The Heart of Visibility: How Deep Connection Drives Brand Loyalty and Growth

By Mark Sephton.
In both our business and personal lives, the strength and depth of our relationships hinge on one key factor: connection. As John Maxwell wisely notes, "Many communicate, but few connect."
Sometimes, connection feels like an immediate, energetic bond—a sense of oneness and mutual enjoyment in another’s company, a deep understanding, and an alignment in values and philosophy. Other connections require time to develop, growing stronger through careful and intentional nurturing.
When I reflect on the relationships that matter most in my own life especially those in business, the common thread is purely that – a deep connection. I’ve found that the key to building such connections lies in avoiding assumptions about others. To foster true rapport, it’s essential to ask questions, listen fully, and actively reflect back what you’ve observed, heard, and felt.
In other words, connection is rooted in our willingness to be open and vulnerable. While our minds tend to analyse situations, it’s our hearts that truly forge meaningful connections and relationships.
To gain even more insight, I spoke with Gem Dentith, a change and transformational coach, on practical ways to deepen connections with others.
What is the difference between “communication” and “connection?”
Having worked in communications for over two decades, I can tell you - communication and connection are not the same thing. Communication is functional. It's about crafting a message, getting it across clearly, maybe even influencing how someone thinks or responds. It’s often outcome-driven.
In business, especially in marketing or leadership, we’re taught to shape language to land. To get a result. That’s not necessarily wrong - but when it becomes all about persuasion, it can start to feel… performative. Sometimes even manipulative, if we’re honest.
Connection is a different game entirely. Connection doesn’t have an agenda. It happens in the space between two people who are fully present with each other. It’s less about what you say and more about who you’re being while you’re saying it. There’s no trying to get somewhere, it’s just a meeting of energy, attention, and truth.
That’s why I always say: connect before you communicate. If you’re not anchored in connection, communication becomes noise. But when presence comes first - when there’s actual resonance - the words land differently. They carry weight. They’re felt.
So yes, we need both. But connection is the foundation. Communication flows from that. Not the other way around.
What role does vulnerability play in building connection?
Let’s start by unpacking vulnerability. Vulnerability gets thrown around a lot these days, but most people still don’t really get what it means. It’s not about dumping your whole life story on someone to try and feel close. And it’s definitely not a strategy to create intimacy.
Vulnerability, for me, is about being willing to show your true self - shadows and all - without worrying about how others will react. It’s the willingness to show up as your full, unfiltered self, mess and magic included, without knowing how it’s going to land. It’s saying, “This is me. I’m not going to polish or edit it for you.”
To me, vulnerability is just being real. The truth is, most of us are walking around in masks. We’ve been trained to present the version of ourselves that’s most likely to be accepted or praised. But real connection only happens when those masks come off and someone still meets you there. That’s the magic of it.
We all have a version of ourselves that we present to the world, a polished, put-together mask that hides the messiness of life. But real connection comes when you drop that mask. I prefer to talk about this as showing our humanness, rather than "doing vulnerability."
We’re all human. We all have thoughts we don’t want to share, feelings we’d rather hide, and experiences we don’t feel comfortable discussing. That’s our humanness, and when we bring that into our interactions, it fosters deeper connection, builds trust and forges deep bonds. But, and this is key, connection comes first as connection allows for psychological safety in the dynamic.
But here’s the part that often gets missed: connection comes first. Vulnerability doesn’t create connection if the other person doesn’t feel safe, present, or open. That’s when it becomes oversharing, or worse, it can feel like an emotional hit-and-run.
When connection is already there - when there’s trust, resonance, and presence - vulnerability doesn’t feel forced. It just happens. You relax. You stop performing. You let someone see the real you.
And that’s what people are actually craving. Not your Instagram highlight reel. Not your perfectly packaged story. Just your humanness. That’s where the real connection lives.
In what ways could an instant, energetic connection differ from one that is nurtured over time?
There’s something magical about those instant connections - when you meet someone and it just clicks. You don’t know why. You’re not analysing it. You’re just there, fully present. It feels light, familiar, maybe even a bit fated. That’s what I call a soul-level spark; it bypasses the mind and goes straight to the body. You feel it before you can explain it.
That kind of connection tends to happen when neither person is in their head. No performance. No agenda. Just presence. It’s like the static clears and you can feel someone’s energy, raw and unfiltered. That’s why we often feel deeply connected to animals, babies, or even strangers we’ve barely spoken to. There’s no interference, just pure recognition.
Now, a nurtured connection is different. It builds. It deepens over time, usually through the mind. Through removing the layers. Through removing the filters we carry - judgments, roles, assumptions, projections. And that’s beautiful too, because it requires trust. It asks us to unlearn what we think we know about someone and meet them again, and again, and again.
So for me, the difference is this: Instant connection happens when the noise drops away quickly. Nurtured connection grows as the noise dissolves slowly. Both are powerful. One arrives. The other evolves.
How might the need for connection influence decision-making in professional and personal settings?
Connection won’t always change what you decide but it will definitely shape how you decide, and how that decision lands.
In personal settings, connection brings softness to the edges. Let’s say you need to end a relationship. If you’re disconnected from the other person, or from yourself, that decision might come out sharp, reactive, or avoidant. But if there’s real connection, even a hard choice can unfold with care. It becomes more human, more honest, more grounded in respect than reactivity.
Same thing in business. If you’ve got to make a tough call - let someone go, pivot direction, part ways with a co-founder - connection won’t take the difficulty away, but it will create a level of dignity in how it’s handled. It’s the difference between burning bridges and building boundaries.
And then there’s self-connection - probably the most underrated piece of decision-making. When you’re connected to yourself, your truth, your body, your intuition, you make clearer, cleaner decisions. You’re less likely to chase approval or act out of fear. You’re anchored. You’re congruent. And that alignment makes even the messiest decisions feel… right.
So whether it’s personal or professional, connection doesn’t always make the path easy but it makes it cleaner. More conscious. More real.
Can you expand further on how the connection to ourselves is central to deepening our connection with others?
There’s a saying I come back to often: you can only meet others as deeply as you’ve met yourself. And it’s true. If you haven’t taken the time to connect with your own inner world, your truth, your shadows, your essence, it’s hard to genuinely connect with anyone else beyond the surface.
I’d take it one step further. It’s not just self-connection, it’s source connection. Call it God, soul, presence, the universe - it doesn’t matter what language you use. But there’s a deeper place inside all of us that goes beyond roles, titles, or performance. When you’re anchored there, you see people differently. You feel them. There’s less judgment, less projection, and way more presence.
But if you’re stuck in your head, trying to manage how you’re perceived, trying to impress, trying to stay in control, you’re relating from a mask. A version of you that’s not fully true. And the version of them you’re connecting with? Likely a mask too. That’s where most relationships break down - not because people don’t care, but because no one’s really there.
So this is the work: come home to yourself first. Peel back the layers. Reconnect with who you are underneath it all. That level of presence changes everything. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about being real.
Because when you’re real with yourself, you can be real with others. And that’s where true connection begins.
Is there a healthy balance between head (analysis) and heart (presence) that we should aspire to when building connection?
Definitely. But for me, it’s less about balancing them and more about knowing when to lead with which one.
When I say “heart,” I don’t just mean emotions, I’m talking about soul presence. The part of you that’s grounded, open, listening deeply. The part of you that sees another person not through a lens of strategy or comparison, but through presence. That’s where true connection lives.
The mind? It’s brilliant. It helps us analyse, make decisions, plan conversations, set boundaries. But it’s a tool, not a place to live from. The problem is, most people are trying to connect while stuck in their heads. They’re managing the optics. Anticipating responses. Crafting the perfect thing to say. And in doing that, they miss the moment that’s unfolding right in front of them.
So here’s what I practise: start from presence. Clear your mental desk. Have no agenda other than meeting the person as they are. Then, when the situation calls for it, dip into your analytical mind to help guide the conversation. But always come back to presence. It’s like a dance between the executive mind and the witnessing heart.
The real magic happens when your mind serves your presence, not the other way around.
"What role does emotional connection play in customer loyalty and brand advocacy?”
Emotional connection is the invisible thread that turns a customer into a lifelong advocate. It goes beyond product features, pricing, or aesthetics, it’s about how people feel in your presence. Do they feel seen? Safe? Understood? If the answer is yes, they’ll come back, not just for what you sell, but for who you are.
We often talk about brand loyalty like it’s a strategy, but it’s actually a by-product of resonance. When a brand meets someone emotionally - through values, voice, or vulnerability - it creates a sense of belonging. And belonging is sticky.
There are layers to connection: physical (how it looks), mental (how it makes sense), emotional (how it makes you feel), and soul-level (how it remembers you to yourself). The deeper the brand can go, the more powerful the bond. Deep people recognise deep brands, and they’ll quietly ignore those who feel surface-level, no matter how slick the strategy.
Can you share an example of a time when deep connection helped a business or personal brand grow significantly?
Absolutely. I once watched a founder coach shift from curated content to raw, real storytelling. She stopped trying to sell. She started sharing her process. The tears, the breakthroughs, the messy middle. She didn’t flinch when people saw her humanity, in fact, that’s when they leaned in.
Within months, her audience quadrupled. Not just in numbers, but in depth, loyalty, and engagement. Her programs filled. Her emails got replies. People weren’t just buying, they were rallying. Why? Because she wasn’t just delivering information. She was delivering intimacy.
That’s the thing: people don’t connect with perfection. They connect with presence. With energy. With essence. And when you show up with that, your brand stops being a broadcast and starts becoming a bond.
Why do audiences today crave connection over polish—and how can businesses use this shift to their advantage?
Because we’re collectively tired of the performance. The filters. The perfect lives that feel impossible to reach. We’ve been bombarded with curated content for over a decade, and most people can now sense when something is emotionally vacant, even if it’s beautifully designed. In a world full of noise, people crave something that feels real. We don’t need more perfection, we need more permission. Permission to be human. To be seen. To belong.
This is where businesses have a massive opportunity: when they shift from polishing their image to deepening their resonance, they create brand intimacy. And this is where the shift happens. The brands that will rise now are the ones led by humans who are connected, congruent, and awake. The ones where the founder isn’t just building a brand, they are the brand. When a leader is energetically aligned, emotionally available, and deeply anchored in their truth, the audience doesn’t just watch - they lean in.
This is the new currency: emotional resonance. And it’s something no algorithm can hack. Whether you're selling skincare, software, or soul work, your audience is asking: Who are you, really? Can I trust you? Do I feel you? Are you consistent in tone, energy, values? Are you safe to trust? So founder depth and how awake and real you are will impact your business. If you’re a female founder or CEO, this is your edge. But only if it’s real. Only if it’s embodied. This is the work I do: I help high-achieving women strip back the performance identity, reconnect with their source, and lead with alignment so that their business doesn’t just grow, it glows. When your energy matches your message, you become magnetic. And when your brand feels like a transmission of truth, loyalty follows.
This is how you lead. Not just with polish, but with presence. Not just with strategy, but with soul.
Mark Sephton has helped numerous high-level thought leaders and creatives unveil their story, voice, and visibility so they, too, can make their mark on the world. He creates a safe space for aspiring thought leaders to feel heard, find confidence, and ignite their impact. He does this by increasing their visibility and rapport through storytelling, interviews, content creation, and media presence. In fact, he has conducted over 5,000 life-changing interviews with thought leaders and creatives, and is often referred to as the ‘King of Conversation’.
Mark has shared his life experiences as an author of three books on the subject of personal development: Inside Job, Plot Twist & Mark of a Man. He’s recognized for his contribution as an inspiring storyteller who provides positive exposure and opportunities for others who have a great purpose and passion to make their mark in their own distinctive way.
Find out more about Mark and his work at marksephton.com
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