How to build your personal brand in 5 steps

The long term goal here is that we’re all working for ourselves. You can decide to be early and get way ahead.

You already have a number of obligations which can make the idea of pivoting to a one person business and building a personal brand daunting.

9-5, family, debt, etc.

This is why it’s probably the best time to make the pivot now since it’s only going to get harder.

I was never a “school person” because what I was learning didn’t translate to outcomes I wanted.

This has lead me to only doing things that create (small m) meaningful outputs. Good news for you since I’ve waded through the crap that isn’t useful and will share what works.

Let’s be real though, is idea of creating a one person business feel too idealistic in this newsletter?

Maybe it can push your side hustle forward.

Maybe it can direct your efforts on how you’re educating yourself to gain new skills and influence.

Maybe it will give you a leg up at your current company.

If you have progress then it’s not idealistic, but realistic.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has solidified the real opportunity: “In my little group chat with my tech CEO friends, there's this betting pool for the first year that there is a one-person billion-dollar company. Which would have been unimaginable without AI and now will happen.”

There are levels to this game, and your target may not be a billion, but the opportunity is before you.

Build Your Personal Brand in 5 Steps

You can have everything you want by creating leverage through influence.

Here’s the simple equation:

Trust + Attention = Influence

This doesn’t require complexity, rather consistency. Make the focus of your personal brand authentic and simple for the greatest chance of success.

The following is your blueprint to create influence though a personal brand.

Step 1: Be the Subject Matter Expert

Speak from a place of knowledge leverage. The best way to create leverage is to consume the right content and be in the game doing what you will be sharing about.

Here’s how you start getting the right inputs:

Sources

• Spend some time on X and LinkedIn to identify who is a true thought leader and successful practitioner in your space.

• Do some searches on your topic and look for posts with high engagement and people referencing the subject matter expert.

• There’s nothing magical here, get into your own community and create alerts when the right people are saying something. Study them and emulate.

• Subscribe to industry newsletters, podcast and thought leaders in your desired niche.

Study and takes notes on how they create hooks, tell stories and how they SELL.

Create your Own Content

• Create videos

• Longform newsletter/blog

• Send DMs to make a real connection

• Short form written content on social media

• Commenting and engaging with community

You’ll learn faster by doing, and have historical data of your own to identify whats working.

My rule of thumb: for every one hour of learning, spend two hours producing.

Step 2: Build in Public

Document your progress and learning along the way.

I use Notion as a second brain to organize learnings and progress. This will then become your resource to pull from when you share your progress.

When you’re first starting to grow a following on social media most of your time should be engaging with other accounts vs posting at a 10:1 ratio. This is where you can ask questions or give your two cents to add to the discussion.

“Great insights on [topic], #2 resonated with me since I’m right in the middle of building x. How would you structure x, if you had y constraints?”

Pick Your Medium

When you do decide to publish content on your main feed pick a medium that allows you to express yourself best.

I prefer text based on platforms like X and LinkedIn you may prefer video, podcasts, image carousels etc.

Do What’s Working

The greatest frustration I see is people not getting results while they refuse to proven tactics.

There are two fields of study you must invest time in understanding.

1. What the platform wants

2. What the people want

Both change over time and you must adapt your methods. This doesn’t mean you need to change your beliefs, writing/speaking style, interests etc.

It means you need to adapt your delivery.

The easiest way to keep up is to study top creators regularly and follow platform updates.

If a platform introduces a new feature on how you can share content they often push more organic traffic to that new feature.

If your favorite creators start using that and have major success then you have validated it and should start doing it yourself.

Content System

Make your life easier by having a content system. Start with defining:

1. How often you’ll post

2. What you’ll talk about

3. Where you’ll share it

4. Who you’ll share it with

5. What action you want them to take

When you’re clear on these you’ll be able to create consistency in your content output.

You’ll create loyalty with followers.

Show Off

Don’t be afraid to show off what you’re doing.

What new epiphanies did you have?

Did you recently have a obstacle that you overcame?

Have you hit a new milestone in your journey?

You’ll inspire others, and people will want to follow your story.

If everything you share is tips and tricks they’ll get bored. Inject your personality, take them on a journey, and peel back the curtains.

Step 3: Share Your Origin Story

There’s a reason Marvel keeps creating blockbusters. Here’s your formula to create your Origin Story:

1. Give us a reason to care.

2. Don't make yourself the Chosen One – give space to prove yourself.

3. Every hero has a villain, who or what is yours?

4. Don’t make your background sound too exceptional, this isn’t a job interview 😂.

5. Give us a chance of a happy ending.

Introducing “stakes”

Stakes in your story makes people want to see if you’ll fail or succeed.

What do you stand to gain if you succeed?

What do you stand to lose if you fail?

Chances are your readers will share similar outcomes.

What is your Core Narrative?

Pull from your experience key moments or experience that define your core narrative.

For me a core part of my narrative and drive to succeed this is getting married young and having children.

Define the following:

• Motivations

• Inspirations

• Hardships

• Wins

Take the complexity of each and distill them into something you could express in 30 seconds or less.

Use those soundbites over and over again throughout your content production. This will humanize you and keep a storytelling element to everything you create.

Step 4: Create and Deliver Value

Think of the people you follow and why. The ones you keep coming back to create a positive impact in your life.

I had a shift in how I thought about providing value when I found a community of peers. When you can do the same and identify them the shift that happens is from anonymous user to friends.

This is how I approach creating and delivering value

What does your community need?

I assumed way too much.

Start asking and stop assuming.

Every time I’ve asked for input or asked questions to others I’ve been overwhelmed by how generous people are. You’ll be able to identify their challenges, pain points, goals and what stage they’re in.

Combine this with external research of public posts and you’ll know exactly what problems you can help solve.

Give abundantly

You can tell when someone is sharing with a scarcity vs abundant mindset.

When you share content do it generously and with no strings attached.

This will develop trust and make an impact on their lives.

Create content they can use

There’s an excess of platitude accounts that don’t make much impact or money.

Focus your content on how others can take simple steps to better their situation.

You’ll stand out in an ocean of the generic.

Understand your market sophistication and meet them at that level. When you do plan to sell a course, consulting or advanced information others will be happy to pay since they’ve made progress with your free information.

Step 5: Make Real Connection

Start sending DMs to your community and leaders in your space.

Do not make this about you, rather focus on how you can start and continue a dialog.

Here’s how I approach this:

• Give them a genuine and specific compliment

• Ask a follow up question to something they posted

• Provide a resource, answer or make an introduction

• Let them know what impact they’ve made for you

Foster Conversations

These platforms we communicate on we’re built for us to be social, not just a sounding board.

1. Ask questions

2. Ask others to expand further

3. Encourage others to share wins and losses

4. Arrange a mastermind group for weekly calls

5. Do not tolerate anything in your community that hinders others from sharing

Team Up

Don’t be afraid to ask others to collaborate with you. This doesn’t always have to be a hard pitch. Team up on a podcast, co-written newsletter, live video, or sharing resources.

I’ve been part of several small masterminds where we had weekly calls and a discord channel where we shared ideas freely. Many business deals, shared resources and opportunities came from these.

• Build your personal brand by becoming a subject matter expert, creating content consistently, and sharing your origin story to connect with your audience.

• Provide value abundantly by understanding your community's needs, sharing practical tips and resources, and fostering conversations and collaborations.

• Leverage platforms and study what works by adapting your content delivery to align with platform algorithms and audience preferences.

• Establish influence by building trust and gaining attention through authenticity, transparency, and real connections with your community.

• Embrace the opportunity to create a one-person business leveraging AI and technology, as the barriers to scale have lowered significantly.

The internet game is not zero-sum. You can win at this with unlimited upside. This game is about the freedom to do what you want, when you want and with who you want.