Perhaps It's Time the Internet Knew What You Know

I’ve been thinking a lot about brilliant women lately.

The women who spend 15 years building a career but has barely anything to show for it online.

The consultants who are exceptionally good at what they do but still depend almost entirely on referrals to get clients.

The professionals everyone goes to for advice, but whose names never come up when speaking opportunities, partnerships or industry recognition are being discussed.

The women with years of experience, interesting ideas, valuable opinions and so much knowledge, but who somehow keep postponing the decision to show up online.

I know these women exist because I’ve spent a considerable part of my professional life working around personal branding, and I’ve seen this pattern repeatedly.

And honestly, I think we’re having the wrong conversation about personal branding.

We’ve reduced it to Instagram aesthetics, content calendars, follower counts, reels, and the occasional motivational post about showing up.

Those things have their place. But I think we’re missing something much bigger.

There are brilliant women whose expertise is practically invisible to the world.

And I wonder how many opportunities are being missed because of it.

Good work doesn’t always speak for itself

For a long time, we’ve told people to focus on doing good work.

Get the qualifications. Build the experience. Become excellent at what you do. Be diligent. Be consistent. Let your work speak for itself.

I agree with most of that advice.

But it’s incomplete.

Your work can be excellent and still be unknown outside the four walls of your office.

You can be incredibly knowledgeable and still struggle to communicate what you know.

You can have the capacity to solve important problems and still be absent from the conversations where those problems are being discussed.

And someone else, perhaps with less experience but a much clearer public presence, might get the opportunity you were hoping for.

Not necessarily because they’re better.

But because people know what they do, understand what they bring to the table, and can easily find evidence of their expertise.

This is one of the reasons I believe personal branding has become such an important professional and economic asset.

The internet has changed the way people discover, evaluate and connect with expertise.

Today, someone can discover your work in Lagos, engage with your ideas from London, invite you to speak in Nairobi and become your client from New York.

Think about that for a moment.

You no longer need to wait for someone to introduce you to the right person before your work can travel.

But you have to give your work somewhere to travel from.

And that requires visibility.

So, what exactly should you be building?

I want to make something clear.

Building a personal brand does not mean turning yourself into an influencer.

It doesn’t mean sharing your entire life online, manufacturing a personality, or trying to become the most popular person in your industry.

It means intentionally building a reputation around your expertise, ideas, experiences, values and the problems you are equipped to solve.

Think about it this way:

If someone came across your name today, what would they discover?

Would they understand what you do?

Would they know what you believe?

Would they find evidence of your experience?

Would they encounter ideas that make them think differently?

Would they understand why they should work with you, invite you to speak, recommend you or pay attention to your work?

Or would they find a LinkedIn profile that hasn’t been updated in three years and an Instagram account filled with photographs that reveal very little about your professional expertise?

No judgment. I’ve seen enough of this to know that many of us have some work to do.

But here’s a practical exercise I want you to try.

A 20-minute personal brand clarity exercise

Before you worry about your next Instagram post, your website, your brand colours or whether you should start making videos, spend 20 minutes answering these questions.

1. What do I know?

Think beyond your qualifications.

What have you learned through education, professional experience, business, personal experiences and the problems you’ve solved?

List at least 10 things.

2. What do people already come to me for?

What questions do people ask you repeatedly?

What do colleagues, friends, clients or people in your industry seek your opinion on?

Sometimes your strongest area of expertise is hiding in the things you do so naturally that you don’t consider them particularly valuable.

3. Who needs what I know?

Be specific.

Are you speaking to young professionals, business owners, corporate executives, aspiring authors, women navigating career transitions, or people trying to solve a particular problem?

You cannot build a meaningful brand by trying to speak to everybody.

4. What do I want to be known for?

This is perhaps the most important question.

If someone mentioned your name in a room you weren’t present in, what would you want people to associate you with?

A particular subject? A body of work? A perspective? A solution?

Give this some thought.

5. What opportunities do I want my personal brand to create?

Do you want more clients?

Speaking invitations?

Corporate partnerships?

A stronger professional reputation?

A global audience?

A publishing opportunity?

A platform to share your ideas?

Your desired opportunities should influence the kind of brand you build.

Now try completing this sentence:

I want to be known as the woman who helps __________ achieve __________ through my expertise in __________.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, it probably won’t be.

But you have something to work with now.

And that is a much better starting point than opening Instagram and asking yourself what to post.

Why I’m building She’s the Brand Academy

All these conversations, observations and questions have been leading me somewhere.

I’ve been thinking about what it would look like to create a proper learning environment for African women who want to take their personal brands seriously.

Not another space that simply teaches women how to make reels.

Not another content creation course that leaves you with 30 post ideas but no clarity about what you’re actually trying to build.

I want something more intentional.

And that’s the thinking behind She’s the Brand Academy (STBA).

She’s the Brand Academy is a personal branding and thought leadership school designed to help ambitious African women turn their expertise into visible, respected and profitable personal brands.

I want us to help women move from having knowledge to communicating it.

From having experience to positioning it.

From creating random content to developing recognizable ideas.

From simply being present online to building authority and attracting meaningful opportunities.

Our work is built around seven stages:

1. Identity: Understanding your expertise, strengths, values and the woman behind the brand.

2. Positioning: Deciding what you want to be known for and who you want to reach.

3. Expression: Learning to communicate your ideas through storytelling, writing, speaking and content.

4. Visibility: Building a consistent and intentional digital presence.

5. Authority: Establishing credibility, developing thought leadership and becoming recognised for your ideas.

6. Monetization: Turning your expertise, reputation and visibility into economic opportunities.

7. Expansion: Growing your influence through speaking, publishing, partnerships, media and other platforms.

That’s the journey I want women to experience.

And while I have a particular interest in seeing African women occupy more space in global conversations, I also want to see the economic implications of this work.

I want to see more women building businesses around their expertise.

More women being invited to speak because their ideas are known.

More women publishing books, leading conversations, attracting clients and creating opportunities that may not have been accessible to them before.

I want us to take the business of being known seriously.

Because I don’t think African women have an expertise problem.

I think we have a visibility problem.

And I want to contribute to changing that.

Perhaps the question isn’t whether you have something valuable to offer.

Perhaps you’ve spent enough years accumulating knowledge, experience, qualifications and ideas.

Perhaps the next phase requires you to become more intentional about communicating what you know.

Give people an opportunity to discover your work.

Start documenting what you know.

Start sharing what you believe.

Start developing your ideas.

Start building a body of work that represents the depth of your expertise.

And stop assuming that the people who need what you know will somehow find you.

Your expertise deserves visibility.

And if this is a conversation you’ve been having with yourself, I’d love to welcome you into the world of She’s the Brand Academy.

You can explore what we’re building at shesthebrandacademy.com.

Perhaps it’s time the internet knew what you know.

Paula.

Paula Pwul

© 2025. All rights reserved.