Lauren Dudley

Auxo

⚡️ We’re a purpose-first social team offering campaigns, training and management across organic, paid and content creator relationships, slotting seamlessly into a wider 360° marketing strategy. 

⚡️ We work with brands and personalities of all shapes and sizes, across many industries and niches, all with the same goal: to be iconic. 

⚡️ We believe in no bullshit.  

⚡️ We believe in being human. 

⚡️ We believe in knowledge sharing.

⚡️ We donate 5% of annual profits to Mind Charity.

Founder & Director 

(various)

Digital Marketing Director

Various online and print publications

+ Journalist - British Vogue, GQ, Elle, Grazia, The Mirror and so on.
+ Picture Editor - Print and Digital - Vogue, Conde Nast International, British GQ, Porter, Glamour, Brides, Marie Claire, Elle, Hello! Magazine and others.
+ Photographer - Vogue, Glamour, Twinings, Lexus, Galvin Restaurants, Les Nereides, London Farmer's Markets, Define London, Time's Up Rally and so much more.

Freelance Content Producer

Taster

+ Heading all of the 7 brands' digital output. 
+ Across the 14 months, I increased our following across platforms over 500%.
+ An image I produced for Out Fry’s social was voted finalist for Most Instagrammable Dish in the UK Deliveroo Awards. This particular dish was then placed 87 on the top 100 dishes sold across Deliveroo internationally in the same year.

Social Media, Content & Community Manager

NET-A-PORTER

Contracted Picture Editor, working on the visual output of Porter Digital - both across the website and social media.

Picture Editor

Glamour

When Glamour became bi-annual, I came on board for a contracted 3 months to put together the AW19 issue.

AW19 Print Picture Editor

Vogue

Digital Picture Editor

Grazia Magazine / Bauer Media

Working alongside the visual team of Grazia Magazine.

Picture Team

Vantage News

+ Running the social media (facebook and instagram) for Vantage
+ Keeping track of what had been published 
+ Creating relationships with picture teams across the UK.

Administrative and Marketing Assistant

Founder and Director of social-first team Auxo - pronounced “awk-soh”, meaning Greek goddess of growth.

⚡️ We’re a TikTok-first social team offering campaigns, training and management across organic, paid and content creator relationships, slotting seamlessly into a wider 360° marketing strategy. 

⚡️ We work with brands and personalities of all shapes and sizes, across many industries and niches, all with the same goal: to be iconic. 

⚡️ We believe in no bullshit.  

⚡️ We believe in being human. 

⚡️ We believe in knowledge sharing.

⚡️ We donate 5% of annual profits to Mind Charity.

Remoteli

Fractional Social Media Director

OSSAI

Founder and CEO

Restore Digital

Establish a social presence for Restore Digital & Restore Plc create engaging content for various platforms

Social Media Executive

Wauve (Musician)

Boosted online fanbase by 37.5% in 3 months and led creative marketing campaign that reached UK music chart success

Head Of Marketing / Creative Director

Officially Urban

Designed and created content with an aesthetic appealing to millennials with an affinity to urban music culture and entertainment.

Co-founded original content series ‘Chips and Gravy’. In charge of directing, editing the series, which average 50K views over 15 episodes.

Managed and updated social media account with over 215K followers

Marketing Executive

TRIPLE B CLOTHING LIMITED

Designed and created social media content with an aesthetic appealing to millennials with an affinity to streetwear culture

Maintain and update company blogs and social media pages, averaging a 50K weekly reach.

Led creative sessions for project kick-offs, managing multiple complex projects from concept through completion, using specialist software (Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro etc.)

Worked with a strict marketing budget that averaged a marketing ROI of 1:10 over 5 years

We build personal brands for Black/Diverse Founders and CEOs 🗣 | CEO & Founder of OSSAI

Hey I'm Phil! 👋🏿

I’m Phil, a food & football-loving northern lad based in Manchester, UK. 

I also run OSSAI agency, a personal branding agency for founders and CEOS

For the last 7 years, I’ve been helping brands and founders, especially from underrepresented backgrounds, by building their communities on various social platforms, most specifically LinkedIn, TikTok & Instagram. All with the aim to create opportunities to improve their businesses and careers 🚀

I do this through LinkedIn personal branding management & social media strategy (LinkedIn, TikTok & Instagram).

Over the years I’ve helped my clients receive 👇🏿

⭐ Millions of followers

⭐ Hundreds of viral posts

⭐ Millions of reactions & engagement

But most importantly

🤑 £100,000s of pounds in opportunities and business

If you’re looking for additional support with your personal branding and LinkedIn Strategy then I’d love to jump on a FREE strategy call with you. 

Let's chat 👉🏿 https://calendly.com/philipossai/personal-branding-discovery-chat

Grab a copy of my LinkedIn Mini Playbook 👉🏿 https://linkedinminiplaybook.ck.page/mpb

Phil Ossai

I’ve been out my anti-social shell this month!

This time at Venture Café Manchester 🥳

Heard a cool talk from Maltina Jashari on her journey as an Architectural Engineering student AND Salford’s first female racing driver, competing in Formula 4.

Plus really great to meet so many new faces in a city I’ve lived in my whole entire life. 

Hopefully a few cool things in the pipeline too! 

Until next time! 🥂

Thank you to Harpreet Kaur and Andrew Ruffler for putting on a great event!  

Dr. Karim A. Bahou Jenna Gibson Jessica Mannion Simon Tutton Cameron Blackburn  

Aiden Karwowska Atif Mahmood… part of Margaret Ward’s MCR Cowork family 🫶🏿

I build LinkedIn Personal Brands for public figures and founders with OSSAI Agency & Pesora AI

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“You sound like you’re from London” 🙄

I hate when people say this to me…

FYI:

→ There are well-spoken northerners.

→ There are black people that exist outside of London.

→ And also, there are Black Entrepreneurs that exist outside of London.

I will keep shouting about this until everyone gets the message 😅

P.S. Any Manchester-based Founders? Hit me up in the DMs, let's connect!

If I were Lando Norris’ personal brand manager, here's what I'd do to grow his LinkedIn:

(For anyone unaware, Lando just delivered a masterclass in Abu Dhabi, FINALLY becoming Formula 1 World Champion after 6 years of being told he wasn't "championship material")

My 3-step playbook for Lando's LinkedIn:

1) I'd own the 'authenticity over aggression' narrative

→ His championship proves nice guys don't finish last in high-performance environments
→ Share how he stayed true to his personality while developing killer instinct
→ Position this as lessons in sustainable high performance without burning bridges
→ Connect F1 teamwork to business collaboration

Execution: Weekly posts breaking down what Lando’s “authenticity code” is, sharing the mantra as a series.

2) Create 'pressure and patience' content series

→ Document how he handled 6 years of "nearly there" moments without losing his mind
→ Show the mental preparation behind staying consistent when everyone expected explosions
→ Frame it around long-term thinking in a short-term world
→ This builds credibility that translates perfectly to founder audiences

(I'm sure Zak Brown, Netflix and the McLaren team are already onto this!)

Execution: Behind-the-scenes content about playing the long game in competitive industries

3) Share the lessons from his strategic evolution

→ His racecraft completely evolved from the kid who used to overdrive the car
→ Talk about calculated risk-taking versus reckless ambition
→ Connect race strategy to business pivoting and market timing
→ This positions him as someone who learns systematically from setbacks

Execution: Monthly breakdowns of how patience and preparation beat panic and pressure. 

—-

Lando's proven he can:

Stay true to himself under extreme pressure
Turn criticism into fuel without changing who he is
Deliver when it matters most

✌🏿

I asked 147 founders how long it takes them to create a LinkedIn post.

Average answer: 35 minutes.

Most of them have never broken down what those 35 minutes actually cost them.

Let me do the maths for you:

If you're posting 4 times a week, that's 140 minutes weekly. That's 2.3 hours.

Over a year? 121 hours of founder time.

Now multiply that by your hourly rate. (Yes, you need to know this number.)

If you're worth £500/hour, you're spending £60,500 annually creating LinkedIn content.

Content creation isn't one task. It's five distinct elements:

→ Content ideation (finding what to write about)
→ Content research (gathering data and insights)  
→ Content writing (actual post creation)
→ Content approval (team review process if applicable)
→ Content scheduling (publishing)

Each requires different skills. Each has different ROI potential.

The founders crushing it on LinkedIn? 

They've figured out which elements to keep in-house and which to outsource.

Calculate what those 121 hours are actually costing your business. 

Then ask yourself - is EVERY element of the LinkedIn content creation process really the highest value use of your time?

✌🏿

I've worked with a few US Founders on their personal brands this year.

And I can tell you with 100% confidence... 

The way Personal Branding is embraced in the US vs the UK is insane.

Business UK culture hates individualism, whereas the US celebrates it.

US Founders mindset:

→ Go big or go home.
→ Invest fast, fire fast.
→ High-risk tolerance.

UK Founders mindset:

→ Slow and steady wins the race.
→ Months of due diligence before investing.
→ Low-risk tolerance.

There's a reason the largest companies in the world are based in the US and not in Europe...

Mic drop 🫳🏿🎤

A message for my fellow young, ambitious professionals:

Life is happening right now.

Many of us think like this:

☢️💭 “When I make X per month, then I’ll have fun”

☢️💭 “When I achieve XYZ, then I’ll go take time off to see my family”

☢️💭 "Let me just put my head down for X weeks/months, then I’ll go for that GP appointment I have been putting off”. 

These are toxic thoughts ☢️💭

There’s a fine line between delayed gratification and full-on deprivation.

Don’t shoot the messenger 🤷🏿‍♂️

I’ve been building Pesora for nearly 11 months now.

And we’re about to launch V2 but…

The transition from V1 to V2 was an absolute car crash 🫠

V1 proved the point: founders want help showing up consistently without sounding like a templated robot.

But V1 also made something painfully clear.

It was missing the two things users kept asking for:

1) Transparency

Without a proper chat interface, it felt like a black box. Press a button, hope for the best.
I thought I was being a Mr Steve Jobs... 😅 

But users wanted more than just the final drafted post.
They want to see the thinking, steer it, challenge it, refine it etc

2) The ability to think ahead

V1 couldn’t help you plan strategically.
V2 does.

It lets you create post briefs in advance, so you can plan content around:

→ awareness days coming up
→ events you’re attending
→ launches, announcements, moments you know are coming.

And it can run scheduled searches on key publications so ideas come to you proactively, instead of you scrambling last minute.


Thennn there was the part I didn’t expect:

The tool needed to be editable as it grows.

The amazing Mel Whiteley has come to me so many times in the office with:

“Phil, I wish it could do this.”
“This feature is broken.”
“Can you explain what’s happening here?”

So I learned to code.
I learned to read logs.
I learned to ship fixes fast.

V2 isn’t just a better product for founders.

V2 is a better system for us to improve in real time, without waiting weeks to move.

And honestly… it’s given me a lot of hope (and excitement) for 2026.

More to come!

In the meantime could you help me?

What’s the one thing you wish a personal branding AI tool could do for your LinkedIn content right now?

The biggest blocker to founders creating content isn't time.

It's fear.

"Phil, I know I need to be more visible online. But what if I sound stupid?"

I hear this all the time:

→ Fear of judgment from peers
→ Fear of saying the wrong thing
→ Fear of not being "polished" enough
→ Fear of competitors seeing their strategies

Every single founder I work with thinks they're the only one feeling this way.

You're not.

The CEO worried about grammar mistakes? Normal.
The founder afraid their insights aren't valuable enough? Normal.
The entrepreneur thinking, "who am I to share advice?" Normal.

But whilst you're sitting on the sidelines worrying, your competitors are building trust, attracting customers, and positioning themselves as thought leaders.

What's common knowledge to you... is a game changer to someone else.

Your messy, imperfect insights are more valuable than perfect silence.

✌🏿

📸: Manchester Fitness Circle 5K - join a run club, been a gamechanger.

The Haven 'I Run' AI song controversy is the perfect case study for why I keep banging on about authenticity.

Here's what happened:
→ UK producer Haven creates viral track using AI vocals that sound like Jorja Smith
→ Song hits streaming platforms, gets massive traction
→ Jorja Smith's label fights back with takedown notices
→ Song was about to be # 1 on the charts, gets pulled
→ Haven re-records with an actual human singer

But the damage was already done.

This isn't just about music. It's about every founder and creator using AI right now.

The temptation is massive. 

AI can mimic anyone's voice, style, approach. 

But authenticity isn't just a nice-to-have anymore, it's your only competitive advantage.

Haven's team spent months fighting takedowns, dealing with legal drama, and ultimately had to re-record everything anyway. 

Meanwhile, the human singer they eventually found (Kaitlin Aragon) was already covering the track on TikTok.

The authentic version was right there all along.

Same thing happens with personal brands. I see founders using AI to sound like Gary Vaynerchuk or copy top LinkedIn voices, thinking it's a shortcut. But audiences can smell inauthenticity from miles away.

What's common knowledge to you... is a game changer to someone else.

So use it!

Use AI to amplify your voice, not replace it. Your authentic story, your real experiences, your actual perspective - that's what cuts through the noise.

The Haven controversy will be forgotten in six months. But authentic voices like Jorja Smith  will continue building empires.

✌🏿

taplio

The Battle

Lauren Dudley

Phil Ossai

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScorePhil Ossai's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Lauren Dudley

Phil Ossai

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);}Phil Ossai's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScorePhil Ossai's LinkedIn Performance