I’m Launching a Course

For over a year now, I have been producing content in an attempt to build an online presence. Why? Because with the current state of work, one cannot simply expect to survive on the mainstream track of school, job, retire. It is obvious to everyone, everywhere, that the traditional means of making a living are slowly becoming less and less viable. 

Jobs can decide where you spend your time, how much you are required to produce, how much you make, and whether or not they want to keep you (or fire you at will). We simply can’t rely on any outside corporation to have our best interests at heart, and so creating leverage for ourselves through personal branding or entrepreneurship becomes non-negotiable.  

In the new economy, those who will survive are those able to effectively market themselves, share abundant value, and constantly adapt their skillset to solve modern dilemmas. In your current 9-5 job, you are already selling someone else’s product; why not sell your own?  

For that entire first year, I posted around the clock, trying to dig further into my interests and see what would stick with my audience. There was a problem, though. The things I was most passionate about were also the things I was unsure how to monetize, and the things I could monetize were things I wasn’t all that excited about pursuing or learning more about.

Meanwhile, I was developing my skills as a videographer and content marketer at a trailer parts company. As the year went on, I took on more freelance clients and continued to try writing about my interests, sharing my expertise and philosophy online. Eventually, a prominent influencer DM’d me after reading one of my posts about my philosophy of video marketing, asking if I was willing to collaborate with him. This influencer had been someone whose content I had watched for years beforehand, and so of course, I was game. 

I filmed some videos for him and tried to pick his brain about growing an online following. He told me flat out that video was my best bet for monetization—that I should go all-in on teaching what I know to entrepreneurs and personal brands. From that point on, I knew video marketing had always been my best bet, and yet it took an outside voice of wisdom to really set my heart on it. 

Before, I found my motivation waxing and waning as my interest in a given topic took its normal course. What I hadn’t realized was that I was doing everything in reverse. Rather than starting with something to sell and then producing content to sell it, I was producing content to try and figure out what to sell in the first place, jumping from topic to topic with nothing to keep me grounded. In essence, there was nothing that truly differentiated my account from a consumer account. 

I can’t be too upset, however. Working on those downstream tasks of creating short-form posts and shorts for the trailer parts company gave me the experience and material to get in touch with that mentor. That mentor eventually helped me gain clarity on what my highest leverage operations could be. In other words, you have to flounder before you can fly. 

All that to say, I am launching my course Art of Propaganda (a course on scaling your brand through creative video marketing) at the beginning of next month. Sign up if you want to start scaling your personal brand with the power of video (no experience necessary).