How did you first get into branding, and why?

I got into personal branding totally organically - I suppose it all started from when I was much younger. I've always been an entrepreneur, and so branding and marketing go hand in hand with that I think. I was the kid at school selling lemonade, or charge my parents 20p for a hand massage. I sold brownies to stoners at university because I saw a 'gap' int the market. I've always been looking for ways to make money and grow my income and knowledge. 

As an adult I ran my own business at 21 one and then work in other businesses helping build and run their marketing, and so after years of doing it for brands I started to realise that people had such a bigger impact on customers than faceless logos did. It was much easier to trigger that emotional reaction ever marketer is looking for when it's a person telling their story - not a business. So I suppose Klowt - my agency, came about really organically because I saw how the market was going and what was happening with influencers and decided there was an opportunity for founders and leaders to position themselves as thought leaders.

I started sharing my views online, offering advice on marketing & very quickly my personal profile on LinkedIn began to grow. Then people started asking me for advice as to how they could grow their personal brand, so instead of replying to them directly, I just started sharing content about that. It wasn't long before I realised this was a business. 

How did you find starting a business, what were some of the biggest challenges?

I had no plan B. No safety net. I just went for it. It's not for everyone, but for me having a plan b would have always stunted my potential because it gives you something to fall back on. So getting the courage to go for it was a challenge.

I guess some of the other challenges I've had have been around how to scale essentially what is in my head. How can you hire people who get your vision? Have the right skill set? Understand what personal branding is and not only that want to help me and Klowt completely own the space? It's a challenge almost all business owners will relate to - it's about how and who you hire in order to elevate your business, add skills you don't have and ultimately take you to the next level. It's really hard to let go of control, but it's essential if you want to win.

How did you find the determination to start again, sometimes when it doesn’t work?

I have a very simple outlook on life - there is almost nothing you can do that you can't come back from. I can recover from a failed business. I can recover from a bad credit score, or a speaking gig that I messed up. I can't recover from sitting on my death bed and thinking "Damn, I wish I had done that thing."

Tell me a little more about Klowt - what is the vision and goal?

I quit my safe, cushy, salaried job in the middle of lockdown number 2 with £1400 in my bank, a mortgage due in 14 days and absolutely no plan b. But I did it because I believed unequivocally that personal branding has a) what I was meant to do and b) was a really exciting and disruptive way to market. Klowt was born out of my own problem - knowing where to start, what to say, how to say things online. I think some of the best businesses in the world are the ones that started by solving their founder's problem. 

Our vision is pretty simple - we want to be the business that builds the profiles of the next Elon Musks, the next Sara Blakley's, the next Steven Bartletts and Dom McGregors. We want to be the business the takes someone's story, journey, career and life's work and blows them up on every single channel; LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, traditional press, speaking gigs, podcasts etc. 

 You know how when you think of 'phone' you think if Apple or if you think of 'soda' you think of Coke? I want people to think of Klowt when they think of 'personal branding' - We have a lot of work to do but I am so fucking confident we'll do it. 

Why do you think personal branding is so important?

I like to think of personal branding and company branding like the forehand and backhand of an amazing tennis player. If you have one, chances are you're a good player - a solid player. But if you have both, you're almost unbeatable against those that don't. 

People buy from people - they always have. But now we can sell to them at scale through founders' personal brands. And it's probably worth noting individuals have 10x the reach of a company brand online. What a waste not to leverage that kind of opportunity. 

Why is personal branding misunderstood and why does it get a bad rap?

People thing personal branding is all about your ego. It's actually the total opposite - you have to be pretty humble to be able to share your opinion online and be willing to have people disagree with you publically. Personal branding is not an ego-driven activity, it's a strategic marketing imperative. Bill Gates has more followers than Microsoft. Elon Musk has more followers than Tesla. Sara Blakely has more followers than Spanx. Founders are brands too. 

What are some of the most common mistakes you see when it comes to personal branding?

The most common (and annoying) thing I see is people too afraid to have an opinion. There is nothing worse than vanilla opinions - make me laugh, make me cry, make me mad but for god sake don't bore me. At the end of the day, you could do and say everything perfectly - you could do and say nothing at all. But there will be someone in the world who doesn't like how you did and said nothing, so you may as well have an opinion. Because people are going to have one of you whether you have one or not. 

I think another thing is inauthenticity. I know it's a gross marketing buzzword, but you can sniff out fake a mile off on social media. And it's ugly in every format it comes in. 

You started this business in the middle of a pandemic - how was that for you? 

Launching Klowt in the middle of the pandemic was the best thing I ever did. Like I said earlier, I've always been an entrepreneur. It's always been my path, but I feel like with Klowt I've found my thing. Has it been scary? Yes. Has it been challenging? Yes? Have I pulled all-nighters, worked harder than I've ever worked and cried when shit's gone wrong? Hell yes. But would I change anything? Absolutely not. When the world shut down, I took off and I think it's that mentality that has helped me win. 

What have some of the biggest challenges been founding Klowt? 

Finding the right people is always a challenge. We require a very specific skill set in order to do the job our clients pay us a lot of money to do for them but also the people we hire have to match our values. They have to buy into our vision, be excited about our journey and be just as invested as the rest of the team in Klowt being a success. 

Our approach to hiring is a bit different - We only have a 2 stage process. The first to qualify our values, the candidate's attitude, get them excited about us and what we do and learn a bit about them in an informal setting. The 2nd part of our process is the candidate complete's a fictitious task that is related to the kind of work they'd be doing, and then the next half of that interview the candidate interviews us as their next employer. It's a bit odd, and throws some people off but it tells us so much about the person and gives them the opportunity to learn about us. 

How important is social media, and can you ever be too active? 

There is no such thing as overexposed but in the same token, if you're emotionally invested or seeking validation from social media then I don't think you should be on it at all. Social media is incredible, I've built a 100% inbound business and a team of 7 in 12 months exclusively through social media... but I completely separate myself from the platforms. For me they're work - I don't scroll or follow people that make me feel insecure. I've curated these amazing spaces on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok that I WANT to be. 

And I think a lot of people could benefit from taking those steps - see social media as a distribution channel of YOU and curate the feed that you want to see. 

If you could go back and change anything what would it be? 

Absolutely nothing. One of our core values at Klowt is 'Win or Learn' - aka even when you fuck up there is a lesson. And sometimes those lessons are more incredible than the wins you have.

None of us are here for that long, and I find that really motivated to take risks and try things and sometimes they don't work out - like my first business. But regrets? none. Serena Kerrigan has this amazing saying that I've kind of iterated on and totally live by now... but it's live life for the plot - not the ending. 

Do that and I don't think you can go far wrong.