The Connect Network TV: From Diplomacy to Understanding How People Are Seen

In 2023, I joined The Connect Network TV for its Washington, D.C. show to talk about personal branding, visibility and the journey that took me from diplomacy in London to founding Boss Diplomat in the United States.

At the time, I was describing myself as a diplomat-turned brand consultant. Watching the conversation now, though, I can see several questions underneath the branding language that would become much more important to my work later: What happens when the person behind the business isn't visible? What are people actually seeing when they encounter you? And how much of yourself do you need to make public for people to understand who you are?

Visibility Starts With the Person

One of the ideas I discussed in the interview was that business owners can become almost invisible inside their own companies. People may encounter the business repeatedly without developing much understanding of the human being behind it.

In 2023, I framed that largely as a personal-branding problem: if you're never seen, how does an audience learn to recognize or connect with you?

That question still interests me, although my work today extends far beyond entrepreneurs and business branding.

You Don't Have to Make Everything Public

We also talked about sharing enough of yourself for people to understand the person they are encountering without assuming that authenticity requires making your entire private life public.

That distinction matters. A public identity is not a complete inventory of a human being. Other people will always experience us through a selection of available evidence: what we say, what we show, how we behave, the stories we repeat and the environments in which they encounter us.

The question is what picture that evidence creates.

Before I Called It Public Identity

During this interview, I was still talking about personal branding. I spoke about being the face of a business, sharing your story and moving beyond the idea that branding begins and ends with logos and colours.

One of the most revealing ideas from that period was simple: the person came first.

I didn't yet have today's language for the work. I wasn't talking about Human Brand X-Rays or identity gaps. But I was becoming increasingly interested in the human being other people were actually encountering.

Diplomacy Was Already Part of the Explanation

My background as a British-trained diplomat was also part of the story I told on The Connect Network TV. Long before Boss Diplomat, I had worked in environments where people, relationships, context, communication and interpretation mattered.

Moving into personal branding looked like a major career change. In hindsight, some of the same instincts had simply followed me into a different setting.

This television appearance captures that period of transition particularly well: I was still using the language of branding while getting closer to the questions about people and perception that would eventually define my work.

Watch the Original Interview

The video remains part of the public record of that evolution—and you can watch the original conversation here.