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

Luke Shalom

CEO @ Grow Solo I help the C-suite turn industry expertise into predictable pipeline

There are two ways agency founders try to turn LinkedIn into a reliable source of clients.

One is by guessing. Posting when there is time. Relying on referrals and hoping the next month is a good one.

The other is by building a system that creates steady conversations, even when client work gets busy.

Our clients choose the second.

→ Joya Dass (Founder, Women’s Leadership Lab)

The problem:

- She spent hours in the DMs to book a few calls.
- Content happened on weekends.
- When delivery picked up, sales stopped.

Some months were strong. Others were quiet.

Even in good months, there was stress about where the next client would come from.

What we did:

We built a simple LinkedIn content system she could run in house. No ghostwriter or agency retainer dependency.

We shifted her content from generic how to posts to insight driven thinking.

That changed the conversations. People in her network showed up aligned and ready to buy.

We added a content led outbound system powered by a setter we hited and trained. The system kept working while she focused on delivery.

Results:

- Revenue grew from $150k to $300k.
- Sales became predictable.
- The pressure eased.

→ Jonathan Crowder (Founder, Founders Ally)

The problem:

- No time for content.
- Unpredictable sales calls.
- Leads with no budget.
- No sales background. A 10 percent close rate.

What we did:

We removed Jonathan as the bottleneck. 

We built a content system using AI supported by his real thinking. It sounded like him, not software.

Trust was built before the call. Outbound went from 10% to 40% response rates.

We focused prospecting on real buying moments, like recent funding to catch buyers at the right time.

We simplified his sales process. Clear outcomes. Clear cost of inaction was communicated to his buyers.

Results:

- Meetings went from 3-5 a month to 10-15 sales qualifed leads a month.
- A visible pipeline. Increase to a 25 percent close rate.
- $300k in pipeline in 60 days.
- $30k in new revenue closed.

→ Brian Dukes (COO, Exit Wise)

The problem

- Ovelry dependent on referrals.
- No LinkedIn playbook.
- No time to write.

What we did

- We clarified positioning.
- Simplified the offer.
- Built a content engine.

Then we added outbound from the founder profile.

Everything was owned and run internally.

Results:

- Consistent posting machine.
- 500 to 6500 ICP followers.
- $740,000 in LinkedIn-driven revenue over two years.

We have helped 100+ founder led agencies replace unpredictable growth with systems they understand and control.

If this feels familiar, we should talk.

We help executives to build and monetize their brand on linkedin by scaling your content and turning it into leads, authority and thought leadership.

How?

Engagement + DM flows = Qualified meetings. 

Done with you. Done for you.

Everyone is losing their minds over the new LinkedIn algorithm. 

But I’ll break down every change I’ve seen in 2026, 2 mins so you can gain an fair advantage:

1) Your profile, content and offer have to be aligned to drive reach
 
You used to be able to post about anything and get substantial reach. Now LinkedIn is looking to showcase authorities in specific niches. 

If your content doesn’t match the positioning on your profile, LinkedIn is more likely to label your content as “this person doesn’t usually talk about this so they can’t be an expert” and show less of it. 

How to fix this? 

Keeping everything aligned helps ensure your posts have the best possible chance of staying in the feed (cited from a Jodie Cook Forbes article and bolstered by Chris Donnelly).

2) Random pictures < relevant media
 
No longer can you post a random selfie to “boost reach”. It literally makes zero difference now. 

The real change? LinkedIn is now prioritising content with “relevant media”. This is essentially anything that aids the understanding of the post itself.
 
The litmus test here is simple. If your picture isn’t relevant to the post, it doesn’t need one.
 
3) Posts last 48 hours < posts last weeks in the feed
 
2024/25 saw posts hit peak velocity in 24–48 hours and then slowly decline. Now the algorithm has moved towards prioritising evergreen content. 

How do you adapt? 

Reduce your “recent news” content around events and increase your production of content that provides evergreen insight.

Get this right and you only need a few bangers to drive pipeline for the year. 

5 of my founder teardown posts made up about 20% of my monthly reach despite being posts from 6 months ago.
 
4) If AI can write it, it’s not good enough
 
Everyone is using Chat. And now everyone’s a writer. The problem is AI will always deviate towards the median of what it thinks “good content” should look like. 

That’s leading to a feed clogged with mediocre content. First rule, if AI can write your idea, it’s not good enough. 

The easiest shift is to stop generic how-to content and reframe everything through the lens of “How I do this”.
 
5) Prioritising the wrong CTAs for growth
 
It used to be follows and reshares that drove reach. Now it’s all about SAVES.

 How many people enjoyed your content enough to want to come back to it later. This signals higher dwell time too.  

This isn’t just about asking for saves though. It’s about how well your hook communicates the message of the post and how evergreen the structure is so people can actually use it later. 

But if you want a short-term plaster, simply asking for a save will still move the needle even if you don’t fix the content upstream.
 
-

If you enjoyed this post, make sure to hit “save” so you can come back to this laster”

Founder at Atticus | Predictable LinkedIn pipeline using a founder-led sales system I 100+ clients scaled | Be the next 👉 atticusagency.com

Stop sending DMs that get ignored. I booked 1,000+ sales calls from LinkedIn and made $1.3M doing. Steal the exact script ↓

Comment and I'll send it to you.

I used to spend hours crafting the "perfect" DM. Tweaking. Rewriting. Getting ghosted anyway and following up like a desperate ex.

Now I use a 5-message sequence I've tested for 3 years straight. Instead of 18 rejections out of 20, we are booking 20-40 calls a month.

Every conversation feels like it came from them.

Here's what's inside:

- DM 1: Open with context, not a pitch
- DM 2: Follow up without sounding desperate
- DM 3: Uncover their pain in natural conversation
- DM 4: Transition to a call without it feeling forced
- DM 5: Make it stupid easy to book the meeting
- The complete walkthrough...  all 5 messages in action
- 5 mistakes that kill your DM conversion rate
- How to customise the script for your ICP

BONUS: DM Personalisation Framework that gets 80% response rates.
It took me 2 years and 1,000+ DMs to build. Takes you 60 seconds to steal.

Stop using LinkedIn DMs like a cold email channel. 

Start using them like a trust-building machine.

How to get it: 

1/ Connect with me 2/ Comment below and I'll DM you everything

♻️ Repost to skip the queue. 

P.S. We must be connected... otherwise LinkedIn blocks the message.

P.SS The perplexity lead magnet will be coming over today/ tomorrow... keep those eyes peeled!

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The Battle

Sam G. Winsbury

Luke Shalom

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taplio

The Battle

Sam G. Winsbury

Luke Shalom

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

Performance ScoreLuke Shalom's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreSam G. Winsbury's LinkedIn Performance