Do I really have to be the face of my brand?
The short answer: Yes, you either are the face or you need to create one.
Every single brand has some type of face- whether it’s a founder, a character, a lifestyle, or a recognizable person. What doesn’t work is being faceless, and I will stand by that.
I know there are faceless brands out there. That’s why this is such a hot topic. But here’s where the psychology comes in: we as humans need to connect in order to build trust and loyalty. We only want to buy when we have trust and loyalty. We connect to people, story, and our own desires and wants.
Having a face or a space that either frames a story to connect with and/or represents the thing we want and need is essential. Period.
But being the face of your brand can look like so many different things. So let’s dive into what this can actually look like and what your options are.
Why Faceless Brands Don’t Work
In my own journey I’ve 100% been the person who hides behind the work and just occasionally shows my face. And I can see in all analytics the absolute difference between when I show up as the face of my brand and when I haven’t.
The biggest companies sign faces for a reason. Steve Jobs was Apple for a really long time. Coca-Cola uses lifestyle campaigns all the time with people at the center.
People buy from people. That hasn’t changed. In fact, it’s been even more cemented recently with the rise of AI. We need human connection now more than ever.
4 Ways to Build a Face for Your Brand
If you’re not sure how to approach this- or maybe you’ve been hiding behind your work- here are four ways you can create a recognizable presence for your brand.
1. Founder-Led Brand (The Most Accessible Path)
This is the most common type, especially for people who are new to the space or industry. The founder is the face.
Think about:
- Rachel Rodgers as the face of Hello Seven
- Amber Fillerup Clark was the major face of Dae (the hair brand) for the longest time before outsourcing
- Sara Blakely from Spanx built an incredible brand while also building out a separate founder brand
This approach isn’t just for million-dollar companies. If you’re a coach, consultant, designer, stylist, or therapist, people want to connect with you. This is especially true if you’re directly offering a service.
Your expertise, your story, your perspective- that’s what people want to connect with. Your work might be great and fantastic, but it’s your face and voice that help make people trust it.
You can also take the approach and separate your own founder brand from your company if there’s a different part of your story you want to tell that’s not necessarily connected to your company.
The big mistake here is thinking you can stay behind a curtain forever. At some point, you or someone in that role has to step forward in the brand.
The good news is you can start this at any time. You don’t have to do it in some specific way or sequence. You can start putting your face out there right now.
2. Outsourcing the Face
Maybe you’re really not comfortable being front and center all the time. That’s okay. You can outsource visibility- if you have the budget for it.
Most brands eventually move in this direction, especially as a company grows. The founder wants less of the spotlight or is potentially planning an exit to sell the company. So there’s a process of building the bridge to hand off the face. And that process does require you to have some brand equity built first.
Here are three ways the face can be outsourced:
1. Content Creators and Influencers
This is what a lot of lifestyle and product-based brands do. Daniel Wellington watches exploded by partnering with influencers on Instagram and being very specific about the “faces of the brand” through those partnerships- creators styling the watch in their everyday life.
Where I see this flop is when a brand decides to outsource the face to influencers as a marketing campaign without having clarity on what the face is. Which means they don’t have brand clarity on vision, mission, and execution. What story does every single influencer need to be telling that’s going to shape the brand as a whole?
2. Celebrity Faces
Celebrity partnerships are huge and a great way to outsource a face to a brand. Nike is the ultimate example- Michael Jordan wasn’t just an ambassador, he became the face and turned Nike into a cultural movement (so much so they created a subbrand for him- Air Jordan). To this day, they still rely on athletes to embody the brand’s identity.
Another example: Liquid Death with Jason Momoa. Or think about brands started by celebrities like Skims– when they first launched, it was all about Kim K and the Kardashians. They were very much the face in all campaigns. Now they’ve moved completely away from it, taking more of a background role and only showing up for major specific campaigns. But they established a very specific aesthetic and identity that they replicate with anyone modeling their product.
3. Team Members as the Face
Some companies are fully about letting employees shine. Zappos used to do this a lot, bringing in people who worked for them as the faces of their brand. I think this is tricky because of turnover and change- you don’t necessarily want to lose the connection there- but I have seen it work in a few cases.
Even if it’s not you, there has to be someone or some personality standing in for the brand.
3. Mascots and Characters
A lot of brands use mascots and characters to be the face. Think about the Geico gecko, Flo from Progressive, or Tony the Tiger. They’re not real people, but they’re recognizable and relatable and they carry the personality of the brand.
A more recent example is Duolingo’s owl, which has become a brand face, especially on TikTok. The way they’ve made it behave online is genius.
Mascots and characters work super well for consumer brands that need to scale- anything that has a massive product push. For personal brands? Obviously not. For much smaller businesses that maybe aren’t product-based, it can be more challenging to have a mascot or character take off.
It can be done- I’ve seen it done in parody and comedy- but not necessarily in other ways. The lesson is the same here: something needs to be humanized, something people can point to and remember.
4. Lifestyle as the Face (The Trickiest One)
This is the trickiest approach and the most common one people try to go for because it really borders on that faceless brand line. Some brands try to make a vibe the face of the business, a feeling the face of the business. And that is very challenging to do.
Glossier is a great example. They truly built a cult following around Emily’s face, but also around the lifestyle of “cool girl in the bathroom.” Once that lifestyle was so cemented by Emily, customers became the faces after that.
It can absolutely work, and it’s a very popular route if you’re crystal clear on aesthetic and values and have a healthy budget. But here’s the danger and why I say it’s tricky: lifestyle-driven brands can easily slide into faceless territory or territory that’s just aesthetic if there’s no anchor- no person, character, or community leader.
People stop knowing who they’re buying into or what they’re buying into. Even if you’re showing a lifestyle brand, there still are people in it because it’s showing life. Don’t forget that part.
Take Inventory This Week
So as a reflection, you can be thinking about these things for your brand and business:
- Are you hiding behind your work, and why? Is it a confidence thing? A clarity thing? Because maybe it could just be you, and you could take that first stance.
- Do people know who the face of your brand is? Do they know the face of your brand and what that means? If not, that’s something to start shaping and putting out there.
- If it’s not you, who or what is standing in for your brand? Do you know what that is?
If you don’t answer those things or know those things, you will probably feel like your business is a lot smaller than it actually is. The way this expands your brand is huge. That’s why it’s such a big conversation.
Go look at your website, your Instagram, your LinkedIn. Do people know who’s behind it within 10 seconds? Do they know what you look like, what you sound like, what you stand for?
If not, that’s your next step. Make your face visible- that’s the most accessible next step. Or reach out to a partner, ambassador, creator, or character and work on that as being a face of your brand.
The question is- are you choosing to intentionally do this, or are you hiding from it?
I would just encourage you not to hide from it, because I know what that’s like. I’ve been there. And it’s an important step to take.
Want Support Building a Brand That Gets Seen?
If you’re a designer or creative ready to build a booked-out business with sustainable systems (including brand foundations that actually matter for long-term success), I offer 1:1 mentorship through The Creative CEO program. This 8-week mentorship helps you reboot your thinking and reinvigorate your offers, processes, and business structures.
If this episode resonated with you, forward it to a friend or share it to your stories (and tag @unbreakablebrandspod). You never know who might need to hear it!
