Building in public vs. building in silence: What I learned about personal brand and focus

A few years ago, in 2020, when Dain Walker, Justin Welsh, Dan Koe and other design focused and educational content creators made informative carousels trendy, everyone in the creative and marketing space jumped in. Being even a small part of that club was an experience on its own. Among many, I watched two new founders start the same personal brand journey and take very different paths. One posted every day, shipped updates weekly, some went full-scale and were even posting weekly blogs (Remember reading blogs?), posted regular tweets, sharing full/half-baked ideas, metrics, Clubhouse live sessions, and even shared the smallest to biggest failures. His audience grew fast, opportunities flowed in, and the brand became inseparable from his services. The other one posted but not so regularly, was new, so had a huge case of imposter syndrome, felt follower count mattered more than anything else and was addicted to constantly checking the likes, comments and shares over focusing on the work and treating it like the medium to build, learn and make connections. That second founder was me by the way. 

I worked quietly, partly posting, partly not feeling up to mark, doubting if I’m even cut out for it and abandoning personal branding and pausing the learning journey multiple times due to self-doubt for six years. SIX! The only consistent thing in all of this was the ambition for an end goal. “I want to have my own marketing and advertising business. Not for the trend and to only make money (well, that too), but also to create a space where I can explore my creative side, see brands come to life and thrive because of the team I had built and the work we did. One better than the last. To build something as lasting as Ogilvy.”

I fortunately never quit on that one in over half a decade, no matter the inadequate feeling. Other than the no-quit mindset on the ambition I had, what I mentioned about those six years is at the top of the list of paths I wouldn’t suggest anyone take. Cut to the beginning of 2025, I have been working quietly, irregularly showing up on socials for almost 2 years, perfecting my designs and content for nearly 2 years now before revealing it. When I launched my studio last year, it was polished. AH! EXACTLY the way I wanted it to be! It was polished, it had the perfect colour palette, cool branding and tone, and the perfect messaging I needed it to be. It was just perfect. But the problem was there were crickets for 4 months straight, and I had no one to show/sell all these perfect elements I built for my brain child. I had spent zero time on creating an audience. It meant starting from zero attention, trust, and distribution. I didn’t even have the top of the funnel sorted. Zero brand awareness whatsoever. Both these founders succeeded eventually, but the journeys revealed something important: In my experience, neither approach is universally right. The real question is what you’re optimising for, and how the psychology of attention, authenticity and compounding plays out over time. 

Building in public and building in silence are two ends of a spectrum. Most creators and founders land somewhere in the middle, but understanding the trade-offs helps you choose deliberately instead of defaulting to what's trendy. 

The allure (and cost) of building in public  

Building in public leverages human psychology around attention and reciprocity. People love watching the process. It feels authentic, creates a parasocial connection, and turns followers into supporters. When you share progress, struggles, and small wins, you signal transparency. That builds trust faster than any polished marketing deck. 

There’s real compounding here. Each post or thread is a small bet that attracts the right people: potential clients/users, hires, investors, or collaborators. Over time, this creates a flywheel. Your personal brand becomes an asset that lowers the cost of customer acquisition and talent. In a noisy world, a consistent public building carves out mental real estate in your audience’s minds. 

But the downsides are psychological and strategic. Constant visibility fragments focus. The dopamine hit of likes and comments can pull you toward performance over progress, optimising for engagement rather than the work itself. There’s pressure to maintain the narrative, which can lead to oversharing or premature commitments. Early criticism, sometimes from people who don't fully understand the vision, can derail momentum or force unnecessary pivots. 

I’ve seen founders get addicted to the feedback loop. What starts as a useful signal becomes noise, eroding deep work. Attention is finite; every hour spent crafting the “right” update is an hour not spent building. 

The power (and risk) of building in silence

Building in silence protects focus and lets you iterate without external noise. No audience expectations. No temptations to ship half-baked features for the software/app you are building, the offer you are in the process of creating, or share “snippets” of the business idea you are working on for “content”. It can be good or bad, which one of them it is, is for you to decide according to your needs. 

Psychologically, this aligns with the conditions for great work: sustained attention on hard problems. Deep focus compounds in ways that public performance often doesn’t. You avoid the audience’s “negative projection” trap, where your direction bends towards what gets applause and hearing constant buts, ifs and “according to my knowledge….” conversations, eventually ending up in you doubting your idea/product/service enough to maybe think about shelving it after hearing enough of those comments. Heard of that quote? “The best way to ruin something is to tell everyone about it.” Early-stage plans are vulnerable. Sharing them prematurely invites unsolicited criticism, doubt, and external opinions that can kill your momentum before you start. Not just that, there have been psychological studies on the early dopamine hit, creating a sense of task completion before you even start it. The Premature Reward Illusion: Psychological studies, such as those by Peter Gollwitzer, show that when you announce a goal and receive praise, your brain confuses the talking with the actual work. Many breakthrough products and ideas emerged from periods of deliberate quiet rather than premature announcements. 

The trade-off is loneliness and distribution risk. Without a pre-existing audience or personal brand, launching feels like shouting into the void as I did. You miss early validation, feedback, and compounding relationships. In a world where attention is the scarcest resource, silence can mean invisibility at the exact moment you need momentum most. Authenticity still matters in both paths, but it works differently: Building in public lets you reveal it gradually, layer by layer. Through ongoing updates, struggles, and small wins. This builds a connection over time. Building in silence, on the other hand, holds everything back until the big reveal, so authenticity arrives all at once rather than being layered gradually. You would still have to spend a good amount of time building an audience and creating a community from scratch. 

The psychology beneath both

Attention is not neutral. Public building exploits our evolved sensitivity to social proof and storytelling. We’re wired to pay attention to narratives in progress. It feels human and relatable. But that same wiring makes us vulnerable to performing for the crowd, diluting authenticity. 

True authenticity isn’t radical transparency. It’s alignment between what you believe, what you build, and what you share. Some of the most authentic builders I know are selective: They share enough to build trust and attract the right people, but guard the core creative process. 

Long-term compounding favours a hybrid over extremes. Public building compounds your network and brand exponentially if done with discipline. Silence compounds product/service quality and personal clarity. The sweet spot is often “strategic transparency.” Build mostly in private for focus, but share deliberately chosen signals that reinforce your brand without hijacking your attention. 

What I’ve learned (and recommend) 

Not the silver lining or the only set path

1. Know your stage and personality. Early on, when the work is fragile, silence (or even limited public sharing) often serves better, as it gives space for undivided attention to one thing only. As momentum builds even slightly, public elements accelerate growth. 

2. Protect deep work ruthlessly. Set clear rules: no posting during focus blocks. Use public updates as rewards or structured ritual, not a constant obligation. 

3. Treat your personal brand as a byproduct, not the goal. Create a life you want and post pieces that YOU want to, don’t curate a life to post. Authenticity compounds when sharing flows naturally from real progress rather than manufactured content. Readers and customers can smell the difference. 

4. Measure the right things. For public building, track not just followers but meaningful outcomes (conversations started, hires made, user growth). For silence, track iteration speed and product/service quality. 

5. Iterate your approach. Many builders start silent, go public during growth, then return to quieter periods for the next big bet. The best ones stay flexible. 

In the end, personal brand and focus aren’t enemies. They’re in tension that produces energy when managed well. Building in public can make you a magnet for opportunities, but only if the underlying work justifies the attention. Building in silence can produce superior work, but only if you eventually bridge it to the world effectively. 

The creators and founders who win long-term treat both as tools, not identities. They understand that attention is fuel, authenticity is the engine, and compounding is the ultimate scoreboard. Choose your balance deliberately, adjust as you go. The work itself should always come first. But how you share it can determine how far it travels.