In 2025, having a strong personal brand is the only thing that will save you. It's the single thing that separates you from Claude or GPT or any number of wrappers posing as a humans doing your job. You have to take this seriously.

Here are the basics.

📌 Personal brand = how you are perceived by the outside world.

This is not dissimilar to any other brand you already know - the only difference is that you are now the product being sold. A brand is not the complete, honest truth about the thing or the company or the person - rather, it's a carefully curated version of it, meant to elicit a positive response of intrigue, trust and loyalty from a target audience. Its end goal is to eventually convert its target audience into customers - your goal is the same, whether it be for them to actually pay for something or for them to mentally 'subscribe' to your expertise and input.

📌 Personal brand is comprised of three elements: General Human Quality (GHQ) + Spike Areas + Emotional Impact.

General Human Quality: Are you a below average, average, or above average person? Categorization theory suggests that humans naturally group objects and people into categories to simplify understanding, reduce cognitive load, and make predictions about the world. Your general 'quality' is one of those such categorizations, and can easily be controlled by how you present yourself in public settings.

Spike Areas: What areas do you stand out amongst the crowd in? What do you know more than most people about? What can people trust your opinion on, because they know you spend a lot of time thinking about it? There are hundreds of these areas to choose from, and the more specific they are, the stronger your brand will be.

Emotional Impact: How do people feel after interacting with you, either in person or online? Nike makes people feel inspired. Apple makes people feel in control. Liquid Death makes people feel adventurous. How do you make people feel?

📌 Personal brand is useless unless people consume it.

The first exercise is defining what your brand is and should be - the second is driving exposure to and awareness of that brand amongst your target audience. You have to do the same thing brands do - market. There are lots of different ways that brands market - some create content, some rely on their messaging, some drive organic word of mouth, some work in the shadows to build loyalty and win market share. You don't have to do all these things, but you have to do something.

📌 Personal brand needs to represent who you actually are, even if it's an optimized version.

If Nike sold crap shoes, their brand would only do so much for them. It's okay for your brand to be the version of yourself you're working toward, but do not misrepresent what and who you actually are. The delta can exist, but it must be small. No one likes a fraud.

📌 Personal brand can look different for different audiences.

You may very well have multiple personal brands - one for close friends and family, one for acquaintances, and one for the internet. Remember, the core of it is how you want those audiences to perceive you. It's up to you how similar or different these brands are - most of that decision is personal preference. The more similar they are, the easier your life will be.

📌 Personal brand building doesn't need to be complicated.

Step 1: Improve your perceived GHQ

Step 2: Select your spike areas, actually spike in them

Step 3: Identify the emotion you want to elicit from people, make sure that's happening

Step 4: Market yourself - write, speak, build a website, start a side project, add value, create things

Step 5: Keep it tight - almost everything you put out into the world should align with your brand

Step 6: Don't forget to have fun - no one likes a grump