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In the boardroom
Bhavik Sarkhedi, earlier
Bhavik Sarkhedi today
THENNOW Forbes 2025 The New York Times, twice HuffPost since 2016
Drag the line
Executive Personal Branding Consultant
Forbes · NYT · HuffPost
Good at what you do, but hard to find online?

Be seen online.

The most qualified person in the room is not always the one who wins the deal, the board seat, or the press feature. The most visible one is. That is the only gap this work closes.

1,200+
Executives Branded
12+
Years of Practice
21
Books Published
45+
Publications Featured In
Scroll
You built an exceptional company
Your competitor with half your expertise gets the keynote
Investors Google you and find nothing
The media keeps quoting someone else
Clients can't find you on page 1
LinkedIn is an afterthought
Your network knows your work but the world doesn't
ChatGPT doesn't mention your name
You built an exceptional company
Your competitor with half your expertise gets the keynote
Investors Google you and find nothing
The media keeps quoting someone else
Clients can't find you on page 1
LinkedIn is an afterthought
Your network knows your work but the world doesn't
ChatGPT doesn't mention your name
Work recognised & featured in
The New York TimesForbesFast CompanyHuffPostEntrepreneurForbes IndiaThe Indian ExpressInc42
What this work is called now

Personal branding is now Person Engine Optimization.

SEO gets a website found. PEO gets a person found. Before anyone hires you, invests in you or books you to speak, they look you up. Today that happens in three places at once, and all three have to tell the same story about you.

The Knowledge Panel · 10:24
LinkedIn is not the whole brand · 2:12
  1. 01

    They Google you

    Page one should be you: your site, your press, your videos. Not a namesake, and not a job you left five years ago.

  2. 02

    They ask ChatGPT

    AI tools answer from what the web keeps repeating about you. PEO works on making that answer accurate, and on giving them a reason to name you when someone asks for an expert.

  3. 03

    They check your LinkedIn

    That is where they decide whether to message you, so it has to match everything they just read. How I work on LinkedIn, or a one-time profile rebuild.

Posting on LinkedIn is one part of personal branding. PEO is the whole search result for your name, and that is the work I do with you. Check your own name in 60 seconds

Then / Now

The first brand I built was mine

Drag the line. On the left is the version of me who worked for everybody else and stayed unsearchable. On the right is the same person after twelve years of doing the work in public. The expertise was already there. Visibility is the part I had to build, and it is the part I now build for other people.

  • Forbes, named among the top global personal branding experts, 2025
  • The New York Times, published twice
  • HuffPost contributor since 2016
Bhavik Sarkhedi, earlier years
Bhavik Sarkhedi today
THEN NOW
Drag the line
Watch before you book

You will judge me in two minutes. So watch me talk.

Before you trust anyone with your name, you want to hear how they think. These are my talks on how a name gets found on Google, on LinkedIn and inside ChatGPT. Every one plays right here, and every one is something I would say to you on a call.

How AI tools decide which people and brands to recommend

Ask an AI assistant for the best in any field and, from my own reverse-engineering, it checks three things at once: how often your name appears on the web, whether you are actually legit (your site's age and strength, your reviews), and whether you have published anything recently. Miss one and someone else gets named.

Now the LLM will start to do three things simultaneously.In my words, from the talk

More on my YouTube channel. The long answer on where AI fits in this work, and where it does not, is on personal branding with AI.

Under three minutes each

If you only have a coffee break, start here.

The first one explains what personal branding actually covers. The second is twelve years of my own story, cut to two minutes, so you know who you would be working with.

  • If nobody can find you: I build the pages Google and AI tools read first.
  • If the wrong things come up: I give search a better answer to show.
  • If you are only on LinkedIn: I take your name to the places buyers check next.
Contact me →
Personal branding in a nutshellShort · 2:36
Meet me in two minutesShort · 1:57

Everything in these talks is the work I would do on your name.

Free, 60 seconds, no sign-up

How does your name look online? Check it in 60 seconds.

This is the first thing I check for every new client, and you can run it yourself right now. Look yourself up the way a client would, tick what is true, and see what I would fix first.

1 Type your name, then look yourself up the way a client would.

Each opens in a new tab with your name already typed in.

2 Tick what is true for you today.

3 Your result

0/ 8

Tick the ones that are true. Be honest, nobody else sees this.

The first thing I would fix for you

Start with your own website on your name. It is the one page you fully control and the one every other mention can point back to.

Contact me with my score

Opens your email with your score written in. Nothing is saved on this page.

The Real Problem
Your expertise is not the problem.
Your visibility is.

The most talented CEOs, founders, and executives in any room are often the ones no one can find on Google. Your online presence is your first handshake now, and being hard to find is not modesty. It costs you deals.

Losing deals you should be winning Decision-makers Google you before they reply to your email. If your search presence does not match your actual credibility, the deal goes elsewhere.
The wrong people are getting the spotlight Conferences, podcasts, press features go to whoever is most visible, not necessarily most qualified. Right now that is probably not you.
Your name does not own Google page 1 Investors, clients, journalists, and potential hires search your name. What they find, or do not find, shapes every conversation that follows.
AI search is not recommending you When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity for the top expert in your field, your name should appear. For most executives, it does not yet.
Contact me →
"Your personal brand is not your resume. It is your search result, your LinkedIn headline, your media trail, and whether the right people find you before they find your competitor."
The reality of executive visibility today
Who This Is For

Built for leaders who
are serious about being found

Every engagement is tailored to where you are and where you need to be. This is not a template. It is a personal branding strategy built around your specific goals.

C-Suite Executives

CEOs & Managing Directors

Your company's credibility is tied to yours. Investors read your LinkedIn before they read your pitch deck. Media call the most visible CEO, not the most talented one. A sharp personal brand strategy changes that equation.

Board Positioning Investor Visibility Media Coverage Google Authority
Technology Leaders

CTOs & Heads of Product

Technical credibility is not enough when nobody knows your name. The best CTOs use personal branding to attract world-class engineers, command conference stages, and get quoted in tech press on their terms.

Thought Leadership Tech Media Talent Magnet LinkedIn Growth
Startup Founders

Founders Raising or Scaling

In a world of 500 million LinkedIn profiles, your personal brand is the shortcut to credibility. Founders who build a visible personal brand raise faster, hire better, and close bigger deals, with less friction.

Fundraising Presence Category Creation PR Strategy SEO Visibility
Consultants & Advisors

Independent Experts

When your name is your business, being hard to find is not an option. A strong personal brand for consultants means inbound inquiries, premium pricing, and clients who have already decided they want you before the first call.

Inbound Pipeline Speaking Slots Content Strategy Niche Authority
Corporate Leaders

VPs & Senior Directors

The next promotion, board seat, or career pivot does not come from waiting to be noticed. Senior leaders who invest in personal branding build the kind of reputation that opens doors before they knock on them.

Career Positioning Industry Visibility Executive Profile Reputation Building
Ready to Start?

Not sure where you fit?

Every personal branding engagement starts with a discovery call to understand your goals, your current presence, and the exact gap between where you are and where you should be.


Contact me →
The Process

From "Who is this?"
to "Oh, I have heard of you."

Four phases with one goal: when someone looks you up, they find a person worth calling.

01

Audit & Diagnose

A complete audit of your current digital footprint, Google presence, LinkedIn authority, content gaps, media trail, and AI search visibility. You cannot navigate without knowing your starting point.

02

Position & Define

A positioning strategy that makes you the obvious choice in your specific niche. One ownable idea, one clear audience, one message that is sharp enough to cut through any noise.

03

Build & Distribute

Execution across LinkedIn, your personal website, Google search, thought leadership content, media placements, and backlink-driven SEO, all built to compound over time.

04

Amplify & Own

Media coverage, podcast features, AI search optimisation, and a content flywheel that keeps working without you. The goal: your name owns its niche, permanently.

Services

Every lever that
builds authority

Personal branding is not one thing, it is the sum of your search presence, your content, your credibility signals, and your distribution. Every service below is designed to move one of those needles. Together, they move all of them.


Contact me →
01

Personal Branding Strategy

The foundation. CEO rebranding and founder positioning built around your specific goals, covering audience definition, message architecture, differentiation, and a roadmap for building an authoritative personal brand. This is where every engagement starts.

Contact me →
personal branding consultant executive branding brand strategy
02

LinkedIn Marketing & Optimisation

A LinkedIn personal branding strategist treats the platform as a search engine, not a rolodex. It is the highest-ROI channel for most executives, but only when handled that way. Profile optimisation, content strategy, audience growth, and inbound pipeline building done with real intent.

Contact me →
linkedin personal branding linkedin for CEOs profile optimisation
03

SEO & Google Visibility

When your name is searched, what appears? A personal SEO strategy builds your presence across Google Page 1, your website, media mentions, directory listings, and Wikipedia-adjacent authority sources that establish you as the definitive reference in your field.

Contact me →
personal brand SEO name SEO google visibility
04

Content & Thought Leadership

Your expertise deserves an audience. Ghost-written articles, LinkedIn posts, keynote frameworks, and long-form content that positions you as the most credible voice in your niche, and keeps your name in front of the people who matter most.

Contact me →
thought leadership content ghostwriting executive content
05

Media Placement & Backlinks

Third-party credibility is the fastest shortcut to authority. Strategic placement in Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, industry publications, and high-authority podcasts builds the backlink profile and media trail that both Google and decision-makers need to see.

Contact me →
media placements pr strategy backlink building
06

AI Search Visibility (LLMO)

ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini are quickly becoming the first stop for "who is the top expert in X?" Getting your name cited by AI search tools requires a specific strategy, one that most executives have not even started thinking about yet.

Contact me →
AI search optimisation LLMO ChatGPT visibility
Why Now, Not Later

The window for
first-mover advantage
is closing

Every week without a personal brand strategy is a week your competitors are building the visibility you will have to fight to catch up to. The executives who own their niche in search, media, and AI in the next 18 months will be very hard to displace.

AI search is rewriting who gets found

ChatGPT and Perplexity are already the default research tools for millions. The names that appear in AI responses are being trained on current content. The time to build that presence is now.

LinkedIn organic reach is shrinking fast

Three years ago, one post could reach 100,000 people for free. The window is still open, but it is closing. Executives who build an audience now do so at a fraction of the future cost.

The market rewards the most visible, not the most qualified

This is not fair. But it is true. The best personal branding strategy does not make you appear better than you are, it makes sure you appear as good as you actually are.

CEO Branding

What a CEO personal brand
actually has to do

CEO branding is not a headshot and a tagline. It is the set of signals a board member, an investor or a journalist finds in the ninety seconds after they type your name. Most CEO rebranding work fails because it starts with design instead of with what those ninety seconds currently return.

Investor Readiness

Your name before your deck

Investors research the founder before the fund. A CEO personal brand that matches the quality of the business removes a whole layer of doubt from the first meeting, and a thin one adds it.

Board and Succession

Being considered when you are not in the room

Board seats and chair roles go to people who are already visible in their category. Executive personal branding is how a shortlist forms months before anyone calls you.

Rebranding After a Pivot

When the old story stops fitting

CEO rebranding matters most after an exit, a pivot or a category change, when everything Google knows about you describes a company you no longer run. This is the work of replacing that record.

LinkedIn Branding

LinkedIn is a search engine
that happens to have a feed

Most executives treat LinkedIn as a place to post. A LinkedIn personal branding strategist treats it as the second search result for your name, which is what it usually is. That reframing changes the headline, the About section, the featured block and what you publish.

Profile as Landing Page

Headline, About, Featured

Your headline is indexed. Your About section is the longest piece of controlled copy you own on the platform. Both are usually written as a job title instead of a positioning statement.

Content That Compounds

Authority, not vanity metrics

LinkedIn branding that works is built on a narrow set of repeated ideas, not on posting daily. Ten posts that say one thing beat a hundred that say nothing.

Inbound Pipeline

Turning attention into conversations

Reach is not the goal. The goal is the right person reading three things and then messaging you. Everything in a LinkedIn personal branding engagement is pointed at that moment.

Straight Answers

Personal branding, PR and marketing
are not the same job

People hire the wrong discipline for the problem more often than they hire the wrong person. Here is the honest split.

A PR Agency

Sells coverage

Usually for the company, measured in placements, and it stops the month you stop paying. Useful, but it builds no asset you own.

A Marketing Team

Sells the product

Built around the brand, the funnel and the campaign. Your name is a line in the About page, not the thing being positioned.

A Personal Branding Consultant

Builds the asset

Search presence, LinkedIn authority, media trail and AI visibility, all aligned to one idea, all still yours if you change companies tomorrow.

Fields

Personal branding for people
whose name is the business

The method is the same. The proof and the platforms change by field.

Founders

Founder personal branding

Fundraising credibility, category creation and hiring leverage. A founder personal branding expert works on the story before the pitch, because investors read you first.

Consultants and Coaches

Independent experts

When your name is your business, being hard to find is a pricing problem. Niche authority, inbound pipeline and the ability to charge on reputation rather than on hours.

Professionals

Lawyers, doctors, architects, academics

Regulated and referral-led fields where trust is the whole purchase. Search presence and third-party credibility do the persuading before the first consultation.

The New Search

When someone asks AI
for the best in your field

ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini now answer the question a search box used to return ten links for. They answer with names. Whether yours appears is not luck, it is a function of how often your name sits beside your expertise on sources those models trust.

Being Citable

Sources models actually read

High-authority publications, structured data on your own site, and consistent claims across every profile. Contradict yourself across the web and you get filtered out.

Entity Clarity

One person, one description

If five sites describe you five different ways, no model can form a confident answer about you. Alignment is unglamorous and it is most of the work.

First-Mover Window

Still open, closing

Most executives have not started. The names being cited in eighteen months are being published now. That gap is the entire opportunity.

How It Works

What hiring a personal branding
consultant actually looks like

No packages sold off a menu. Every engagement starts with a diagnosis, because the gap between two executives with the same title is rarely the same gap.

Month One

Audit and position

A full read of what your name currently returns across Google, LinkedIn, media and AI tools, followed by a positioning decision you sign off before anything is published.

Months Two to Six

Build and distribute

Profile rebuild, thought leadership, media placement, backlinks and structured data, executed in a fixed order so each piece makes the next one easier.

Beyond

Compound and own

Most executives see the first measurable shift inside ninety days. An authoritative position, the kind competitors cannot buy their way past, takes six to twelve months of consistent work.

Client Voices

What it's like to work
with a dedicated personal branding consultant

"
★★★★★
They brought structure to what can often feel like a rather personal and difficult process: understanding how one's professional identity should be presented to the world. What I appreciated most was their ability to listen carefully, ask the right questions, and translate complex ideas into a clear and coherent brand direction.
R
Dr Ramesh Pattni OBE
Existential Psychotherapist & Author, DPhil Oxford
"
★★★★★
When it comes to personal branding, Bhavik has incredible insights about the industry and intimately understands its nuances. He is also a great thought partner who will help you tailor solutions based on what you are solving for. He combines EQ and IQ seamlessly.
R
Rohit Bassi
Founder, People Quotient
"
★★★★★
Bhavik's storytelling skills are second to none. He is thoughtful, responsive and trustworthy. When it comes to LinkedIn, Bhavik knows exactly what to do and how to do it. He is really good at coaching you through the ins and outs of personal branding on these business platforms.
P
Philip Coster
Company Director and C-level Executive
"
★★★★★
He doesn't just write well; he writes to win. Every word feels intentional, aligned, and powerful. Whether it's a LinkedIn bio or a long-form blog, Bhavik turns content into positioning. No recycled playbooks, he custom-builds every brand narrative.
B
Banan Al Yaquby
Creative Entrepreneur, Brand Identities
"
★★★★★
What stood out most was his ability to take complex branding challenges and simplify them into clear, actionable steps that actually deliver results. Bhavik listens deeply, challenges assumptions when needed, and pushes ideas forward with precision and empathy.
P
Pavas Sharma
Founder & CEO, Eyda Homes LLC
"
★★★★★
An SEO maestro and personal branding superhero who transformed my professional presence. His persistence pushed me until I found clarity about my own professional narrative. Share your vision with him, and he'll chart the path to get you there.
P
Prakruti Pandya
Brand Strategy and Design Systems
"
★★★★★
Bhavik is a thoughtful strategist with a sharp eye for personal branding and digital presence. His approach to positioning, both on websites and social platforms, is clear, intentional, and effective. Highly recommend!
J
Joanna Miler
Finance Transformation Strategy, Capgemini
"
★★★★★
He actually walks the talk. He doesn't just preach about personal branding; he's spent years meticulously building his own. If you want to know how to build a reputation from scratch, just look at what he's done.
A
Akshay Makadiya
SEO Consultant, 10 years
Media & Recognition

Credibility built in
public, over a decade

Forbes named me among the top global personal branding experts in 2025. The New York Times has published my story twice. These are the same publications your clients and competitors read when they look for the leading voice in personal branding.

Forbes
Named among the top global personal branding experts, 2025
The New York Times
His story run twice, on professional identity in the digital age
HuffPost
Leadership, self-development, and brand building for professionals
Entrepreneur
Founder branding, startup visibility, and growth strategy
Inc42
Indian startup ecosystem, founder profiles, and tech leadership
Forbes India
Executive profiles and business leadership across South Asia
Tech in Asia
Technology leadership and startup brands across Asian markets
Times of India
Business, careers, and professional achievement
The Work Behind the Name

A personal branding consultant
who has done the work

This is not theory taught from a textbook. It is twelve-plus years of building personal brands for founders, executives, and industry leaders, watching what moves the needle and what wastes time, and applying that pattern recognition to every client engagement.

The mission is simple: your expertise deserves to be found. Your years of hard-won knowledge deserve an audience. Your name should own the first page of Google, appear in the right media, and come up when decision-makers ask AI tools for the best person in your field.

21 Published Books Multiple Amazon bestsellers on branding, entrepreneurship, and leadership
Named by Forbes, 2025 Among the top global personal branding experts
1,200+ Clients Founders, CEOs and experts, over 12+ years
3x Entrepreneur A founder three times over, so I know what your name has to carry
Contact me →

Check my work first

Don't take my word for it. Check the work.

Before you contact me, look at who I have worked with, what they said, and where my work has been published. Every page below is public and every claim links to its source.

Frequently Asked

Questions about
personal branding answered

Every executive who has invested in a personal brand had questions before they started. These are the ones that come up most often, answered plainly, without the marketing speak.


Contact me →
What does a personal branding consultant actually do?
+
I make sure that when someone searches your name, on Google, on LinkedIn or in an AI tool, they find one clear story that makes them want to talk to you. This is how I grow your personal brand: I define what you want to be known for, fix your LinkedIn and your website so search engines understand them, get your thinking published where your buyers already read, and keep at it until it compounds.
Why do CEOs and founders need personal branding?
+
Because the people who matter to you search your name before they reply to your email. Investors, senior hires, journalists and partners all do it. A founder with a clear public record gets warmer replies without chasing anyone, and a founder with no record starts every conversation from zero.
How long does it take to see results?
+
The first signs usually show inside 90 days: more profile views, a few inbound messages, a first mention in the press. A brand that holds up when anyone checks it takes 6 to 12 months of steady work. Search is slow to start and hard to catch once it moves, so what you build now is very hard for a competitor to copy later.
Does personal branding work for introverts or private people?
+
Yes. Personal branding is not about being loud, it is about being clear, and not everyone wants to post every week. For private people I narrow the focus to one area of expertise, long-form writing and a few well-chosen press placements, so the right people find you when they are looking for exactly what you do.
What is the difference between personal branding and reputation management?
+
Reputation management is defence: it pushes down what you do not want people to find. Personal branding is offence: it builds what you do want them to find. A strong presence usually takes care of most of the defence on its own, because good pages about you push the weak ones further down.
Can personal branding help me show up on AI search tools like ChatGPT?
+
Yes, and this is the part most people are late to. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini lean on how often your name is mentioned on sources they trust. So I work on getting you mentioned in those sources, with the same description every time, which gives your name a real chance of being in the answer when someone asks AI for the best expert in your field.
How does social media fit into a personal branding strategy?
+
Social media is where people get to know you, and for most founders LinkedIn is the platform that matters. I treat it as a search engine, not a stage: a profile that answers who you are and why it matters in ten seconds, and posts built around a few ideas you want to own. Likes are nice, but messages from the right people are the point.
How is this different from hiring a PR agency?
+
A PR agency gets you coverage, usually for the company, and the campaign ends when the budget does. I build the whole picture around you as a person: search, LinkedIn, your website, press and AI answers, all telling the same story. A campaign fades, and this stays with your name.
What is CEO branding and how is it different from personal branding?
+
CEO branding is personal branding for someone whose name moves a company's value. The mechanics are the same, but the audience is different: investors, boards, journalists and senior hires rather than general followers. I call it CEO rebranding when the public record has to be rebuilt after an exit, a pivot or a new category, because what the internet knows about you still describes a company you no longer run.
What does a LinkedIn personal branding strategist actually do?
+
When I work on your LinkedIn, I treat it as a search engine rather than a feed. I rewrite your headline and About section as positioning instead of a job description, turn the Featured section into proof, and help you post around a small set of ideas you want to be known for. Success is the right person reading three things and starting a conversation, not a big impressions number.
How much does a personal branding consultant cost?
+
It depends on the gap, not on a package. If you already have strong press and a weak LinkedIn, you need a fraction of the work of someone starting with nothing on Google. I look at what shows up for your name first and scope the work from that, so you are never quoted off a template.
Does personal branding help founders who are raising capital?
+
Yes, it is one of the clearest cases. Investors research the founder before the fund, and a thin or contradictory record adds doubt at the moment doubt is most expensive. As a founder personal branding expert, I work on what a partner finds in the first ninety seconds of searching your name, which happens long before your deck is opened.
How do I choose a personal branding consultant?
+
Ask three things. Have they built a visible brand of their own, or only advised on one? Can they show named clients and real recommendations instead of anonymous case studies? And do they start by looking at what already shows up for your name, or open with a package price? The last question filters out most of the market on its own. Hold me to all three.
The Next Step Is Yours

Stop being
the best-kept
secret in the room.

Every week without a personal brand strategy is a week your competitors are building the visibility you will have to fight to catch up to. The discovery call is free. The conversation is honest. The outcome, if you decide to move forward, is a personal brand that works, permanently.

Free 20-minute call · No pitch · Just a clear diagnosis of where you stand and what would move the needle
Preview only