There's a reason some people walk into a room and everyone notices. It's not luck. It's not looks. And it's not something you either have or you don't.
Today I'm sitting down with Whitney Uland, founder of How to Be Famous, to talk about the one thing most people building a personal brand are missing: the it factor. And no, you're not born with it. You build it.
Whitney spent over a decade in the entertainment industry, acting, writing, navigating rejection, until someone told her she didn't have what it takes. Instead of accepting that, she became obsessed with understanding what magnetism is, where it comes from, and how anyone can develop it. Now she helps creatives, founders, and entrepreneurs step into what she calls their celebrity energy.
In this episode, we get into why your personal brand is 90% subconscious, what's blocking you from showing up online even if you've performed in front of thousands of people, and why following trends will always keep you chasing instead of leading.
Mentioned in this episode:
📘 Career Cheat Codes (Pre-Order)

My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available for pre-order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities.
Pre-order → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/
👩‍💻 Holly Maglin — Early Career Recruiting Strategy
If you're a founder or startup team hiring Gen Z talent, check out Holly Madeline. She helps companies modernize how they recruit early-career candidates.
Connect on LinkedIn → Holly Maglin
03:00 What the ‘It Factor’ is
08:02 Why your personal brand is 90% subconscious
09:04 Why "personal brand" feels icky
20:27 How to build magnetism from scratch
24:04 Why visibility shuts people down (and how to fix it)
27:15 Why performers still struggle on camera
38:00 How to stop chasing trends and start creating them
44:00 Fame, ego, and why hiding is the more egoic move
51:00 How boundaries grow as your brand grows
About Whitney
Whitney Uland is the founder of How to Be Famous, a framework and community built around the idea that magnetism, visibility, and presence are learnable skills — not personality traits you're either born with or not. Before building her personal brand, Whitney spent over a decade in the entertainment industry as an actor and writer. She now works with founders, creatives, and entrepreneurs to help them own their spotlight on their own terms.
Connect with Whitney
📲 Instagram: @whitneyuland
🎶 TikTok: whitneyuland
🎙️ Podcast: How to Be Famous
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

If you’ve ever thought, “I don’t really know what a personal brand is” or “how do I even start a personal brand???”, this episode is for you.
Today I’m joined by Danielle Canty, former co-founder of Bossbabe, to break down one of the biggest misconceptions about personal branding:
You don’t start a personal brand. 
You ALREADY have one.
Danielle shares how she went from working in the medical field to co-founding BossBabe, one of the most recognizable online business brands of the last decade, and how she now thinks about personal brands as leverage. Not the business itself, but the thing that opens doors, builds trust, and compounds opportunities over time.
We also talk about the mindset blocks that stop people from showing up online, why perfect content actually hurts engagement, and how building community matters far more than going viral.
Mentioned in this episode:
📘 Career Cheat Codes (Pre-Order)

My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available for pre-order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities.
Pre-order → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/
👩‍💻 Holly Maglin — Early Career Recruiting Strategy
If you're a founder or startup team hiring Gen Z talent, check out Holly Madeline. She helps companies modernize how they recruit early-career candidates.
Connect on LinkedIn → Holly Maglin
02:30 You already have a personal brand
09:34 The truth about reputation and online presence
13:31 Why personal brands create leverage
16:41 The cultural excuses people make about showing up online
17:17 “You are what you say you are”
19:41 How mindset shapes growth and motivation
36:05 Perfect content hurts engagement
37:45 The power of imperfection in building trust
About Danielle
Danielle Canty is an entrepreneur and the former co-founder of BossBabe, the online education brand that grew into an eight-figure business supporting hundreds of thousands of women entrepreneurs worldwide.
Since exiting the company in 2023, Danielle focuses on helping founders turn ideas into scalable businesses through clear systems, predictable revenue, and strategic simplicity.
She has generated $35M+ in online revenue, built multiple seven-figure businesses, and her work has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Elle, and Success Magazine.
Connect with Danielle
📲 Instagram: @daniellecanty
💼 LinkedIn: Danielle Canty
🔗 Website: danielle-canty.com/
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

Welcome to the first official episode of Built In Public!

If you’ve ever felt stuck choosing a niche… frustrated with low engagement… or unsure how to turn content into actual conversations and clients, this one’s for you.

In this episode, I’m breaking down the philosophy behind building in public (the authentic and awkward version)

I break down the biggest engagement mistakes I see creators making, why faces and formatting matter more than most people realize, and how to use your audience’s exact words to sharpen your messaging so they reach out.

And we get into the thing nobody wants to hear, but everyone needs to: consistency will always matter more than trying to game the algorithm.

00:00 Why I rebranded to Built In Public
05:15 How to actually find your niche (without forcing it)
10:19 The messaging strategy that makes people reach out to you
21:04 Why your content isn’t getting engagement
23:12 Formatting mistakes that kill performance
29:30 Consistency algorithm hacks

If this episode helped you think differently about your personal brand, leave a review and let me know what hit.

We’re just getting started.

Stay connected with me!
courtney@smoothmedia.co
IG @courtlynnjohnson
LK @Courtney Johnson
TIKTOK @courtney..johnson