Stop trying to find yourself. Start creating yourself.

Your journey to self-discovery is killing your personal brand potential.

There are millions of personal brands out there.

Templated machines functioning on empty prompts and dated ideas.

Copycat juggernauts using rockslides of data-driven strategies to boost them ahead of the rest—only to crash and burn years down the line.

People desperate to create brand identities that will outlive them, only to get pigeonholed in the uncomfortable cage that is the "niche."

They're everywhere.

And every single one of them are making the same mistakes.

In an age where anyone and everyone claims to either have a powerful personal brand—or know how to build one for you—knowing who you are has never been more important.

But, no one knows how to actually make this happen.

Self-discovery doesn't happen by chance.

It happens through compounding effort.

A personal brand is one of the most intentional ways to get there.

This is the first fundamental we need to explore.

The modern dilemma with personal branding.

We live in a society that draws inspiration, education, and motivation from the humans that push us forward.

This is natural.

Of course we want to take example from the people we admire.

We all have favorite writers, musicians, artists, philosophers, etc. who fulfill their roles as thought leaders and gift us beautiful moats of information to glean from.

Most people don't understand that these public figures aren't stagnant.

They didn't magically grow their influence overnight. They didn't become who they are from doing nothing.

It's the opposite.

The figures, creators, influencers, entrepreneurs, thought leaders—and yes, personal brands—are always reinventing themselves in public.

They don't use their story as a bedrock before they build influence.

They use their influence—their story, experiences, ideas, passions, interests, etc.—build the foundation of their personal brand in real-time.

I can speak personally about this.

I've changed my niche eight times, had multiple identity crises, and struggled to pinpoint what made sense while juggling focus between my long-term, generalist vision, my business needs, and cross-pollinating my inner artist and inner entrepreneur.

I was obsessed with trying to find myself before creating a brand.

I thought I had to, because of what was out there in the wild.

Here's the problem:

Whether you're on LinkedIn, Substack, X, or even YouTube, you're constantly shown the outcome of personal brands that have been built on a massive foundation of mistakes, changes, and outcomes you don't see.

As a result, newcomers expect instant results.

They expect to immediately know who they need to be, what they need to write about, and who they want to become.

Then, once they start writing daily, reaching out to strangers, and trying to build a community…

They give up.

They get disappointed and start doubting themselves due to high expectations that weren't met. They believe they can't amount to anything.

Worst of all, they believe their story has no value.

This is the central problem with trying to build a personal brand as a new creator.

Instead of trusting the process, they give up before any traction can build.

They believe that going viral is the most important thing.

They believe only successful influencers have grounds for storytelling.

They believe you have to post surface-level content to grow.

This is why you can't try to "find yourself" as a human being before you build a personal brand.

That's not the point.

The problem with "finding yourself."

Look, no one finds themselves. They're always building themselves.

This is a level of awareness not everyone masters. I haven't even mastered it. I'm sharing it confidently because I grew aware over the last few years as someone who aggressively writes, for herself and for others.

The core value of building a personal brand is to create who you want to be.

You, quite literally, write yourself into the person you wish to become.

That is the true essence of a personal brand that scales.

The question now is:

How do you stop finding yourself, and start creating yourself?

This isn't a prompt issue, or a writing issue.

It's not even a skillset issue.

It's a mindset issue.

Consume less. Create more.

Creators create. Consumers consume.

The top 1% of personal brands are creators.

The remaining 99% are consumers pretending to be creators.

Most people consume. They waste their time on social media. They swallow up newsletters like dopamine vacuums.

I'm not saying this is inherently a bad thing. We're all humans.

But, the overconsumption of personal brands—be it on YouTube, on LinkedIn, X, and beyond—has left a stamp of insecurity behind.

If you're reading this newsletter, you're the type of person who wants to create impact. You want to build influence, a community, etc. on some sort of scale.

Stop looking outward and start obsessing inward.

Look at what interests you. Consider what you're doing.

What are you building? What do you like creating? What stories are you itching to share? What lessons can you provide through your unique perspective?

If you're struggling to come up with ideas…

Start there. Stop overthinking and trust what interests you.

Jot down some ideas based on what your brain comes up with.

This will help you start reframing your mindset from consumer to creator.

Then, you might enter another problem.

Kill your current identity.

Your true self doesn't exist somewhere.

It's something you have to actively reach.

An identity you build into yourself.

Athletes are a great example.

If you believe you're a pro tennis player, you won't magically become a pro tennis player.

You use that vision to eat protein and carbs, train in the gym, hustle on the court, build muscle and speed, and iterate on your strengths and weaknesses after every match.

It's the same with personal branding.

It's the same with identity creation.

Consider the vision of your personal brand the goal.

Think of the posts you write, emails you share, thoughts you deliver, and people you connect with as the foundational muscle building everything from the ground up.

The thing is, you'll face setbacks. You'll go through periods where your energy dips. You'll feel crushed after losing a match.

You will have days where you struggle.

This is normal.

Instead of giving up, be disciplined, but kind.

Remember that the most powerful legacies are built with time, patience, sacrifice, and a whole lot of iteration.

Think—and write—in public.

Thinking creates ideas.

Writing creates clarity.

To be clear, this isn't random advice.

I'm not trying to sell you anything. I prioritize writing every single day for myself, my work, and my art, because it's my favorite form of expression—of creation.

However, this isn't just about creating worlds, characters, or even content.

It's about creating the person you want to be.

Every time you:

• Write a post on LinkedIn

• Write a journal entry (if that's your thing)

• Write an X post, comment, or DM

You're actively creating your real voice.

It's impossible to plan out how you should sound in public.

Most people go straight to following top creators, copying their frameworks, their voice, their tone, and even plagiarizing their origin stories, in order to desperately build a personal brand.

This is not only unethical, but it costs you the very practice you must do every single day in order to build your identity.

Sure, follow frameworks. Study best practices, if you must.

Nothing wrong with that.

But, you must practice writing organically to tap into your inner voice.

Otherwise, you're trapped in a constant cycle of fabrication.

If you use AI to help you with writing, that's totally fine. Sometimes it's the best writing coach if you're starting out.

But, you don't want to use AI to write your content from scratch.

You want to use it to refine the ideas you already have.

If you're scared of thinking in public—which you must do in order to create your personal brand identity—start with these ideas:

• Record your thoughts on your phone, then transcribe

• Take notes on content that inspires you, then bulletize your opinions

• Think of your inspirations, friends, and family—and jot down your memories

• Write down a thought or event that pushed you to change, think, or act differently

There are countless ways you can turn your daily experiences into a daily writing practice.

If you're an entrepreneur, write about what made you want to start your company. Invite people into the narrative.

If you're an investor, share what you find most inspirational about the brands you want to work with. Invite people into the narrative.

If you're a creator trying to find your place on this planet, write what interests you. Write about what solved your problems and put yourself as the protagonist. Invite people into the narrative.

Learning how to think in public also invites your ideal readers into the narrative you're creating in real time.

In other words, your personal brand.

A personal brand that follows your identity as it evolves, grows, and adapts.

Self-creation takes time.

If you're anything like me, you're impatient.

You want to create everything all at once, learn from it immediately, and apply it with reckless speed so you can move onto the next thing.

This does not allow you to truly sink your teeth into the process.

As a result, you lose any chance of creating your identity.

The first step to building a modern personal brand is to recognize your identity will constantly change.

You are, after all, a human being.

You're not a machine.

You are a walking creature with emotions, memories, wisdom, real opinions, and real relationships. These experiences shape you.

However, most people don't recognize these experiences shape them until they start writing about it—in public.

Make your self-creation a public experiment.

See how conversations develop around your journey to self-creation.

Experience the change you feel as a human when you realize the messiness in public turns into remarkable identity creation in private.

This is the underrated truth of personal branding that breaks you out of trends, and pulls you into the vortex of intentional community-building.

Conclusion.

To sum everything up:

• Stop trying to find yourself

• Think in public every day on your social platform of choice

• Share your real experiences (and embrace imperfection)

• Make a daily effort to invite people into your story

• Get comfortable with your identity changing

• Reinvent yourself publicly when you need to

Don't let the desire to be perfect hold you back.

Self-discovery is wonderful, but it's only possible through active thinking, writing, and creating what you want to create.

It's only natural that what we create in public—and what we write about that truly and deeply impacts us—shapes who we are.

Personal branding is not a commodity.

It's the most powerful method of identity creation.

You owe this to yourself.

Thanks for reading this piece today.

I'll see you next Friday,

Taylor

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If you’re new here, welcome. I’m Taylor, a writer, personal brand advisor, and generalist dedicated to unraveling the art, purpose, and philosophy of personal branding for individuals who are tired of selling their soul to build a legacy.