[Fully Managed] Dave Polykoff from Personal Brand Blueprint Ep. 102

Shannon Donnelly (SD): All righty. Hello everyone and welcome to the Philly Made Podcast. This is where we talk to businesses and professionals from Philadelphia to learn more about their business journeys. I’m your host, Shannon, Penji’s partnership coordinator, and I’m joined here today with a very special guest, Dave Polykoff, the CEO and founder of their Personal Brand Blueprint. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Dave Polykoff (DP): Shannon, thank you for having me. I think this is pretty timely right now. I don’t know when this is coming out, but I have to give a big Go Birds because…

SD: Oh my God, as of now, don’t jinx it. Every time I say something, people are like, don’t jinx it.

DP: I have confidence. That’s all I’ll say.

SD: I actually wore on our live event the other day an Eagles shirt. And it worked because the guy was an Eagles fan. He’s from New Jersey, and I was unaware of whether I would start a fight on the podcast as well.

DP: If he’s a Giants fan, then there’s a lot we have to talk about.

SD: Yeah, I am also from New Jersey, but New Jersey teams are not good. I live in Philly now.

DP: You don’t claim New Jersey teams?

SD: Yeah. I do enjoy New Jersey, whether or not anyone feels good about that. I know a lot of people don’t like it, but the sports teams are not up to snuff.

DP: No comment.

Dave’s Background and Entrepreneurial Journey

SD: This is about you though, not the Birds. Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself? Introduce yourself maybe differently than I would and say anything about your professional journey that you think would be important for people to know.

DP: Name’s Dave Polykoff. I grew up in the suburbs of Philly in Harbortown, so I’m a local guy, a Dian as we say. Went to school in middle PA, Kutztown University. Didn’t really know what I was going to do when I went to college, but then I took a marketing class and fell in love with marketing and branding. Junior year of college, I got an internship at a small little startup that eventually turned into a really big startup. I was employee number three, went to 103 employees over the next couple years, and that startup was brand.com. During that time, I learned so much about digital marketing and branding and what it meant to control your online presence. Then I went on to another startup called News Launcher. That was in working with brands to help them get sponsored content onto really big news websites like the Associated Press, Business Insider, and the New York Times. Went to New York and shook hands with all these execs. Eventually, I caught the entrepreneurial bug. Finally felt I was ready to start my own thing. So I started a content agency using everything I’d learned throughout my years. Took on some partners and that evolved into a few different things. Ultimately it’s now called Zen Post, a done-for-you content agency. We help thought leaders translate their thought leadership into content that sells for them. Then I saw a passion and a market within personal branding. 2020 happened, and a lot of people either got fired or walked away from big corporate jobs. They started saying, I have all this experience, why not just do my own thing? So I launched the Personal Brand Blueprint, an offer I provide for agencies, coaches, and consultants to help them launch and grow their personal brands

Juggling Multiple Ventures

SD: That is beautiful and that is a crazy track record. So how are you juggling all of these things?

DP: It’s a great question. Another boutique agency I didn’t mention is a web design agency I run as well, Poly Websites. Throughout my experience at brand.com and News Launcher, I was utilizing all of these skills: web design, marketing, copywriting, content creation. I’ve always been technically savvy, always looking into new systems and platforms to streamline and scale content. I’m organized and love hacking workflows to make things easier. With the explosion of AI, it’s even easier to reduce the time it takes for me to do certain tasks. So juggling is less difficult when everything I’m focused on is really under the umbrella of digital marketing. It’s segmented into different buckets: content creation, web design and development, and right in the middle is the Personal Brand Blueprint. All the worlds work together. It’s not like I’m Elon Musk juggling Mars and Tesla—everything is in conjunction.

Lessons From Early Career

SD: That makes a lot of sense. It’s probably helpful to have had that agency growth experience early on.

DP: I graduated on a Friday, started working at the startup on Monday. I had the internship my junior year but went back for my senior year to get the diploma for my mom. During my senior year, the company grew to about 50 employees, had a sales floor, and started to take on capital. I was 21, and I was part of conversations about pitch decks, VP hiring, and more. It was trial by fire, and I learned so much on the fly. As an entrepreneur, you develop curiosity and sometimes just figure things out or learn from YouTube.

The Value of Nonlinear Paths

SD: That’s very cool. You don’t see that linear path often. Most people I talk to didn’t go to college for marketing or majored in something different.

DP: I went to school for four years, majored in marketing with a concentration in advertising, but I learned the most by doing. You can only learn so much from a textbook or professor. You have to experience it.

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Personal Brand Blueprint

SD: Tell us a little bit about the Personal Brand Blueprint. I’d also love to hear more about your podcast.

DP: One of the biggest problems we see with coaches, consultants, and agency owners is that they have a unique method that gets great results but no one knows about it. The core of the Personal Brand Blueprint is to dig up your personal brand origin story and brand that story and method. Then we apply that to a sales funnel. We help create lead magnets, email systems, and drive traffic using long-form content like podcasts, YouTube, and FAQs. People get “presold” to your offer before they even speak to you. The three elements—brand, funnel, traffic—are what we help build. And then Zen Post can handle the done-for-you content side.

Who the Blueprint is For

SD: Is your ideal client someone with a unique brand or style?

DP: There is some truth to that. I work with people who’ve found product-market fit—people who can consistently sell their offer. I’m not rebuilding services from scratch. But even if someone doesn’t think their approach is unique, there’s always something. We help uncover that unique method or story and use it to craft their personal brand.

A Favorite Story

SD: Do you have a favorite story you’ve heard?

DP: One agency owner I work with was fired from multiple agencies because he called out unethical practices. Eventually, he founded his own agency built around ethics, transparency, and honesty. Now that’s the core of his brand. I thought that was a great story.

SD: I love that. I might’ve interviewed this person before. I do think the agency world has many untold, taboo stories, especially early on. It’s good to hear more transparency and ethical practices taking root.

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Ethics and

SD: What’s your opinion on AI? Do you see any ethical issues?

DP: AI helps you go from a blinking cursor to a first draft. That’s its value. But it should end there. It needs your voice and human touch. Tools like Notebook LM are blurring lines, mimicking your tone and content, but even then, you need to spot-check. AI should never replace full authorship. It’s like ghostwriting a biography—you still need to credit the ghostwriter.

AI and Disclosure

SD: What do you think about disclosing AI use?

DP: Grammarly is launching features that track AI use in documents. It’s interesting. Back when I was at News Launcher, we had similar debates about labeling sponsored content. I think if the thoughts are yours, AI is just formatting them. But if it’s fully generated, you should disclose that.

The Power of Storytelling

DP: This is why storytelling and personal branding are so important. If everyone’s posting the same AI content, there’s no uniqueness. Storytelling is your edge. It’s what sets you apart.

SD: That’s a good point. I’ve heard many people say similar things in different ways, and it’s always the delivery that makes it resonate. Agencies especially need to lean on storytelling because so many services are identical on the surface.

Future Trends in Content Creation

SD: What trends do you see coming in content creation?

DP: I’m betting on long-form video content. Short-form has dominated, but people are burned out from impersonal sales tactics. Long-form builds trust. Google has a study that shows people need to spend 7 hours on your content across 4 channels before they trust you. Bingeable content like YouTube and podcasts allows that. It nurtures leads in a way short-form can’t.

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Final Thoughts

SD: People want to feel a connection before they buy. Especially with services, they want to trust who they’re working with.

DP: Most agencies rely on referrals, which builds instant trust. But you can’t live on referrals alone. Long-form content replicates that trust-building process. It’s like having mini sales agents working for you around the clock.

SD: Trust is everything. Cold emails don’t cut it. The way you present yourself makes all the difference.

DP: I’m clipping that for my testimonials. That’s my mission statement.

SD: You can edit however you want, just don’t slander us. So we’re out of time, but this was such a great conversation.

DP: This will be a cliffhanger. We’ll do part two.

SD: I’ll title it something clickbait-y. “Your business could be failing because of this one reason.”

DP: Love that. Thank you for having me.

SD: Thank you, everyone, for listening and/or watching. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to learn more. Have a lovely day.

Outro

You’ve been listening to Fully Managed, brought to you by Penji. Check out the show notes to learn more about today’s guest and to learn more about Penji—the human-first creative subscription service. Head over to Penji.co. And by the way, if you’re still listening, it would mean the absolute world to us if you were to share this podcast with a friend—and, of course, subscribe.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-polykoff

https://davepolykoff.com/