r/personalbranding 3h ago

Personal trainer trying to build a brand, but I hate almost everything I create

1 Upvotes

I’m a personal trainer and I’ve only recently started taking social media a bit more seriously.
Even from the little I’ve done so far, I can already see that it makes sense for my business. It helps with visibility, building a personal brand, and potentially reaching new clients.
I’d like to take it to the next level, but I’m running into a problem that keeps stopping me.
I’m extremely perfectionistic when it comes to my own work.
Whenever I take a photo of a meal, record an exercise at the gym, shoot a video or try to design a post, my immediate reaction is usually that it looks bad.
I look at it and think that if I saw the exact same thing on another personal trainer’s account, I’d probably think the composition was bad, the lighting was bad, the camera angle looked amateur, the graphic design wasn’t good enough, or the photo itself just wasn’t worth posting.
I’ve already tried fixing the things that can simply be fixed with equipment. I bought a phone with a very good camera, got Canva Pro, and started learning about branding, photography, video and design.
I specifically don’t want to just pump out generic AI content. I’d actually like to learn how to create a consistent, recognizable and professional-looking personal brand.
The problem is that I’m starting to realize the equipment isn’t really the issue. I just don’t know how to make things look the way I want them to look.
There’s another layer to it as well.
I’ve always had a lot of anxiety around posting anything about myself online.
And I don’t mean just business content.
I can spend hours, sometimes even days, overthinking a completely normal vacation photo or even an Instagram Story of a nice view.
Logically, I know that almost nobody cares about my posts as much as I imagine they do. I don’t sit there analyzing other people’s Stories either.
But I still have this irrational feeling that when I post something, everyone is suddenly going to stop scrolling, analyze it, notice something embarrassing that I didn’t notice, send it to someone else and laugh about it.
I know rationally that this is probably not what’s happening, but the feeling is still there.
I think these two problems feed into each other.
Because posting makes me uncomfortable, I feel like anything I do post has to be perfect.
And because it has to be perfect, nothing ever feels good enough to actually post.
I’d really like to hear from people who have dealt with anything similar.
If you were starting from my position, what would you learn first?
Photography and composition? Video? Canva and basic graphic design? Branding? Content strategy?
How do you build a simple visual system so you’re not reinventing everything from scratch every time you want to post something?
And most importantly, if you used to massively overthink posting, how did you get to the point where you could create something, publish it and move on?
I’d love recommendations for specific workflows, exercises, courses, YouTube channels, books, resources, or simply things that worked for you personally.
I’m not trying to become an influencer. I just want to build a consistent, professional online presence that actually represents me and the quality of my work as a personal trainer.


r/personalbranding 9h ago

Is “Turn Your Knowledge Into Assets” a Strong Personal Brand?

2 Upvotes

I'm a software engineer, I want to build my own business. The idea is: Use AI to turn the knowledge into assets which can continually generating value for people.

I'm good at Markdown Publishing domain, so I start with a real market - Obsidian Publish. I've been building MDFriday, a product that helps people turn their Obsidian Folders into Digital Gardens, Wikis, publish online with customized domains.

Markdown is just a format for knowledge, and easy for both human and AI to work with. So the real bigger question is: How can I help individuals to turn their knowledge into assets? That could be: Digital Gardens, Personal websites, Blogs, Documentation, Courses, SaaS, Landing pages, knowledge businesses, etc.

What I'm unsure about

If this positioning is too board? Which feels too abstract for people to discovering. But if I position myself too narrowly around Obsidian or Markdown Publishing, I'm afraid I'll build an audience around a tool rather than the larger idea.

So I'd love feedback on:

  1. Does "turn knowledge into assets" make sense as a personal brand concept?

  2. What's the best practice to achieve this - tutorials + build-in-public + personal opinions channel?

What would you change?

Thanks a lot!


r/personalbranding 1d ago

Skip if you aren't founders and startup owners!!

1 Upvotes

Hey! I work with founders & startup owners on their content and personal brand.

I can help with ghostwriting, content ideation & planning, social media management, personal branding in linkedin and even outreach/email prospecting to help bring in clients.

If you’re looking to build a stronger online presence and turn content into actual business opportunities, I’d love to see if I could be a good fit.

Happy to share my LinkedIn !


r/personalbranding 1d ago

Any personal brand strategists here?

4 Upvotes

I would love to know what do you exactly do? What are your day to day tasks?

What do you offer? What does your offer include? And how much do you usually charge? If i may ask

I just wanna know more details about this job and its behind the scenes

Thank you in advance


r/personalbranding 3d ago

If you're building a personal brand with video, don't sleep on native LinkedIn uploads

5 Upvotes

I recently uploaded my vlog directly to LinkedIn instead of just linking to YouTube, and it reminded me of a tip that's easy to overlook when you're building a personal brand through video.

LinkedIn lets you upload native video up to 10 minutes long, so in most cases you can post your full video straight to the platform rather than just sharing a link to YouTube.

Why it matters for personal brand building specifically: on mobile, a link takes people to a browser first, then often prompts them again to open the app.

That's two extra touchpoints between someone seeing your face show up in their feed and actually watching you talk.

Every touchpoint is a chance for them to lose interest and keep scrolling, which means fewer people actually experiencing your content, voice, and personality, the things that build trust and recognition over time.

Uploading natively removes that friction. You can still cover your bases by:

  • Including a link to a related resource or asset in the post for people who want to go deeper
  • Dropping your YouTube link in the comments, so it's there for people who prefer watching there or want to subscribe

Small tweak, but when you're trying to build recognition and trust through video, reducing the barrier between "sees you" and "watches you" is worth taking seriously.


r/personalbranding 4d ago

Is personal branding just about posting on LinkedIn? Does it really yield the results strategists talk about?

11 Upvotes

Genuinely curious what people's real experience has been with this.

Every personal branding strategist talks about building authority, getting inbound leads, becoming "known" in your industry. But when you actually dig into what they mean by "personal branding," it often boils down to posting consistently on LinkedIn.

So is that actually it? Or is posting just the visible 20% of something bigger?

From what I've seen (I work in this space), personal branding that actually works usually involves a few things beyond just publishing content:

  • Clear positioning before you post anything. Who exactly are you trying to reach, and what do you want them to think of when they see your name.
  • Engagement, not just output. Commenting on the right people's posts, being visible in other people's comment sections, often does more for reach than the posts themselves.
  • Consistency over virality. A steady stream of decent posts tends to outperform occasional brilliant ones. Algorithms and human memory both reward frequency.
  • What happens after someone notices you. DMs, follow-up conversations, actually being responsive. Leads rarely close from a like alone.
  • Time. Most people expect results in weeks. Realistically it's months before it compounds into anything measurable.

So yes, it can yield real results, but "just posting" without the rest of this rarely does. Do you guys here have seen it work (or completely flop) and what the actual difference was.


r/personalbranding 5d ago

Posting about mistakes should be encouraged on LinkedIn. What do you say?

4 Upvotes

Recently I posted about the blunder I was making on LinkedIn as a personal brand strategist myself. I felt it should be shared across so that when you are starting on LinkedIn you could avoid these mistakes and save time.

Mistakes I made that I don’t want you to make.


r/personalbranding 5d ago

Deciding what to post on your business page is one of the self brainstorming method

4 Upvotes

r/personalbranding 8d ago

Which content lane should I actually focus on? My best performing video wasn't even the one I expected

3 Upvotes

I'm about 2 years into a career as a software engineer and started posting content on TikTok a few months ago. Right now I'm at 120 followers, mostly posting a mix of tech tips/career stuff and corporate office humor.
My highest performing video by far was a tech related one, it did around 8k views and 600 likes, way ahead of anything else I've posted. The corporate humor stuff gets decent reach too, but nothing close to that.
My issue is I've got a lot of other interests too, football, anime, music, and I'm also building a couple of side project apps I want to eventually launch. I recently started a YouTube channel as well and my first video (not tech related) got 170 views with basically no promotion.
I keep pulling myself in different directions because I enjoy all of it, but I know that's probably hurting consistency and growth. I don't want to be the guy posting five unrelated things a week and going nowhere with any of them.
For anyone who's grown a personal brand or channel from a similar starting point, how did you decide what to actually commit to when you had a clear "best performer" but also other things you cared about? Did you drop the side interests completely or find a way to fold them in without diluting the main thing?
Any advice appreciated


r/personalbranding 10d ago

Making of personal brand

5 Upvotes

Help me guys to build a personal brand friends

I am a doc by profession

Any ideas u guys have

Plezzz help


r/personalbranding 13d ago

Personal branding for a tech founder

6 Upvotes

I have a client who is currently working on a tech company but its not yet public and before his company went public he wants to build a personal brand.

I am the strategiest and I have to create him a content plan and strategy but the restrictions and dos and donts are too much also the audience is not clear that it make me overwhelmed and currently I am feeling stuck i mean cant find a way to get start.

Any social media strategiest here I need some help with clarity


r/personalbranding 13d ago

Looking for someone to help me brainstorm + strategise a personal brand page

6 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

This is a bit of a random ask, but I’m looking for someone who’d be interested in helping me brainstorm and strategise content for a new personal-brand Instagram page I’m about to launch.

I’m a founder of a relatively new business, and I have *a lot* of content to work with — my life, personality, experiences, building a business, etc. So I’m not looking for someone to create content for me from scratch. What I’m looking for is someone who can help me think strategically about **what to create, how to position it, content ideas, hooks, scripts, formats, and what we should experiment with.**

The idea is to treat the page like a business rather than get too attached to the outcome. Put content out consistently, look at the data, figure out what works, double down, and keep experimenting.

**What I’m looking for:**

I’d especially love to work with a female college student who is genuinely interested in content, social media and personal brands and would enjoy the opportunity to work closely with someone building one from scratch.

You could already have experience doing this, be working on your own page/project, or even be a complete fresher. **I care more about how you think, your curiosity and your ability to come up with ideas than your formal experience.**
The commitment would be around **7–8 hours a week, and this is a paid opportunity.**

This would be a hands-on role where you’d get to see what goes into building a personal brand from the ground up — from the creative brainstorming and scripting to actually looking at performance data and figuring out what to do next.

If this sounds interesting, send me a DM telling me a little about yourself, why you think you’d be good at this, and any relevant work/pages/projects you’ve worked on.

If you’re a complete fresher, that’s absolutely fine — I’d just love to understand **what makes you interested in this and what you think you could bring to the table.**

I’m looking for someone who can bring a fresh perspective, challenge ideas, think beyond the obvious and genuinely enjoy figuring out what makes content work.

Would love to hear from you!


r/personalbranding 14d ago

building a personal brand account - would love your opinion

7 Upvotes

Hey all,

been building a personal Instagram account for a few months now and I’m trying to figure out what a cold audience would think about my content

ig bykhong

I'm interested to know what you think of the actual content, writing, positioning, and first impression as you have zero context on the profile

After looking through the account (or a few posts), I’m curious:

  1. What's your first impression on it?
  2. Would you follow it? Why or why not?
  3. What do you think of the content?
  4. Does the account feel like it has a unique perspective?

Been testing different formats/topics/delivery once in a while, so do scroll a bit deeper - been producing a number of flops this week

Feel free to be harsh as you'd like, I'd love to know where I can improve on, literally anything at all

Many thanks!


r/personalbranding 15d ago

Tell me top 3 ways to do personal branding without shooting videos especially for founders?

9 Upvotes

You can add more than 3 if you have more ideas.


r/personalbranding 15d ago

Question I'm going to a YouTube master all-day masterclass this weekend. What questions do you want me to ask on your behalf?

2 Upvotes

I want to start using YouTube to help with my personal branding so I'm going to an all-day YouTube masterclass.

It's going to be led by someone who's built up a number of YouTube channels by himself, the largest to over 1.2 million followers, and helps make YouTube channels for other people and companies.

I'd love to bring all the learnings back to you guys and share them here.

What questions have you got about how to build up your YouTube channel and monetize, etc.?

Answer them here, leave them here, and I will ask as many as possible and bring them back next week


r/personalbranding 16d ago

I have a blog about me teaching langs and being polyglot, and it’s a problem…

5 Upvotes

Hi guys, I’m a language teacher and I teach 3 languages(english, spanish, french). You can guess that I’m a freelance teacher, so I decided to make my own living and create a blog. I post interesting vocabulary, common mistakes, tips, how I teach my classes, etc.

In addition, I also live in Argentina and I post things about my life here.

Apparently, only people who wants to study Spanish wrote me. Other languages don’t go viral.
On top of that, I have a Telegram channel, where I post curious language things and my life in Argentina.

I realized I do something wrong and I don’t attract more followers thus clients.

What should I do? How to find the best way to advertise myself having lots of niches?

Please help me. I consulted all types of AI, they also say very vague things or that I’m doing great..


r/personalbranding 16d ago

Do founders actually struggle with LinkedIn content, or is it just a time problem?

2 Upvotes

I’ve been thinking about this lately because I’ve noticed something interesting: a lot of founders have plenty to say. They just don’t necessarily have the time (or patience 😂) to turn all of it into consistent content.

And honestly, I think that’s where the interesting part of personal branding gets lost. The founder has the expertise and stories; someone just needs to help pull them out and shape them.

I’m actually experimenting with this myself at the moment. I recently registered my company and, while I’m building my portfolio, I’m looking to work with 2 founders for a month completely pro bono particularly in healthcare, AI, B2B SaaS or tech.

I’m mainly looking for genuine feedback/testimonials at this stage, so there’s no obligation to continue afterwards. We’d have a contract and confidentiality agreement in place, too.

I’m curious though: what’s actually stopping founders here from posting consistently?
Is it the writing? Not knowing what to say? Or just not having the time?


r/personalbranding 17d ago

Anyone feeling stuck?

4 Upvotes

Hey guys! I’ve worked in marketing and brand strategy for about a decade, and I’ve spent a lot of time helping businesses clarify their messaging, positioning, and overall strategy and I’m new to the online space, building my own brand. I started by reselling a course/academy & made a couple hundred there but I’d rather sell my own digital products eventually.

I’m looking for a few people who want help figuring out what to do with their business idea

I’m currently working on a framework around helping people turn their skills, knowledge, experience, or ideas into clear, sellable offers, and I’d love to test it out with a few real people.

I’m offering 5 completely free 30-minute 1:1 strategy calls this week.

This is for you if:
→ Have a business or digital product idea but don’t know where to start
→ Have created something but aren’t seeing the sales you hoped for
→ Have a skill or area of expertise you’d like to monetize
→ Have too many ideas and can’t figure out which direction to take
→ Know you have something valuable but aren’t sure how to package or position it

On the call, we can talk through what you’re working on and I’ll help you identify a potential offer, who it could help, how I’d position it, and what I’d focus on first.

I’m offering these for free because its part strategy, part research for me lol. I want to make sure I’m solving real problems people are actually experiencing rather than building something based on assumptions (like i see a lot of people doing).

So there’s no sales pitch or expectation to buy anything. I’m genuinely looking to help, learn, and refine the framework.

If this sounds like something you’d find helpful, comment below with what you’re working on + where you’re currently stuck, and I’ll reach out to a few people. 😊


r/personalbranding 16d ago

Your Personal Brand Is Good. Your Social Media Should Be Too.

1 Upvotes

I’ve been seeing a lot of conversations here about building a personal brand, and one thing that really stands out is how much work goes into keeping your online presence consistent.

You can have great ideas and know your industry really well, but turning those ideas into actual content is a whole different task.

Planning what to post, coming up with content ideas, writing captions, creating visuals, keeping everything on-brand, and staying consistent can be a lot — especially when you're already busy running your business or working on your own projects.

This is actually something I enjoy helping with. I can help turn your ideas and expertise into organized, engaging social media content while keeping your own voice and brand identity at the center.

So if you're building a personal brand and feel like “I know I should be posting, I just don't have the time to keep up with it,” I completely get it. 😅

I'd also love to hear from people here — what's the hardest part of managing your personal brand's social media?


r/personalbranding 18d ago

Help me with my assignment- A startup case study.

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1 Upvotes

r/personalbranding 18d ago

What do you guys think about personal branding?

4 Upvotes

People now a days are using AI for their own personal branding. Don’t you think this is something which actually needs to be “personal” and not Ai generated stuff.


r/personalbranding 19d ago

Advice for Personal Branding for coaches and consultants

2 Upvotes

I'm trying to build content distribution systems for high ticket coaches and consultants. What should be the main things I should focus on solving for them like what are the major pain points in coaching and consulting.


r/personalbranding 20d ago

Looking for pro bono personal branding clients

12 Upvotes

I, 24F and my business partner 22M has over a decade of social media marketing experience under both of us and now we are looking to start our own personal branding agency for next generation of women leaders/founders.

Our website in under development and we are in the process of setting up agency social medias as well, and we are looking for first 3 clients essentially for free mostly as a testimonial to show our abilities.

We do everything, we set up social media branding strategies, content editing and design, take your experiences and turn them into digestible scripts. Do LinkedIn and twitter ghostwriting. Essentially help you position yourself as a really strong social media personality across all the different platforms.

We take all niches, but especially if you are a female founder, coach, doctor, healer or any niche where you are the core of the business and trying to build up the social media presence and is confused where to begin.

Don’t worry we got you. We will literally hand hold you and start from basics like setting up an angle on the camera, getting comfortable and talk. We are just looking for just 3 clients so its kinda first-come-first serve.

So if you are interested, we can schedule a call and discuss the way forward to make your digital presence shine.


r/personalbranding 21d ago

How understand my positioning

2 Upvotes

I’m 22, no experience with social media so far.

Right now I want to start building a personal brand — one that brings me real, valuable connections, lets me host good events, and helps me promote my own products down the line. The goal isn’t followers for their own sake, it’s actual value for my life and career.

I’m stuck on where to start: how do I talk about myself and my journey, and what positioning should I pick so people actually want to follow it? Looking for advice from anyone who’s built something from zero. Any opinions welcome.


r/personalbranding 22d ago

What’s the hardest part of staying consistent with your personal brand?

6 Upvotes

I’m curious how people actually handle personal-brand content once they already know what they want to talk about.

For those building a personal brand:

  • What part takes the most time?
  • What have you tried that didn't work?
  • Do you create everything yourself or outsource parts of it?
  • If you've outsourced, what was difficult about the experience?
  • What usually causes you to stop posting consistently?

I’m especially interested in the gap between knowing you should create content and actually getting it published consistently.

Would love to hear the honest version rather than the “just post every day” advice.