A Case Study On Personal Branding with Stephan Spencer and Greg Merrilees

Your personal brand is the only asset you’ll carry from cradle to grave. Sell your company, and the brand goes with it. But your name? That stays with you forever. Greg Merrilees, my guest on today’s show, is the founder of Studio1 Design, a conversion-focused web design agency I’ve collaborated with for over a decade on multiple client projects and my own digital properties. In our conversation, we deconstruct the complete evolution of my personal brand websites—from my 1995 agency site through multiple redesigns of stephanspencer.com, my two podcast sites, and beyond. We examine when to create separate brand properties versus consolidating under one domain. We explore how to showcase authority without creating decision paralysis. Greg breaks down why your FAQ section–rather than answering industry basics– should instead obliterate hiring objections. We discuss the strategic placement of social proof that shifts contextually across pages: client logos on your results page, media outlets on your press page, speaking venues on your speaking page. And we reveal how timeline-based storytelling on about pages builds the kind of authentic connection that AI simply can’t replicate. This case study gives you the blueprint for building authority that survives algorithm changes, platform shifts, and the rise of AI agents making decisions about who to recommend. So, without any further ado, on with the show!