What happens when your visual identity can't keep up with your ambition
- Alex Tkanova
- Jul 31, 2025
- 5 min read
Personal branding: not just what you show, but what people feel
Most people say they want a personal brand.
What they actually want is something simpler.
They want to stop feeling like their profile is working against them.
They want to send their LinkedIn without that small pull of this doesn't really represent me anymore.
They want to walk into a meeting and have the other person already see something close to accurate - instead of having to overcome the gap between what their photos suggested and who actually walked in.
The real question is: who I am now and how I appear are two different things.
Not "I don't have a personal brand."
Let’s break down what actually goes into a personal brand and how to start shaping one that feels real and works for you.
The gap nobody talks about
Here's what I see every week working with professionals in Amsterdam and Amstelveen.
Someone has been building something - a new role, a consultancy, a repositioned practice, a career in a new country. They've put in the work. They know their value. They're operating at a different level than they were two or three years ago.
But their LinkedIn photo is from before all of that.
Their bio still leads with their old company.
Their profile says employee when they've been independent for eight months.
Or it says junior when they're now the person clients call for senior advice.
The professional has moved. The presence hasn't.
That's the gap. And it's surprisingly common, especially for expat professionals who've built a career in one country and are now rebuilding visibility in the Netherlands from scratch.
Why this happens more often for expats?
When you work in your home country, reputation travels ahead of you.
People know your background. They have context for your name, your previous employer, the kind of work you do. That social proof builds credibility without you having to think about it.
In the Netherlands, none of that transfers automatically.
You're starting from zero visibility in a market that makes quick assessments. The Dutch professional culture is direct - people look at your LinkedIn, form a view in seconds, and decide whether to respond.
If what they see is behind where you actually are, that's friction you've created for yourself.
Not because you're not good at what you do. Because your presence hasn't caught up.
What people actually do (and why it doesn't work)
The most common response to this feeling is: I'll book a photoshoot.
Which makes sense. The photos feel like the problem.
But a photoshoot without a positioning conversation is just a better-looking version of the same issue.
You'll walk away with technically good images - nicely lit, professionally composed. And they still won't do the work, because nobody stopped to ask what the work actually is.
What's the impression you need to make? Who are you talking to? What do people need to understand about you in the first three seconds?
Without answers to those questions, the photographer is guessing. You end up picking the "least bad" image from the gallery instead of the one that was designed to work.
That's why at OLBRAND, the strategy conversation comes before the camera. Not as an extra step - as the foundation.
Where to actually start
Before anything visual, you need one honest sentence.
I help [specific people] with [specific problem] so that [specific outcome].
Not your job title. Not a list of services.
One sentence that describes what you actually do and who you do it for.
If you can't finish that sentence specifically - that's where to start. That's where the gap lives.
A few other questions worth sitting with:
Open your LinkedIn as a stranger. No context, no prior relationship. What do you conclude about this person? Is it accurate?
When did your positioning last shift - a new role, going independent, moving countries, raising your rates? Is your profile from before or after that moment?
When you share your profile, do you feel fine about it? Or is there a small hesitation?
That hesitation is information of the gap making itself visible.
The moment most professionals recognise it
It's rarely abstract. There's usually a specific moment.
Going independent. The title on LinkedIn changes from "Senior Manager at [Company]" to "Independent Consultant." And everything else - the photo, the bio, the framing - still says employee. The company brand used to carry the credibility. Now it's gone.
Landing in a new market. You move to the Netherlands. You update your location. And you realise your profile makes no sense without the context people in your home country had automatically.
Moving upmarket. You raise your rates. You reposition toward bigger clients. You update the website copy. And then you drop in the same photos from two years ago, because there's nothing else. The message is premium. The images aren't.
Coming back after a gap. Parental leave, a career pivot, a deliberate pause. You're ready to be visible again. You open LinkedIn. The person in that profile photo is who you were. Not who you've become.
Every time, the feeling is the same: I've moved. This hasn't.
What closing the gap actually looks like?
First: clarity on who you are now. Not who you were in your last role. Who you are now, and where you're going.
Then: making that visible - starting with how you describe yourself, and then with images that were built from a brief, not guesswork.
Showing up prepared makes the difference. Not just with the right outfit, but with the right answers - to who you are, what you need people to see, and what the photos are actually supposed to do.
That's what turns a photoshoot into a visual identity.
A headshot proves you're a professional.
A visual identity shows which professional. And what they stand for.
FAQ
How do I know if my personal brand needs work?
You'll feel it before you can explain it. A small hesitation when sharing your profile. The sense that you're over-explaining yourself in meetings. Photos that are from a version of yourself you've moved on from. If any of that sounds familiar - the gap is real.
I'm new to the Netherlands. When should I update my presence?
As soon as your current profile is misrepresenting you. The longer an inaccurate presence is out there, the more it shapes how your new network sees you. If your photos and bio are from before you made the move - update now.
Do I need a photographer or can I fix this myself?
Start with the positioning work yourself - it costs nothing and it's the most important part. Once you know what the images need to say, you'll know whether your current photos still work. If they don't, that's when a photographer who starts with strategy becomes worth it.
What's the difference between a headshot and a personal branding session?
A headshot tells people you're a professional. A personal branding session - built on a positioning conversation first - tells people which professional. The difference is specificity. Specificity is what makes people stop and pay attention.
What if I'm not sure what my positioning is?
That's the starting point, not a reason to wait. The personal branding workbook is a good place to begin - it walks you through the positioning questions before anything else. And the positioning conversation is the first step of every OLBRAND session too. We don't pick up the camera until we know what the images need to communicate.
→ Book a free intro call - we start with the positioning, not a date in the diary.
📍 Based in Amstelveen. Working with professionals across Amsterdam and the Netherlands.
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