Most CEOs fear employees with big personal brands. We built a team with 200,000+
By Aaron Aj Eckstein · October 3, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Most CEOs fear employees with big personal brands.
We built a team with 200,000+ followers, and Fast Company just featured it.
Shalene (Shuh-lean) Gupta's new 196-point guide on managing personal brands covers how CM does the opposite of what most companies do.
Instead of limiting our team's personal brands, we invest in them.
13 people on our Creator Match 🧩 team of 50+ have more than 10,000 LinkedIn followers each... Collectively, we have 208,129.
Here's the playbook:
→ Everyone gets their own personal brand guidelines, with a custom color palette and font
→ An in-house graphic designer anyone on the team can work with
→ An open door policy on feedback. Whoever sends me a post first, I'll review it, with extra attention for the newer voices
→ A Slack channel called # creatorsofcm where the team swaps ideas and best practices
→ A monthly lunch and learn so everyone levels up together
→ The 70/30 rule: 70% personal content, 30% about the company
The objection I hear most: "If I invest in my employees' personal brands, they'll outgrow me and leave."
That's an outdated way to think. They're going to build their brand anyway, either publicly or under the table. You might as well empower them.
The real challenge for leaders is making your company the best possible opportunity, so good that no other experience out there can compete.
For us, it's paid off in retention, in hiring, and in lead gen for our clients.
There's been nothing in my life more valuable than my own personal brand. I want that for every single person on our team.
Huge thank you to Shalene Gupta and Fast Company for including us. And the biggest shoutout to the Creator Match team. You're the reason this story exists. ⭐
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