Chad Angle, Founder of Reputation Repair, answers five questions about professional credibility, personal websites, and closing the gaps in your online presence.
What topic do you most want readers to understand?
Your online presence should reflect the professional you are today. You can spend decades building experience, earning trust, and doing meaningful work, but someone researching you may find an outdated bio, incomplete profiles, or very little information at all. I want people to understand how to close that gap so prospective clients can see who they’re considering working with and why that experience matters.
What question do people ask you most often about it?
“I already have LinkedIn. Do I really need a personal website?”
My answer starts with what someone needs to know before choosing you. LinkedIn may cover that well. But if your work requires more explanation, examples, or perspective, a personal website can give people a fuller picture. Every platform should have a clear purpose. Simply creating more profiles doesn’t accomplish much.
What personal experience shaped your perspective?
My background spans sales, operations, and executive leadership, including leading ReputationDefender and now founding Reputation Repair. That combination shapes how I approach this work. I look at reputation through the eyes of someone making a decision: Would I trust this person? Do I understand what they do? Can I find enough credible information to feel comfortable taking the next step?
What do people commonly misunderstand about it?
People often associate reputation management with responding to something negative. But an incomplete or outdated online presence can also leave important questions unanswered.
Another mistake is assuming that a list of impressive titles speaks for itself. Your credentials matter, but a prospective client still needs to understand what your experience means for their situation. That connection should be clear without making them figure it out.
What practical first step would you recommend?
Search your name and business as if you were a prospective client who had never met you. Open the results and ask three questions: Is this accurate? Is it current? Does it explain why someone would choose to work with me?
Start with the most consequential gap. That might be an old job title, conflicting information, or a bio that lists accomplishments without explaining whom you help. Fix that first.