Books have always been a source of inspiration and encouragement for us. Especially in the personal branding industry, we have come across some really good books that shaped the way we think and really impacted our perspective and agency brand vision. Books have a unique power to transform perspectives, spark ideas, and guide action. For us, as founders of a creative agency, they’ve been more than sources of inspiration; they’ve been foundational to building our personal brand and shaping our agency’s vision. From leadership to creativity and strategy to client relationships, a carefully curated selection of branding books has provided actionable insights that we’ve woven into our daily practices.
Now before we even get started with this blog, the reason we decided to work on this blog is because we learned so much from books that we decided to give it back and hence crafted a new personal branding ebook. This ebook is called “Become Someone From No One.” The book is the product of the collaborative efforts of Bhavik Sarkhedi and Sahil Gandhi. Together they own a Webflow agency, Blushush, in London, and individually manage the personal branding agency Ohh My Brand and the Brand Professor.
So this is just a small effort we are putting together in our endeavor to give back to the whole personal branding industry some good tips, tricks, and actionable strategies that can help them become someone and allow them to excel in the process of building a personal brand. This comprehensive guide explores how specific books have influenced our journey, organized into key areas of impact, with real-world examples of how their lessons translated from page to practice, we have written this blog to help you build a brand from books and drive our agency’s growth and define our ethos.
Defining Purpose and Vision
Everything begins from this point only. If we have to mention a book that has dramatically changed the way we think about marketing, personal brand development and the whole ecosystem of how brands operate and prosper in the market, the book surely has to be Start with Why by Simon Sinek. In this book, the author explained his “Golden Circle” framework. This framework is centered around the importance of starting with “why” before addressing “how” or “what.” Let me tell you, this one-line statement itself gave us clarity in defining our agency’s purpose.
As agency owners, we wanted to do more than create visually appealing campaigns; our “why” was to empower brands to tell stories that forge deep emotional connections. This principle shaped our personal brand as purpose-driven leaders and became the bedrock of our agency’s mission. There is one thing that you will always hear Sahil Gandhi say, and that is “people don’t buy products, they buy stories.” As a personal branding agency, this is why we craft strong and solid narratives for people pursuing the concept of personal brand.
Building Habits for Success
The next best thing that really helped us in shaping our vision was to first build good and long-lasting habits, habits that introduce discipline, and discipline leads to consistency. For this, there is no great book other than Atomic Habits by James Clear. This one book has completely changed and brought a dramatic shift in how we approach personal and professional growth.
Clear’s focus on small, incremental changes inspired us to build routines that align with our brand’s values of consistency and excellence. We adopted a daily habit of dedicating 30 minutes each morning to strategic thinking, reviewing client goals, or brainstorming innovative ideas. This practice compounded over time, leading to sharper pitches and cohesive strategies.
One of the core elements we talk about is clarity, and this clarity is a gift we received only after reading Atomic Habits. It will help you align your personal brand with business identity. Clarity in personal branding journey is a quintessential element and cannot be taken for granted. Because without it, you won’t be able to think beyond a certain point.
Unleashing Creative Potential
This was a major step for us; as agency owners, we were adamant about the fact that we have to exploit our full potential and unleash our creativity at its best. Because creativity and working at an expanded potential is pretty much a dire need for personal branding. For this, we turned to a book called Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. This one book reshaped how we approached the whole concept of creative potential.
Gilbert’s view of creativity as a collaborative force between discipline and inspiration encouraged us to take bold risks. Her advice to embrace curiosity over fear pushed us to experiment with unconventional ideas. This willingness to take creative risks became a defining trait of our personal brand.
Strengthening Team Dynamics
Yes, we knew from the beginning that our team of personal branding needs a culture, an environment, and people who are willing to contribute and learn at the same time. Without an effective team, it becomes quite challenging to make things work. To be honest, we were never really a fan of team building, but lately we have realized how much power, knowledge, skills, and energy each employee brings to the team; the only reasonable thing to remember is that they should be hired in the right manner.
For this, we came across a book called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni that was a game-changer for our internal culture. Lencioni’s fable about trust, conflict, and accountability highlighted gaps in our team dynamics, such as communication issues between our design and strategy teams that led to missed deadlines. Inspired by his model, we introduced weekly “trust-building” meetings where team members shared challenges and feedback openly. This practice improved collaboration and was reflected in our client work. Lencioni’s lessons helped us project reliability and unity, key elements of our agency’s reputation.
Mastering Strategic Marketing
When it comes to marketing, especially from a personal branding point of view, there is no better book that came to our help than This Is Marketing by Seth Godin. The writer of this book has totally reshaped our approach to client relationships and market positioning.
Godin’s focus on building trust and creating value for a specific audience prompted us to niche down our services to focus on purpose-driven brands. This clarified our agency’s vision and attracted aligned clients. By aligning our services with a clear audience, we strengthened our personal brand as specialists in meaningful marketing.
Understanding Client Decision-Making
Running a personal branding firm is no easy task; we all know that. Most of the time, as branding agency owners, we have to make quick decisions, and not just once but a series of them as a part of our daily routines. Wise and good decisions often lead people to extraordinary returns, but for those extraordinary returns, you must not fail at making good decisions.
For the whole concept of decision-making, there is a book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. This book offered us psychological insights that refined our client interactions. Kahneman’s exploration of System 1 (intuitive) and System 2 (analytical) thinking helped us understand how clients make decisions. Based on that, we comprehended the value of making real fast decisions that are not just choices but are fruitful in the end.
We began tailoring pitches to appeal to both systems, using compelling visuals for emotional impact (System 1) and data-driven insights for trust (System 2). This dual approach won us the contract over competitors, as the client valued our balance of creativity and pragmatism. Kahneman’s framework became a subtle but powerful tool in shaping our brand and helped us build a powerful executive brand as both visionary and grounded.
Books are a great source of knowledge. Know this clearly in your head, that even today as we live in 2025, we have yet not extracted enough information from books as a viable medium. We can literally create brand strategy frameworks using them. We have to set our feet in the ground to actually make it happen. All the books that we mentioned have left a significant mark on our way of thinking and operations. Only by acquiring the right skills from all these books, can we think of cultivating a personal brand that clients see as authentic and approachable, inducing stronger, long-lasting partnerships.
Final Takeaways
At last, we are only going to go through a quick recap for each stage and how books like Start With Why, Big Magic, Atomic Habits, and Thinking Fast and Slow helped us for different traits that were required for handling and managing a personal branding agency. Of course there are other books like Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon and Daring Greatly by Brene Brown that can help you in embracing creative partnerships and leading with vulnerability. We would like to remind you that we have created a good personal branding ebook for you called “Become Someone From No One.”
Download the Personal Branding Gold Mine eBook to ensure your personal brand is impactful, relevant, and aligned with your goals. Start building your brand today. All the books we mentioned didn’t just sit on our shelves; they became active tools in shaping our agency’s vision and personal brand. For anyone seeking to define their own path, these books offer a roadmap, proving that the right words can spark real-world transformation.
