The strongest brand is what people expect from you before you arrive.

The expectation people carry before they meet you does more work than anything you say once you are there. It was built by other people’s accounts of what you were like to deal with, and by whether the pattern held over time. You do not control it directly, only through repetition.

Ask what you would want someone to have heard about you before a first meeting. Then check whether the last ten interactions would have produced that. The gap is your actual work, and it closes slowly.