20+
Years building brands, stories and audience strategies
ABOUT MY BRAND ACADEMY
From the Box Office
to the Workplace.
For more than twenty years, I helped tell some of the world's biggest stories. From Harry Potter to Disney and Marvel, I spent my career helping audiences connect with characters, ideas and experiences that stayed with them long after the credits rolled. But over time, I realised something surprising. The principles that make fictional characters unforgettable are the very same principles that help real people discover who they are.
Every great story begins with identity. Before there is confidence, there is self-belief. Before there is influence, there is purpose. Before there is visibility, there is clarity.
That insight became the foundation of everything that followed. It inspired a new discipline, a new methodology and ultimately a new category.
Identity Intelligence.
Your Story Is Your Strategy.
Your Story Is Your Strategy.
The founder behind the system
Built with technology. Grounded in a deeply human story.
My Brand Academy is not a faceless assessment platform or an artificial intelligence system trying to define who people are.
It grew from more than two decades of work across entertainment, brands, audiences and leadership, combined with thousands of conversations about identity, reputation and the stories people struggle to explain.
Much of that conversation now happens through my LinkedIn community, where professionals from around the world share the same underlying challenge.
They often have experience, ability and ambition. What they lack is a way to interpret what those experiences mean, recognise the pattern connecting them and express their value with clarity.
That is the founder-led principle behind everything we build:
AI should help people understand and amplify their identity, not manufacture one for them.
Human experience
Your lived story provides the substance.
Identity Intelligence
The framework helps reveal the pattern.
Responsible AI
Technology helps personalise the interpretation.
The assessment data makes the system more informed.
Technology makes it more accessible and personalised.
But the purpose remains human: helping people make sense of who they are, so they can intentionally build who they become.20,000+
LinkedIn followers in a growing professional community10,000+
Professionals in The Brand You Build newsletter communityFrom character to identity
Every great character has an origin story. So does every person.
The entertainment industry has always understood something that the workplace often overlooks.
We connect with characters not simply because of what they do, but because we understand what shaped them, what they believe, what they are trying to overcome and who they are becoming.
Those are not only storytelling questions.
They are identity questions. The workplace simply gives us different settings, different pressures and different roles to play.The Yellow Brick Road principle
Most people see disconnected moments. Identity Intelligence helps them see the road.
Every experience leaves something behind.
A belief. A strength. A fear. A perspective. A lesson. A decision about who you are and how you should move through the world.
On their own, those moments can feel random. Seen together, they begin to reveal a pattern.
Experiences
Beliefs
Defining moments
Strengths
Setbacks
Perspective
Direction
The journey from experience to expression
Meaning
Make sense of what happened.
Identity
Understand what it shaped.
Story
Interpret the pattern.
Strategy
Decide what comes next.
Your Origin Blueprint™
Your story is not a list of everything that happened to you.
It is the interpretation of lived experience that gives your identity meaning and direction.
Your Origin Blueprint helps uncover the experiences, beliefs and defining moments that shaped who you are, then translates those patterns into strategic direction for who you build next.
Your past does not have to define your future.
But understanding your story gives you the clarity to shape it intentionally. That is why Your Story Is Your Strategy.Why Identity Intelligence exists
Most people are told to become more visible. Very few are helped to understand what should become visible.
The personal branding industry often begins with expression.
Improve your profile. Post more often. Build an audience. Become more confident. Find a clearer message.
Those things can matter. But they begin halfway through the journey.
The usual starting point
Begin with visibility
- What should I post?
- How should I position myself?
- How do I become more confident?
- How do I attract more attention?
The risk
Building an image before understanding the identity beneath it.
The Identity Intelligence starting point
Begin with understanding
- What experiences shaped me?
- What pattern connects my strengths?
- How do people consistently experience me?
- What am I intentionally building next?
The opportunity
Building a reputation that is aligned with who you really are.
Identity Intelligence
The discipline of helping people understand the patterns, experiences and perspectives that shape who they are, so they can intentionally build who they become.
The complete journey
Meaning
Make sense of the experiences that shaped you.
Identity
Understand the patterns that influence who you are.
Story
Interpret lived experience so it gains meaning and direction.
Strategy
Decide how that understanding should guide what comes next.
Personal Brand
Express your value in a way other people can understand.
Opportunity
Create the conditions for trust, recognition and progress.
The human need beneath the category
Personal branding may be the visible outcome. But the deeper need is meaning.
People do not only want to become better known.
They want to understand why their experiences matter, what makes them distinctive and how the different parts of their life connect.
That understanding creates something more valuable than visibility alone.
It creates direction.We do not help people invent a more marketable version of themselves.
We help them understand what is already there, then build from it intentionally. From uncertainty to understanding. From understanding to direction.What we believe
A personal brand should not make you perform. It should help you express what is already true.
Identity Intelligence is built on a small number of principles that shape every assessment, interpretation, product and experience inside My Brand Academy.
They are designed to keep the work human, practical and grounded in understanding rather than performance.
01
Identity before visibility
Understand what you are expressing before trying to amplify it.
Visibility is more powerful when it is grounded in self-understanding.
02
Story before strategy
Strategy becomes clearer when you understand the experiences and beliefs that shaped your perspective.
Your Story Is Your Strategy.
03
Clarity before confidence
Confidence is more sustainable when it grows from understanding rather than performance.
Knowing why you matter makes it easier to act with conviction.
04
Meaning before marketing
People do not only want to become better known. They want to understand why their experiences matter.
Meaning creates direction. Marketing helps communicate it.
05
Clarity without dependency
The goal is not to make people reliant on an expert, coach or platform to tell them who they are.
Good guidance should deepen understanding and support independent progress.
06
Technology in service of people
AI can make interpretation more accessible and personalised, but it should never manufacture someone’s identity.
Technology should amplify the human story, not replace it.We are not interested in helping people appear more impressive.
We are interested in helping them become more understandable. Because when people understand who they are, they can build with far greater intention.Experience behind the thinking
Built from more than twenty years of work. Strengthened by a growing global community.
Identity Intelligence did not begin as a theoretical framework.
It grew through years of helping organisations, leaders and professionals understand how stories create meaning, how brands earn trust and how people become memorable for the right reasons.
20+
Years of experience
Across entertainment, brand strategy, audience growth, storytelling and leadership.
20,000+
LinkedIn community
Professionals following Marc’s thinking on identity, story, reputation and personal brand.
10,000+
Newsletter readers
A global community learning through The Brand You Build.
60+
Countries represented
Assessment participants contributing to an increasingly global view of professional identity.
From the box office to the boardroom
The work has crossed industries. The underlying question has remained the same.
How do you help people care?
In entertainment, that meant helping audiences connect with characters, franchises and stories.
In organisations, it means helping leaders and teams understand what they stand for, how they are experienced and why their perspective matters.
Different settings. The same human need for meaning, identity and connection.Helping shape audience connection around globally recognised stories and franchises.
Helping organisations and individuals clarify what makes them distinctive and trusted.
Helping experienced professionals interpret the patterns behind how they lead and communicate.
Building founder-led communities through useful ideas rather than manufactured attention.
Experience involving recognised organisations
Disney
Marvel
Warner Bros.
TikTok
Bertelsmann
Penguin Random House
Selected examples from Marc’s wider career across entertainment, publishing, technology, leadership and brand strategy.
The work is now becoming research
Individual stories are revealing wider patterns.
Every assessment helps one person understand their own starting point. Viewed together, those results are also creating a growing body of Identity Intelligence research into clarity, confidence, visibility and professional identity.
Explore the Identity Intelligence ReportExperience gives the framework context.
Community gives it perspective. The purpose of both is to help more people understand themselves with greater clarity.Speaking and working with organisations
Helping leaders understand themselves. Helping organisations understand their people.
Identity Intelligence is not only designed for individuals.
The same principles that help one person better understand themselves can help leadership teams communicate more clearly, build stronger cultures and develop more authentic leaders.
Whether speaking on stage, facilitating workshops or designing long-term development programmes, the objective is always the same: help people make sense of who they are, so they can build who they become.
01
Keynote Speaking
Identity, story and leadership for conferences, executive events and organisational gatherings.
Thought-provoking ideas that help audiences see themselves and their work differently.
02
Leadership Workshops
Interactive sessions helping leaders understand the patterns shaping how they communicate, influence and lead.
Practical reflection that turns self-awareness into stronger leadership behaviour.
03
Identity Playbooks
Personalised development playbooks that give individuals practical clarity long after the workshop ends.
A tangible system for translating insight into sustained action.
04
LAUNCHPAD
A leadership accelerator developed with Grace Andrews, combining learning, coaching and long-term behavioural change.
A structured journey for leaders ready to grow with greater intention.
05
Executive Advisory
Direct work with founders and senior leaders on identity, communication, reputation and strategic positioning.
A confidential thinking partnership for moments that require clarity.
06
Organisational Identity
Helping organisations create cultures where individual identity strengthens collective performance.
Stronger alignment between how people understand themselves and how the organisation wants to grow.The organisational opportunity
Great organisations do not only develop capability. They develop identity.
01
People communicate more clearly.
02
Teams collaborate more naturally.
03
Leaders act with greater confidence.
04
Culture becomes easier to understand and trust.
The goal is not to help people perform a stronger version of leadership.
It is to help them lead from a deeper understanding of who they are. When people understand themselves, organisations become places where they do not simply perform. They belong.Explore the organisational journey
Bring Identity Intelligence into your organisation.
Discover how speaking, workshops, leadership programmes and personalised playbooks can support your people.
Continue your journey
Wherever you are starting from, the first step is understanding.
You do not need to become someone else to build a stronger personal brand.
You need a clearer understanding of who you are, what shaped you and what you want to build next.
Start here
Personal Brand Archetype Assessment™
Discover your starting point.
Understand the recurring pattern shaping how your personal brand is currently perceived, trusted and remembered.
Discover Your Archetype
Explore the thinking
Identity Intelligence Research
Explore what we are learning.
Discover the emerging patterns being revealed through thousands of assessment journeys across more than 60 countries.
Read the Identity Intelligence Report
Keep building
The Brand You Build
Continue the journey each week.
Ideas, frameworks and practical reflections on identity, story, personal brand and the reputation you are building.
Explore the NewsletterThe Identity Intelligence journey
01
Discover who you are.
02
Understand what it means.
03
Discover your story.
04
Build your reputation.
Begin with one useful question
How are you currently experienced by other people?
Your answer begins with a clearer understanding of the pattern beneath your personal brand.
Free personalised result. Around three minutes. No credit card required.
START THE CONVERSATION
Every meaningful brand begins with a conversation.
Whether you have a question about Identity Intelligence, workshops, keynote speaking, Launchpad, partnerships, or simply want to say hello, we'd love to hear from you.
Complete the form below and we’ll respond personally, usually within one to two business days.