Once you’ve had enough of being pathetic and weak, you have two paths to choose from:
- You can push yourself to your fullest capacity and have a positive, hopeful, learning attitude as you sacrifice immediate gratification for future glory.Despite the anger… laziness… the cravings… you’ll continue to aim towards what is right- What will set in place for you,and your family, a better day tomorrow, and on.Eventually, you’ll start to see an overwhelming amount of positivity in your life…Eventually, you will realize that it was worth it all along as beautiful things happen in your life…
You will have the ability to reinvest into yourself and your loved ones as you continue to become even more efficient and disciplined…
You will win on a daily basis.
- The other path is death.
I know…. That was pretty intense…
I’ve built my personal brand around encouraging people, particularly men, to get their lives together, and use all that crazy masculine energy they have to actually grow as a leader. As a result, my content has a dark tone, and a sense of finality to the messages. I may sound like the archetypal, judgmental father sometimes…
What can I say, though? It’s tough being a dude. We need ass-kickings, once in a while.
Anyway, the goal is to continue to give value in this niche and maybe, one day, have an audience in a demographic that loves reinvesting into themselves with encouraging and empowering content.
Subscribe to me on YouTube!
But enough about me…
You have something that you’re passionate about, too.
It might be a school of philosophy like Ryan Holiday, or food and cooking like Quan Tran.
As you grow in your niche, your industry, your expertise… you have an incredible opportunity to share your journey with people that are doing the same.
In doing so, you will solidify your place as a leader, and a person of influence within your niche.
Using digital platforms like Google or YouTube, you’ll have the reach to make your dream life come true.
The internet had made it so that, as a person of value, you’ll have no barrier-to-entry to get your message out to the right people, at the right time, and create a business out of your passions.
This article will explain what creating a “personal brand” means to you and your career, whether it is the right business move for you, and what is necessary to make it work.
Is Personal Branding Just Another MMO Thing?
Make Money Online Schemes are everywhere. Make Money schemes, themselves, are everywhere… and have always been a part of our culture. Thank you, capitalism.
Human beings are easy to trick and they also have this thing that all of us want: Money.
How can you tell if something is a scheme?
The first sign is the marketing. Do they mention any of these words?
- Easy
- Template
- Cookie Cutter
- Simple
- Short-cut
- Fast Track
- Done-For-You
If they do- they are selling you the marketing, and not any substance or value.
Substantial content will help you transform, but it will take a significant amount of your time, dedication, and persistence for it to happen. You will need to study and apply– then study and apply more…
While personal branding is a viable “business model”, it is not for everyone, and it is very difficult to get to a level where people buy into you and your brand- and when revenue starts coming in.
Depending on your conscientiousness and creativity levels, you might very well have to be working your ass off for years before you see any significant results. Don’t get me wrong, you will see improvements along the way, but not “become a millionaire in 3 months” improvements.
There’s no secret, magic funnel, or ad headline, that will make you successful overnight. There will never be a person that can give you a “cookie cutter” method to success.
No information product, or business model can give you success.
The words that marketers use have tonnes of value to your lazy, lizard brain, but they do not have inherent value- the type of value that transform you into a successful person. Essentially, you are sold on a surge of happy, excited feelings.
Only those that are capable of working their asses off and are capable of a high level of learning will succeed.
It is about being a person that is willing to learn success principles and apply them on a daily practice over a really long time that will get success…
Is that you?
If you answered yes to that question, then you have a bright future ahead of you…
Whether you decide to start an online personal brand or not, for that matter.
The reality is, you’re building a personal brand even if you don’t decide to make it an online business. Your resume is personal brand content. Your personal brand is reflected in your relationship with colleagues and business connections. Your personal brand are your political views, and your family values.
In a sense, any platform in which you can add value to will contribute to creating your personal brand.
The important question you must ask yourself is then: are you going to be a cheap knock-off brand, or a premium brand?
How Do Personal Brands Add Value?
You need to watch this video on Mr. Beast by Charisma On Command.
Both the creator of this video, and the subject of the video are personal brands that inspire me to grow, though they are not in the same niche as I am. The concept of the video that you want to focus on is adding value.
If you’ve reached a level of skill in any endeavor, you’ll have realized that it took a lot of effort over a lot of time before you even saw any real tangible results.
That kind of dedication- that kind of commitment to the mission, is going to build the foundation of value that you will add to your niche.
By consistently “showing up”, you will beckon to the universe that you are for real; Only when you’ve paid your dues, through sacrifice in the form hard work and constant pushing of your comfort zone, will you see results.
Now, for any personal brand, you may think results come in the form of an audience, and eventually monetization through product sales and ad placements…
While it is the most obvious way to gauge your success as a business, significant amounts of revenue will only appear far after you’ve started, and sometimes it may be seemingly impossible to come by. Therefore, it is important to be motivated by your progress in the goal of aligning your values.
Aligning Your Values
How do you spend most of your day? What do you repeatedly think about throughout the day, and on a day-to-day basis?
Is it focused upon a mission? Can other people be inspired and moved by your dedication to the mission?
Don’t pay attention to the material results of your life, at first. On the path of personal growth, you will become better and better in very slow increments, and it takes some time for the material world to catch up. In other words, money and recognition come in huge bursts, but they are generally non-existent in the beginning.
Seth Godin wrote an amazing book on how to properly gauge progress in your endeavors called The Dip.
Your personal brand is, therefore, built on your message, your passion, and your dedication to the mission. These are the elements that attract your audience, but most importantly, attract competence and skill in your life.
Chasing after revenue will never work because you will always give off a vibe of ulterior motives. This is a very repellent vibe.
As a result of pushing yourself to align your values to your day-to-day thoughts and habits- making it a goal to become more and more aligned on a daily basis, you will be able to uninhibitedly express your ideas and your brand to your audience on a consistent basis.
This will build trust, which is the pillar to successful business. This is, after all, a business. You should ultimately be making money from your brand, and there will come a time when monetization and finances will come into consideration…
But only after you realize that geniune value is the ultimate goal.
It is The Same For Any Brand
You can learn a lot from how big businesses choose to spend their marketing budgets.
Brands like Under Armour and Nike spend a lot of money sponsoring personal brands like The Rock and Tiger Woods. This is because, as personal brands, these individuals have reached the top of the hierarchy in their niche.
You can say that these individuals have aligned their values on a daily basis, to the point where their value is undeniable. It is no wonder that brands want to latch onto that by sponsoring them.
Because of the internet, there are more and more opportunities to do this on a smaller, though still extremely profitable, scale.
To stay within the sport and fitness niche examples, Gokuflex is a great YouTube channel that produces impressive work-out motivational videos, and also comedic content.
Once again, you see in practice the principles of consistency, dedication, and adding value:
- Consistency: Content is regularly produced. It looks like about 3 videos a week.
- Dedication: In the fitness world, this is the easiest to notice because of the 6 pack and pulling off heavy lifts.
- Adding Value: He is regularly putting up his friends and collaborating. There is a fair amount of content on coaching and posting before and after pictures of clients.
Start Now
Start the adventure of creating your personal brand today.
Write down some ideas for content. Share what you recently learned. Share what you struggle with. Share what helped with your struggles. Ask people to join you (call to action). The world needs the value you can give it.