4 Things to Remember Before Creating Content for Your Personal Brand
Your personal brand is the key to getting paid for who you are and not just what you do. But there’s a catch. You have to create content for social media to reap the benefits that a personal brand can give you; benefits like a flexible schedule, working with highly-compatible clients and doing work that makes you feel fulfilled. There are many words of advice you will find on the internet when searching for things like, “Best tips to create content.” You might look for inspiration online to help you create better content, but it’s important to remember that the best ways to improve your content aren’t always found there. Your content will improve when you start looking inward for answers and inspiration.
Throw out the content calendar and create what you want.
When people join Personal Brand Accelerator, they usually have a strong desire to develop a social media strategy so they can post content that feels aligned with their authentic self.My students are surprised when I tell them to throw their content calendar out the window and create what they want, when they want, on the fly. On the fly? Yes, on the fly. The best personal brands produce content that is reflective of their real-life experiences. It’s incredibly difficult to share one’s real-life experiences when they are scheduled into a third-party app like Later, Hootsuite, or Buffer. It just doesn’t work.
When you are first getting started, the best thing you can do is throw out the idea of what you think people want to see and instead, post the things you want to share. When you do this, you are learning how to enjoy the process of creating content, not being burdened with it. You can cultivate a deeper sense of creativity and introspection with less pressure to create content for other people. The most amazing thing is when you do this, you automatically attract the right people to your brand.
Authenticity is the key to hyper-attraction. It is not the same as being brutally honest. Authenticity means manifesting who you are in the present moment. When you are present, not self-conscious, you are able to speak the truth directly from your heart without worrying about how you are being perceived by others. When you are authentic, people sense this and are attracted to you because they desire to be the same kind of person they see in you.
Real inspiration doesn’t come from social media, real inspiration comes from within.
The most effective content comes from the wellspring of creativity that lives deep inside of you. This source of inspiration and creativity will not come from scrolling through Instagram feeds or by looking at your TikTok “For You” page. It comes from presence. It comes from being awake and alive and aware of what you are experiencing. It also comes from having the courage to share what you discover along the way. If you can do both of those things, you will not fail.
People aren’t thinking about you as much as you think they are.
You may assume that everyone is thinking about you and your content 24/7; as though people are just waiting for you to share your next TikTok or Instagram post. The truth is, people are thinking about themselves, just like you are thinking about yourself. Don’t be overly concerned with other peoples’ opinions of you; they are likely more concerned with their own life. Sure, they might have thought about you based on what they say, but those thoughts are fleeting and are nothing to worry about.
Your content supports a deeper purpose.
When you are building your personal brand for a deeper purpose, it suddenly becomes easier to share your truth with others. Your content isn’t just for you, it’s to serve a greater purpose than yourself. When I am sitting down to write a blog post or share an Instagram story, I know it’s a small act. But it’s this small act of sharing that contributes to my deeper mission of helping people build authentic personal brands and live their truth out loud.
It’s hard to think of a simple Instagram story as something that contributes to a deeper mission, but it does.
Can you get over yourself enough to share your truth and accomplish your mission? Do you know what your mission is? Will you stop letting your fear and ego get in the way of helping others learn from where you’ve been? This is why it’s so important to do the tough, inner work and get to the core of what you want to share with people. When you do this, the content you provide under your personal brand is aligned and purposeful. It gets easier to share when it’s less about you and more about the mission.
If you are honest with yourself and relentless in the mission you have for your personal brand, creating content will be easy for you. If you’re struggling with how to share content or what to say online, this might be an indication that you haven’t found your “calling” yet. Don’t fear. Sometimes, finding your calling is found on the other side of the content that you share. The only way out is through! Squirm in the struggle and create content even when it feels hard. There is so much to be learned if you stick with it and keep sharing what is true for you. That’s all you have to do, share what is true for you and the rest will fall into place.
