The world's first dedicated personal branding directory
Anyone can call themselves a personal branding expert. Every practice in this directory has been vetted by Mashman Consulting Group: identity confirmed, track record reviewed, and sworn to the industry's only published Code of Ethics.
Agencies, consultancies, and independent consultants, listed on identical terms and held to the same seven criteria, so you can choose the shape of help you actually want rather than the size of the firm offering it.
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Listed Agencies
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Vetting Criteria
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Code of Ethics
$0
To Be Vetted
The Explainer · 2:53
The standard, the seven criteria, and how to choose an agency you can trust. Vetted, not bought.
Why this directory exists
The personal branding industry is growing faster than its standards. Bought followers, fabricated press, rented credibility: the tactics that inflate a practitioner's brand are the same ones that quietly destroy a client's. This directory exists to separate the professionals from the frauds. Read the full vetting standard to see exactly what every agency has to prove, or the guide to choosing an agency to use the same checks yourself.
A personal brand built on lies will collapse under the weight of its first real test. Identity comes first followed by intentional positioning.
The Founder Listing · Not for sale
We optimize, position, and scale personal brands of emerging to established executives & public figures, leading to influence, credibility, and market demand.
MCG operates this directory and wrote its vetting standard. This listing is permanently first, labeled as the founder, and self-vetted against the same seven criteria. It receives no advantage in the Power Ranking.
Featured Partners
Vetted by MCG
Collaborative ghostwriting for thought-leadership books, columns, and executive newsletters.
Price tier: $$
Featured Partner Placement
3/4
placements open
Featured Partners are vetted first, like every listing, then pay to be seen first. The placement is labeled as paid, capped at 4, and never touches rating or rank.
See Plans and PricingFeatured Partners pay for this placement, and it is capped at 4 agencies site-wide. Position rotates weekly, so no partner holds the first slot permanently. Paid placement never affects vetting, rating, or ranking.
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The path to a listing
The agency applies for free, with figures it can substantiate and a plain account of how it uses AI.
The agency reads the Code of Ethics in full and formally agrees to it. Disagreeing with any part of it ends the application.
A PBA representative speaks with the agency about its intent, how it actually operates, and its view of the Code.
If the call goes well and every one of the seven criteria checks out, the listing is created.
The PBA Power Ranking
Ranked by verified client reviews, weighted so a rating has to be earned across enough reviews to be trusted. Paid plans, featured placement, and even the founder listing have zero influence.
The Vetting Standard
Before any agency appears in this directory, it completes a review conducted by Mashman Consulting Group. No listing is bought. No criterion is waived, including for the founder's own agency.
Criterion 01
A signed commitment to the PBA Code of Ethics: a standing pledge against the manipulative tactics saturating this industry. Breaking it, or disagreeing with any part of it, ends a listing.
Criterion 02
A published position on how the practice uses artificial intelligence. Using AI is not disqualifying. Concealing it is, and so is using it to manufacture a perception a client has not earned. The disclosure is published on the listing.
Criterion 03
Personal branding must account for at least 70 percent of the practice's work: at least seven of every ten clients served are personal brand engagements, not incidental to a different business line. Many listed practices also take on B2B or unrelated work, and that is fine. What is not fine is a practice for which personal branding is a minor offering, listed here on the strength of unrelated work, since this remains a small, specific niche and the directory exists to represent it, not general marketing or business consulting.
Criterion 04
A defined lane, stated plainly. Practices claiming to serve everyone are asked what they actually do best.
Criterion 05
A live site that plainly identifies the business and what it does.
Criterion 06
At least one active, public professional profile that can be independently confirmed to belong to the practice.
Criterion 07
A registered business entity, or a properly filed sole practice. Whatever form the practice takes, it must exist on the record somewhere we can check.
Vetting confirms the identity, stated credentials, and ethics commitment of listed agencies at the time of review. It is not a guarantee of results. See the full Code of Ethics and the process for reporting an agency.
Editorial
Article
Paid “Top 10” personal branding lists can blur the line between recognition and advertising. Learn why disclosure, editorial independence, and transparency matter.
Questions
The short version of how the directory works. The guide to choosing an agency goes further.
A practice that helps a person, rather than a company, build and manage the reputation people hold of them: positioning, content, press, and the public record a search for their name returns. The directory lists agencies, consultancies, and independent consultants on identical terms.
Every applicant is reviewed by Mashman Consulting Group against the same public criteria: a signed Code of Ethics, a published AI disclosure, personal branding as at least 70 percent of the practice's work, a defined specialization, a verifiable website, a verifiable social media footprint, and a legitimate legal filing. No criterion is waived, including for the founder's own agency. Every applicant goes through the same four steps: the application, agreement to the Code of Ethics, a call with a PBA representative, and a decision.
No. Vetting is free and cannot be bought. Paid plans buy placement and presentation only, they are always labeled as paid, and they never affect approval, ratings, review counts, or the PBA Power Ranking.
A review requires a contact email so the reviewer can be confirmed as a genuine client, and nothing publishes until it has been checked. The email is never published, never shared with the agency, and never used for marketing.
Pricing varies widely by practice and engagement. Every listing shows a price tier, the overall average of what a project costs with that practice, in US dollars: $ is $2,500 or less, $$ is $2,501 to $7,500, $$$ is $7,501 to $10,000, and $$$$ is $10,001 or more. Each listing also says whether the work is Done For You, Done With You, or a mixture, so you can compare before you make contact.
Anyone can file a report. Every report is reviewed, and a confirmed violation means permanent removal from the directory, recorded publicly on the site.
Vetting is free for every applicant. Apply, agree to the Code of Ethics, speak with a PBA representative, and put your agency in front of clients who are specifically looking for someone they can trust.
