Sam G. Winsbury

We Create Thought Leaders Through Personal Branding | 150+ Personal Brands Built | Founder & CEO Kurogo

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We turn entrepreneurs into credible thought leaders through personal branding so they can scale their businesses, unlock untapped opportunities and outlast their competition.

If you’re anything like our clients, you’re an expert in your field. One of the best.

But you just don’t seem to have the reputation you deserve.

You want to be the go-to authority in your industry and become an opportunity magnet.

That way you could…

- Generate inbound leads consistently
- Win clients and customers with ease
- Attract media features
- Attract top talent
- Speak on stage

The list is endless.

We help our clients do just that through the power of personal branding, by:

1. Giving them clarity on their brand and positioning them as industry leaders.
2. Blowing up their social profiles and landing them high-profile media features.
3. Helping them convert their new-found reputation into meaningful opportunities and ROI

And having built 300+ personal brands, we’ve got quite good at it, achieving results like these in the process:

🚀 Jack generated 2.5M views and 6 figures in revenue in 90 days with us 
🚀 Joe and Olly generated millions of views and saw a record month
🚀 Guy added 5 figures of pipeline value in a matter of months
🚀 Shan Grew 24,000 followers and landed $200,000 in sales
🚀 Olie added £50K of inbound revenue to his pipeline
🚀 Sue generated over 8.3 million views in 4 months
🚀 Jemma increased her views by 51,347%
🚀 James became an Amazon Best Seller 
🚀 Tom generated 5M views in 3 months 
🚀 Anna doubled her followers in 1 year
🚀 Debbie generated 11M Views

Your reputation is your biggest asset. Take control of it! 

If you want to see how we could help you build your personal brand, shoot me a dm saying ‘Personal Brand’

If you're not quite ready yet, I post daily content on here showing you how to do it yourself.

Founder

Pret A Manger CEO Pano Christou's journey is incredible.

2000: Assistant Manager
2019: Became CEO

In a world that pushes you to start a new job every 6 months or build a 6 figure business in 3, it’s nice to see there's still a case for working your way up in one place.

Personal Brand Advisor To Leading Entrepreneurs & Execs | 350+ Brands Built | Speaker | Sky, Entrepreneur, Insider | Founder & CEO Kurogo

2020

- Struggling freelancer
- Constantly ignored
- Insecure

2021

- Started taking LinkedIn seriously
- Began building my personal brand
- Started signing more clients

2022

- Hired team members
- Signed loads of clients
- Was the ‘kid with potential’

2024

- Grew rather fast
- Got rather stressed
- Increased my prices

2026

- Run quite a good personal brand agency
- Helped 350+ people build their brands
- Happiest I’ve ever been

What changed? 

1. 6 years of trial and error 
2. Huge focus on authority over everything
3. Realising everything you want is the other side of reach and reputation

More people trusting you as an expert will never not be useful.

So start sharing your ideas/opinions/expertise online.

For 15 years, the growth playbook was “send & spend”.

Run ads → generate leads → sales grinds → numbers game → maths works.

And to be fair… it did work when buying was simple and linear.

2005 buying: see ad → click → buy.

But 2026 buying is not linear.

2026 buying: see you → ignore you → see you again → ask a friend → google you → check your LinkedIn → read comments → watch a video → forget → come back 3 weeks later → then enquire.

It’s not a funnel anymore. It’s a squiggly line.

Inside the chaos, only one thing matters:

Trust.

Because when buyers have unlimited choice and unlimited information, they don’t pick the “best” option on paper.

They pick the option that feels safest.
The one they trust most.

Here’s the truth:

If you still rely on “cheap leads + pushy sales” to do the heavy lifting,
you’re betting against how modern buyers behave.

They do the work before they ever speak to you:

- searching your name
- checking your LinkedIn
- looking for social proof
- scanning for authority
- testing if you’re credible

So if your marketing is only designed for volume

but not designed to create trust…
you’re just paying to enter the messy middle 
(where you’re judged, compared, and forgotten)

That’s why trust-based marketing is winning.

And the best way to collapse the timeline for trust? 

Personal brand.

- 89.4% are more likely to trust a company if a senior leader is seen as an expert
- 98.2% say leadership expertise affects purchasing decisions
- 85.9% would pay at least 2x more to work with a leader in their space

The top 1% in every industry are exploiting this.

Over the last few years, I’ve even used it to:

- help 350+ execs build their brands
- generate 100M+ views
- drive £10M+ in pipeline

And I’ve seen the same patterns again and again.

There are 5 trends the top 1% of industry leaders are using to dominate 2026.

I’m breaking all of them down in a new live training:

“The 2026 Personal Brand Playbook: How To Build A $1M Personal Brand.”

If you want your reputation to do more of the heavy lifting…

Join the live training here: https://lnkd.in/e6ZKYnmB

Ps. Everyone who attends will get our FULL LinkedIn Profile Optimisation Blueprint for free (usually £79)

For years, 'having a great product' was enough.

Your work would do the talking... That world is closing. Fast.

Here is what the data says:

→ 90% of executives think people trust them
→ 30% of customers actually do

Pwc call it 'The Trust Gap'.

That gap is where deals are won and lost.

Best way to close it? Personal branding.

When I look at the 350+ brands we have built, the ones who win treat personal branding as a tool, not an ego trip.

They follow a simple flow:

1️⃣ Position

You become “THE person for X”, not “Another option”.

→ Clear proof
→ Clear promise
→ Clear point of view

2️⃣ Amplify

You show up where your buyers already spend time.

→ Content that speaks to their pain
→ Opinion, frameworks, predictions
→ It acts like a 24/7 salesperson

3️⃣ Convert

You turn attention into pipeline.

→ Clear, low friction next steps
→ Nurturing focus, not chasing
→ Ecosystems, not funnels

We are in the reputation economy.

So today I'm breaking down the 5 trends that will separate the top 1% of leaders from everyone else in 2026:

→ The rise of the executive personal brand
→ The shift from posting to positioning
→ Fame vs authority
→ Ecosystem-driven growth
→ How AI will make or break your reputation

If you want your face to be the one people trust in 2026, now is the time to build it.

Join us for our workshop later where I have nothing to pitch to you:

https://lnkd.in/e6ZKYnmB

View company: Kurogo - Personal Branding Agency

In this session, Sam Winsbury (Founder of Kurogo) will walk through the 5 Trends That Will Separate the Top 1% of Thought Leaders From Everyone Else in 2026:

✅ The rise of the executive personal brand (and why people trust individuals far more than companies

✅ Why positioning beats posting (and how authority compounds)

✅ Why fame ≠ authority (and how ‘smaller’ brands are winning higher-value deals)

✅ The “ecosystem” strategy replacing funnels (how modern consumers really ‘buy before they pay’)

✅ How to use AI without damaging your reputation

Plus everyone who attends will get 3 exclusive bonuses:

🎁 Bonus 1: Our Complete Guide To Building A Personal Brand in 2026
🎁 Bonus 2: Our Profile Optimisation Checklist For Free (Worth £79)
🎁 Bonus 3: A Free 30 Day Trial To The Thought Leader’s Academy (Worth £97)

This session is designed for:

- Founders, CEOs, and marketing teams
- Consultants, coaches, and professional services
- Anyone whose business depends on trust, credibility, and reputation

If you feel like:

- opportunities are harder to come by
- sales cycles are getting longer
- competition feels louder but not better
- or you’re being overlooked despite having a great offer

This session will give you the roadmap to dominating your industry in 2026. 

🗓️ 5th February 2026
⏰ 18.00 GMT / 12.00 CST

View event: How To Build A $1M Personal Brand In 2026: 5 Trends You Must Know

How To Build A $1M Personal Brand In 2026: 5 Trends You Must Know

MattressTek

MattressTek excels at developing and producing innovative mattress making machines improving
our customers productivity, profitability and compliance.
All our machines are British-made, in-house and are built on rock-solid foundations using our own manufacturing facilities and the latest state-of-the-art machinery equipment (Amada). Our in-house CAD designers know how important it is to understand good design and build quality in the mattress making industry, using their 30 years of experience.
Our current mattress machinery products include Tape Edge and Tufting machines and Conveyors but we’re developing a full portfolio of mattress making machinery including Border, Panel Cutting and Slitting machines.

mattresstek.co.uk

● Full-suite marketing strategy to take the business forward and enable the development of business and growth through existing contacts and capitalisation of opportunities within the bed industry and beyond, through international growth, trade, awards, trade shows, grant funding and widespread awareness..
● Exploration and analysis of partnership and networking opportunities, promoting the pride to be a British manufacturer status and developing of links around export and international relations, utilising social media, industry and trade press and email marketing.
● Facilitation and management of marketing activities and operations for sister company (Tek-Dry Systems), as well as a sub-brand (AutomateTek), US distributor (AtoZ Automation) and a subsidiary (MPC Tek - Machined Precision Components).

Marketing Coordinator

All of the tasks under Marketing Coordinator, as well as further Operational, Servicing and Sales support and coordination.
As well as designated driver of the fleet.

Marketing, Servicing and Sales Coordinator

The Jenna Wilkins Foundation

The Foundation was set up in memory of Jenna who was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after her 21st birthday. She was studying to be a teacher and working with those with special educational and emotional needs (SEND). She lost her battle with cancer when we was just 25 years old.

Marketing (Digital) Advisor

AUTOMATE TEK

Our presence online and at trade shows like Foam Expo and interzum has meant that we have also received enquiries from all across the world to use our machines, in an adapted form, in other industries of manufacturing, far beyond beds and mattresses, to serve the automotive, interiors, furniture, industrial and fulfilment and logistics sectors.

As a result, we are introducing AUTOMATE TEK to differentiate the machines that can be made bespoke and modified to your tailored requirements and specifications.

A new offering that will help manufacturers and processors to find our machines and provide a solution that fits their needs, no matter what their industry. We are experts in problem solving and preventative solutions that fit into existing and new production lines to automate and streamline facilities and plant operations and make them more efficient, reducing time wastage, downtime, increasing productivity, capacity and volume of output.

automatetek.co.uk

Marketing

Phoenix Dryers & Engineering

Marketing Support

Plus Importance Project

As the UK’s first registered charity with a focus on the + of LGBT+, we aim to create a world where those who identify fully or partly in the + of LGBT+ experience equal rights, respect and representation.
LGBT+ defined as sexualities, gender identities, relationship orientations and sex characteristics including, but not limited to; POC, asexual, genderfluid, genderqueer, intersex, non-binary, pansexual, polyamorous, queer and neurodiverse, etc.

Our identities are valid and should be recognised, understood and celebrated.

As Marketing Lead, I work with the founder and chair, as well as other trustees and volunteers, and oversee the management and administration of the marketing, brand and awareness of the charity, ensuring we keep to our values, and contribute to our strategic direction.

Marketing Lead

Clothing Collective

Outreach to support organisations across the North West of England to provide them with pre-paid gift cards to distribute to those in need to spend on clothes in charity shops listed with the Charity Retail Association.

We partner with charity shops who accept our gift cards in return for clothing stock held at their shops. We also partner with charities such as food banks and shelters who distribute our gift cards to those people in need to redeem them at one of our ‘charity shop partners’. 

It’s a win-win scenario: those in need get access to warm comfortable clothing in a humane and dignified way, our ‘gift card distributing partners’ are able to support their beneficiaries in an additional way, and our ‘charity shop partners’ are able to turn around more stock from their stores, generating additional revenue for their charity cause.

A helping hand for those in need and those who help them.

clothingcollective.org

Outreach (users and partners)

Rescue Partners

Guidance around marketing, strategy and fundraising, as well as outreach to shelters to be listed (semi-automatically) onto a national directory.

For the shelters, we offer a free to use, national platform, on which to publicise their animals. We've built it to be quick and easy to use, and offer the option to link with their own website and social media - ultimatly reducing the time and effort they spend on trying to keep their online presence updated.

For those looking for their next furry friend our site offers a unique search function, allowing you to look for animals up and down the country whilst offering a range of filters such as age, breed, good with pets, and many more... all to make your search that little bit easier.

We exist to help match animals with their forever homes, as quickly as possible.

www.rescue.partners

Marketing Strategy and Development Advisor

HAPHE

Strategic communication to enhance HAPHE’s public image and reach more individuals in need of mental health support and playing a key role in educating the community and stakeholders about the importance of mental health prevention. Also in anticipation of a film launch involving post-trauma struggles and experiences of university students.

Public Relations Specialist / PR Advisor

Fearless Adventures

Community Member

The Spiritual Arts Foundation

Marketing (strategic) team member

Marketing & Communications💡| Manufacturing👨‍🏭 | Hospitality🎩 | Mental Health🧠 | Media📣 | 🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ+ Equality & Diversity

"Sometimes it is the people noone imagines anything of who do the things that noone can imagine" ~ Alan Turing

Multi-award-winning marketer with over a decade of cross-industry experience who has been referred for roles and managed a whole spectrum of projects.

A highly-motivated creative professional with extensive experience in many aspects of public relations, communications, media, customer service and strategy, I am constantly focussed to ensuring efficiency, innovation and best utilisation of resources and maximum return on investment (ROI), putting customer experience at the forefront of my thought-processes, and decision-making. 

Ensuring the highest standards in all work undertaken, my excellent communication and interpersonal skills and intuitive approach to communication and collaborative working, along with a friendly, enthusiastic yet approachable personality, have proven effective in establishing strong working relationships with clients, suppliers and colleagues, among other critical stakeholders.

Having undertaken a variety of responsibility- and authority-driven roles, working on contracts and projects of varying scale, my diverse background has spanned a whole decade;  embracing sectors covering construction, legal and FMCG, recruitment, hospitality and leisure, and more recently returning to the manufacturing sector, always ensuring the improvement of processes, maintenance of quality service and product delivery, and adherence to compliance regulations.

I am a true people person with an infectious thirst for continuous improvement, development and empowering others to succeed.

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The Battle

Sam G. Winsbury

Chris O👨‍💼 ~ Serial Networker and Connector of People 🤝

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taplio

The Battle

Sam G. Winsbury

Chris O👨‍💼 ~ Serial Networker and Connector of People 🤝

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);}Sam G. Winsbury's LinkedIn Performance

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