🧢 How to Build a Personal Brand Part-Time
Waddup Part-Time Creators, today we’re talking about building a brand part-time.
P.s. this week I released a masterclass on writing on Medium, grab it free here. 265 people have watched the masterclass so far!
Anyways, on with the newsletter…
Building a business with no customers to sell to is a problem many part-time creators overlook. They decide to work for months on end building a solution without validating that someone has that problem.
They get to the end of month six, and they’ve built this thing, but they have no customer to sell it to. They lose faith in building, so they give up and move on.
The way to build a business in today’s world is to build a personal brand first and to sell second. Let’s dive in.
1. Figure out your unique gift
Our experiences shape all of us. You are unique to me and me to you. You have the experience I can not dream of possessing and likewise, I have an experience that could help you.
The trick is figuring out what you’ve done in your life, and what experiences you’ve had that people will pay for. But just this isn’t enough, you need to be able to dig deep into your gift for years before you are able to earn from it.
Find the thing you could talk forever about, and go from there.
2. Build a content stream
Next up, you have to create content around your unique gift. If your unique gift is about e-sports, you need to create content about that. It can be on any platform but not every platform.
Don’t try and publish consistently on every platform that exists, it’s a losing game. Instead, master one. Find a platform that you really like and build up your writing muscle on there.
Use AI to assist you.
Tell personal stories.
Find your unique voice.
This takes years. I’ve been writing on the internet for 3 years and it’s only in this last year I’ve really found my unique voice. Before that, I used to write about a whole bunch of stuff, in a whole bunch of different ways.
3. Iterate strategically
The way I see it, every piece of writing is a data point. It’s data telling you what your audience does and doesn’t like to see from you. I see many creators hiding away from their data, they’re scared to look at it but it’s a fountain of knowledge, you need only look.
A good rule of thumb is to not look at absolute numbers instead, look at percentage change.
E.g. if you’ve gone from 5 to 15 views, don’t worry about the low numbers (for now) see it as a tripling of views — which is fantastic news.
Look at all the content you produce on a monthly basis and review it. Ask yourself what’s working and what’s not, then iterate accordingly.
4. Build your newsletter
The trouble with social media platforms is that you don’t own the audience. At any moment, someone could decide to cut you off or change the algo and if you’re relying on this income, you could be in a bit of a pickle.
The way to avoid this is to ‘own’ your audience. The best way to do that is to build a newsletter. Building a newsletter means that when you press send the entire thing goes to your audience. It’s not delayed. It’s not dependent on other factors.
If you press send, it sends.
Spend time cultivating your list. Adding value. Teaching. It’ll pay you dividends in the future.
5. Build a publish cadence
Over time, you’ll build a rhythm. You’ll find your flow and a schedule that works for you. Your audience will learn to expect content from you. Content that continuously solves their problems.
Do this for a long enough time and you’ll develop a relationship with your audience, you’ll find people thanking you on a daily basis for your work and how much you’ve helped them.
That’s when you know you’ve developed a personal brand. One that people are thankful for, one that adds value to the world.
6. Don’t stop
A personal brand isn’t anything special. It’s just you, showing the world what you are uniquely positioned to show it. It’s an extension of you. Do it for long enough, it becomes part of you.
All the good stuff from a personal brand comes after years of daily building. It’s not to overwhelm you, it’s just the reality. If you want to build a strong personal brand, one that people resonate with, it’s like growing a strong oak tree.
It takes years.
Don’t let that put you off. That’s where most people go wrong. They hear that and want to run a mile. But really all you have to do is publish something every day. And if you do it for a little while, you’ll fall in love with the process.
So much so that you can wait to press publish.
Become a Part-Time Creator
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If you’re looking to write consistently on the internet, consider joining 66Write the free online writing challenge, find more details here. People are raving about it.
Happy creating!
This is a path I feel good about taking. It feels true to me and where I'm at in my writing journey. Thank you.
I’m around step 3 here, I think. Trial and error mode, in search of the intersection of what I can write about, and what people particularly enjoy.