I hate the term ‘Personal brand.’
I think I hate it more than pineapple on pizza.
I built a 500,000 follower “personal brand” on Facebook only to burn out and delete my page 3 years later.
I made videos about the Philippines, and since they went viral at an astonishing clip, I continued making videos about the Philippines.
Up until the point where I got BORED OUT OF MY MIND making them.
I used to be known as “the Medium guy,” too.
I wrote SO many articles about Medium in 2018, 2019, and 2020, and then I got bored of that, too.
SPOILER ALERT: Getting into publications and writing better headlines is 90% of being successful here.
But how many times can I write about that without wanting to upchuck on my keyboard?
Personal Brands Are Prisons
Look, personal brands can become prisons.
You HAVE TO post about THIS.
You can ONLY talk about THAT.
That’s a first-class ticket to creative and emotional burnout.
Trust me — the guy who’s been writing online since 2016.
In the end, content is a hamster wheel.
There’s tomorrow’s post. And the next day. And the next day. And the next day. And the next day. For YEARS.
The slightest annoyances now will turn into full-blown existential creative crisis with time. I swear.
And you might reach a point where you have to give up everything you worked so hard to build in the first place.
You Must Abandon Your Comfort Zone
Most people think blogging is like this:
Work hard
Build massive following
Kick your feet up and live off what you built
Here’s the reality:
Word hard
Build massive following
Get completely bored and burn out
You see, bloggers — for all their courageous traits —want what everybody else wants.
Stability.
Comfort.
Money.
They want to start a “side-hustle” that allows them to quit their job.
What a dream, right?
There’s only one small problem.
You change.
Humans change.
I am not the same guy I was in 2017.
Building a wicked popular personal brand turns bloggers into the very thing they WEREN’T when they got started.
Comfortable.
They know what works. They follow the money. They are a slave to their own audience.
If they step out of line, their audience will let them hear it.
“I’m unfollowing you!”
“Stay out of politics!”
“I don’t care about this, Tom!”
And now you’re trapped in your personal brand. What once was your vehicle for freedom and money becomes a sarcophagus.
I just spelled sarcophagus correctly on the first try, by the way. 😂
I recently watched a video from Pewdiepie, Youtube’s most popular solo creator.
He talks about his journey on Youtube and how much he’s changed in the 11 years since he got started.
He used to ONLY be a video game streamer. Nowadays he makes vlogs about his life in Japan, videos about pop culture, and even book reviews.
The dude changed.
Eventually you’ll change, too.
Then you’ll learn that creative happiness can only be achieved by abandoning the comfortable cave of riches and fame.
Which, in the end, you’ll be forced to do.
How Do We Not Burn Out, Tom?
Contrary to popular belief, there’s a right way to build a, GULP, personal brand.
Stop thinking about the “purpose” behind each post you write.
For a personal brand to feel authentic (and remain fun), you got to do away with “purpose” and start being — GASP — HONEST with your audience.
Write about whatever sometimes!!!
Write about your dog!
Write about how horrible Rings of Power is. 😉
And why House of the Dragon is so much better 🔥
AHEM
The ironic part is your audience will end up loving you MORE because of it.
Because they’ll be able to feel the authenticity.
Write things that don’t have any ulterior motives sometimes. People will notice that and like you more for it.
Maybe you’ll turn off some of your audience by being you..
But who cares?
You’re having fun. If they don’t like that, you don’t want them anyway.
You are not a brand.
You’re a human being.
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