If You Want To Make Money Online With Your Personal Brand Do This

When I was 27 years old I was an alcoholic.

I’d drunk everything away—-my university education, relationships with my family, my career, friends etc.

I was reduced to living in a single room in Manchester with the curtains drawn and empty bottles of wine on the floor around me. I was only sustained by the illusions of grandeur that continued to play in my head despite the reality of my situation.

Things went downhill from there.

I hit rock bottom and finally got into recovery in the early 2000s. At that point I was in a position to rebuild my life, and I did, getting myself together and finding a job—-quite a good job—-in advertising.

Over the next few years I moved back to London and got increasingly good jobs with global media companies.

But my heart wasn’t really in it.

I was a writer trapped in an office executive’s body.

I yearned to escape.

Side Hustle

And so I started to write on the side—-novels, poetry, articles (including for some very well-known titles) and blog posts.

My work began to gain traction, and people started to follow me. Slowly, I realised that perhaps there was another way. Maybe I could begin to monetise this growing audience that I was creating. Perhaps I could create products and services to sell to them that would bring value to them (as well as income to me).

And so I began to publish books on Amazon, about dating and self-development. These started selling pretty well. Soon, I was making almost as much money from my book sales as I was from my corporate salary. And at that point I was certain—-though the ‘personal brand’ I had created around my writing, I could make a living.

Suddenly, the idea of working for someone else seemed somewhat pointless. Surely it would be much better simply to continue growing my audience and figuring out new and better products to sell to them instead?

Well, that is precisely what I have done. I now work for myself full time and I earn more money doing so than I did in my corporate job.

So with all of that said, what is the best piece of advice I have for personal branding?

Well, I have two:

1. Be consistent – publish content daily
2. Be vulnerable

Consistency

Let me explain. Consistency is hugely important, simply because there is a hell of a lot of ‘noise’ out there and you have to cut through it.

You are ‘competing’ with other personal brands, yes. But also with Game of Thrones, computer games, people’s Instagram feeds, movies etc.

You are basically competing with every other form of entertainment on the planet.

If you are to have any chance of shining through and reaching people you are going to have to put out content regularly and consistently so that you lodge in people’s brains and become a feature in their lives.

Vulnerability

Secondly—-and most importantly—-you’ve got to get vulnerable and let people know who you really are.

Remember: the most valuable thing you have, the thing that sets you apart from everyone else on the planet, is your story. If you can’t even share that without censoring yourself then you have excised your competitive edge.

I have found in my own experience that talking about things that are really personal, and that might even make me look bad, has the effect of drawing people to me.

Sure, some might be repelled also, but they were never going to be my ‘core’ audience. Meanwhile, those who truly resonate with what I’m writing about have a deeper relationship with me, will continue to follow me—-and are far more likely to buy from me when I release a product.

Honesty and vulnerability make for a win-win relationship. You get to be yourself without hiding anything. Your audience gets to know you and empathise, and perhaps gets to understand themselves a little better as a result.

And together you create something that is authentic rather than fake.

Of course, it depends to some extent on the line of business you are in. If you are a plumber seeking to build a personal brand, you may wonder about the value of sharing stories of their divorce online.

And I get that.

But a great example is James Altucher. He was a hedge fund guy, financial blogger and journalist. Then, when he opened up and started writing about his failures and personal disasters, his audience exploded.

He is now one of the best-known personal brand creators on the planet as a direct result.

The bottom line is that, whatever you’re trying to build, vulnerability helps—-massively. And if you’re looking to build a personal brand that really resonates with people and is profitable then it’s essential.

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