Three months ago, I barely had an online presence. I created a LinkedIn post once in a while in support of the company I worked for. There was a letter to the editor published in a newspaper. A few pictures of me on a company Facebook page, from ten years back.
Then I started to build a brand online. I decided to go big. I ramped up LinkedIn, added Substack, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. The other day I was notified by a couple of platforms that I had published my 25th reel.
Now I’m releasing four to five reels per week, I write a Saturday essay on Substack, I’m working on a website, and I’m posting on LinkedIn whenever I find the time.
When you start building a brand, it’s a lot. You need a brand and business strategy, brand colours, a logo, and a sense of your audience. You have to learn how to wrestle with new platforms and software, and figure out what type of content creates traction for you.
And once you get going, you realize that you’re on the wrong track. Everything needs to be revised, you don’t like your business idea or your brand colours, and the strategy feels off.
If you work or have other commitments outside of brand building, it can feel like too much. Don’t give up. It doesn’t have to be this way.
I’m not trying to tell you that building a brand isn’t a lot of work. But the way you approach it matters.
Give yourself some time to do what feels like being “unproductive”. Try a tagline, try a colour, and then throw it out the window. Think you want to do coaching, and then one day wake up and decide you want to do software development instead.
It’s important to give yourself time to understand what you want. Once you start building, your dreams start to feel more real, and you get a better idea of what you really want. Don’t push on in a direction that isn’t aligned with who you are.
Depending on your commitments outside of brand building, this first phase can take some time. Don’t stress about that. But do make sure that you’re taking a step forward every week: learn something new, do some research, figure something out.
And then one day you have a tagline that feels like you and that gives your business direction. Now it’s time to focus. Go over your content strategy again and make sure it’s up to date with your latest ideas. Develop two or three content buckets that are inclusive enough to avoid boredom and focused enough to attract your audience.
At this point, you have a good sense of how much work it is to create content. Commit to something that makes sense for your schedule. Two essays, three posts and two reels. Or ten posts each week. It doesn’t matter. But it has to be aligned with your capacity. You don’t want to burn yourself out.
You don’t need a million ideas. It gets confusing. Pick an idea for the week or the month, and dig deeper to uncover lots of content in that one idea.
Now take a look at your schedule. When can you write, when can you film, when can you edit? Decide on days and times, and try to stick to it. Break the work into chunks so it’s not overwhelming.
This is the exciting part. Once you have a schedule that works, you’re starting to build a routine. And like with any job, a routine gets easier every week. At first, it took me a day to make a reel. The other day I managed to film eight in one day. What used to be hard becomes second nature.
This doesn’t mean you become complacent. But your brain is not constantly occupied by what’s new and challenging, and instead you can experiment, try something new, and test your audience’s reaction.
I’m nowhere near finished. My website only has a front page and I’m still pondering what products I’ll have on offer.
Being finished isn’t the goal. The goal is to be on a runway where you can see straight ahead to the point of liftoff.