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A free weekly LinkedIn newsletter

You don’t have a personal brand. You build one.

Welcome to The Brand You Build.

A free weekly newsletter helping you build greater clarity, confidence and career direction.

Join more than 11,000 career starters, professionals, founders and future leaders building the only brand they cannot outsource.

Subscribe on LinkedIn See What You’ll Receive

Free to subscribe. Published weekly. Unsubscribe at any time.

What you’ll get each week
01

Career clarity

Practical thinking without hacks, hype or generic advice.

02

Identity frameworks

Ideas that help you understand who you are and what makes you distinctive.

03

Real stories

Lessons drawn from career starters, professionals, founders and senior leaders.

04

Your move

One practical prompt you can apply immediately to your own journey.

No spam. No gurus. No shortcuts.

One useful idea. One practical move. Every week.
WHY THIS NEWSLETTER EXISTS

Most people think personal branding is about visibility.

It isn't.

It's about identity.

How you think.

How you decide.

How you consistently show up when it matters most.

FROM THE FOUNDER

I've spent more than twenty-five years helping build stories people connect with.

From Harry Potter, Disney and Marvel, to global leaders, athletes, founders and organisations, I've seen one pattern repeated over and over again.

The people who create the greatest long-term opportunities don't simply communicate better.

They understand themselves better.

Identity comes before strategy.

Your Story Is Your Strategy.
01

Identity before visibility.

Before you worry about algorithms, content or networking, understand who you are and what makes your perspective distinctive.

02

Small ideas. Long-term impact.

Every edition introduces one practical principle that compounds over time rather than chasing short-term growth hacks.

03

Built for real careers.

Whether you're just starting out or leading an organisation, the goal is exactly the same: build a reputation that lasts.

Who this is for

Built for people building with intent.

Real personal brands are not rushed.

They are built gradually through the decisions you make, the reputation you earn and the way you consistently show up.

The Brand You Build is designed to meet you wherever you are in that journey.

01

Finding direction

Career starters and graduates

Build clarity around what makes you distinctive before job titles, expectations and other people define it for you.

02

Preparing for the next step

High performers and emerging leaders

Turn experience and ability into a reputation that reflects the level of responsibility and opportunity you are ready for next.

03

Building something meaningful

Founders, creators and independents

Build trust around the ideas, perspective and story behind your work, without turning yourself into a manufactured marketing persona.

04

Looking beyond surface-level advice

Experienced professionals and leaders

Make sense of the experiences, decisions and patterns that have shaped your career, leadership and future direction.

Different careers. Different ambitions. Different stages.

The same need for greater clarity.

If you care about building a career, reputation or business with greater intention, this newsletter is for you.

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How it works

One simple rhythm. One compounding brand.

Each edition is designed to help you pause, understand one important idea and apply it to your own journey.

No endless list of tactics. No pressure to keep up with every trend. Just a clear weekly structure that turns reflection into practical progress.

01

Insight

See something differently.

Begin with one powerful idea about identity, story, career direction or the personal brand you are building.

02

Story

See the idea in real life.

Explore a real, anonymised example drawn from career starters, professionals, founders and senior leaders.

03

Your Move

Apply it to your own journey.

Finish with one clear prompt or practical action that helps you turn the idea into something personally useful.

The weekly experience
Read A useful idea
Reflect What it means for you
Act One practical move

You do not build a meaningful reputation through one breakthrough.

You build it through ideas and decisions that compound over time.
WHY LINKEDIN?

Because your career doesn't happen in isolation.

Identity is personal. Your reputation is public.

The Brand You Build lives on LinkedIn because that's where millions of professionals are already learning, connecting, sharing ideas and creating opportunities.

🌍

Learn publicly

Read alongside thousands of professionals from around the world who are all trying to build careers with greater intention.

💬

Join the conversation

Every edition creates discussion, perspectives and shared experiences that continue long after the article has been published.

🚀

Apply it immediately

Read one idea, then immediately put it into practice through your profile, conversations and the reputation you're building every day.

Growing Community

More than 11,000 subscribers.

Join career starters, professionals, founders, executives and leaders receiving a new edition every week.

Subscribe on LinkedIn

Free to subscribe. Read anywhere. Join the conversation.

Great careers aren't built alone.

Build yours alongside a community doing the same.
Build with intention

Every career tells a story.

The question is not whether you are building a personal brand.

You already are.

The real question is whether you are building it intentionally.

The Brand You Build is your weekly reminder that your future is not created in one breakthrough moment.

It is built one decision at a time.

Each edition gives you one useful idea, one real story and one practical prompt to help you understand yourself more clearly and build a reputation that reflects who you are becoming.

Subscribe to The Brand You Build
Free weekly edition 11,000+ readers Read and discuss on LinkedIn Unsubscribe at any time

You do not build a meaningful personal brand in a weekend.

But you can begin building it today.
Marc Maley, founder of My Brand Academy and creator of Identity Intelligence

Marc Maley

Founder, My Brand Academy
Creator of Identity Intelligence

The story behind the system

I spent my career helping build some of the world’s biggest stories. Now I help people make sense of their own.

For more than two decades, I have worked across entertainment, brands and leadership, helping shape stories for globally recognised franchises, organisations and people.

Again and again, I saw the same pattern.

The people with the greatest potential were not always the people who were most clearly understood.

They had experience, ability and ambition. What they often lacked was a way to interpret their story and express it with clarity.

That insight became the foundation of My Brand Academy and Identity Intelligence.

Your Story Is Your Strategy.

Identity Intelligence brings together storytelling, personal branding, professional experience and research to help people understand who they are, so they can intentionally build who they become.

Connect with Marc on LinkedIn
20+ Years building brands, stories and audience strategies
20,000+ LinkedIn followers in a growing professional community
10,000+ Professionals in The Brand You Build newsletter community