Why Personal Brands Need More Proof, According to Katelyn Bourgoin

In a recent LinkedIn post, Katelyn Bourgoin argues that people building a personal brand should share more evidence of their experience and results. Her post makes the case that proof can build trust with audiences who may not know a person’s background and have little time to investigate it themselves.

“Assume no one knows your background (because most don’t) and everyone is busy and skeptical (because they are).”

Bourgoin acknowledges that sharing achievements can feel uncomfortable or self-conscious, but says that discomfort should not obscure its value. “Proof earns trust,” she writes, recommending that professionals make examples of their work visible rather than assuming others will discover them on their own.

Making expertise visible

According to Bourgoin, a personal brand benefits from concrete evidence, not only broad claims about expertise. Her suggestion to “sprinkle it around like confetti” frames proof as something to share repeatedly across professional communication. The post does not prescribe a particular format; instead, it emphasizes that audiences need reminders and examples to assess someone’s track record.

That advice rests on a practical view of how people encounter professional reputations. Potential clients, collaborators or employers may have no prior context about a person’s work, and they may be evaluating many competing claims. Bourgoin’s argument is that visible proof can help close that information gap and give people a reason to trust what they are being told.

A personal example of failure and recovery

Bourgoin supports her point with a story from her own career. She recalls a photograph from the time Inc. Magazine covered a venture-backed technology startup that aimed to build “the next LinkedIn for women.” She also says the company failed and left her bankrupt, before describing how lessons from that experience informed her next business.

“Spoiler: that company failed and I went bankrupt. But I took the hard lessons from that biz into my next one.”

In Bourgoin’s account, the value of the story is not that every venture succeeds. It is that an honest record can include both setbacks and later achievements. She says that six years after the failed startup, she had become a multimillionaire. By placing the failure alongside that later outcome, she presents proof as a fuller account of professional experience rather than a polished list of wins.

Inviting others to share their wins

Bourgoin also turns the advice into a prompt for her audience, asking readers to name a win they are proud of and publish a post about it. The request underscores her central point: accomplishments do little to establish credibility if they remain private. Her approach encourages professionals to offer examples that let others understand what they have done and learned.

As Bourgoin notes, sharing proof may feel awkward, but she considers it a useful way to earn trust. Her post’s example suggests that such proof can include hard-won lessons as well as success—giving audiences a more specific basis for understanding the person behind a personal brand.