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 🙏

Ghalib Hassam

Baghi

If you're a B2B founder who wants to get ahead of the competition, you must leverage your founder brand on LinkedIn. Here's why:

1. Thought leadership.

Being a thought leader has quickly become a necessity - it plays a massive role in decision-making for your target audience.

It comes down to influencing decisions and being the first name that comes to mind when clients face challenges.

Here's what you can talk about in terms of insights that are unique to you:

i) Strong opinions that aren't available anywhere else.
ii) Insights on your target audience's problems.
iii) Commentary on industry practices.

The goal is to become the go-to expert in your industry.

2. Pain point content.

Address your target audience's problems in your content.

You need to consistently share insights around their problems and share content that shows them how you'd solve these issues.

Here's what you can talk about:

i) What problems are they facing?
ii) Why do they face these problems?
iii) How does you solve these problems for them?

The source material of this content comes from your subject matter expertise and existing customer data (sales calls\discovery calls)

It's okay to challenge the status quo and shake things up.

Present bold ideas that disrupt conventional thinking and set you apart as an thought leader.

3. The high cost of not leveraging you founder brand:

Each day without a strong LinkedIn presence is a day you're overlooked by potential clients seeking expertise.

And in today's digital world, visibility equals credibility. If you're not present, why should clients trust you?

What people fail to realise is that each day you stall, the space gets more and more crowded.

Every industry leader you admire didn't get there by chance.

They took bold steps to stand out.

And the risk isn't in putting yourself out there - it's in staying hidden while others dominate the space that could have been yours.

Founder - LinkedIn Strategist for B2B Founders

The Founder Lore Podcast

In this podcast, we sit down with founders who have leveraged their founder brands on LinkedIn to not only grow their businesses but also share their experiences in real time.

Each episode dives into the human side of entrepreneurship - the challenges, the breakthroughs, and the lessons learned along the way.

We go beyond the surface-level success stories and explore what it really takes to grow, lead, and scale while staying authentic.

Founder & Host

Mentoria Digitals.

Supporting the agency with:

1. Operations.
2. Processes.
3. Client delivery.

Strategic Advisor

Talent & Truth

Content And Strategy Manager

1. Working with Content Writers and Senior Team to execute positioning strategies effectively through high-quality content.

2. Manage and coordinate the output of the Content Writers and Social Community Executive to ensure all work is aligned with our clients’ strategies and is delivered to a high standard and on-time.

3. Crafting positioning strategies that align with clients' end goals.

4. Creating and running reports with our clients on the performance of their personal brand, alongside Content Writers and Social Community Executives.

I build busy CEOs\Founders' personal brands and position them as an authority in their market.

I've worked with CEOs\Founders from the DACH, MENA, and the UK.

With a well-positioned personal brand, you can:
 
- Grow a community.
- Get inbound leads.
- Attract talent.

Here's what I do:

- Communicate with CEOs\Founders and their marketing teams.

- Come up with a strategy that is aligned with their Personal Branding goals as well as their business\company goals.

- Form a community of professionals (networking is key)

First, you create demand for you and your services.
Second, you capture that demand in the form of a growing network, more leads, and attracting talent to your company.

All inbound.

Personal Brand Manager.

notus

This internship\part-time job was my first step into the world of Marketing\Personal Branding.

I learned a number things, but mainly:

• Copywriting - Creative.
• Account management for clients.
• Content Strategy.

Bahcesehir University

Didn't have the best of experiences:

- Tried to change their old ways of marketing but the top-level execs weren't flexible.

- Eventually decided it was better for me to look elsewhere to get to where I wanted:

Becoming a Demand Gen marketer.

BAU Global Representative.

‣Marketing the university along with its campuses abroad in the BAU Global network.
‣Reporting directly to the head of international relations.

Marketing International Student Assistant/Masters Student Assistant

ZTE Corporation

Intern

Account Manager @ Kurogo | We create thought leaders through personal branding

I grow B2B founder brands on LinkedIn through content.

Most of my clients are struggling with:

1. Can’t justify the time spent on LinkedIn.
2. Don’t know what to write about.
3. Not sure what the end goal is.

And so, I take them through a process that grows their LinkedIn and opens them up to new business opportunities:

1. Define how you want to position yourself against competitors.
2. Map out the core topics to write about.
3. Define the end-goal for LinkedIn.
4. Create content that attracts your target-audience.
5. Measure progress monthly.

Using this process, I’ve helped my clients:

📌 FOUNDER 1: Grew from 8K → 21K followers within 10 months.
📌 FOUNDER 2: Landed 5+ new business opportunities through LinkedIn.
📌 FOUNDER 3: Grew from 3K → 10K within 8 months.

If you want to become a thought leader in your industry and generate new business opportunities,

Click ‘Book an appointment’ at the top of my profile to see how I can help you.

Results for a client. Not bad for an all-time 'low reach' era on LinkedIn.

Built purely on thought leadership and giving value to the audience.

i build your founder brand with you, not for you (2hrs/month) | linkedIn GTM strategist

2 weeks ago, a started a new side-business. Here's an update:

For context:

I’ve started a physical business where I’ll be training students for IELTS. 

Questions I asked before launching:

- What is a proven problem in the market?
- Has steady demand... ideally till the end of time ;)
- Aligns with what I’m naturally good at.
- Can scale over time.
- And can eventually run without me.

So here’s how I’ve been approaching it:

1. First, I set up an Instagram account to start creating content, mostly educational posts, awareness pieces about what’s happening in the industry, and the gap I’m trying to fill.

2. Then I made a short introductory video, talking about my background, what I’m building, the kind of problems I’m solving, and where the business office is based.

3. I ran a small Instagram ad (just $30) targeted at my regional area to test the waters.

4. That ad started about 150 conversations, which was more than I expected for such a small test.

5. Meanwhile, I set up a small office + classroom to attend to people if they decide to visit.

5. After that, I hosted a mock class. A few people showed up, not a huge number but that's okay since there are bigger players in the market and I want to build a name first.

6. I cross-post with my other instagram account (18k) to borrow some credibility from it & so people can see I've done some stuff already (working with international agencies, building a remote career, my podcast, and running a business on LinkedIn)

Since then, I’ve been doubling down on two things:

1. Creating content to build digital presence.

2. Collaborating locally: I’ve partnered with a nearby café (pretty popular in the area) to host a free in-person event/workshop for this upcoming Tuesday.

The goal of the free workshop is to nurture the old leads, attract new ones, and make this business a familiar, trusted name in the region.

Would love to hear from someone who has built a similar business before just to bounce some ideas.

taplio

The Battle

Jake Summerhayes

Ghalib Hassam

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJake Summerhayes's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreGhalib Hassam's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Jake Summerhayes

Ghalib Hassam

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 ScoreGhalib Hassam's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJake Summerhayes's LinkedIn Performance