The shame of building personal brands, especially online, has been unfairly foisted on the individual. In many scenarios it’s an expectation or requirement. But might there be ways to show up online that feel self-actualized? I’m constantly trying to figure that out. #personalbrand #personalbranding #betteryou #socialmediastrategy #creatoreconomy

These are my thoughts about how to build a personal brand that doesn't feel like a violation of your self-respect. And I'm going to speak to you honestly, like I would a friend, about what I think you gain in lose. Part one is just why, and I think if you listen to the whole video, the premise will feel less icky. My credentials are, I'm not full of shit, I'm a grown adult. Two years ago, I did not want anything resembling an online presence, and yet I have built a modest, but significant following of 120k-ish followers across platforms that has allowed me to circumvent a traditional career ladder. First of all, we have to address the fact that branding oneself a human being feels inherently gross. I get it. I feel similarly, and this is classic late-stage capitalism where we don't even need discipline from a boss because we will exploit ourselves voluntarily. My goal isn't to change your mind about this, I think smart people should and will question these systems. But the fact remains that most of us still have to negotiate our market value. Traditionally, we did that through a combination of work experience, which is labor, connections, which might be nepotism, and social status, which is cultural capital that could come from many sources. AI has disrupted the way we find jobs and navigate economic mobility, so a personal brand becomes an alternative in-road, an insurance policy, and arguably in these modern times a necessity. But I want to offer a reframe that makes it feel less odious. The author and professor, Catherine Jezure-Martin, refers to posting online as "serious work", and she reminds us that "people who dismiss social media as meaningless have never had to negotiate their social identity". It's easy to denigrate personal brands and deem posting online as low status, but most of us will have to participate in this circus to some extent, unless we're independently wealthy. So there are a lot of wise, but you can think of personal brands as the modern economic equalizer. Even Beyonce and Jacob Alority and serious journalists at the New York Times have to build them. So you shouldn't feel shame about this requirement. It is part of living in a technofutilist era that you didn't build. I'm going to make another video about ways to show up online that don't feel like a humiliation ritual, so stay tuned for that.