Building Trust, Personal Branding, and Innovation: Karolina Pelc on Leadership and Growth
Lessons on leadership, personal brand, and building real credibility
Karolina Pelc, founder of Beyond Play (acquired by FanDuel in 2024), an author, investor, and mentor at HerPlay, shares her valuable insights on the power of personal branding, building trust, and scaling a company. In this episode, she dives deep into the importance of storytelling as a leader, balancing vulnerability with privacy, and how founders can effectively use their personal brand to grow their businesses.
Building Trust in the Early Days
For Karolina, the key to building trust in the early stages of a company is authenticity and vulnerability. Reflecting on her early days of building her personal brand, Karolina shares how she began posting on LinkedIn long before it became a massive platform. While others might have over-strategized, she focused on sharing her journey, including both the successes and struggles. “People want to know about both,” she says, explaining that sharing the tough moments helps to humanize the founder and foster deeper trust.
Storytelling as a Leadership Tool
As a leader, Karolina believes that storytelling is essential to building credibility, not only with your team but also with customers. She emphasizes that people don’t just work for companies—they work for people they trust. As someone leading a company in an innovative space like Beyond Play, she had to tell the story of her team’s capabilities and how their product would change the way people played. Karolina advises other leaders to focus on telling the truth, be authentic, and never shy away from vulnerability in their storytelling.
Building Confidence and Visibility as a Founder
Confidence, according to Karolina, is built over time. “Confidence is like a muscle,” she says, explaining that the more founders push themselves out of their comfort zone, the more they grow their confidence. She encourages new founders to focus on their unique niche and positioning in a crowded market. With a lot of professional brand-building happening on platforms like LinkedIn, she stresses the importance of distinguishing oneself by offering something different and valuable.
Balancing Honesty and Privacy in Your Personal Brand
Karolina recognizes the challenge of sharing personal experiences while maintaining a level of privacy. As a CEO of a startup, she had to be careful not to skew the public perception of her company negatively, while still being transparent about struggles. “You can’t come across insecure or like you don’t know where you’re going,” she says, stressing the importance of maintaining confidence while being authentic. At the same time, she notes that setting personal boundaries—such as keeping family life private—remains essential for maintaining balance.
Attracting Talent and Partnerships Through Personal Branding
Karolina underscores the importance of using your personal brand to attract talent and partnerships. Reflecting on her own experience, she shares that early relationships and business connections were built through her and her co-founder’s personal brands. She advises other founders to take control of their own narrative and communicate the company’s mission, values, and innovative vision openly. “We wouldn’t have been getting the meetings we were getting if people didn’t know who we were and what we were up to,” Karolina says.
Turning Your Story into Tangible Value for Others
Karolina also discusses how founders can turn their personal stories into something that adds value to others. As a female founder, she feels a sense of responsibility to share her journey to inspire others. She highlights the importance of writing a book or speaking publicly to share life lessons, risks taken, and the process of reinvention. “The key takeaway,” she says, “is to provide value and inspire others to take that leap.” Her book, which combines her personal journey with actionable lessons, serves as a beacon for those looking to pursue leadership roles or start their own businesses.
Measuring Impact Beyond Likes and Impressions
Lastly, Karolina shares her philosophy on personal branding and how she measures its impact. She doesn’t focus on likes and impressions, recognizing the shift in social media where engagement has diluted. Instead, she advises founders to focus on the value they are providing to their audience. Building a personal brand should be about giving, not seeking validation. “Focus on giving something to your audience, rather than looking for applause,” she says, emphasizing that genuine connections and community-building are key to lasting success.
