Episode 36: Humanizing Your Brand: Putting a Face Behind the Business
Tim and Robbie break down why faceless brands are fading and how putting real people front and center builds trust, boosts SEO, and strengthens connection. They explore how internal “mini-celebrities” like Michelle from Farm House Tack turn authenticity into influence, why Google now rewards human voices through E-E-A-T, and how showcasing personalities—founders, employees, or experts—helps brands stand out in a world craving real connection.
“If you’re not embarrassed by the work you did last year, you’re not evolving.”
Objectives
In this episode, you will be able to:
Understand why featuring real people—not just logos—builds stronger brand trust.
Learn how Google uses human signals (like LinkedIn posts, author bylines, and webinars) to boost SEO visibility.
Explore how companies can scale authenticity through structured programs that spotlight internal voices.
See how thought leadership content (like podcasts, emails, and videos) nurtures leads and closes deals.
Discover the risks and rewards of building brand equity around personalities—and how to do it responsibly.
Transcript
Tim Lowry: [00:00:00] Okay, so Robbie, I'm intrigued. I found out that you're opening a timeshare company down in Florida. Who's going to be the face of this brand?
Robbie Fitzwater: Tim, I so badly wanted to respond to this with a really bad accent, but I don't want to get canceled. It's early in the episode, so I'm going to refrain from that.
Tim Lowry: You hold back. You know you want to.
Robbie Fitzwater: I'm going to hold back if you want me to. Maybe I’ll do it at the end. You guys may have to wait till the end.
Robbie Fitzwater: Hello, this is Tim and Robbie with the Content Community Commerce Podcast. We talk about the convergence of content, community, and commerce. And today we're talking about a topic that is near and dear to my heart. And Tim, you're getting really into this too. This is like your new jam, which is always exciting.
Tim Lowry: It's my jam.
Robbie Fitzwater: People basically need to understand how to feature the people behind the brand, how to bring those people to life, and why that’s becoming a more important component of a business. Even on the SEO side, that’s becoming a big deal.
Tim Lowry: Yeah, I love it. I know we kind of teased your new business venture at the start, but in all seriousness—getting people to be the face of the brand—I'm not talking George Clooney for Nespresso. Which, again—
Robbie Fitzwater: Great face. He is a beautiful man.
Tim Lowry: George Clooney is a beautiful man. But this is more about actual people in the company—raising up those personalities, those kind of mini superstars within a company that help propel your brand forward. And like you said, this is now something that’s showing up in SEO. Google and all their tools are using these signals. We should be leaning into this—not just for vanity’s sake—it actually has a measurable impact.
Robbie Fitzwater: Yeah. Again, that old saying: “People buy from people; they don’t buy from brands.” Always true. We see it play out. But as time goes on, this trend is becoming more structurally important because of the trust signals people are looking for—and because of how groups are differentiating themselves.
Having a standard brand with no personality, lots of stock photography, and no recognizable individuals... you think, “Wait a second, this guy’s selling software on another company’s website too. Why is everyone laughing at salad on every site?” Because everything looks the same.
We live in a world where we have access to everything, but we’re starving for connection. So on the email side, we’ve always loved humanizing the people behind the brand—sending emails from real people, making it feel like there’s someone on the other side. Bringing those personalities to life over time is fun.
We’ve talked about this in previous episodes, but like the entity-building side of things—you’ve gotten really into this. You’ve even mentioned with some of your clients that they want their founders posting on LinkedIn because that helps SEO.
Tim Lowry: Yeah. I kind of want the classic rollback music of “Let’s go back in time.” So, you know, simpler Google—just five years ago—they announced E-A-T: expertise, authority, trustworthiness. Later, they added the extra E for experience.
One of the big things back then was, when you're writing a blog, the author shouldn't just be a generic company name. Let’s get an actual person. Let’s get a byline. And maybe—even if we’re feeling bold—let’s link out to their social.
Google was looking for signals that these are real people who know the topic, know the material, and draw trust from that.
Fast forward to today—much more complex Google. Their algorithms go deeper. They tie entities and concepts together. Like, here’s Bob. Bob works for this company. Bob has this role. He writes about these topics on the blog. He talks about it on LinkedIn. He’s on a sales webinar on YouTube talking about it.
So yeah, he’s an authority. That company should rank for this topic because Bob knows his stuff. These things are tied together. So now, it goes beyond just writing a blog—it’s about gaining visibility in all the other indexable places that build the depth Google’s looking for.
Robbie Fitzwater: It’s almost like a brand strategy influencing your structural SEO strategy—changing how Google sees you. You mentioned the simple days of Google, and I remember right after the Medic update—groups that didn’t have real medical professionals got hammered.
Dr. Axe, for example. Google wasn’t kind to him. I use that example in class. It’s hilarious—he was a chiropractor, not a physician. Then they tried to trick Google and got hit with another penalty.
Tim Lowry: Yeah, there’s weight to this. You want to build trust in your brand, and a way to do that is by building trust in the people behind the brand.
These micro-entities—people within an organization—build connections. They make people familiar with a product. You're passively getting trust as a company from the trust earned by those people. So, someone buys your product, they like the person who recommended it, and they leave a good review. It creates a flywheel effect where both help each other.
Robbie Fitzwater: Exactly. That goodwill. Google loves you because people love you too. That’s kind of been true since the early days of the internet, but even more now.
It’s not a fast-growth strategy. It's not a silver bullet. But trust is built in drips and lost in buckets. And now those drips are being counted in a structured way.
Tim Lowry: As we're talking, my brain's unpacking all these layers. Think about how search is changing—you search something, and you're met with Reddit or other platforms where people talk about your company.
If you have a personality with credibility, they can join that conversation. Not spam it, but be part of it. They've earned it through content, through community, through showing up.
And as Google’s algorithms evolve to act like a personal assistant, you want that assistant to recommend companies that aren’t getting ripped apart online.
They're going to reflect, “Hey, this company knows their stuff. Great people. Good sentiment. Positive vibes.” That’s what a good assistant would recommend—not ghosts or brands with negative sentiment.
Robbie Fitzwater: We're also seeing businesses being built on top of this. Founder-led brands are becoming more common. Someone has a large audience—maybe from content—and now they’re trying to monetize it.
Or you’ve got celebrities starting coffee or tequila brands. George Clooney, for example.
Tim Lowry: I like all of his products so far.
Robbie Fitzwater: Brad Pitt's sneaking up behind you with his own coffee brand.
Tim Lowry: It's Ocean’s Eleven all over again.
Robbie Fitzwater: But there’s a “there” there. We have so many options now, and it’s helpful when you can trust the person behind the brand. People connect with individuals over time, through content on whatever platform.
Take Kylie Cosmetics, for example. It grew fast because she had an audience. Glossier, on the other hand, built a blog audience first and then introduced products. They’re built off the back of content or individual entities.
Tim Lowry: Some of those are superbrands, but we also work with companies that aren’t that size, yet they still have personalities—mini-celebrities in their own space.
People get excited when they meet them at events or see them at trade shows. Email is another place where we lean into this hard.
Robbie Fitzwater: Absolutely shamelessly. One of our core tenets is that we’re never going to out-scale the giants, but we’ll out-human them.
Even in the equestrian space—we work with Farm House Tack. Michelle from Farm House Tack is amazing. Her personality is vibrant and authentic.
Historically, she did fun things on social, but not consistently. Once we put her into a program that showcases her personality and adds value beyond transactions, it was like pouring gasoline on a fire.
People started calling the business just to talk to her. They’d reply to SMS messages saying “Michelle!” They feel like they know her.
Tim Lowry: They trust her because she’s one of them. She’s part of that community. It’s not about faking it—it’s about being real.
Robbie Fitzwater: And she’s also seeing how the way brands and businesses interact with her has changed. I always tell her, “Michelle, occupy the space you’re in.”
They may still see themselves as a smaller player in the category, but they’re taking chunks out of larger businesses all the time. The treatment she gets at conferences now is totally different. Before, she wasn’t even invited to as many. Now, at equestrian trade shows, she gets VIP treatment, dinner invites, and backstage access.
She’s live-streaming from events. She’s writing articles about the future of equestrian gear. She’s a tastemaker in that space. People look to her as someone they can trust—whether they’re asking, “What’s new?” or “How do I take care of my horse?”
Like when it gets cold, people ask, “How do I prevent colic?” She knows the signs. She knows the care routines. She’s an expert.
But she can also joke about the quirky stuff. They write articles like “Weird Things Only Equestrians Do.” Like clicking at their partner in the grocery store to get them to move faster. It’s hilarious.
She lives and breathes the lifestyle. And when we bring that personality to life through email—that’s when we win. It elevates her, too. It does make it a bit more complex for the brand because now you’ve got a high-value entity within your business. But it’s still the right direction.
Tim Lowry: And that’s the thing—it’s not the founder of the business. She’s just a rockstar within the organization.
So, depending on who you are as a listener, think: Who is that person in your company? Is it someone in a specific department? A rockstar salesperson? Maybe it is the founder.
There could be multiple people you can elevate, and each could connect with a different segment of your audience.
I’m even thinking of how this plays out in B2B. We’ve seen very niche articles, pillar pages, eBooks, and webinars featuring specific individuals. Recently, one company closed a contract because someone read a deep, technical blog post and said, “I want to talk to the guy who wrote this.”
They trusted him because the article spoke directly to their pain point. That connection closed a significant deal.
But if the article had just been posted under a generic company name, or if it hadn’t been shared by that person on LinkedIn or via email, it wouldn’t have reached the right audience. So it's about spreading this content across all channels where people can engage with it.
Robbie Fitzwater: I love that example. Even what we’re doing right now—this podcast—it hasn’t brought in a ton of new clients. (Sorry, Matt.)
Tim Lowry: I’ve closed, like, at least a dozen clients off this podcast. Sorry, not sorry!
Robbie Fitzwater: Every time we’re up against another agency or vendor, the feedback we get is, “Your thought leadership content made us feel confident in choosing you.”
This may not be a broad top-of-funnel growth channel, but for credibility, trust, and authority—it’s incredibly effective.
Tim Lowry: It gives people a peek into how we think. What we talk about—the good, the bad, the ugly.
Robbie Fitzwater: I just need an Irish accent. That’s what’s missing right now. [attempts accent] “Oh, the Lucky Charms! Oh, Danny Boy…”
Tim Lowry: Anyway—this gives us another way to be a personality in our companies. Yes, we’ve got LinkedIn and blogs. But this—this is audio. People can hear us, feel a little closer, get to know how we think.
They might hear something and go, “Oh, we’re in alignment with that. We should talk to these guys.”
Robbie Fitzwater: This whole idea is becoming a more important part of the marketing mix.
Historically, we had these founder-celebrity personas. But now people want to know: Who's actually inside the business? Who are the experts?
And having that “They Ask, You Answer” mentality—leaning into transparency and education—that’s a huge win.
Tim Lowry: A one-dimensional company doesn’t work anymore. Just a logo and a name? No emotion? That doesn’t fly.
Even big, boring companies—like insurance—build personalities. Look at Progressive’s “Flo.” They created a persona people could connect with.
So for your brand, it’s: How do we take our values, fuse them with a person, and speak to the audience in a human way?
Robbie Fitzwater: Exactly. You can’t just copy-paste anymore. Stock photography and generic messaging isn’t going to cut it.
I hate stock photography.
Tim Lowry: We literally just published an article on that.
Robbie Fitzwater: So many clients come to us wanting to do something generic. We’re like, “No. Get someone to write on a whiteboard. Film it. We’ll use that in the email.”
Or, “Hey, Kate, we’ll send you confetti and props. Celebrate a milestone and film it.”
They're like, “Why did you send me a blow-up llama?”
“Because it was on sale, and it’s hilarious.”
Tim Lowry: Throw it in with glitter. Instant magic.
Robbie Fitzwater: That’s where those small things—those intentional choices—make a difference. Look at examples. Crutchfield does this so well.
They spotlight people—home audio experts, car audio experts—and show that they love what they do. They nerd out about it. That earns trust.
Tim Lowry: Another great example: Rand Fishkin. If you’re not following him on LinkedIn, do it.
He pioneered “Whiteboard Friday” for SEO, and now he’s running SparkToro—an audience research tool. He’s constantly creating valuable content: split-screen videos, audience walkthroughs, deep dives.
It’s not sales-y. It’s just pure value. And over time, that builds massive trust.
So when someone meets him at a conference and sees he’s the same in real life—that’s powerful. That’s when they say, “Yeah, I’m signing up for this tool.”
Robbie Fitzwater: It’s like Michelle—same thing. She’s not pushing sales. She’s being part of the community, having fun, being real. That works.
Tim Lowry: And you can’t replicate that with a company account. A real human brings it to life. And then Google connects all the dots—entity mapping—between her, the brand, the content, the social profiles. That’s a big win.
Robbie Fitzwater: But it’s also a double-edged sword. Know who you’re investing in.
We’ll name names: Elon Musk and Tesla.
Tim Lowry: His tweets can send the stock soaring—or crashing. Volatility comes with personal branding.
Robbie Fitzwater: Tesla doesn’t do traditional marketing. Elon Musk is their marketing. But when you hitch your brand to someone, you have to be careful. Media training is essential.
Bob from accounting might freeze on camera. He’s not ready.
Tim Lowry: “Bob? Bob who?” [laughs]
Robbie Fitzwater: I used to make people do jumping jacks before filming. It helps them loosen up.
Tim Lowry: I remember those days. It actually works! You forget your nerves because you’re doing something goofy.
Robbie Fitzwater: You’re an adult doing jumping jacks in an office—you can’t take yourself seriously. And that’s the point.
Tim Lowry: It clears your head and lowers your walls. So yeah—our takeaway? Jumping jacks. Every time.
Robbie Fitzwater: For Bob from accounting.
Tim Lowry: Alright, let’s wrap it up with three takeaways for listeners.
Robbie Fitzwater: Go for it.
Tim Lowry:
Find and invest in internal personalities. Identify your internal rockstars—founders, employees, salespeople—who can connect with the audience. There’s risk, but it’s worth it. They might stay and thrive because you’ve given them a platform.
Understand that faceless brands are dying. You can’t just be a nameless entity anymore. If your brand has no identity or voice, you’re slowly losing altitude—like the Hindenburg.
Don’t take yourself too seriously. Perfectionism kills progress. You’ll evolve over time. You’ll be embarrassed by today’s work a year from now, but that means you’re growing.
Robbie Fitzwater: If you’re not embarrassed by last year’s work, you’re not evolving. You’ll say something dumb. You’ll regret a post. But you’re showing up as a human. People respect that.
Tim Lowry: Exactly.
Robbie Fitzwater: So if I’m building my timeshare brand...
Tim Lowry: You’re getting Bob.
Robbie Fitzwater: And he’s going to sell the most beautiful timeshare—with a view of the beach. Not on the beach. A few rows back. Because those are cheaper.
Tim Lowry: Lots of carpet. A fridge from 1993. Practically new.
Robbie Fitzwater: And on that note—after we've been canceled and my accent falls flat...
Tim Lowry: Thank you all for your time and attention. If we missed anything, let us know. We’d love your feedback.
Robbie Fitzwater: And remember: we’re humans, making ourselves vulnerable, putting faces behind our brand—so you should too. Cheers!
Both: Cheers!
