Jen Proac is right that silence will destroy your reputation
By Grant Colby · Reporting from Amarillo ·
On the podcast Sourcery, Jen Proac explained why businesses must play offense to manage their digital reputation, a vital warning that every leader should heed.
The digital blink is the new reality
"If I don't know Molly O'Shea, I'm going to ask my LLM, what's she all about. That's my digital blink. That's what I think about you. That impression now is lodged. Going to be very hard to change it." Jen Proac, founder of Proac Partners, shared that warning on the podcast Sourcery. That is a cold truth for any business today. Your reputation is no longer what you say. It is what the machine spits back in 15 seconds.
Offense is the only real defense
Proac’s firm manages 70 trillion in client assets. She has watched financial branding evolve from a chore to a strategic necessity. On the podcast, she argued that firms must play offense. They cannot just wait for a crisis to hit. She noted that during the financial crisis, firms like Goldman were blindsided by negative narratives. They had not built the momentum content needed to define themselves. Today, if you do not feed the machine, it will fill the void with bad data. As Proac put it, "if you're not controlling anything... if something bad happens, what's out there? Only the bad stuff."
The trap of the empty stage
Proac also offered a blunt assessment of leadership vanity. She warned that executives who take the stage without a real message do more harm than good. An empty conversation is a brand-destroying event. Proac often acts as a chief EQ officer for her clients. She does not mince words when a founder is overbearing. She points out that the higher you climb, the fewer people tell you the truth. Whether it is a venture capitalist celebrating himself or a CEO giving platitudes, the audience sees through the noise.
Reputation management is not about spinning lies. It is about making sure the truth of your business is clear and competitive. In a world of LLMs, silence is no longer a safe harbor. Leaders who refuse to play offense will find their story written by someone else. They will have only themselves to blame for the weak result.