How to Build Your Personal Brand Through Writing
You have probably heard that personal branding is important.
But you might have a question... "How to get started with personal branding?"
The simple answer to that is: Start creating content.
The best-known will beat the best.
You can be great at doing something, but if people do not know that you exist, then you cannot put that skill into use to help others.
If you want to generate revenue, you have to create value. And that value can be exchanged for money with others.
People will only pay you when you give something in return for value.
For example, you will not pay me anything if I do not have anything of value to give you in return.
But most people try to get to the money part directly.
Why would people trust you and how would people discover that you have value to give to them?
They will first give attention.
You are reading this right now, and you are giving me attention.
Using that attention you can build trust.
And you can use that trust for the transaction to happen.
How will people pay you attention?
They will pay attention only when you create content. If you do not create content, then what's there to pay attention to? Your profile picture on Facebook? Probably not.
That's why I keep insisting on the framework - CATT.
- C - Content
- A - Attention
- T - Trust
- T - Transaction.
First, you create content, then you get their attention, then you build trust with them and then you ask for the transaction.
If you don't follow this formula, you cannot beat your competition. You will not survive in the market. You will not be able to scale up your career/business.
What kind of content to build?
The simplest way to create content is to write.
If you are not yet comfortable speaking in front of a camera, start writing.
Where to publish what you write?
Publish it on a blog.
That's why one of the first courses that I built was the 100-day Blogging course.
When you set up a blog and start writing, at least a few people will read the articles that you publish. When you start getting positive comments, it will build your confidence.
Then slowly you can take the same content and start publishing videos. If you are not yet comfortable showing your face on the camera, you can make slideshow videos and publish them on YouTube.
Slowly you can start doing podcasts, be a guest in others' podcasts and start making reels on Instagram (if you want to).
That's how I started and that's how I want you to get started.
Once you build enough content and have confidence in the value that your content creates, you can start selling your content.
Here are the different types of content you can make and sell:
- Books
- Ebooks
- Courses
- Training programs (cohort-based)
- Mastermind programs
If you have got your niche right, you can build a business out of your content.
Like I have.
And you can eventually get to servicing clients through your agency. When you run an agency, you can charge top dollar to your clients and help them grow their businesses.
You can take the profit that you make from your content and services agency and start investing it in building software and tools. Or you can start investing in other businesses.
Starting from a simple blog, you can build an empire out of it. That's what I'm in the process of doing.
All of us have a tendency to complicate things.
No, simplify things.
Simple things are easy to execute and scale.
So tell me, are you going to start writing?
Cheers,
Deepak Kanakaraju