One
Are people talking about you?
It always comes down to one thing. Are people talking about you?
9:16 · 2:14
Personal branding with AI · for founders
Personal branding with AI, for founders who would rather be found than followed.
Before anyone replies to your email, they search your name. More of them now ask ChatGPT too. I build what they find, with AI taking the repetitive work and people making every call that matters, because the fully automated version does not work.
I'm Bhavik Sarkhedi: a 3x entrepreneur and best-selling author, featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, HuffPost and Entrepreneur.
Featured in
- 3x entrepreneur
- Best-selling author, 21 books
- Featured in The New York Times and Forbes
- 12+ years, 1,200+ clients
Watch me search my own name
I Googled myself on camera, and walked through what sits behind my panel.
Google should have one centre point where it can see all the information, and nothing other than a personal website can do this.The Knowledge Panel · 10:24
- A personal website at the centreOne place you own that says who you are, which every other page can point back to.
- Guest spots on shows people knowPodcasts and interviews on shows with national or global reach, so your name sits next to hosts people recognise.
- One platform, worked consistentlyNot six half-used accounts. One channel where you show up, week after week.
- PressArticles on real publications that describe you the same way your website does.
- Books on Google BooksPublished work Google can read and attach to your name.
These five are the work I do on your name. Whether a panel then appears is Google's decision. How the panel work runs
What a personal brand is now
Your personal brand is no longer your feed. It is your search result.
Personal branding used to mean posting. Now it means what comes back when somebody checks you, and they check in more places than LinkedIn. Here is where people look before they decide about a founder.
| Where they look | What they are asking | What decides the answer | What I build |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google, your name | Is this person real, and are they good? | Your own site, your profiles, and press that agrees with them | The website at the centre and a clean page one |
| What do they think, and who else trusts them? | A clear headline and posts in your own voice | Positioning, and drafts from our conversations | |
| ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini | Who should I hire for this? | How often trusted sites mention you, and how recently | Mentions on sites that already rank |
| Podcasts and press | Has anyone independent vouched for them? | Hosts and editors who chose to feature you | The introductions and the pitches |
| The discovery call | Is the person matching what I read? | You, and whether the internet told the truth | Everything above, so the call confirms it |
Two in three employees trust their own CEO. Employer and CEO figures come from employees, business and government from the general public, so compare within each pair.
Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2026, about 34,000 respondents in 28 countries. "My employer" and "My CEO" were asked of employees.
Where the audiences are now
Company-reported figures. Different units, so read each label.
Hybrid, on purpose
Hybrid, because the fully automated version does not work.
You can hand your whole personal brand to a tool tomorrow. You can also do every word by hand. I work in the middle, and this is what each choice actually gets you.
| Question | Fully automated | Hybrid, how I work | All by hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who writes the first draft | The tool | You, or me from our conversation | You, every word |
| How fast it moves | Very fast | Fast | Slow |
| Sounds like you | After ten or twenty posts, no | Yes | Yes |
| Who checks the facts | Nobody | A person, against the original source | You, when you have time |
| Press and podcasts | None | Earned through real relationships | Whatever you find time to pitch |
| What AI tools do with it | Nothing to single out, so nothing to name | A consistent person they can describe | Too little published to go on |
| Verdict | Does not work | How I work | Works, if you have a spare year |
If everyone is rich, then nobody is rich.
When everyone writes with the same tool, everything starts to sound the same. The person people recognise by name becomes the rare thing, and a recognised name is the one people repeat and AI tools pick up. That is why I keep you in it.
How a name ranks now
How a founder's personal brand ranks now, in seven steps.
Ranking on Google and being named by ChatGPT are two different results. The steps below win both, in the order I do them with you.
- Decide the one thingPick the single subject you want your name attached to. Search engines and AI tools can only repeat a position you have stated clearly.
- Make your website the centreA site you own, with your bio, your proof and your work in one place. Every profile and article points back to it.
- Label it for machinesStructured data on that site tells Google which person the page is about and which profiles are yours.
- Make every profile agreeThe same name, photo, title and one-line description on LinkedIn, X, YouTube and every author page.
- Get named on sites that already rankPodcasts, lists, interviews and articles. How often other sites mention you is one of the biggest factors in whether AI tools name you, and your own site cannot supply that alone.
- Publish something new every monthWhen I reverse-engineered how AI tools pick a name, recency was one of the three checks. A quiet year gives them one less reason to name you.
- Ask the AI tools every monthPut the same questions to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini and keep the answers. That is how you know it is working.
More than 60% of cited pages rank outside Google's top 10, so a top-10 ranking is not the only way into the answer.
Source: Ahrefs, March 2026, 863,000 keyword searches and 4 million cited URLs.
Try it on yourself
Ask the AI tools about yourself. Here are the exact questions.
This is the check I run for every client before we start and every month after. Fill in your details, copy each question into ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, and tick every answer that names you.
The five questions
Your details stay in your browser.
Who is {name}?
What is {name} known for, and is {name} credible?
Who are the best {field} in {city}?
I am a founder in {city}. Which {field} would you recommend, and why?
Compare the top three {field} in {city}.
Were you named?
| Question | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Gemini |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 3 | |||
| 4 | |||
| 5 |
Named in 0 of 15
Tick every answer that names you.
Answers change from one run to the next. Ask each question twice and only count what repeats.
Contact me with my resultOpens your email with your score and your three answers written in, so I can read your situation before we talk.
In my own words
Three short recordings on being found and talked about.
Each one plays right here, in the shape I recorded it.
Two
Mentions decide who gets named
One of the major factors that pushes a personal brand is the cumulative sum of how many times you are getting mentioned on the web.
9:16 · 1:22
Three
Personal branding in a nutshell
To be a brand online, you have to have a consistent authority on web.
vertical · 2:36
Proof, on my own name
Read my Google Knowledge Panel with me.
Screenshot of Google, logged out, 27 September 2026. Tap any part of it.
Nobody can promise you a panel, because Google alone decides. I build the pieces I reverse-engineered from panels like mine, and I built my own the same way.
The person behind this page
I did this on my own name before I offered it to you.
I'm Bhavik Sarkhedi: a 3x entrepreneur and best-selling author, featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, HuffPost and Entrepreneur.
I started in 2014 in content and SEO, built and sold companies, and moved into personal branding after that. Across those twelve years I have worked with more than 1,200 clients. The method on this page is the one behind my own search results, my panel and the recordings you just watched.
12+years in content, SEO and branding, since 2014
1,200+clients
21books, best-selling author
3xentrepreneur
- Named by Forbes among the top global personal branding experts, 2025.
- Published twice in The New York Times.
- Verified Google Knowledge Panel for my own name.
Off camera
Who you would be talking to.
Real photos from my own week. Between calls, between meetings, and the conversations that run past midnight.
Before you write to me
See who I have built for, and what they said.
Clients, their own words, the publications that ran my work, and the store if you would rather start on your own.
ClientsFounders and experts I have worked withNames, what changed for them, and links so you can see the result for yourself.TestimonialsIn their words, not mineRecommendations and reviews collected across twelve years of client work.Featured inWhere my work has runBylines and interviews, from The New York Times and Forbes to Fast Company and HuffPost.Media proofEvery quote, with its sourceArticles I wrote or was quoted in, each one linked back to the publication.Knowledge PanelsLive panels you can openGoogle Knowledge Panels on client names. Search them yourself.BooksMy booksPlaybooks on branding and writing, plus fiction, published since 2015.
Questions founders ask me
Personal branding with AI, answered plainly.
What is personal branding with AI?
It is building the reputation attached to your name with AI inside the process. AI handles the research, the formatting, the repurposing and the monthly checks on what ChatGPT and Google say about you. You and I handle what you stand for, the first draft and the relationships that earn press. The AI part makes it faster. The human part is why anyone believes it.
Why does a founder need a personal brand?
Because the people deciding about your company look you up as well. Investors, senior hires, clients and journalists often search your name before they reply, and more of them now ask ChatGPT or Perplexity. If what they find is thin or wrong, the deal starts on the back foot. A personal brand decides what they find.
What should a founder never hand to AI?
The first draft, the decision about what you stand for, and the relationships that earn press. Hand those over and there is nobody behind the brand: nothing distinct to feature, nothing an editor wants to quote, and nothing an AI tool can single out from thousands of identical accounts. Full automation does not work. Let AI take the research, the formatting and the monthly checks, and keep yourself in the parts that carry your name.
How does a founder's name rank on Google?
Google needs one centre point it can trust, which is your own website, plus profiles and press that point back to it and describe you the same way. Add structured data so it knows which person the page is about, and publish on the subject you want to own. Expect six to nine months before rankings settle, depending on your field.
How do I get ChatGPT to recommend me?
Get mentioned, often and recently, on sites these tools already trust, and keep your description consistent everywhere. Your own website matters, and mentions on other people's pages carry a large share of the weight. Then ask the tools the same questions every month and track whether you are named. The prompt kit on this page is where to start.
How long does personal branding with AI take to work?
The foundations take about a quarter: positioning, your website and your profiles. Search results usually settle in six to nine months. Mentions and press keep compounding after that, which is why the first year is an investment and the second year is where it pays.
How do I choose between personal branding experts?
Ask three questions. What will people find when they search my name in six months? Who writes the first draft? Where will I be mentioned, and how? If the answers are a number of posts, a tool, and nowhere in particular, keep looking. Then search the expert's own name and see whether they have done it for themselves.
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