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 🙏

Vagabond Digital 

As the CEO of Vagabond Digital, a dynamic and fast-growing agency specialising in paid media and social strategies, I lead a highly ambitious team and collaborate with an extensive network of skilled freelancers. Together, we are dedicated to crafting innovative campaigns that seamlessly integrate direct response and brand building.

At Vagabond Digital, we excel in leveraging our expertise to create, develop, and optimise paid search and social initiatives for clients across diverse industries. Our primary goal is to generate tangible results by strategically positioning advertisements directly in front of our clients' desired audiences, driving sales and generating valuable leads for their businesses.

With a relentless focus on achieving exceptional outcomes, we combine data-driven insights with creative ingenuity to deliver compelling campaigns that captivate audiences, spark engagement, and ultimately drive conversions. Our unwavering commitment to staying at the forefront of industry trends and technologies ensures that our clients benefit from cutting-edge strategies that consistently exceed expectations.

If you're seeking a forward-thinking agency partner that possesses a deep understanding of paid media and social platforms, and a passion for driving business growth through innovative marketing techniques, please feel free to DM me.

CEO & Founder

PPC & Paid Social Freelancer

SQ Digital

After excelling in my previous role of PPC Consultant I was offered the role Head of PPC in which I was tasked with managing and growing the PPC department. I successfully hired, trained and grew the team to be one of the most effective within the company. By focusing on R&D combined with tried and tested methods we were able to exceed all targets and the hard work culminated in several industry awards. 

In tandem with managing the team I was integral to winning new business and nurturing the accounts once on board. I hosted several workshops with Google which garnered lots of positive feedback and led me to creating my very own PPC Agency.

Head of PPC

In this role I got to grips with the basics and advanced best practices in PPC marketing. Taking control of some key accounts I pushed myself to learn outside of work as much as I could about business and marketing so that I could look at problems from different angles in order to provide better solutions.

PPC Consultant 

In the past we used to advertise broad messages to broad audiences on billboards and newspaper spreads but now, thanks to the advent of PPC (pay-per-click) and social advertising, we’re able to advertise specific messages to specific audiences to achieve a much greater impact - which is where I come in. I put brands and businesses directly in front of their target audience with highly targeted paid advertising campaigns on platforms such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat in order to drive sales and leads.

About me:

I’m a super ambitious, motivated and dedicated business leader passionate about all things business and marketing. I get a kick out of problem solving, thinking outside the box, learning new things and creating value for businesses. I’m also an advocate for remote working, a healthier planet and a happy balance.

Whilst I have a knowledge and interest in all things marketing, I chose to specialise in PPC advertising because I see it as The Business End of Digital Marketing. So I founded Vagabond Digital to help businesses and brands put their products and services directly in front of their target audience. We use a combination of automation and brain power to successfully drive sales and leads into businesses of all sectors. We’re a little different in that we’re a remote business, which means we have neither office locations nor restrictions. This enables us to work with the most impressive talent around the globe, offer flexibility to our staff and improve communication channels - all the while delivering a premium service to our clients.

We offer flat rate fees, great value for money and a high level of expertise.

I’d love to hear from anyone interested in marketing, collaborating or growing their business. Drop me a message and we can arrange a virtual coffee chat - tj@vagabonddigital.co.uk

The books I recommend most often: 

Shoe Dog, Tools of Titans, Think and Grow Rich and for some fiction - East of Eden.

TJ Lee

I’m about to become a dad. And I’ll be honest - I’ve got no idea what happens to my head the day it happens.

Everyone keeps saying *“everything will change”*.

But they never say how.

Right now, I’m in this weird space between two lives:

→ Still working like a maniac.
→ Still chasing the next milestone.
→ Still focused on growing Vagabond.

But I know there’s something coming that will shake all of that. I just don’t know which way it will push me.

Will it give me perspective - make me slow down, enjoy life, realise none of this matters as much as I thought?

Or…

Will it light an even bigger fire, push me to build something bigger, stronger, so my kid never has to worry about anything?

Logistically, I’m already confused:

🕖 When do I work?
🏋🏼‍♂️ When do I train?
👶🏻 When do I switch off?

(Do founders even get to “switch off”?)

The only thing I *do* know:

I want to be present. I want to be a good dad.

And I still want to build something I’m proud of.

Figuring out how those two worlds collide…

That’s the part no one teaches you.

So, to the founders already in this phase - how did it change you?

Did you slow down?

Or did you double down?

I’m honestly curious.

Founder and Chief Vagabond at Vagabond Digital | Paid Media Expert | Growing the world’s best businesses inc. Allbeauty, Fragrance Direct and more

This has been one of the toughest years I’ve seen in agency life.

Not just for us - across the industry.

Budgets have tightened.
Decision-makers have slowed.
And more brands are pulling work in-house.

We felt it firsthand. Two of our biggest accounts moved their performance teams internally.

Great relationships. Strong results. Still gone.

And that’s the game nobody tells you about when you start an agency:

You can do a brilliant job… and still lose the client.

But here’s the truth I’ve made peace with:

Clients will come and go. Retention isn’t guaranteed.

But your resilience has to be.

Because while some doors close, new ones open - if you’re ready.

We’ve all lost clients before. We’ll lose them again.

But we’ll also win bigger ones.

That’s agency life.

Stay steady. Keep swinging.

Q4 is where it all turns.

As a founder, your job title changes every time your business does.

One year, you’re doing client work.
The next, you’re fixing finance issues.
Then suddenly - you’re the Head of Sales again.

Right now, that’s exactly where I am. After years of jumping between CEO tasks (partnerships, marketing, strategy)…

…I’ve gone all in on sales.

Why?

Because that’s what the business needs.

And here’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned from mentorship and experience:

Nobody will ever sell your business as well as you can. I even asked my board director recently whether I should hire a salesperson.

“Not yet. Clear everything *except sales off your plate.* Get a PA. Delegate ops. Let your team run delivery.”

“Your time is most valuable in front of prospects - not spreadsheets.”

He’s right.

A founder’s real superpower isn’t operations - it’s conviction.

You built the thing. You know the mission. You can sell the vision better than anyone.

So here’s where I’ve landed:

✅ Delegate admin
✅ Empower your senior team
✅ Step back from the ‘doing’

⚡ Double down on selling the business

Until you’ve hit serious scale - *you* are the best closer in your company.

The hardest part of running an agency? Not sales. Not clients. Hiring.

I’ve hired 30+ people, interviewed close to 100, and skimmed through thousands of CVs.

And still - it’s a gamble every time.

But over the years, I’ve boiled it down to four non-negotiables:

—

1️⃣ Work ethic

I don’t care how “talented” you are.

If you clock in mentally at 9:05 and check out at 4:55, it won’t work here. 

(Sorry, not sorry, if that’s not the right thing to say these days…)

—

2️⃣ Expertise (relative to level)

I don’t expect juniors to be experts. 

I do expect seniors to know their craft inside-out. Self-awareness matters.

—

3️⃣ Culture fit

No egos or passengers. 

You can be brilliant, but if you’re a nightmare to work with, you’re out.

—

4️⃣ Accountability

Mistakes aren’t the problem. Hiding them is. 

Own it, fix it, move forward.

—

Hiring isn’t about filling a seat.

It’s about betting on someone to move with you (not just work for you).

Founders: your criteria might differ, but if you’re not clear on what you value…

You’ll hire for speed, and pay for it later.

I studied scriptwriting. Delivered Chinese takeaways. Now I run a 30-person agency.

My career path wasn’t linear.

And that’s the point. 

Resilience isn’t about sticking to the plan, it’s about pushing forward *when the plan falls apart*.

Clients leave.
Cash gets tight.
Team dynamics change.

But you show up anyway.

The people who win are the ones who:

→ Keep moving
→ Stay focused
→ Block out the noise
→ Surround themselves with good people

Spielberg once said: Don’t blink.

That’s how I treat business.

Eyes forward. No panic. Keep building.

Don’t blink.

I’m not the best marketer at Vagabond.

And that’s exactly how it should be.

When I first started, clients bought into me.

My skills. My ideas. My ability to run ads and social. But if 5 years later, I was still the smartest marketer in the room?

We’d have a serious problem.

Because building an agency isn’t about clinging onto being “the best.” It’s about surrounding yourself with people who are better.

That means:
👉🏻 Creatives who think in ways I never could.
👉🏻 Paid media specialists who know the platforms inside out.
👉🏻 Social teams who are sharper, faster, and more up to date than I am.

My job now is not to be the best marketer. It’s to build the best team of marketers.

Scaling a business forces you to let go.

To stop trying to do it all.

To trade ego for growth.

If you want to grow, hire people better than you.

And get out of their way.

If you’re chasing euphoria every time you win in business… you’re setting yourself up to lose.

When I first started Vagabond, I used to get a huge buzz from every “win.”

A new client. A big campaign. A team hire.

But the problem is, if you get addicted to the highs… you’ll get crushed by the lows.

And business certainly has its lows.

Clients leave and cashflow gets tight. People quit. Results dry up.

If you’re defined by one side of the rollercoaster, you’ll get wrecked by the other.

That’s why I try to stay level.

I celebrate wins, of course. But I don’t let them define me.

And when the sh*t hits the fan, I don’t let that define me either.

Staying steady is how you stay resilient. It’s how you show up consistently.

It’s how you survive long enough to actually *build* something.

The highs and lows are just noise.

What matters is how you handle the middle.

Social content looks effortless. But behind every "casual" post is a machine most people never see.

Shot lists. 
Mood boards. 
Content calendars mapped weeks in advance. 
Last-minute pivots when something isn't working.
Coordination between creative teams, account managers, and clients. 
Multiple takes to get the "spontaneous" moment just right.
Countless revisions. 
More revisions. 

The brands that make it look easy have systems.

At Vagabond, we've built processes that handle the complexity so the final product feels natural.

Pre-production planning that accounts for every variable. Streamlined workflows that keep projects moving. Quality control that catches issues before they become problems.

The goal isn't to eliminate the work. It's to make the work invisible.

Because when social content truly connects, nobody should see the effort behind it.

The D2C playbook is broken.

For years, brands built entire businesses on cheap Facebook ads.

Those days are over.

CPMs have doubled on Meta and TikTok. Big brands flooded in, driving up competition and costs.
iOS 14 killed precise targeting. Lookalike audiences and retargeting became guesswork overnight.

Ad fatigue is real. Consumers scroll past, block ads, or just don't trust overly salesy content anymore.

This summer, we've worked with more D2C brands flipping the script entirely.

Instead of paid-first with organic as an afterthought, they're going organic-first with paid as support.

Authentic content that builds genuine connections. 
Community-led growth that creates actual brand loyalty.
User-generated content that doesn't feel like advertising. 

Of course, paid still works. But it's no longer the affordable growth lever it once was.

The brands getting ahead now treat organic social as essential infrastructure, not a nice extra.

They're building brand equity and long-term loyalty instead of chasing cheap clicks.

The D2C brands still betting everything on paid acquisition? 

Will get left behind.

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The Battle

Jake Summerhayes

TJ Lee

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Engagements

Likes

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