Your "personal brand" is a waste of time

It’s rant time.

I just saw a guy post a Tweet about a huge victory with his personal brand.

He was sharing how he failed at 3 businesses in times past...

BUT... 5 months ago, he went all in on Twitter and is "now at 70 followers!"

He was celebrating this as a win in business.

70 followers.

In 5 months.

I almost spit out my coffee.

Your personal brand is NOT a business!

(And 70 followers is what I got in 5 days on Twitter).

I don't write this to come after the guy online or be mean. I just genuinely feel bad for him because he's clueless about business. And there are thousands of people just like him.

If you've been taken captive by the "personal brand" movement, then just remember this one thing:

You can't pay your restaurant bill with your follower count.

Do you want to know what a real business is?

It's when you offer someone a product or service and they give you money for it.

That's it.

Here's the harsh reality...

If you still haven't made at least $1,000 after 5 months of starting an online business…

You're doing something wrong.

You either have to switch business models, work harder, or learn real, in-demand business skills.

A personal brand is not a business. Followers are not dollars. Content is not king.

As long as you think that growing a personal brand is the solution to your life's problems, you're going to suffer for longer than necessary.

I will say this… I’m NOT against growing your audience. I’m not against posting content. I’m not against you commenting and engaging with people online.

But what I am against is spending more time doing these activities than the core 3: writing copy, studying copy, and doing outbound outreach to copy clients.

So…

If you’ve been hypnotized by “personal branding” and still aren’t making money…

Here are 8 steps you need to take instead (if your goal is to make $5,000-$10,000/month with an online business):

1. Go pick an in-demand skill (i.e. sales, copywriting, programming, design, etc.).

(obviously I’m biased towards copywriting)

Pick a service business that business owners actually spend money on in 2025.

Do NOT try to become a "coach" of any kind

2. Go practice that skill 2+ hours per day until you're better than the average business owner at it (you'll be better than 90% of them within 30 days).

3. Go give your services to people for FREE (or super cheap). Don't ask. Don't be a beggar. Just give free upfront value to get your foot in the door and take on projects at all costs.

4. Track the results you got for a business from that free/cheap work. Turn that into a case study proving you know how to get business owners an ROI on your new skill. Get a video testimonial from that business owner backing up your claim.

5. Go pitch more business owners your service (but show them case studies now). That will get you your first $1,000 month.

6. Work with clients. Build more case studies. Proving your worth through client work and you will be able to raise your rates over time.

7. Keep going till you hit $5,000-$10,000/month.

8. Do whatever you want. Scale up to an agency and make $20,000+/month. Or scale back your time and make six figures while working half days. Maybe start coaching people on how to hit a full time income with your skill.

Build whatever new business you want now that you have foundational business skills. Or keep doing what you're doing and have all the freedom you wanted at the start - more money, more autonomy, more freedom. The world is yours.

But please: Do NOT spend ALL your time "building a personal brand", growing your following, and engaging with people in the comments for 3+ hours per day and pretend that this is a business.

There’s nothing wrong with creating content, growing your following, and attracting inbound clients as a copywriter. But if you spend more time on those activities than on writing copy, studying copy, and doing outbound outreach to land clients…

You’re doing it wrong.

Just keep this in mind…

If thousands of dollars are not hitting your bank account within 6 months of building your business, you're not building a business.

You're wasting your time and you need to change what you're doing.

-Brandon “rant over” Storey

P.S. Here’s how to land your first online client in 30 days (without needing a personal brand).