India, May 24 -- In the corporate world, the tables are turning so fast, even AI is confused. Ask an image generator to imagine a branding expert. It's likely to deliver visuals of a middle-aged man, wearing neon spectacle frames to look cool. In the real world, strategists in their 20s are helping older CEOs build their online personas and social-media-branding strategies. HERE, TELL US WHAT IS SO UNIQUE AND USEFUL ABOUT A YOUNG PERSON WORKING BTS, TO CREATE A NEW IMAGE FOR A BUSINESS OR A CEO ONLINE. I'M GUESSING THEY LIVE ONLINE AND KNOW THE POWER OF A STORY FROM REELS AND VIRAL CLIPS. THEY HAVE LESS PATIENCE WITH STANDARD FORMATS (AND CLICHES SUCH AS 'I'm passionate about impact'), ARE NOT YET COWED BY HIERARCHY, QUARTERLY SALES AND OTHER WORKPLACE FLEXES. THEY'RE ALSO IN SMALL TOWNS - HOW IS THAT WORKING IN THEIR FAVOUR? LESS DISTRACTION THAN A BIG CITY? MORE TIME? Opening up If there's one word Ayushi Somani keeps returning to, it's friendship. "I don't see myself as a service provider," says the 27-year-old founder of WildGO Media, a personal branding agency based in Jaipur. TELL US HERE HOW 'NOT BEING A SERVICE PROVIDER' CONNECTS TO FRIENDSHIP Somani began in 2018, juggling a preschool teaching job and writing content for brands. By 2020, she'd moved to writing full-time and had become known for her emotionally intelligent brand storytelling and positioning. "People weren't just liking my content. They were DMing me with questions, asking how to sound more human online," she recalls. Somani has since amassed more than 140k followers on LinkedIn and is one of the top voices on TopMate. She has helped one of the Sharks from Shark Tank India build a strong personal brand as well. Her hacks are subtle: Dress well, get people to laugh. "I try to something inoffensive but funny right from the first discovery call with my clients," she says. "I ask them about what's going on in their lives, stuff like traffic, things they may relate to." It breaks the ice and gives her a better sense of who she's working with, than a bio ever could. "I don't touch AI tools for writing. My job is to extract the human essence and bring it out." Somani's superpower: Getting introverted clients to 'show up' online and be vulnerable to the public. "We start by asking them to share their day-to-day activities, their opinions on trends, their interests. Then, we dive slightly into the personal." That's where the tiny but powerful stories hide - a hiring failure, a founder's note to their younger self, a client call that changed everything. It's what turns a social-media-averse CEO into a viral hit. Playing it up In Indore, 29-year-old Prakhar Sharma is the spin-doctor to CEOs who feel invisible online or struggle with inconsistent messaging. He worked at an ad agency, but quit two years ago, once he realised that some of the posts he'd ghostwritten had gone viral. When his first international client was willing to pay $3,000 for two months of LinkedIn content, he knew he'd found his niche. "If I can stop a person mid-scroll, or make them think about the post long after they're done reading it, I know I've created a valuable post," Sharma says. Templated content doesn't stand out. Formulaic ideas never go viral. "It's all about how you package it." Prakhar is big on consistency across bios, DMs, landing pages and team intros. His first step with any client is to ask them what they want to be remembered for. "Most people don't know. And that's the real gap. Not creativity. Not algorithms. Identity." HERE, LET'S GET TWO RECENT EXAMPLES OF WHAT EXACTLY HE DID WITH A BRAND/POST/CAMPAIGN. WE NEED TO CONVINCE READERS OF HIS UNIQUE MAGIC Clear and present Saijal Taparia, 24, grew up in Jorhat, a small town in Assam, far away from content creators and digital strategists. She dreamed of studying at IIM Ahmedabad, but two years ago, she abandoned that plan for a job that business schools weren't yet coaching for. "I began by writing posts on LinkedIN, documenting, experimenting and testing formats," she recalls. Most of it was geared towards helping CEOs, founders and stuffy bosses stand out of the crowd. She had no playbook, no experience - just a laptop, decent Wi-Fi, and a strong instinct for what makes someone's story shine. "I didn't approach CEOs to prove a point. I simply believed that if someone had a powerful story but didn't know how to tell it, I could help. And that belief gave me all the confidence I needed to start. Work trickled in. She helped one founder OF WHAT KIND OF COMPANY look more presentable on the company's socials, she helped tweak another team's OF WHAT KIND OF COMPANY online communication. That she was just a kid, working far from a business hub didn't matter to the clients. "Honestly, once you help someone land a podcast, a feature, or a lead through a post, they don't care about your age. They care about results," Taparia says. For the most part, her job is about cutting through clutter. "People think that personal branding is just posting one's thoughts online, but it starts with the first impression you make online." Her golden rule: A visitor should be able to answer three questions within 10 seconds of landing on your profile or website: What do you do? Who do you help? How can the visitor work with you? "You don't have to be loud or overly opinionated. But you have to sound like you." Keeping it real A few months ago, Ananya Narang, 24, came across a polished, impressive-looking LinkedIn DM WHAT WAS THE DM ABOUT? that just didn't feel real. "It read like ChatGPT wrote it," she says. "Turns out, it had. The placeholders were left unfilled. There wasn't even an attempt to pretend it was human. That's the problem: We're hitting "send" without thinking. Outsourcing identity. Automating effort." CONFUSED HERE. HOW WAS IT POLISHED AND IMPRESSIVE THEN? The corporate world's new reliance on AI is exactly why real-world clients seek out Narang's Delhi-based content and personal branding company, Entourage. "People think AI will save them time. But your audience can feel when it isn't you." She's worked her way up from ghostwriting bios and fixing clunky "About Us" pages as a college student. Now, she helps early-stage CEOs and creators articulate their message, minus the fluff. ONE EXAMPLE HERE FROM A RECENT PROJECT Her sharpest lesson for 2025: "Use AI to support, not substitute. Let it help you brainstorm or tidy up, but your voice has to be unmistakable." That's why her team now includes editors who don't just check grammar-they check authenticity....