5 Tips To Build A Successful Personal Brand
If you want what I have, then do what I did.
Having a personal brand has changed my life.
Now that I am back to writing every morning, I am getting an influx of replies to my newsletter. A lot of people are asking how to get started with building their personal brands and creating a business for themselves.
Today, I will give you the playbook.
This is what has worked for me, and hopefully it will work for you.
LFG. 🔥
1. Be Yourself
When people create content online, they almost automatically start imitating others. Mostly one of the Hormozis. lol
Look, when you are just starting out, do whatever you need to do to hit publish. If you need to get inspiration from someone you look up to, do that. Everyone knows I have been heavily influenced by Seth Godin, Brian Clark, and Fred Wilson.
However, understand that no one will follow or engage with you if you are just another version of what they have already seen. You need to be unique. You need to be a purple cow.
As soon as I decided to go all in on myself, my platform took off. There is no one out there like me. There is no one who will:
Be so open about sobriety and my past troubles with the law
Give such raw, behind the scenes access
Share real world experience instead of just handing out generic advice
Talk about cash flowing, boring businesses while focusing on the only metric that matters, which is money in your bank account
I am the only TimStodz out there. I am not a replica of someone else.
Once you find your unique voice, the world will open up to you.
2. Volume Wins
I will say this until I am blue in the face.
No one has any idea what kind of content will do well. You do not know if your post will go viral or if it will flop. You cannot predict the outcome ahead of time, and anyone who says they can is lying.
So your best bet is simply to share as much content as you can (once a day is my sweet spot) and let the results take care of themselves.
Trying to hijack virality is a terrible strategy.
3. Be About Something, And Be Against Something Else
Every personal brand is an advocacy group. If you do not stand for something, you are just a wet towel.
I stand for:
Using content to generate sales, not empty likes, shares, and follows
Closing deals, because everything else is just a means to that end
Being of service to your audience
High probability outcomes
Building agencies and using cash flow to invest in your personal holding company
Staying fit and healthy because being rich and out of shape sounds awful
Building systems and hiring a great team so that you make more while doing less
Subsequently, you need to be anti something else.
For example, I am anti:
Toxic hustle culture
Borrowing money when you could bootstrap, make just as much, and eliminate half the stress
Being a creator because creators are usually broke, while entrepreneurs are wealthy
Spending money on dumb shit when you could invest that cash and easily become a multimillionaire
You do not need to write a manifesto, and you do not need to stir up manufactured controversy. In fact, almost all the people online who drive engagement through sensationalism go broke and end up anxious and stressed out.
I do not want that for you. I simply want you to have a message that resonates deeply with a specific group of people who you are excited to serve.
4. Don’t Monetize Your Personal Brand Directly
I just wrote about this the other day, but it is worth repeating.
People are nuanced. As an individual, you are complicated, complex, and limitless. When people follow your journey, what they want to see is you. They want to know your life, your insights, your struggles, your successes, and what makes you 1 of 1.
So do not pigeonhole your reputation into a single business or a specific product outcome.
Share your journey transparently, and then leverage that attention to build an actual business separate from your name. Your reputation should not be the product itself. Doing that will put huge limitations on your future scalability.
Use your voice to spread awareness and build your community. If you do it right, your following will become your biggest advocates, which leads to massive monetary gains in the long run.
No one has done this better than Casey Neistat. He sold a relatively unsuccessful tech product for 20+ million dollars simply because he shared his journey along the way. (Crazy this was 10 years ago. Man time flies …)
5. The Whole Point Is To Build An Email List
You already know this, but let me explain the mechanics of why it matters.
I have seen a lot of people build massive audiences on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or LinkedIn. When you rely solely on those networks, your only real way to generate income is through sponsored brand deals.
Companies pay you to promote them on your channel or create a post about their business.
But if you funnel that traffic to an email list, you own the audience and you control the medium. This way, you will never get crushed by an inevitable algorithm change, and you can generate way more revenue by selling your own products and services directly.
Plus, you can still do the brand deals on top of that if you want.
I have 22,000 email subscribers. I generate about 15 new subscribers a day.
That is still a relatively small list by comparison, but I generate 10 times more revenue than accounts with massive social followings because I own the destination. I have used my email list to close investments, buy companies, and generate leads for high ticket sales.
Soon, I will tell you the story about the latest deal I just closed, which is an absolute game changer and a direct result of this exact newsletter.
In Conclusion: Don’t Overthink It
The gurus on the internet overcomplicate this process by design. They want you to think that if you buy some kind of secret framework, system, or hack, you will find a fast track to success.
I am not here to knock anyone’s ideas. I am simply saying that for me, trusting the process and doing my own thing has been way more fruitful than trying to follow someone else’s blueprint.
In business, you want to have strict rules, SOPs, and processes. But in personal branding, you want to be free flowing, consistent, and open.
Simply commit to the process, ignore the short term results, and keep doing it forever.
That is the actual hack that no one wants to hear.
Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.
Tim
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