Ross personal brand generated millions for his agency

Scroll through LinkedIn and you’ll notice a pattern: People engage more with founder/employee content than company content. Why? Because company pages mostly push generic updates, while personal accounts share opinions, challenges, and stories that people connect with. Also, LinkedIn’s algorithm gives personal posts far more reach than company posts.

That’s why building a personal brand alongside your agency brand is more important than ever. It’s a faster, more cost-effective way to get people’s attention and attract potential clients.

Ross Simmonds, CEO of Foundation Marketing, a digital agency behind campaigns for Canva, Mailchimp, and Audiense, understands this well. Since 2014, he’s grown his personal brand through blogging, local speaking, and consistent LinkedIn content, pushing past his natural shyness along the way. At the center of all his content is his oft-repeated message: “Create once, distribute forever.”

This has helped him grow an audience of over 100k followers across LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and X. His founder brand has also earned him over $100k annually from speaking engagements, generated millions in revenue for his agency, and attracted top talent. Here’s how he’s done it and how you can, too.

From blogging for fun to writing for businesses

Before “content marketing” became popular, Ross was creating content online on something he loved—fantasy football. At the time, he was in college, living in his parents' basement in the middle of Nova Scotia, Canada, and he started a blog, posting three times a week about his thoughts on players and the sport. Slowly, his content ranked and he built a readership all over the world. People he’d likely never meet were interested in his perspective because he was sharing what they wanted to know about. That’s when he realized the potential of internet marketing and predicted it would be huge. He was right.

Unfortunately, he had to close down the blog soon after because, as traffic went up, his grades went down. So he pivoted and began writing about marketing—the subject he was actually studying—on his own domain, rosssimmonds.com, which also started gaining traction.

After graduation, Ross joined a marketing agency. But he had always wanted to work for himself, so he freelanced on the side, writing copy for small businesses and helping them manage their social media profiles. When one agreed to pay him $3,000 per month, he quit his job and eventually built an agency: Foundation Marketing.

One early offline branding strategy: speaking at local events

After launching Foundation Marketing, Ross looked for ways to grow his personal brand beyond the internet. One of his early strategies was to speak at local events, a bold choice for someone nicknamed “shy Ross.” But he knew it was important to increase his visibility and was determined to do it.

So he reached out to local conference organizers and the chamber of commerce, offering to speak about content marketing or social media. Eventually, one said yes. That first gig didn’t go smoothly. On stage, Ross was sweaty and awkward, his jokes falling flat. But it was a turning point. With time and practice, he improved, did more talks, and shared the recordings online, which led to more invites. One of his conditions for saying yes: If organizers covered his travel, he’d be there.

“Paying to fly and speak at an event was just out of the cards. So I prioritized speaking at local events… Once more people started to reach out asking if I could speak at their events, I asked them simply, “Could you cover my travel?” If they said yes, then I would be there in a second,” Ross says in a podcast.Over time, those local gigs turned into international speaking opportunities in Romania, Brazil, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Sweden, as well as appearances on major stages like SearchLove, CTAConf, and MozCon.

Now, public speaking has become both a revenue stream and a reputation builder for Ross. In some years, he’s earned $100K–$150K from speaking alone, as he shared on his podcast. It’s also given him more exposure and played a key role in growing his personal brand. For instance, he was named one of the Top 50 CEOs in Atlantic Canada in 2022 and has been featured in major outlets like Forbes, HuffPost, VentureBeat, BET, and CBC.

His story shows that building a founder brand isn’t limited to growing a digital presence. Traditional tactics like public speaking and in-person networking actually work better now because so few people do them. If you’re just starting out, posting regularly on LinkedIn or running a newsletter is a great first step. But eventually, look for offline opportunities too. Speak at local events, attend conferences, and grab coffee with connections in real life. It’ll have a compounding effect for your business.

Repeat your core message till it sticks

Ross exemplifies the idea that repetition builds reputation. He’s best known for his stance on content distribution and coined the phrase “Create once, distribute forever.” He then repeated it consistently everywhere—social media, blog posts, courses, YouTube, podcast episodes, even writing a book and building a startup around the concept—all of which helped it stick.

One reason his messaging is so memorable is that it follows the SUCCESs framework by Chip and Dan Heath. It’s:

• Simple: Short, clear, and easy to remember.
• Unexpected: Challenges the common practice of content creation over distribution.
• Concrete: He uses visual examples to show how to repurpose content.
• Credible: Has worked with brands like Canva, Mailchimp, and Audiense. 
• Emotional: Taps into what creators want: efficiency, reach, and lasting return on investment.
• Stories: Regularly shares relatable stories about how he repurposes his own content.

This has contributed to his messaging sticking in people’s minds and his name being synonymous with content distribution. But aside from that, Ross also has a distinct voice on social media. He often shares bold (and sometimes controversial) takes, like on AI replacing mediocre marketers.

“I think a lot of people are playing it safe because they have no courage to be disliked. You have to be okay with being disliked; otherwise, you’re going to sound like everybody else on the internet,” says Ross.

This combination of a clear, consistent message, educational content, and a bold voice has helped Ross generate millions of dollars worth of business for his agency. It has also unexpectedly helped attract top talent who share his agency’s vision. 

“We’ve attracted some great talent over the years through LinkedIn and continue to be active on the platform, not just to generate revenue for ourselves and our clients, but also to help us find the next brilliant marketer to do it,” he says.

Lessons from Ross’ story

• Repeat your core message at least once every week.
• Share opinions that spark a reaction.
• Repurpose your content, but adjust to the channel.
• Appear on other people’s podcasts and blogs to tap into their audience.
• Create informational posts 90% of the time and promotional posts 10%.
• Use both video and text to reach different audiences.

Start small, then scale

You don’t need to post daily or be active everywhere to build a founder brand. Start with something sustainable like two to three LinkedIn posts a week and make sure your content shows personality and strong opinions.

Once you’re consistent, expand into other formats like YouTube, podcasts, or in-person speaking. Each new channel expands your reach, puts you in front of fresh audiences, and brings in more potential customers.