Olivia A. Gallucci

Corporate and personal brands strive to be human-like to create personal connections – Cynthia Johnson.

Many people ask me how I built a brand as a student. For me, the most important factor has been the opinions and traits that are uniquely mine—particularly my strong belief in security through community, a core principle of libre software, and my rejection of security through obscurity, a common point of contention in offensive security. 

These beliefs shape my brand, which sits at the intersection of offensive security and free and open-source software.

While I cannot prove that these beliefs are what helped me grow my brand, I think this hunch holds value based on my understanding of brand growth—at least as of March 2025.

Don’t be a corporation 

According to Forbes in Why Corporate Brands Need Personal Brands As Support, corporations lack trust in comparison to human influencers: 

“Corporations are no longer trusted like they once were. They are faceless entities, representing an aggregation of people and moving parts, and because their goal is almost always maximum profitability, consumers have become wary of their messaging. The dawn of the information age… has given people access to an unlimited world of data, resources, and even other people—so when they see messaging coming from a faceless corporation, they are immediately skeptical.”

To appear more human-like, corporations and business leaders “have deliberately used their personal brands and platform to advance their companies’ fortunes. Some specifically established themselves as thought leaders in their field, building their brand as part of the organization’s marketing strategy” (Entrepreneur.com). 

One thing to note is that although opinions and traits open you up to be more relatable, they can also invite disagreement and hate. Thus, any uniqueness you might have may be frowned upon by some people. 

This is where humility comes in—how you handle criticism and interact with people shapes how your brand is perceived.

Humility in brands

I believe—at least from a corporate standpoint—you are what third parties—your fans—think of you. If people think you are a stuck-up billionaire, people will probably dislike you. If you acknowledge people of all skill levels and backgrounds, people will love you. The key is to acknowledge all people and be friendly.

This can be tricky for personal brands because criticism often lacks depth—people don’t know you personally and may forget that there is a real person behind the brand, not just a faceless company.

I’ve also seen the reverse, where brands dismiss criticism simply because it comes from someone without a strong social media presence—forgetting that competence isn’t measured by follower count.

These situations create awkwardness. Thus, I focus on making my messaging clear to avoid contention. One of the best ways to ensure people understand a brand’s intent and values is through ~stellar~ communication (which I don’t always succeed in, but I always try). 

Language 

Language—clear and intentional—is extremely important to me because it minimizes the chance of being misunderstood. Here are some resources I use to communicate better in written or planned speaking engagements. 

Name	Usage
Cliche Finder	Finds cliche phrases in writing
Copyscape	Plagiarism checker
Grammarly	Grammar checker
Hemingway Editor	Similar to Grammarly, but all of its features are free.

Brand names

Just as clear language helps ensure a message is understood, a good brand name strengthens recognition and consistency. Your name is often the first impression people have of your brand.

In general, if you are creating a personal brand, your usernames should match your brand name and be consistent—online and offline—so that they can be identified and searched easily. 

For example, if your brand name is your actual name, say “Olivia Gallucci,” your website’s domain name should be “Olivia Gallucci,” and your social media handles should be “OliviaGallucci.” When you’re at conferences, you would introduce yourself as “Olivia Gallucci,” rather than “Liv Gallucci.” 

I mostly recommend firstnamelastname.com, like the domain you’re on, because it gives you maximum freedom to explore stuff you care about. That domain grows with you – So You Want to Start a Blog… by Daniel Miessler.

Usernames and handles 

Once you know what you want to be addressed by, that is what your username should be. Here are some username examples:

Brand name	As opposed to	Username	Reasoning
Olivia Gallucci	N/A	oliviagallucci	– Real name – Brand name
Liv Gallucci	Olivia Gallucci	livgallucci	– Nick name – theoretical brand name
Nicki Minaj	Onika Maraj	nickiminaj	According to Minaj, her original stage name was “Nicki Maraj,” but her and her director changed it to “Nicki Minaj” because she had “such a nasty flow.”  Source: Nicki Minaj: On The Rise. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2012.
Cynthia Johnson	CynthiaLIVE	CynthiaLIVE	According to Cynthia Johnson, many people share her name. As a result, she needed someone unique.

Ideally, your username should be consistent across all platforms.

It is wise to register handles on all major social media platforms, even if you do not plan on using them immediately. If you don’t own them, you may need to pay off folks to get your preferred handles if someone already took them. Another potential issue is someone pretending to be your brand. 

Brand name resources 

Here are some resources to ensure your brand name is available on all platforms; some even help you register all of your accounts at once: 

Note: I manually registered all of mine. 

Name	Topic
Check Domains	Check domains availability, domain suggestion tool, IP address locator, Free Online xml Sitemap Generator, website analyzer.
KnowEm	Secure your brand repudiation at once. Register usernames on all platforms, logos, etc.
Namecheckr	Social and Domain Name Availability Search For Brand Professionals; see if your username is available on most platforms.
WhoIs	Large database of whois information, DNS, domain names, name servers, IPs, and tools for searching and monitoring domain names.

Recommended reading: How to Claim Social Media Handles and Picking a Twitter Username? Don’t Use Numbers or Underscores.  

Slogans 

People who set goals are 43% more likely to achieve them (Persuasion Nation). Thus, I think it is fair to say that campaigns that specify a goal will probably generate more revenue than those that don’t. Thus, I recommend creating a slogan for personal brands. Although it is best if your slogan is unique, it does not need to be. You just need to believe in it, and feel strongly about it. 

These slogans should be short, simple, clear, and actionable. 

The general open source security and cryptography motto “Security Through Community” (said in opposition to “Security Through Obscurity”) is a great slogan, which has been adopted and shared in many forms. Other slogans can be phrases like “Learning In Public,” which are less attached to a specific brand, but instead, attached to a community or hobby like open source software. 

Conclusion on brands

In short, I believe building a personal brand requires authenticity, consistency, and intentionality. In my experience, embracing unique traits, maintaining humility, and using clear language, helps me establish a relatable and trustworthy presence. Thus, I try to have my brand names, usernames, and messaging aligned across all platforms to increase recognition and accessibility. 

Additionally, I think securing social media handles early and using a slogan can help reinforce a brand’s mission. Ultimately, if I were to guess where long-term success lies, I think it would come from genuineness, and maintaining a brand that evolves alongside me.

A special thank you to Cynthia Johnson for inspiring this post. Your guidance over the years has been invaluable, and I always find myself returning to the many notes and lessons I’ve gathered from your work as my brand continues to evolve.

If you enjoyed this post on branding, consider reading my other career articles!