Victoria Tollossa, MBA

Director of Marketing 

Most leaders know their personal brand matters.
Few treat it like the strategic business asset it actually is.

In today’s Trust Economy, your reputation arrives before you do.
Your presence shapes perception.
Your voice influences revenue, recruiting, partnerships, investor confidence, and the way people respond to your company.

The problem is:
Most leaders aren’t showing up in a way that reflects the level of their work.

They’re credible, but not visible.
Experienced, but hard to find online.
Respected offline, but underrepresented in the digital world where decisions are increasingly made.

That’s where we come in.

At Illume, we help modern leaders turn their personal brand into a strategic business asset — one that strengthens trust, accelerates opportunity, and moves your company forward.

My approach blends narrative strategy, psychology, and social media to help leaders:

• articulate a clear, compelling story
• communicate with authority and humanity
• build trust at scale through their digital presence
• strengthen company reputation and influence
• convert visibility into meaningful business outcomes

I’ve built brands across Fortune 500 companies, high-growth startups, and professional services firms.

Whether through full-service brand management, strategic consulting, or AI-powered tools that help leaders gain clarity and consistency, my work centers one belief:

Your personal brand is strategic leverage.
And when used well, it becomes one of the most powerful assets in your business.

If you’re ready to build a personal brand that actually drives results (not just noise) let’s connect.

Founder & CEO

I arrived in America from Ukraine on this day 32 years ago. 
My mom and I landed in Washington DC 
with 3 suitcases and a dream of a better life. 

I remember walking out of the airport anticipating to see sunshine, palm trees and fancy mansions like the ones I’ve seen so many times on reruns of Beverly Hills 90210. 

Instead, I was greeted by the cold DC winter and snow. 🤦🏽‍♀️

The look on my face was priceless haha.

It was also that day that I met my dad for the first time. Until then, I only knew him through a photo with a random light exposure dot on his forehead. 

One of my first memories in the US was going to a grocery store. 
We didn’t have any in Ukraine at that time. 
At least not like the huge supermarkets in America. 

It was literally the most magnificent thing I have ever experienced. 

Automatic doors, 
Aisles upon aisles of food, 
Beautiful displays and 
Candy for days. 
Pure heaven! 
 
Now, as I mark 32 years in America, I’m beyond grateful to be in a country where my dreams have no ceiling. 

From the highest of the highs to the lowest of the lows, I have been through it all. 

And even though I didn’t get the 90210 glam, the real life adventure turned out to be far more thrilling than any TV drama.

Victoria Tollossa is the Founder and CEO of Illume, a personal branding agency on a mission to help entrepreneurs, C-suites and other business leaders amplify their industry visibility and impact in service of their vision. 

Hailing from the music industry where Victoria spent years helping recording artists build personal brands, this Grammy Award Nominated expert has honed her skills in storytelling, design, social media, and content creation, delivering meaningful business impact for her clients.

Her exceptional skills in market research, brand positioning, messaging, design, content and media strategy make her a highly sought-after expert in the industry.

As a two time founder, Victoria’s entrepreneurial spirit and innovative mindset, have led her to establish not only Illume but also a direct-to-consumer subscription service start-up and an experiential marketing agency, where she worked with high-profile clients such as Target, Ford, and Bravo's Real Housewives.

Victoria is an active member of the marketing community, serving as a mentor at the American Marketing Association's Marketing Mentor Network program.

She earned her B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University and an M.B.A. from American University's Kogod School of Business.

I help leaders turn their personal brand into a business asset | Grammy-Nominated Storyteller ft. in Fortune, Inc & Entrepreneur | CEO @ Illume

Being vulnerable online can build trust. 
BUT it can also destroy your credibility.  
Building a personal brand, where do you draw the line?

We hear it all the time: "Be authentic!" "Tell your story!" "Share your struggles!"  

And yes, people trust and connect with realness. 
Especially with all the AI slop out there. 

But there’s a fine line between strategic vulnerability and oversharing.

Vulnerability is less about what you reveal.
And more about when, why, and for whom you reveal it.

Leaders lose credibility when:

— They share experiences they’re still emotionally processing
— They're seeking validation instead of offering insight
— The story centers on them, not the lesson

Credibility is built when you do the opposite.

Share lessons, not open wounds.
If you’re still processing it, then it’s not ready to be content. 
Social media isn’t therapy. 

Make it useful, not relieving.
Ask yourself: What does my audience gain from this?
If the answer is just “empathy for me,” pause. If it’s also “clarity for them,” proceed.

Context matters.
Vulnerability looks different for a founder, an operator, and a Fortune 500 executive. Your role sets some boundaries. But let your fear shrink it further.

Always land the plane.
The story is the vehicle. The insight is the point.
No takeaway = no trust earned.

It’s wild to say, “My post only got 700 impressions,” when most people will never speak to 700 people at once in their entire career.
 
We’ve been trained to underestimate digital rooms.
 
We celebrate conference keynotes with 200 attendees,
then dismiss LinkedIn posts seen by 5× that many.
 
The math isn’t mathing, yall!
 
Yes, reach on LinkedIn is down.
That part is true.
 
But let’s not lose perspective.
 
Seven hundred people is still a large room. 
And LinkedIn gives you that room without a stage, a microphone, or a budget.
 
Here’s what those impressions actually represent:
 
A group of people who opted into the same professional ecosystem you’re in.
Peers, clients, decision-makers, operators, and future collaborators.
 
If someone offered you daily access to a room like that
you wouldn’t be asking about “impressions.”
 
You’d be asking, "how do I show up with impact?"
 
That’s what LinkedIn really is when you use it correctly.
 
So, let's stop treating impressions like a vanity metric.
These are people. 

Focus on intention and building real connection.

Victoria Tollossa

If LinkedIn feels harder than it used to and your reach dropped, 
it's not YOU. It's the new LinkedIn algorithm. 
Here's what changed 👇 

Over the last year, LinkedIn quietly rebuilt how the platform decides what gets seen.

Welcome 360Brew, LinkedIn's new algorithm. 

I recently got my hands on a research paper published by LinkedIn explaining what they’re actually trying to do. 

Fair warning: most of it is very techy and gave me a headache. 
But I pulled out the parts that matter. 

So here it is, straight from the horse’s mouth: 
the key takeaways, and what this means for you.

What actually changed...  

Before this update, LinkedIn relied on a bunch of separate models each optimized for a specific thing:  

– one to rank posts 
– another for jobs 
– another for people suggestions 
– another for ads   

Each one did its job well, but they didn’t talk to each other effectively.
They didn't understand the full meaning and context of the content. 

And so, LinkedIn mostly focused on behavioral signals to decide what to show people: 

likes, 
comments, 
clicks, and 
how fast those things happened.

With the 360Brew, LinkedIn now uses one shared model that:

– reads posts as language 
– reads profiles as context 
– looks at behavior over time 
– and decides relevance person by person 

In other words, the system is no longer siloed. 
It sees the entire picture, and can match content to people more intentionally.

Here’s what this actually means for you 👇
(and where most people are getting it wrong)

1️⃣  Not all engagement matters the same anymore
Quick likes and one-word comments don’t carry the weight they used to.
What matters more now:
 – saves
 – reading time
 – thoughtful comments
 – reposts
Depth beats speed.

2️⃣  Your profile now shapes your distribution
LinkedIn actively reads your headline, About section, experience, and skills.
It uses that to decide:
 – what topics you’re credible to speak on
 – who your content should be shown to
Your profile isn’t background noise anymore.
 It’s context.

3️⃣  Your content has to match your profile
If your posts don’t clearly align with what your profile says you do, distribution suffers.
Mixed signals create confusion.
Clear alignment creates momentum.

4️⃣  Topic clarity matters more than ever
Broad, scattered content doesn’t perform the way it used to.
The system now rewards:
 – clear topic focus
 – consistent language
 – 2–4 defined themes
 – repetition over time
It takes ~90 days for the platform to fully understand your content patterns.
Clarity compounds. Be patient.

That’s the "game" now.
(Save this if you’re serious about growing here.)

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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);}Victoria Tollossa's LinkedIn Performance

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