That matters, because loads of people imagine fame arrives the moment they crack some genius content formula. It almost never does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is usually a long, tedious stretch where you are doing the work and getting very little back. Most people quit during that stretch. That is, in large part, why it eventually works for the people who do not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then a few things converged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
COVID happened. The world locked down. People were at home, on furlough, online, anxious, bored, and scrolling considerably more than they used to. LinkedIn shifted too \u2013 whether it was algorithmic or behavioural or both, content started travelling further. The platform moved toward follower-based mechanics, meaning people could now follow you without connecting. That mattered enormously. It meant reach could compound without relying entirely on old-school relationship building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At around the same time, I changed how I posted. I took Jack Butcher’s Visualize Value course and learned to package ideas visually. I stopped relying exclusively on text and started using images that made a point at a glance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I became ‘known’ for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So much so that many people whom you might call SEO ‘influencers’ became that by taking my posts and images, slightly rearranging them, and then posting them as their own insight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flattering, in a grubby sort of way. It also confirmed the images worked. And eventually, this has become the ‘default’ setting for many. Tools started to emerge that allowed people to view trending posts and literally copy them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’d be sitting at Stoke train station at 6.50am using my fat thumbs to design an image for LinkedIn only to see virtually the same image and post the next week, going viral because some ‘SEO influencer’ in an engagement hub took it, did a ‘glow up’ and made out it was their knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was one of the reasons I stopped doing those images, and instead focused on long-form written content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But going back to how my personal brand grew, the bigger shift was not visual. It was strategic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was an underlying layer that made it all work. Here it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Real growth for me happened when I stopped posting about SEO and started posting about the value of SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That sounds like a minor adjustment. It is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most SEO content is tactical. How to fix a crawl issue. Which tool to use. Which tag does what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is nothing wrong with that. It is useful. But it rarely travels far beyond a tight circle of people who were already interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I started doing instead was giving people arguments. Language they could borrow. Frameworks they could use to explain why SEO deserved investment, why it outperformed paid in certain conditions, why brands chronically underestimated it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stopped teaching SEO and started equipping people to defend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is when things moved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A book followed, assembled from posts, which added another layer of credibility. Then I left my own agency and went to work for a seven-figure agency in Manchester. That changed how I was perceived more than almost anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the eyes of the industry, I shifted from “small agency owner with opinions” to someone associated with a bigger platform. It is uncomfortable to admit, but the perception shift was real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then came the podcasts. Then writing for Search Engine Land and Marketing Week. Then more conference invites. Then more visibility. And so it compounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is called ‘preferential attachment’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is what people miss about fame. It is not one dramatic breakthrough. It is a pile-up of smaller effects until other people start calling it momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us not be romantic about any of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fame brings opportunities. It gets you onto podcasts, onto stages, into commissioning editors’ inboxes. It helps people find you. It can alter your career trajectory and commercial prospects very quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it also brings the part nobody mentions when they are fantasising about becoming well-known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People talk about you. They make things up. They take things out of context. They decide you meant something you never meant, then argue loudly about it with other people who also did not read the original. Freelance consultants \u2013 particularly the envious variety \u2013 take cheap shots because your following irritates them and the visibility gap between you burns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You say one thing that lands badly, and because you have reach it travels further than it would have if you were still a ghost at the back of the room. Fame amplifies support and backlash equally. That is the deal you make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So yes, I understand why people want it. But no, it is not a clean, uncomplicated upgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of people imagine conference speaking is a meritocracy. That if you are good enough, you will naturally be selected. That if the industry just ran more open calls, the best talent would rise to the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is bollocks, and it is worth being clear about why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did not speak at a real SEO conference until our agency sponsored one and asked me to speak .<\/p>\n\n\n\n We sponsored BrightonSEO. That is how it works far more often than the industry likes to acknowledge. Sometimes you pitch and get selected on merit. Sometimes you pay through sponsorship and that gets you a presence and a slot. Sometimes you are asked because your name helps sell tickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conferences are not devoted to pure knowledge-sharing. They are events businesses. They want attention, attendees, and names that help market the programme. That is why the same faces keep cycling through the circuit. Fame is a commercial asset to a conference organiser, and they use it accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And let’s not forget how the real world works. Some people are attractive, some are witty, some speak with such power and magnetism that they could seduce an entire room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We aren’t equals. People are born, develop or naturally possess unique characteristics that allow them to outcompete others for attention and resources. This is what scientists call a Q score, or ‘factor’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most SEOs are not different in terms of ability. Do you think the people on stage are better than you? They aren’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They can just outcompete you because they built a business, got funding, are better looking, say unique things, got pushed by others, work at a fashionable or large brand…<\/p>\n\n\n\n The list is endless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, having said all that, let’s give you the skills to level the playing field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to become known in SEO, there are three viable lanes. Pick one and commit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the strongest position. The teacher does not just report what is happening. The teacher tells people how to think about it. They give you options for thinking differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They offer a framework. They say, in effect, “Everyone else is looking at this wrong. Here is the better model.” That is powerful because most people in SEO are not primarily looking for information. They are looking for certainty. They want something to hold onto in a category that changes constantly. The teacher provides that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The teacher is telling you how to build a better world for yourself, your business and your brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And to confirm, this is the lane my brand is in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s also the most controversial because you will challenge the ‘status of other teachers’ who say the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the person who interprets the landscape. Algorithms, traffic shifts, AI developments, Google updates \u2013 the commentator provides context and, critically, tells people who or what to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Google is the villain. ChatGPT is the villain. SPAM is the villain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The algorithm is the villain. AI is the villain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick your monster and explain its movements. It works because it gives people a way to make sense of things they cannot control, which is deeply comforting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the biggest personal brands in search are built this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t believe me? Go and look at a few well-known ‘influencers’ in the space. You won’t see a grain of actual advice, just broad industry commentary that’s practically useless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the reason that this type of personal brand works is that they become the ‘news anchor’ or the weatherperson of the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every Google update becomes a talking point. Large-scale data studies are starting to become the weekly drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I actually think these are the most dangerous people in search right now. Not because anything they say is practically useful, it’s not. But they are dangerous because they cause decision paralysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Essentially, what they say on a weekly basis is ‘search is a mess’, ‘search is complicated’, ‘Google is bad’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any CMO reading that kind of commentary just throws more money at paid search to avoid the complication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the reality is that this is the easiest lane for SEOs to build a personal brand in. It’s broad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the least glamorous lane, but often the most durable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The curator filters a chaotic stream of information into something digestible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an industry where everyone is drowning in updates, the person who can say “here are the three things that actually matter this week” becomes a habit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is why certain YouTube channels, newsletters and podcasts become indispensable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They do not just inform. They reduce overwhelm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And being honest, this type of brand is where the future growth is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I literally open YouTube every night to get AI news tips and updates from 3 people\/ channels. We are heading to a world where TV channels grew so much that the TV guide became the best-selling publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In truth, the curator does play a little in the lanes of the teacher and the commentator. But they tend to bring many updates from a wide range of sources, which is what makes them different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are the ones who share the data studies built by the commentators. They share lists of jobs. The curate blog posts into databases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s graft, and it’s liked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, assuming you know which lane you want to play in, here’s a playbook for growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enough scene-setting. Here is how it actually works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You cannot be popular with everyone. That is not a strategy. That is a fantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to be popular with a specific group, which means taking a distinctive stance and choosing the audience you actually want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most people fail here because they try to be universally agreeable. That makes them entirely forgettable. When I leaned into the value of SEO, I also named the enemy: paid search, overinvested in, over-relied upon, and frequently deployed lazily. That tension made the content easier to argue with and easier to share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fame begins when you stop trying to sound balanced and start trying to sound meaningful to a tribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before any tactic works, there needs to be something compelling at the core. If you are vague, dull, and frightened of saying anything distinctive, no distribution strategy will save you. You need an actual edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It might be the clarity of your thinking, the data you gather, the sharpness of your opinions, your ability to simplify complexity, your contrarian stance, or your willingness to say the uncomfortable thing plainly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fame does not start with distribution. It starts with a signal worth distributing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not optional. You have to be loud enough, or provocative enough, or interesting enough to interrupt the feed. You do not have to be an arsehole. You do have to stop sounding like your posts were written by a committee. The internet does not reward timid clarity. It rewards sharp edges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That means saying things with tension in them, naming enemies, making contrasts, and being willing to say “this is wrong” rather than circling the issue gently like a nervous consultant who is worried about the reply thread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yes, if you are provocative enough, often enough, eventually something will land badly. People will distort it, misquote it, and use it as an excuse to take a swing at you. That is part of the deal. Fame without backlash is usually just obscurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is where most people fundamentally misunderstand influence. Facts do not travel on their own. Feelings do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to create an emotional response \u2013 optimism, relief, validation, anger, frustration, hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I talked about the value of SEO, I was not just providing arguments. I was giving people something more useful than that: I was telling them their channel mattered, that they were right to believe in it, that there was a better way to fight for it internally. That is emotional work dressed up as analytical content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It travels because it moves people, not just because it informs them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People do not share content because it is accurate. They share it because it does something for them. It makes them look clever. It arms them for a client meeting. It gives them a stick to throw at someone. It confirms what they already suspected. It lets them signal which tribe they are in. That is social currency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I gave SEO practitioners arguments for defending their channel budget, I was handing out ammunition. Boringly accurate content often dies quietly. Punchy oversimplifications spread like wildfire. One is educational. The other is socially useful. Know the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SEO is complicated. Fame is complicated. Your content should not look complicated. The stuff that spreads is simple enough to understand instantly and rich enough to reward a second read. That is the sweet spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visuals worked for me precisely because they compressed broader arguments into something people could grasp and reuse within seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simple does not mean shallow. It means transportable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attention is a finite resource. There is not unlimited room in the feed, on the stage, or in anyone’s head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most effective ways to win attention is to drain it from the competition. “Here is my idea” is a weaker position than “here is my idea, and here is why the alternative approach is broken, expensive, or outdated.” This is not rhetorical theatre. It is competitive positioning. Personal brands get chosen because they make themselves easier to remember and easier to back than the options next to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Content does not create fame. Content moves through networks, and the network is what gives the content its force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I was posting on LinkedIn for three years with minimal traction, the content was not the problem. The problem was that I did not yet have enough network density around me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The content had nowhere to go. That is why Facebook groups mattered. Backlinko SEO That Works. Neil Patel’s Advanced Marketing Program. Smaller ecosystems where ideas could move because the people inside them were already connected. Fame starts with nodes, not millions. Join existing hubs. Contribute repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Become recognisable inside them. Connect with people slightly more visible than you. Comment intelligently. Show up often enough that people stop seeing you as random. And do not confuse engagement pods with networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fake momentum from the same sixty desperate people is not a strategy. It is a support group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost nobody becomes famous entirely on their own steam. You borrow reach first. You write for a larger publication and access their readers. You appear on a podcast and access their listeners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You join a better-known company and borrow some of its brand equity. Working at JBH changed how the industry perceived me more quickly than years of solo posting had managed. The mechanism is the same with podcasts \u2013 build your own and you create a fame exchange vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guests borrow your audience, you borrow their credibility. It compounds. Stephen Bartlett has done this brilliantly with Diary of a CEO at a much larger scale. SEO is smaller. The underlying laws are identical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To become famous, you need more than good ideas. You need to be associated with something recognisable and memorable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seth Godin’s shaved head and glasses. Jack Butcher’s black-and-white visual language. For me, it was the combination of words and images in a specific style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Distinctive assets drive familiarity, and familiarity drives trust, and trust drives diffusion. Then you need scale. One post is not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One talk is not enough. One article is not enough. You need repeated exposure until people feel like they are seeing you everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that point, preferential attachment kicks in \u2013 the visible get more visible, the known get better known, the familiar become the default \u2013 and fame stops being a thing you are building and starts being a thing that builds itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a playbook for building fame in SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not mystical. It is not noble. And it is emphatically not meritocratic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need a compelling signal, a point of view, provocation, emotional resonance, social currency, simplicity, networks, bigger nodes, distinctive assets, and enough repeated exposure for compounding to kick in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then you need time. Quite a lot of it, usually spent posting into the void while wondering if any of it is working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Substance matters. Obviously it does. But substance alone is not sufficient, and pretending otherwise is how the industry continues to confuse “best known” with “best.” The two things overlap sometimes. Often they do not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SEO industry does not consistently reward the best practitioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It rewards the most visible ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If that bothers you, good. Now you know what to do about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andrew Holland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is an ongoing conversation in the SEO industry about who gets invited to speak at conferences and industry events. Sometimes it is that the same faces keep turning up, and yes, often too skewed towards men. Sometimes it is that a person only became \u201cimportant\u201d after joining the right company, landing at a funded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-search","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/growththroughcontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/growththroughcontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/growththroughcontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growththroughcontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growththroughcontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/growththroughcontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117,"href":"https:\/\/growththroughcontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions\/117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growththroughcontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/growththroughcontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growththroughcontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growththroughcontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The Real Inflection Point<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Fame Comes with Trouble<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Conferences Run on Fame More Than People Admit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The Three Routes Into Fame<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The Teacher<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Commentator<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Curator<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Ten-Step Playbook to Build a Personal Brand in SEO<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step One: Pick a lane and pick a side.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step Two: Make sure you have something worth distributing.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step Three: Be loud, be provocative, be interesting.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step Four: Create feelings, not just facts.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step Five: Create social currency.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step Six: Keep it simple enough to travel.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step Seven: Frame the alternatives as inferior.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step Eight: Build your network deliberately.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Step Nine: Borrow bigger nodes.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step Ten: Build distinctive assets and repeat exposure until compounding starts.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The Uncomfortable Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n