Rebuilding Your Brand When Everything Changes
How clarity, consistency and positioning can restart your content without starting from scratch.
Hello Producers,
A few new things I’m excited to share. I’m now a Brand Ambassador for Metricool. It is the tool I use to plan, schedule and track my content without drowning in tabs and spreadsheets, and worth a try if you want to stay consistent. FenPost has levelled up too, with FenPost Growth for LinkedIn and FenPost Studio for podcasting. Both built to help you create more and stress less. And as always, you can find everything in my Stan Store, including power hours, templates and the full stack of tools I actually use.
I’ve been following Alana’s work for a while. Her content always stood out. Not just for what she said, but how she made it feel. Her voice sounded different. Honest. Grounded. From beautifully crafted visuals to sharp, scroll-stopping copy, she’s one of the rare creators who’ve truly mastered both. Before LinkedIn, she built a powerful presence on Instagram. But when everything shifted in her life and business, she made a bold pivot. She turned to LinkedIn not just to grow, but to rebuild. What really sets her apart is the depth behind every post. Thoughtful, vulnerable, and rooted in experience. She speaks with clarity, not performance. And that’s what makes her one of the most inspiring voices I know.
Rebuilding from Zero: How Loss Sparked a Brand Reinvention | #116: Alana Sparrow
Alana Sparrow is a brand strategist, visual storyteller, and co-founder of The Foundry. With 35 years in branding and 25 years as a business owner, she helps leaders craft personal brands that reflect who they are and what they stand for. From executive positioning to employer branding, her experience runs deep, and her creative approach stands out.
In this episode, we dive into her journey of rebuilding after personal loss, growing from 800 to over 27,000 LinkedIn connections, and using personal branding to unlock real business growth. You’ll hear practical advice on how to show up online, build trust, and create a brand with lasting impact. It’s part story, part strategy, and part creative masterclass from someone who truly walks the talk.
Lessons:
When You Realign, Growth Finds You
Rebuilding Is a Power Move, Not a Pause
Trust Comes From Showing Up As You
Your Profile Is Your Best Sales Page
The Mindset Shift That Brought Her Voice Back
Lesson 1: Rebuilding Your Brand Starts With Facing What Broke
Alana didn’t return with a strategy. She returned with honesty. After personal loss and a difficult year for her business, she came back to content not with a clever plan or polished campaign, but with a decision to rebuild. She started from where she actually was, not where she wished she could be. It wasn’t about trying to impress anyone. It was about reconnecting with her voice, her goals and her audience. There was no shortcut, no pressure to perform. Just a quiet commitment to show up again, this time with clarity.
Rebuilding your personal brand is not about changing everything. It’s about acknowledging what no longer fits, what needs to evolve, and what still matters. If your content strategy feels off, the problem usually runs deeper than format or frequency. It might be misalignment, burnout, or even something personal you haven’t processed yet. Many creators try to pivot too soon, skipping the hard questions that actually lead to growth. Give yourself permission to pause, reassess and re-enter. That moment of clarity is often the real starting point, the one that makes everything else finally click.
Lesson 2: Positioning Isn’t Just a Phrase. It’s Your Foundation
Before Alana returned to content, she was already clear on her offer, audience and message. That’s why her growth was fast and focused. Her content didn’t just sound good, it aligned with a deeper strategy that connected everything she shared. Positioning wasn’t something she figured out later. It was already in place, which meant the content had direction from day one.
Many creators post before they position. They hope their message will sharpen over time, but without strong positioning, it rarely does. If your content feels scattered or flat, you may be speaking to too many people or no one at all. Positioning is not about clever phrases. It’s about knowing your role in the market and what you want your audience to feel, do or believe. Without that clarity, consistency will always feel forced.
Lesson 3: Posting Without a Plan Will Cost You
When Alana returned to LinkedIn, it wasn’t to experiment. It was to rebuild. She already knew who she wanted to speak to, what she offered, and what the goal was. The posts came after the strategy, not the other way around. That’s what gave her content traction and built trust. She didn’t use content to figure things out. She used it to communicate what she had already made clear.
If you post without a plan, you’re not just risking poor engagement. You’re building an audience that may not be right for you. You don’t need a perfect funnel or content calendar, but you do need direction. What are you here to say? Who are you saying it to? What is your content meant to lead to? Get clear on that first. Then post with purpose, not panic.
Lesson 4: Clarity Creates Consistency
Alana didn’t force consistency through discipline. She created it through clarity. She knows exactly what her message is, what her audience needs to hear, and what her content is building toward. That’s what makes it feel natural, not draining. It’s not about showing up every day because you’re supposed to. It’s about knowing what you’re working toward and why it matters.
If you’re struggling to stay consistent, look at what you’re trying to stay consistent with. Is the message clear? Is the purpose real? Do you actually care about what you’re posting? Consistency is much easier when your content is in sync with your vision. When the foundations are solid, the rhythm becomes natural. You don’t need more willpower. You need better alignment.
Lesson 5: Your Personal Brand Can’t Be Outsourced
Alana still writes her own posts, scripts her own videos and designs her visuals. Not because she has to, but because her voice matters. Every part of her brand reflects her perspective, her values and her experience. That’s why it works. It doesn’t just look like her. It feels like her. And that’s what people trust.
You can get help with editing, design or structure. But your brand is built on presence. And presence only happens when you are actually involved. Your audience doesn’t just want polished content. They want to feel like you’re the one speaking to them. That trust is earned through consistency, clarity and ownership. People don’t buy polish. They buy presence.
In this episode, we talk about what it takes to rebuild a brand when everything changes. From personal loss to strategic reinvention, Alana shares how she went from 800 to over 27,000 connections, grew her business again, and created content that truly connects. We dive into positioning, brand strategy, content discipline and how to grow with integrity instead of noise. It’s not just another personal branding episode. It’s a real, thoughtful look at what showing up can look like when it actually matters.
Keep producing,
Tommen
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