I never set out to build a "personal brand." I set out to build a business β and eight years ago, someone told me I'd never pull it off because I had no network, no name, and as far as the world was concerned, I didn't exist. The worst part? They were right.
In this episode, I take you all the way back to zero and walk you through exactly how I went from a corporate CPA no one had heard of to doing the work I get to do today: on television and radio, on stages like SXSW and Web Summit, in digital publications, and in partnership with global brands.
Whether you're a career professional trying to stand out in an impossibly competitive market or a business owner fighting for attention, this one's for you. Because technical skill is table stakes now β everyone chasing that job, that RFP, those dollars is already "good enough." What sets you apart is the plus, the answer to "why you?" β and that answer lives online, where every hiring manager, client, and collaborator goes to look you up before they ever say yes.
I'm not holding anything back. I'll tell you about:
- The comment that broke my heart β and lit the fire
- Why I chose LinkedIn over Instagram, and the $26,000 lesson I learned about taking the wrong advice
- How to get comfortable with visibility when putting yourself out there feels terrifying
- Why consistency beats going viral, especially in those slow, silent early years
- Building social proof, and the branding investment that gave me the story I still use to close deals today
- The wild things that have landed in my inbox β from interviewing Kevin O'Leary to PR pitches for Blake Lively and Bethenny Frankel to conversations with Amazon and Disney
- And the two 2026 moments that reminded me why I never stopped: a senior leadership offer from an $18B company, and a five-figure partnership with a $40B global tech company that found me, a CPA in Ontario, on LinkedIn
Here's the truth I keep coming back to: I'm not the best CPA, consultant, or speaker in the world. But I built the total package β the profile, the proof, the story β and people aren't looking for the best. They're looking for the person who can pull it all together.
Your homework: figure out where your audience lives, get comfortable being seen, and define what success actually looks like for . Then sit through the uncomfortable part β because that's where it all starts to click.