Jake Summerhayes

Kurogo

Head Of Client Services

We work with CEOs and Founders to build powerful personal brands. 

Why? Because reputation matters. 

- 82% of customers trust a company when their senior management members are active on social media

- Brand messages are shared 24x more on personal accounts compared to company accounts

- Customers are willing to pay 13.5x more for elite industry experts

As your personal brand manager, I oversee the planning and delivery of your personal brand strategy. From initial ideation through to full development in-line with your goals.

If this sounds like something you want to jump on board with, or even just have some general questions and curiosities about personal branding shoot me a DM. I'm always about for a chat 😊.

Personal Brand Manager

ReputationDefender

We believe that everyone has the right to be empowered online—whether that means controlling the spread of your personal information or the way you are portrayed to others. Our aim is to make sure people find quality, truthful information about our clients at the top of their search results.

I oversee the development of the online reputation management campaigns for my client base and as such I am the primary point of contact between themselves and the business. Day-to-day this includes regular reporting, search results monitoring as well as analysis of potential reputational threats and opportunities.

In this digital age the importance of a positive online presence is a necessity across industries and professions as such our client base is incredibly diverse. We work with private individuals, SME's, directors, multinational corporations and everything in between.

Account Manager

Uber

Bicycle Courier

L'Arche Internationale

L'arche supports those with learning disabilities, and their loved ones, to live in ways that allow them to be as independent as possible, while providing high-quality, person-centred, individually tailored care and support.

My primary aim as a Care Support Worker was to create a home for our service user and in doing so enable them to maximise their independence. Specific day to day task included:
• Supporting individuals in their leisure, social, practical, physical and spiritual needs
• Providing personal care with dignity and respect including supporting people with complex health and physical needs both in daily life and end of life care
• Helping people with physical needs including some aspects of moving and handling

Care Support Worker

Working with founders and business Leaders to craft powerful and authentic personal brands. 

Why? Because reputation matters. 

- 82% of customers trust a company when their senior management members are active on social media

- Brand messages are shared 24x more on personal accounts compared to company accounts

- Customers are willing to pay 13.5x more for elite industry experts

Yet only 1% of LinkedIn's 700 million users share weekly content. 

Our mission at Kurogo is to solve that.

Kurogo is derived from the Japanese ‘Kuroko’ referring to the black clad stagehands in traditional Japanese theatre.

The convention of wearing black implying the invisibility of the wearer on stage. 

We are your Kurogo. 

Directing, driving and delivering your personal brand from the background. 

Giving you the spotlight to excel in what you do best.

I’ll save you this morning’s LinkedIn scroll. Here’s what’s happening today:

– AI comment x1,802
– Infographic that is literally impossible to read
– 4 mirror selfies for a post on ‘authentic’ branding
– Personal branding is pretty important, it seems
– Someone’s worried about AI taking their job
– Someone else has automated their entire life with AI
– Hustle culture is… good? Bad? No one really knows
– The algorithm has changed… again, according to one study.
– Another AI comment
– Old man hates Gen Z
– Another company posted a job without a salary
– More culture stuff (A LOT more)
– Someone turned their morning coffee into a 7-step storytelling framework

Oooh another AI comment.

That’s all for now.

Ps. What’s your LinkedIn pet peeve?

Client Services Director @ Kurogo | We create thought leaders through Personal Branding

POV: You spontaneously video call your social media manager

Checking your next post after going 'viral'
109 Impressions
0 Likes
0 Comments
0 Reposts

I once spent 3 years trying to onboard a client who paid £6k but ghosted. 

In that time…

I moved house twice
We hired 3 different salespeople
I onboarded and ran 150+ other client campaigns
The entire company was bought, sold and restructured

I never did manage to get in touch with them.

Sometimes I lay awake at night and wonder where they are.

If there’s a client management lesson here, I don’t know what it is.

I don’t believe in conspiracy theories

Then a friend shows me that their account reach dropped 80% overnight, and then they started getting the option to boost their posts. Makes you wonder…

Genuine career advice:

Be easy to work with.

“You're right — thanks for catching that. Let me correct myself.”
“Thanks — want me to rewrite the whole thing with the right info?”
“Let me give you a corrected version that actually matches what you asked.”
“Good call — let me update my reasoning.”
“You’re absolutely right. I oversimplified that earlier.”
“Here’s the updated version — this is bulletproof”

What a week. 

Items taken offline: 8
Bases: Touched
Ducks: Aligned
Needle: Moved
Loops: Closed
Numbers: Run
Value: Added

Can’t wait to do it all again.

Good morning LinkedIn. 

Logging in for a productive week of touching base, circling back, getting our ducks in a row, blue sky thinking and moving the needle. 

Let’s have a good one 🫡

453 videos. 453 ideas. 453 attempts.

That’s 5 YEARS of constant trial and error.

Most people post 5 times and give up.
Almost nobody lasts until 453.

They think success should come in 30 days.
They tell themselves, “the algorithm is against me.”
They think if they don’t go viral in a month, it’s not meant for them.

If you’re not seeing the results you’d like, here’s my advice:

See every post like a rep in the gym. 

A single rep won’t make you ripped.

But every rep does make you better.

You just only notice it after 6 monts.

Remember:

→ Your first post won’t be your best post.
→ Your first 100 won’t be either.
→ But somewhere between 101 and 453, everything changes.

You’ve got this.

♻️ Like this? Repost it to remind someone to keep going.

--

I'm Jake 👋 I head up client services at Kurogo - Personal Branding Agency

I post about building your reputation and the realities of working in marketing.

LinkedIn ‘Experts’:

- Comment on 20 posts a day.
- Post selfies to “build connection.”
- Spend 3 hours engaging before posting.
- Be chronically on LinkedIn for 8+ hrs per day.
- Use productivity carousels as inspiration (steal them).

Me: 

- Fuck that.

Here’s the 6-step blueprint to follow instead:

1) Position yourself as an expert in your industry.
↳ Define what you want to be known for, the market won’t do it for you.

2) Engage with the right people, not just anyone.
↳ Quality > quantity. Especially when it comes to engaging.

3) Create a repeatable posting cadence.
↳ So you don’t have to spend more than 5 mins for an idea.

4) Post only 3 types of content inside clear pillars.
↳ Growth → To get seen by new people.
↳ Authority → To build trust & authority.
↳ Conversion → To generate opportunities.

5) Turn your lived experience into content.
↳ If anyone else could’ve written it, don’t post it.

6) Make your profile an inbound sales page.
↳ Your profile is your digital real estate.
↳ If optimised, it’ll sell before you even speak.

You don’t have to take every guru’s word as gospel.
Otherwise we’d all be full-time linkedinfluencers.
You just have to do the right things consistently.

Focus on what actually moves the needle.

Everything else is just fluff.

ps. What’s the worst LinkedIn Influencer take you’ve heard?

—

Find this useful?

💾 Save it to come back to later
♻️ Repost it to help your network

People do not buy from strangers. 

They buy from people they trust.

And trust starts (or ends) at your profile.

I have seen world-class founders lose deals because their profile looked like it was built in 2017 and left to rot.

The reality:

→ A blurry photo ruins credibility
→ A cluttered banner confuses your message
→ A headline with no value prop or proof gets ignored
→ A featured section with random links does nothing for you

Your profile is not a CV. 

It is the first “yes” or “no” in your buyer’s head.

Here is my simple framework to audit your profile today:

1️⃣ Promise: Does your headline show what you deliver, for whom, and why you?
2️⃣ Proof: Do you show numbers, case studies, or clear wins? (If not, why should anyone believe you?)
3️⃣ Packaging: Is your story clear, your experience relevant, and your next step obvious?

If your profile fails any of these, you are leaking leads daily.

The best personal brands I’ve built did not start with fancy content. They started with a profile that did the selling for them-before a single DM was sent.

Check your profile right now. If you were a prospect, would you trust you?

If not, fix it before you post again.

ps. Want the exact checklist we use to optimise profiles? 

1600 people already viewed it, but this is your last chance to join them for free. 

https://lnkd.in/eQUeqAc5

Next week, this won’t be free…

Seeing a lot of waffle about this…

So how we ACTUALLY build personal brands for CEOs ↓

(realised I’ve been doing this for 6 years...)

🗓️ Week 1: Kick Off
- Turn sales notes into delivery brief
- Brief all team members involved
- Interview client
- Research competitors
- Set up internal systems

This is all about setting us up for success.
We use G-Suite, Notion and Fathom.

🗓️ Week 2: Positioning Strategy
Take everything in week 1 to create a strategy.
- Build the client's positioning
- Map out their target audience
- Identify key industry & company events
- Define their pitch & promise
- Tone analysis and refinement
- This is the key to true authority

We run the client through this in a deck.

🗓️ Week 3: Content Strategy
- Now we translate Positioning into Content.
- Define content pillars & subtopics
- Agree content cadence and strategy
- Build content calendar and tagging system
- Create 20-30 ideas under each pillar
- Draft 2 weeks of posts to review

Pro tip: Your content should:
A. Reflect your positioning
B. Nurture strangers into opportunities
Stick to that and you’ll win.

🗓️ Week 4: Content Roll Out
- Final feedback and approval
- Explain the content calendar to the client
- Review first 2 weeks of drafts together
- Probe client around remaining ideas
- Book in bi-weekly content calls

Getting feedback on these first 2 weeks is key
Saves us wrifrom ting in the wrong tone later on

🗓️ Week 5-17:
- Amplify their ideas to 100,000s of people
- Usually we start with LinkedIn
- Sometimes we might go cross-channel
- Or even include some PR/podcasting
- But most people should just nail LinkedIn first
- Clients average 130,000 impressions/month (2025 data)

NB: Performance varies depending on a number of factors.

🗓️ Week 18:
- Review the first 3 months.
- Analyse raw data on performance
- Assess performance by topic and type
- Cross-reference against campaign goals
- Also check against platform trends
- Update strategy accordingly

By this point we have enough data to draw conclusions.
We take signals before this point but not big strategy changes.
🔂 Repeat Monthly

🗓️ Quarterly:
Campaign reviews, considering:
- Do we need new conversion systems?
- Is it the right time to launch lead magnets?
- Should we introduce other channels/PR?

About 30 SOPs, a lot of circling back and 6 base-touches in between that.

But I’ve got character limits, and you’ve got stuff to do.

Hope this helps ✌️

Ps. I think waffles are better than pancakes.
--
I'm Jake 👋 I head up client services at Kurogo - Personal Branding Agency

I post about building your reputation and the realities of working in 
marketing.

If you like that stuff, give us a follow. If you don’t, we’ll probably never speak again.

I’m 29. I’ve spent 10 years managing clients.

Here’s what I wish I knew in 2016: 

- happy clients leave all the time
- the customer is not always right
- clients pay you to have an opinion
- traffic light your clients every week
- being a yes-man ruins your authority
- confront any negative sentiment head on
- every great campaign needs uncomfortable convos

Most people spend years chasing client happiness. I chased it too. Then learned that clarity, honesty, and authority are the real keys to retention.

If you build your reputation on being a “yes” person, you become replaceable.

If you build it on clarity and leadership, you become essential.

Ps. I once chased a client for 4 years who paid £6K to start and then ghosted us. Wild.

It’s crazy that you can turn the internet into career insurance… 

How? By using the Personal Brand Advantage:

→ Top talent wants to work for you
→ Opportunities at your fingertips
→ Attracting a high-value network
→ Strangers are receptive to you
→ Ability to charge higher fees
→ Increased conversion rates
→ Events want you to speak
→ Your industry values you
→ Immediate credibility

A strong reputation is an unfair advantage.

Should probably build yours intentionally… Try this:

1. Understand how you need to be positioned
2. Publish content that reflects your expertise
3. Associate with industry leaders
4. Appear in the media
5. Create a digital footprint of ‘proof’

Want 40+ pages of this personal brand sauce? 

We put it all in our ultimate guide to personal branding. 

It’s literally free, like £0…

Hit repost and I'll share it with you ♻️

In light of the UK budget being announced today I will be staying away from LinkedIn for the next 24 hours.

To those that stay, good luck 🙏

Outsized Advantage

👇 Click below to book a call with me👇

Content and Lead Generation 

This business started off as a simple side hustle to my marketing job. 18 months later, it had grown into a LinkedIn Ghostwriting agency with over 20 active clients. But the workload, coupled with a lack of passion for the service I was providing, led me to burnout. In 2025, I re-aligned my business to focus on what I enjoyed most, working with a small pool of founders looking to implement a social media marketing funnel to help scale their service-based business fast.

Founder

Chris Donnelly Ltd

I managed the written content for Chris Donnelly’s personal brand.

My duties included:

A) Growing his accounts
B) Writing his email campaigns
C) Promoting his online services

Some of my biggest achievements during this time:

1. Growing his LinkedIn to 850,000 followers. 
2. Selling out his $5000 per person cohort twice.
3. Scaling his email list past the 150,000 subscriber mark.

Duties were handed over to his creative agency upon my departure.

Personal Brand Executive 

Social Advantage

I worked closely with the CEO to provide a high-quality lead generation and growth service to 25 + business owners using social media, email marketing and community building.

Social Media Manager

I help founders grow and monetise their personal brands

In early 2024, I started working for Chris Donnelly.

Together with the team, we launched and sold out his coaching cohort twice.
Whilst simultaneously growing his LinkedIn following by over 300,000.

This taught me how to:

- Create LinkedIn marketing funnels
- Write authentic high-performing content
- Combine them to generate loads of leads

I used this system to launch my own digital service:

- I booked 50 calls in 90 days
- My following grew past 20,000
- I hit £10k/month revenue in month 3

Now I help implement this system for other founders.
Who are looking to grow and monetise their personal brands

Take for example, my real estate client:

🔵 0 → 15,000 LinkedIn followers
🔵 Closed over $124,000 in transactions

My business coach, client:

🔵 10,000 → 20,000 followers
🔵 5 clients signed by the end of month 2. 

If you're ready to take the next step in scaling your business.

Book a call here with me here: https://calendly.com/blake-shq/outsized-advantage
(Or use the button at the top of my page/in my featured section)

Blake Weston

In 2024 I thought i’d landed my “dream job”

- Flexible working hours
- Learning from industry leaders
- Working almost completely remotely
- Decent pay packet at the end on the month

But looking back I was absolutely miserable. 

- I was working 7 days per week 50+ hour weeks
- The day-to-day pressure was crushing me
- I sacrificed my personal life for work
- I was always detached and moody

When I decided to quit after 6 months everybody told me it was a bad idea.

To sacrifice such a great job to start a risky online business. 

Fast forward and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made:

1. I’ve out earned that pay-check every single month since leaving

I use to limit my earning potential because I thought I was too young. But since starting my own business i’ve learnt that your earning potential is whatever you want it to be. 

2. I’ve had complete freedom with my time and location

Flexible working is just the same thing as being a free range chicken, it’s only flexible to a certain extent. When you are your own boss you are truly free to work whenever and wherever you want.

3. I’m happier and more present than ever

Hearing the words “you are never present” was a low-point for me. No work is important enough for you to sacrifice the time you spend with your loved ones. Build a career that complements your lifestyle, not one that controls it.

I wish i’d seen a post like this one year ago.

Hopefully it helps someone in a similar positon!

Helping CRE brokers build their LinkedIn presence | Become the go-to broker in your niche | 50+ clients worked with

Niching down my business never made any sense to me.

I assumed smaller target market meant less possible clients.

That was until things changed this year:

- Personal struggles meant I lost momentum
- I went from record months to a dry pipeline
- All of a sudden I was back to square one

Inbound leads seemed to dry up completely for me. 

That was until I decided to niche my services last month.

Since I made that decision:

- The most active pipeline i’ve had in 12 months
- Inbound leads are beginning to show up again
- On track towards record months in Q1

The biggest change i’ve noticed is with outreach.

I always struggled with outreach it never clicked.

Because I just messaged any old business owner.

But now i’m talking to a target market that:

- Have pain points and desires I truly understand
- And that I have a genuine interest in working with

Outreach is now my most effective tool.

The biggest takeaway for others?

Niching isn’t about shrinking your target market.

It’s about finally speaking to the people who need you most.

Don’t be afraid to give it a try.

90% of CRE brokers share a common goal:

To become the 'go-to broker' in their niche.

Getting there isn’t an easy task.
There are no shortcuts or hacks.

But there are tools that can speed up the process.

Your LinkedIn presence is one of those tools.

Here’s exactly how it helps:

1. You stay front of mind

Posting consistent and quality content is key.
It keeps you visible to your target audience.

When you post the right content frequently.
They begin to associate you with value.

So when it’s time to buy, sell, or invest, you’re the first name they think of.

2. You grow your network

Great content naturally builds an audience. 
But it's the outbound efforts that drive results. 

Think connection requests, comments and engagement. 
That’s how you expand your reach to specific audiences. 

Once you bring those individuals into your orbit.

It's only a matter of time before they reach out.

3. You build trust

A strong LinkedIn presence works like social proof.
People can see your expertise before you even speak to them.

And when new contacts look you up after meeting in person.
Your profile and content instantly reinforce your credibility.

It's an asset that 99% of your competition do not have.

So if you’re wondering how to get the edge.

And finally become the go-to broker in your market.

Start by building your LinkedIn presence.

You won’t regret it.

I’ve been working with Rod Santomassimo for 3 months.

In 90 days we have generated 503,847 post views.

Here’s exactly how we did it:

Rod owns the industry leading CRE coaching business.

He came to me because his account was underperforming. 

Despite posting on a daily basis…

- Content was random and lacked real strategy
- Engagement and impressions were inconsistent
- He was not positioned as the go-to person in his niche

That’s when I got to work on his LinkedIn account…

- Rebranded his account for better positioning
- Implemented a consistent and clear content strategy
- Began testing new styles of content to improve engagement

90 days later and we have…

- Generated 500,000+ post impressions
- Increased average post engagement by 98%
- Increased monthly new follower gain from 187 to 670

If you’re ready to transform your LinkedIn presence like this.

And become the go-to broker in your niche. 

DM me the word “Broker” to learn more.

One of the most common questions I hear from CRE brokers is…

What would I even talk about in my LinkedIn posts?

Truth is most people find their own lives uninteresting. 
No matter their level of success or cool life experiences. 

That’s because it’s too familiar to them.

But for other people that’s exactly what they are looking for.

A relatable individual with their own experiences and opinions.

Here’s the content strategy I use with my broker clients.
And what we talk about for each type of post:

1. Top of Funnel Posts (Personal Experiences) 

- Lessons from your journey in business
- Daily habits that are driving your growth
- Mindset shifts that changed the way you operate
- Behind-the-scenes routines that might help others too
- Challenges you’re navigating and how you plan to overcome them

2. Middle of Funnel Posts (Ideal Client Painpoints) 

- Common client frustrations
- Hidden risks or challenges they overlook
- How to overcome the fears they won’t admit
- How to achieve the desired outcomes they crave

3. Bottom of Funnel Posts (Case Studies/Social Proof)

- Case studies that show your wins
- Testimonials that build trust with others

The reality is you don’t have to be:

- The most interesting broker
- The most successful broker
- The most in-demand broker

To build a LinkedIn presence that works for you. 

You just have to be willing to share your experiences and knowledge.

Whilst your competition remain in the shadows.

taplio

The Battle

Jake Summerhayes

Blake Weston

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJake Summerhayes's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreBlake Weston's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Jake Summerhayes

Blake Weston

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jake Summerhayes's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreBlake Weston's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJake Summerhayes's LinkedIn Performance