My 1st Consulting Gig: Fixing Her Brand Positioning & Niche Selection

I’ve been sharing my journey as an online Creator for a few months now.

Not going to lie, the imposter syndrome was brutal.

The only way to beat it is to plough through all doubts & feelings & just DO IT.

However, not everyone can simply plough through. It’s a mental thing. But think of it this way:

The pain of not growing should be greater than the pain of being judged online.

After a couple of months of creating content around your topic of choice, it should get easier & more natural.

I came up with a content framework that makes it:

• Easier to turn ideas into Tweets that hook your target audience. 
• Writing blog articles & email newsletters get faster & more natural.
• Easier to ideate, shoot & edit YouTube videos. Become less stiff on camera.

But how can you too come to this stage?

A rock-solid personal brand is the key

This is how I built my brand online, so you can get inspired to do the same:

The more I shared about my journey as a Creator online, the stronger my branding gets.

I made sure to be my true self offline & online:

• Build something interesting & document the journey.
• Be as authentic as possible – share both ups & downs.
• Insert my personality in each content to be unique from the competition & the plethora of incoming AI generated content.
• Show vulnerability through the challenges that I am overcoming.
• Use my story but angle it back to the audience.

I provided so much free value that other Creators started to DM me on Twitter, asking for help.

I decided to meet up with a few to help them get unstuck.

In this article, I’ll share what my 1st client learned in my consultation, so it can help you who are most likely going through the same issues.

Let’s dive in👇

The client profile: Syasya

Syasya’s running a lifestyle YouTube channel as a hobby. 

She talks about several things on her channel, from fitness to tech to car reviews. 

But reviewing cars is the most obvious passion out of all.

She’d chosen to talk to me specifically as she liked how I brand myself online and appear not to be boxed into a specific niche.

While she was explaining this, I knew we had plenty in common.

So I fired my trusty Vespa & met her at a local cafe.

An overview of all her problems

Before we dove deep into any solutions, I asked her to list down all her problems & uncertainties.

Funny, they were all issues I had when I was starting out as a solo Creator:

1. Unclear of her end goal or purpose of doing content.
2. Can’t pick a niche as she had too many interests.
3. Spreading herself too thin (TikTok vs YouTube)?
4. No framework to create consistent & impactful content.
5. Collab outreach keeps getting ignored.

Can you relate to some of her issues?

Let’s peel the layers for each of these issues one by one:

Define your ultimate goal from creating content

Many of us Creators are so caught up creating content, that we forget our big ‘why.’ 

Why are you creating content?

1. Are you trying to quit your job?
2. Are you trying to brand yourself as an authority in your career?
3. Do you want to spend more time at home with the kids?
4. Or do you finally want to do something you’re passionate about?

Because let’s face it, most of us are not in love with our jobs. Our job is just a thing you go to & do to get paid at the end of the month.

So, whatever your reasoning for wanting to build an online brand through content, write it down.

Once your ‘why’ is clear, you’ll only create content that will help you move closer towards your goal.

Similarly, you can’t drive around without a destination in mind. If not, you’re just cruising along on a pointless road trip.

So write down your end goal. The more specific, the better.

Too many interests & can’t pick a niche?

Picking a niche is a widely spread advice for new content Creators.

The original idea behind picking a niche is so that people can relate you to a topic and thus making it easier to remember you.

However, I see a huge problem with this approach. The moment you evolve & plan to talk about something else (you should if you want to grow), your audience, who initially followed you for your niche, may unfollow you.

We are all human with multiple interests. Your interests will & should change with time as you grow.

So it doesn’t make sense to box you in & trap you in a niche.

Take me as an example. I started blogging in the personal finance niche. I was doing fine until I ran out of content ideas. I wanted to talk about other stuff outside of personal finance.

So i’m adamant to build a personal brand where I can create content around topics that I love & can easily change to new things in the future without losing my audience.

So I helped Syasya pick her topics of interest or content pillars. No more confusion when she creates content in the future.

Spreading yourself too thin?

You’ve probably heard of online content gurus preaching:

Repurpose your content! Be on all platforms!

Online Content Guru

Hold up, are these gurus seriously saying you need to post content everywhere?

That’s:

• YouTube
• TikTok
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Blog
• Medium
• Instagram

Come on, get real, please. This repurposing strategy is not sustainable for the Solo Creators, especially if you’re starting.

I analyzed all of her online profiles & focussed where she is performing the best & enjoyed creating content.

DO NOT post everywhere. The last thing you want to do is to get burned out.

If you don’t plan your content, it will most likely fail

Don’t get me wrong, some of your random content may go viral & you’ll be super happy for all the instant attention.

But you’ll find out that the traffic will go away as fast it came, along with no sales to your Offers.

I don’t know about you, but I’m an extremely busy guy, pumping out mad content while juggling being a dad. So whenever I release a piece of content, I want it to have the highest chance of either:

1. Getting me new followers.
2. Affiliate sales.
3. Offer sales.
4. Link clicks.
5. Profile views.
6. Leaving a positive impressions on people’s timeline.

Creating impactful content comes naturally after you’ve been posting consistently for years. 

But since I had to teach people during my consultation, I had to reverse engineer how I ideate content so other people can do it too.

I taught Syasya how to:

1. Define her content pillars & sub-topics underneath each.
2. How to generate content ideas from her pillars & sub-topics.
3. How to convey a message through powerful storytelling.
4. A systematic approach to managing her content projects using Notion or ClickUp.

Collabs that get ignored

Remember that collab email or message that you sent? The one that always gets ignored. Or downright rejected by your fav brands?

If you’d have a strong personal brand, they’d be happy to collab with you.
Heck, they’d probably approach you instead.

Building a strong personal brand is the only way around this. By the end of the day, we are all media companies. Why would a brand choose to advertise their stuff with you?

It’s either because they like you as a person or they think that your style fits their brand.

Having clear conent pillars (that were discussed in the previous section) will help attract brands that crave for authenticity in those topics.

The best takeaway from my consultation session

According to Syasya, within 1 hour, she became unstuck & achieved clarity in her direction as a digital creator.

The best takeaway from our session is how we figured out a way to position her brand so she can grow creating content that she loves while making them all relatable.

When you’re wrestling with doubt about your direction, you’ll stall. Not creating content means you’re not progressing. Getting a strong brand positioning is the clarity she values most.

How would you benefit from a 1-hour call?

So, If you’re a Creator that’s: 

• stuck
• feeling overwhelmed
• finding it all pointless

There is still hope. Talk to the right person a few steps ahead of you. Click below for more info on my 1:1 consulting. Limited spots: