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Fast Company has featured Bob Knakal, Chairman & CEO of BKREA, in its “Personal Brand Special Report: 207 Insights and Ideas to Grow Your Brand and Career.” The special report brings together insights from more than 150 CEOs, entrepreneurs, consultants, artists, investors, and other professionals examining how personal branding can influence careers, build credibility, and create new opportunities.
Knakal’s contribution draws on more than four decades of experience in commercial real estate and explains how he has viewed himself as being in the information business as much as the real estate business. He emphasizes the importance of consistently providing value, educating audiences, and becoming a trusted source of information.
Knakal explains that a personal brand is not simply about visibility. Providing valuable information consistently helps establish credibility and build relationships that can create opportunities over time.
Knakal highlights the distinction between corporate brands and personal relationships, noting that companies own their logos while individuals build and maintain the relationships that ultimately create trust and opportunity.
A strong personal brand begins with genuine expertise. Knakal's approach has centered on sharing knowledge and market information rather than simply promoting himself.
Personal branding is not a one-time marketing exercise. The report emphasizes that professionals need to continually develop their expertise, communicate their ideas, and provide value to their audiences.
Fast Company notes that personal brands now extend across LinkedIn, X, social video, newsletters, podcasts, and live events. These platforms allow individuals to reach audiences directly rather than relying exclusively on their organizations for visibility.
The report examines how professionals have used personal branding to advance within companies, build audiences, develop businesses, and create career opportunities outside traditional corporate structures.
Fast Company reports that interest in personal branding has increased significantly, particularly as professionals navigate changing workplaces, AI-generated content, and evolving career paths.
Knakal shares that throughout his 42-year career, he has viewed himself as being in the information business as much as the real estate business. While the platforms for communicating information have changed dramatically, his objective has remained consistent: provide value, educate people, and become a trusted source of information.
He also reflects on his experience at JLL, where he says his personal brand had become prominent enough that he viewed it as beginning to overshadow the corporate brand. From that experience, he draws a distinction between corporate identity and the relationships individuals develop throughout their careers.
According to Knakal:
“Companies own logos, but individuals own relationships. Brands create awareness, trust creates opportunity, and consistently delivering value over long periods of time creates both.”
Fast Company’s report illustrates how personal branding has evolved from a career-development concept into a significant professional asset. The report features professionals using their personal brands in different ways, including advancing within organizations, building audiences, creating businesses, and developing career independence.
For Knakal, the foundation remains consistent: expertise, information, education, relationships, and the long-term delivery of value.
It is a special report featuring insights and ideas from more than 150 professionals on how personal branding can help develop careers, build influence, and create new opportunities.
Knakal shared lessons from his 42-year career about building a personal brand through expertise, information, education, and consistently providing value.
His approach centers on becoming a trusted source of information and using expertise to educate and provide value to an audience.
He emphasizes that companies control corporate identities and logos, while individuals develop relationships and trust that can continue across organizations and throughout their careers.
Personal branding has expanded from traditional workplace reputation into digital platforms including LinkedIn, X, social video, newsletters, podcasts, and live events.
A lasting personal brand is built by consistently delivering value, developing expertise, educating others, and earning trust over time.
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