Small, yet impactful, ways to glow up your personal brand in 2026

Step into 2026 with a confident personal brand and reimagine your professional positioning to reflect a future-focused you. 

If you have followed my blog, YouTube channel or podcast, you might have noticed I love all things end-of-year reset. So instead of mindlessly rolling into a new year, you can move with intention. As 2025 draws to a close, it’s the perfect moment to reflect, refine and ready yourself for the opportunities ahead in 2026. The professional landscape is evolving, and so are you. Use the end-of-year milestone as your cue to recalibrate and push your personal brand forward. This is your reminder to reinvent if you need to, refresh and realign a few key touchpoints and skills for 2026.

1. Reinvent your resume 

Don’t wait for your dream role to be advertised before you revisit your out-of-date (and potentially dull) resume. Opportunity may come knocking in 2026 when you least expect it. Don’t get caught off-guard. Be ready with a standout resume that skilfully sells your unique value proposition.  Use the end-of-year to reflect on your achievements, key outcomes and any metrics that will make your resume sing to your next employer. 

For more on how to elevate your resume, see my earlier blogs, on 10 tiny ways your resume isn’t working for you (and what to do instead) and How to sell your skills in your resume: Pitching a persuasive personal brand. 

2. Revitalise your LinkedIn profile

With over one billion users, LinkedIn is the world’s biggest professional networking platform. If you’re planning to get noticed in the job market in 2026, an up-to-date LinkedIn profile makes an impactful first impression for recruiters - the majority of whom, research shows, check social media platforms during the recruitment process. 

Here are some quick wins for your LinkedIn profile: 

• Refresh Your LinkedIn Profile Photo to Elevate Your Professional Personal Brand

• Create a More Engaging LinkedIn Banner for Your Professional Personal Brand

• Rewrite Your LinkedIn About Me to Strengthen Your Personal Brand Strategy

• Write a Better LinkedIn Profile Headline for Your Personal Brand 

For more details on each of these, see my earlier articles and if you’re really pressed for time, try my 1-Minute Wins to Elevate Your LinkedIn Profile and Professional Personal Brand (6 Tiny Tips). 

3. Reinvigorate your personal brand bios

It’s always a wonderful sign of our progress when we can look back at the things we poured our efforts into…and cringe. It means our knowledge, skills and perhaps goals have evolved. Use the turn of the new year to review and rework your bios - whether it’s for speaking opportunities, your personal brand website, LinkedIn About or more. Project a 2026-ready, future-focused you. What are you most proud of? What messages and core values do you most want to represent moving forward?

For more ideas, refer to my earlier blog, Write a less boring bio. 10 tips to leave a memorable impression for your personal brand.

4. Reimagine your visual personal brand with Pinterest

If you follow my content, you’ll know I’m a big fan of using Pinterest to rewire, reimagine and recreate your personal and professional potential. In many ways, I see myself as a social media minimalist, yet Pinterest is the one social media platform I don’t personally feel you can get enough of. 

Like the Creative Director of brand You, Pinterest is the perfect place to strategically set up boards and sub-boards for each of your interests and goals. As the Creative Director of brand You, these are your very own digital mood and vision boards. 

Vision boarding engages your Reticular Activating System (RAS). Your RAS tells your brain what’s important. For example, you might decide there’s a new car you want. You pinpoint the model and colour you’d choose. All of a sudden, you start to see everyone driving it. In reality, the number of people driving your next car likely hasn’t changed - but your brain has. Your brain is filtering the noise so you can focus on your goals.

As I shared in my earlier blog, How I Use Pinterest Boards to Rewire My Brain and Upgrade My Life, I use Pinterest as one of my ‘Second Brains’, a knowledge management system concept I loved learning about in Tiago Forte’s book, Building a Second Brain. 

From your personal style and brand look and feel to interests and hobbies, use Pinterest to capture, build on and be inspired to take your personal brand (and life) to new heights. 

For more, see my earlier blog on How to Rebrand Your Visual Brand.

5. Elevate your verbal brand

Whether it’s mastering your brand tone of voice, are on a mission to become more articulate or are improving your vocabulary, set yourself at least one goal that will enhance the identity of your verbal brand. Some ideas might be: 

• Set a reading goal 

• Commit to reading 5 Substack, Medium, LinkedIn or other articles a week

• Practise speaking in public, e.g. film video content, or say yes to presentations, panels or podcasts

• Following a podcast or YouTube channel and observing best-in-class speaking in action

For more, see my earlier blog, Rebrand Your Verbal Personal Brand.

From 2025-tired to transformed for 2026

Your personal brand is not a static snapshot, it’s a reflection of your evolution. Use the change of season to invest in the version of you that’s emerging, ready for a new year. From your resume to your visual and verbal brand, each update is an act of intention. Step into 2026, not waiting for opportunity, but ready to attract it with a confident, clear and credible personal brand.