
It takes time, courage, support, and education to do that. I'm refining it right now and excited to share more in the weeks to come.
That's why I've embraced being a content creator.
Terrifyingly, at times.
Making videos. Writing stories. Creating content to hopefully help others. Even when it feels like pure tumbleweed and nobody's taking notice.
I won't stop.
I know things take time to build. There's lots to learn. But I can't ask other people to do what I'm not prepared to do and try myself.
That's why I created Unmissable.
Because I wanted to find a way to advise leaders and founders to build unmissable brands to ensure they succeed. Because I want success to be defined by so many more people than it is today.
We know, since the beginning of time, that when equality becomes reality, things change.
Here's what I want.
I want a world that looks more like Bad Bunny's halftime show. The joy. The love. That energy, exhibited every single day.
I don't want the likes of leaders stripping our rights to flexible working. I don't want AI designed to denigrate children and women. I don't want domestic violence numbers that continuing to worsen each year.
I don't want women living in fear that things are changing for the worse.
I want to do my bit to help powerful voices, stories, and people that, I believe, should at least be given the opportunity to be seen, heard, and paid for their experience and knowledge.
Just to create a more even landscape for opportunity.
We change the world by each doing a little bit of what we can.
There are days when it feels like I'm whistling into the wind.
But I won't stop. I'll keep trying and pushing.
One more thing. And this bit matters.
There's nothing more vulnerable or scary than putting your creativity out into the world.
Whether it's a friend launching a YouTube channel, writing a book, posting here, creating an event, hosting a dinner, whatever it is. I actively choose to cheerlead and support. Because it takes so much effort and guts to do stuff like that.
And there's no point being more visible if nobody notices.
I know there are a lot of lurkers out there. I get it. But if you can, I think it's really important to show support for each other. I do it through comments, through shares, through showing up. This isn't about liking everything everyone makes. You probably don't. There are times you might not even agree with what others create.
But I always turn up and show support.
I'd like to think there's still a bit of headroom for growth in the support for some of my endeavours. I have 21,000 followers on LinkedIn (thank you, genuinely), but only 200-something on YouTube and 100+ here on Substack.
There's definitely room to grow.
And if there's something you're doing that you'd like me to follow and support, please let me know. I will very happily do so.
One final thing: to every single one of those fabulous people who have messaged me or DMed me with no expectation of anything in return, just to say they appreciate or support what I do and cheer me on.
I cannot tell you how important that is. How much it means to me. It really, really does.
Be kind. Be supportive. Because building a personal brand, being unmissable, can feel like a very solo endeavour.
It doesn't have to be.
Find your tribe. Find others to support you. And most importantly, share a bit of love for each other.
So here's my ask.
Please check out what I'm trying to share and do. If not for you, then for someone else who might be helped by it.
I've put up another video on YouTube, this time about busting some myths around personal brand. Because when things become a trend, they're open to abuse and advice that's not necessarily spot on.
I want to keep busting those myths while nudging people in a direction that might actually help them.
👉 Watch the myth-busting video on YouTube here…
And if you're reading this on Substack, thank you. Genuinely. You're one of the 100-something humans who've found your way here, and I don't take that for granted.
If you found this useful, share it with someone who needs to hear it.
This is just the beginning. Every week, I share the unfiltered truth about reinvention, visibility, and building careers that actually matter. If you're done being invisible, and ready to be UNMISSABLE - you're in the right place.
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