Are personal brands overrated?

Good morning!

Welcome to Social Studies.

Here’s the agenda for today:

• Brought to you by….

• Are personal brands overrated?

Brought to you by….

My friend (and cofounder of the Social Studies community) owns Pixel Theory.

They're a scale and growth partner. They don’t just say “We can do this 20% better,” they actually learn your business, acquisition funnel, and study your P&L, and give holistic ways to drive substantial, profitable growth.

Their team is legit. Killers at scaling paid social, youtube, search, amazon and creative strategy.

Some of their clients are Dr. Squatch, Mad Rabbit, and Nuts.com

If you’re in the market for a growth partner, 10/10 feel good about recommending Graham and his crew.

Side note… If you’re in the Social Studies community you can get a free audit of your current marketing channels. Just a set of outside eyes to provide a different prospective… no selling or pressure.

Are personal brands overrated?

I’m really hesitant to say anything categorically….

“You NEED a personal brand.” or… “Personal brands are from the devil!!!!” 👿 

But… I do know my story and how building a personal brand has helped my career.

It’s wayyyy easier said than done though.

I am not a guru, but I’ve spent the last several years trying and failing (mostly failing) to build a brand.

I went from knowing NOTHING about social media marketing to branding myself as "the organic social media guy" and getting a following of 40k social media managers.

Here’s the journey…

Step 1 was applying for jobs that I was wildly unqualified for. In 2019 I applied for 197 jobs. I flew out for in-person interviews for 4 of them (pre-covid). Topeka, Wichita, OKC, Knoxville. The Wichita interview was home to my famous story where I asked, "What's it like living in Wichita?" and the hiring manger said, "Well, we're only 7 hours from Denver." The one in OKC was with Life Church on the YouVersion team team as their first full-time social media hire. I had no business even reading the job description, but for some reason known only to God and they hired me. 

Step 2 was watching people wayyyy smarter than me and asking at least 10 questions per day.

Ryan Maher and Marcus Stanley getting hired on adjacent teams is without a doubt the best thing that could have ever happened to my career. Ryan started growing accounts on IG back in 2011 and Marcus had taken multiple FB pages from 0 to 1 million followers.

Their advice fundamentally shaped the way I thought about social media.

• Add value.

• Nobody cares if it's on brand.

• Follow the data.

• Post (way) more.

• Lean into the algorithm.

It was the easiest job in the world. I'd ask Ryan and Marcus what to do... I'd do it... It would work... I looked like I knew what I was doing. Grew the IG account by a million followers, 2 years in a row. Took the TikTok from 0 to 300k in less than 6 months.

Step 3 was testing it on new accounts that didn't have an established brand. I started a couple hyperlocal IG accounts and grew them to 30k followers.

Holy cow... this stuff was legit.

I started setting up targeted job searches on LI and experimented until I had a system that was bringing in freelance clients on autopilot. (Should prolly do a breakdown on that.)

I got paid to work on different brands in different industries and build out the portfolio.

Step 4 was the personal brand. I hate the term personal brand. Writing on LI/X/newsletter was really just a place to try and be creative.

On January 1, 2022 I decided to write every day on LI.

I missed a few days here and there, but was 98% consistent. I talked about my takes on the algorithm, growth, and ROI.

Nothing happened for 10 months. NO-THING.

In October, I pulled out my phone, typed a random thought that I had and pressed published.

It popped.

The engine turned on and the account started growing.

That first viral post was about how as a SMM I don't have time to curate my personal IG feed. SMMs everywhere started saying, "Me too!" That was the new formula... "How can I create content that makes SMMs think 'Me too!'"

Going viral is never predictable, but it started becoming more regular. Once I built up a following, I pulled some of those old posts back out and reposted.

The stuff I first thought was valuable... how to add value on social, growth hacks, etc.

The same content that bombed at first was doing great!

Back in 2022 the post got 3 likes, but in late 2023 it was getting 400. Why?

Social proof.

"If 400 people liked the post, then he must know what he's talking about." vs "Only 3 people liked his post but he's talking about how to grow on social media! What a loser."

For that content to be successful I HAD to "do my time" proving that I was a real smm, in the trenches, that understood my audience.

Just like grandma used to say... "People don't care what you know, until they know that you care."

tldr;

• Personal brands only matter if you have a portfolio to back it up.

• Building a personal brand is an incredible learning experience (it’s totally different than building a brand account).

• Writing on LinkedIn or X is guaranteed to make you some friends (and enemies 😆).

• Building a brand empowers you to diversify and raise your income.

Happy building! 🔨 

Friendly reminder 😃

Graham and I are building a community that’s social media pros’ favorite place to hang out. We answer each other’s questions, host events you actually want to watch and provide a positive ROI.

We want to keep the value and quality high, so it’s application only. If you’re interested, hit the button below.