The Directory, as a Printed Book

About the directory

A directory you can actually verify

The world's first dedicated personal branding directory.

Personal Branding Agencies is the vetted industry directory for personal branding agencies, consultancies, and independent consultants, all listed on identical terms and held to the same seven criteria. Every listing vetted by MCG: identity confirmed, track record reviewed, and sworn to the industry's only published Code of Ethics.

Anyone can call themselves a personal branding expert. This directory exists so that the people hiring one can tell the difference: every listing is checked against a published standard, the standard is the same for everyone, and nothing in it can be bought. Agencies, consultancies, and independent consultants are listed on identical terms, so a client can choose the shape of help they actually want rather than the size of the firm offering it.

Personal Branding Agencies Directory: Vetted, Not Bought.

The vetting standard

Seven criteria, no exceptions

Every practice in this directory meets all seven, for as long as it is listed. No criterion is waived, including for the founder's own agency.

1. Code of EthicsA 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.
2. AI DisclosureA 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.
3. Primary Focus: Personal BrandingPersonal 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.
4. SpecializationA defined lane, stated plainly. Practices claiming to serve everyone are asked what they actually do best.
5. Verifiable WebsiteA live site that plainly identifies the business and what it does.
6. Verifiable Social Media FootprintAt least one active, public professional profile that can be independently confirmed to belong to the practice.
7. Legitimate Legal FilingA registered business entity, or a properly filed sole practice. Whatever form the practice takes, it must exist on the record somewhere we can check.

The process

Four steps, none of them for sale

Anyone can apply. There is no invitation, no waiting list, and no fee. Every application goes through the same four steps.

1. ApplicationYou complete the application form. It asks for your agency name, location, website, founding year, team size, clients served, specialties, your AI disclosure, and a contact. Every figure you give must be one you can substantiate.
2. Agreement to the Code of EthicsYou read the Code of Ethics in full and formally agree to it. This is not a checkbox exercise. It is the standard your listing is held to for as long as it exists.
3. A call with a PBA representativeWe speak with you directly. The call covers three things: your intent in joining the directory, how your business actually operates, and your perspective on the Code of Ethics. We ask about the Code specifically because agreeing to a document and believing in it are different things, and the difference shows in conversation.
4. DecisionIf the call goes well and your details check out, your listing is created. From there you have a working relationship with PBA: you cannot edit the listing directly, but you can request a change to anything on it at any time through your listing's change request form, and we apply it.

Applications are made at personalbrandingagencies.com/apply. Response within five business days.

The Code of Ethics

7 commitments every listing makes

1. Organic growth comes firstWe do not buy followers, engagement, or manufactured social proof, for our clients or ourselves. Paid amplification is a legitimate tool and we use it, but it supports earned effort rather than substituting for it.
2. AI is disclosed, not concealedArtificial intelligence is a tool, and we use it openly where it helps. We do not let it do the heavy lifting of a client's intellectual property or speaking voice, we do not present generated work as human craft, and we do not use it to build a perception the client has not earned.
3. Earned press, honestly earnedWe do not fabricate media features, pay for disguised advertorials presented as earned coverage, or invent credentials.
4. Truth in resultsWe do not promise outcomes we cannot control, and we report client results without inflation.
5. Identity before imageWe build brands on who the client actually is, never on a persona designed to deceive their audience.
6. Transparent pricingOur fees, deliverables, and terms are stated before engagement. No bait pricing, no surprise upsells mid-contract.
7. The client owns the brandAccounts, audiences, and assets built during an engagement belong to the client, always.

How to read a listing

What each snapshot tells you

Each practice appears as a snapshot: what it is, who it serves, and how to reach it. Its full listing, with everything it has published, is at personalbrandingagencies.com. Practices appear alphabetically, after the founder listing; the order is not a ranking.

A listing is not an endorsement. Vetting verifies identity, stated credentials, and the ethics commitment at the time of review.