I've spent eleven weeks writing about personal brand frameworks, systems, and strategies. It's been helpful for clarifying my thinking, but let's be honest - writing about personal brand in my email newsletter hasn't directly moved my business forward.

Putting what I have learned into play has generated tangible results that I’ll share below. It has also clarified my thinking about personal brand, helped me to generate two new frameworks for my clients - Personal Branding for Consultants and Comments To Clients and given me first-hand experience of what works and what doesn’t that I can pass on to my community.

The most tangible results? My LinkedIn experiment in August.

Before my personal brand experiment

July LinkedIn stats: 2,278 total views across sporadic posting. Maybe 2-3 posts that month. Typical post reach: 300-400 views. Using the classic consultant “post when I remember” approach, usually some generic business advice, which I had applied over the previous couple of months.

The experiment

Post nearly every weekday for a month. The challenge: do this while actually living life - Portugal trip, surfing, general summer distractions included.

The results

• Best single post: 2,791 views

• Total August views: 9,154 (4x increase)

• Winner: "Just raise your prices? Worst advice ever" - plain text, strong opinion

But the numbers aren't the real story.

The differences I noticed

By week two, something shifted. I stopped treating each post like a precious piece of content that needed to be perfect and started treating them like conversations.

The posts that worked weren't the ones I toiled over. They were:

• Strong opinions that people could disagree with

• Personal stories with business lessons embedded

• Behind-the-scenes moments from client work

What flopped? Generic advice. Anything that sounded like I was trying to be a guru. Posts where I overthought the "hook."

The real lesson

Consistency didn't just build audience confidence - it built mine. When you're showing up regularly, you stop second-guessing every word. You start noticing patterns in what resonates. You develop a voice.

My positioning on my posts

One of the things I experimented in August was adding a positioning outro to my posts. You may have seen it:

—
If you don't know me yet, I'm Stephen

I help boutique consultancy owners break through revenue ceilings, escape feast-or-famine cycles and build the business they really want.

Stuck beneath £10k, £30k, or £100k/month? My free Ready-to-Buy Playbook might help – grab it from my profile's Featured section.

This worked well in terms of generating more Ready-to-Buy Playbook downloads. I think it also helped reinforce my positioning with my ideal audience who saw my posts, but I don’t think I’ll see results from that for a few months to come.

As an aside, it also encouraged me to refine my positioning, as I saw it each day when interacting with my posts.

Failing in the follow-through

With any experiment, it's in the follow-through where things really count. And writing this round-up, it’s where I’ve failed. September has been patchy. I'm writing this on the 12th, about to disappear to Sardinia for a week, and I haven't posted the video content I planned to test.

The gap? Dedicating time for planning and production, I hadn’t booked it in advance, so I ran straight into September after a few days away and little time to spare. Even with AI tools and systems, good content takes time, if you don't block that time in advance - quarterly, ideally - delivery work will eat it every time.

The business impact

Here's what the LinkedIn consistency actually delivered:

• 3 qualified discovery calls from connection requests

• 2 referrals from people who'd been following the content

• 1 new Consultancy Growth Club member

• 1 direct enquiry for the Consultancy Breakthrough Day

Not massive numbers, but quality tangible business results. People who'd been watching, thinking, then acting.

What this means for you

If you're going to test personal brand on LinkedIn, commit to the cadence first. You can't optimise what doesn't exist. Post regularly for at least a month before you worry about perfect content.

Track everything - not just vanity metrics, but actual business outcomes. Connection requests, profile views, and most importantly, conversations that turn into opportunities.

Wrapping-up the experiment

Eleven weeks ago, I started this series because a personal brand felt like this nebulous thing that "successful consultants just have."

What I've learned: It's not magic. It's systems, consistency, and being willing to have opinions in public. The framework works - positioning, content engines, measurement - but only if you actually use it.

The biggest insight? Personal brand isn't about becoming someone else. It's about being more intentionally yourself and providing value in places where your ideal clients can find you.