How I’m Building & Maintaining a Top-Tier Personal Brand

Discover the step-by-step strategy for creating and sustaining a top-tier personal brand. Learn how to make your brand stand out authentically.

Building a personal brand doesn’t start with a color palette or a logo.

It starts with something much deeper: a persona—a version of yourself that is both authentically you and aspirational. My personal brand is built around the person I am becoming.

Why? Because my aspirational self is the reason I started creating my personal brand in the first place. In this post, I’ll share my step-by-step strategy for building and maintaining a top-tier personal brand, the challenges I’ve faced, and the methods I use to ensure my brand remains flexible and true to me.

1. Start with your narrative

A strong personal brand begins with a written narrative. This is your brand’s story, the foundation of its identity. For me, writing is my strength, so I started by crafting a clear narrative that outlined my values, goals, and the message I want my brand to convey.

How I did it:

1. Wrote out my brand story, focusing on the persona I want to embody.

2. Bolded key ideas that resonated and crossed out elements that felt unfocused.

3. Created a document to store my narrative, which became the basis for all other branding elements.

Tip for you: If you don’t know where to start, look at the affirmations you tell yourself. It’s the phrases you tell yourself when the going gets tough or when you feel the most inspired. What’re you known for saying & sharing in your friend groups?

2. Choose visual elements after the narrative

While I love the creative side of branding—picking color palettes, fonts, and logos—it wasn’t my first step. These elements support your brand; they don’t define it. After solidifying my narrative, I experimented with design elements that felt aligned with my story.

How I did it:

• Narrowed down 2-3 color palettes with complementary toens.

• Explored 6-7 font combinations that were simple enough for me to manage on my own.

• Integrated these elements into my brand narrative document.

Tip for you: Use Canva and/or Pinterest to brainstorm and test different combinations before finalizing your visuals.

3. Build a central hub for your brand

Your personal brand needs a “home base",” a place you own. For me, that’s my website. While social media platforms are great for initial connections, they’re not places where you truly own your audience.

My approach:

• Made my website the primary location for all my content and projects.

• Developed a content strategy where full posts live on my site, while snippets or edited versions are shared across platforms like Substack, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Focused on building my site as the foundation, ensuring consistency across all platforms.

Why it matters: Social media can disappear or get banned, but a website gives you long-term control and scalability.

4. Create content, brick by brick

Building a personal brand is a long-term effort. It requires consistency and persistence. Follow the plan, not your mood. Because every post, project, and piece of content adds another “brick” to the foundation of your brand.

My strategy:

• Batch-create content to balance my full-time role and freelance work.

• Pull inspiration from platforms like IG, Pinterest, and YouTube, ensuring I don’t get sidetracked by consuming too much content.

• Stay committed to publishing regularly, even when battling imposter syndrome or doubts.

Tip for you: At first, focus on putting out a lot of content fast. You’ll fail a lot & it’ll seem embarrassing, but push through that barrier and you’ll get a better sense of what content is actually performing well. Once you have that general outline, quality naturally follows.

5. Evolve & stay aligned

A personal brand isn’t static. It grows with you. As I’ve developed my brand over the years, I’ve faced challenges. The self-doubt and the pressure to stay consistent felt like more than I could bear at certain times. But I remind myself that branding is about connection and that adjustments are a natural part of growth.

Challenges I’ve faced:

• Fighting feelings of inadequacy or imposter syndrome.

• Balancing creative freedom with the need for focus and discipline.

• Learning to let go of what doesn’t serve my brand’s message.

• Having to juggle more than what I’m comfortable with in order to achieve what I set out for.

Tip for you: Schedule regular check-ins to revisit your brand narrative and ensure it reflects your current values and goals.

A personal brand in today’s world.

The landscape of work & technology is changing rapidly. Job security and success metrics are evolving, and having a strong personal brand is more critical than ever. By launching your brand thoughtfully now, you set yourself up for long-term success in this shifting environment.

Key takeaway: A personal brand isn’t just about attracting opportunities—it’s about creating them.