Build your brand symbol. Businessman turns wooden cubes and changes the word ‘build’ to ‘brand’. Beautiful orange background. Build your brand and business concept. Copy space.
getty
You think personal branding is about going viral. You think it’s about dancing on camera or sharing motivational quotes. You’re wrong. Building a brand that actually makes money requires something completely different. It requires you to stop copying everyone else and start standing for something.
Caleb Ralston is the brand strategist behind Alex Hormozi, Gary Vaynerchuk, and other entrepreneurs who’ve sold hundreds of millions through personal branding. Over 16 years, he’s helped scale media operations, grown TikTok accounts from 300K to 3.5 million followers in three months, and built brands with over 30 million followers combined. His approach challenges everything you think you know about building a personal brand.
How to build a $1M personal brand from scratch
Caleb Ralston
I built my LinkedIn from 7,000 to 46,000 followers in 18 months writing about lifestyle design, entrepreneurship and AI. My company Coachvox gained thousands of customers from LinkedIn, all without media spend. Building a personal brand will build your business. It works even if you’re not an “influencer”. And you don’t need to go viral.
Here’s how to build your personal brand even if you’re starting from zero.
Building a personal brand that makes millions from scratchFind your contrary belief
“The majority of people online talk about going viral,” says Ralston. “I think optimizing for virality is fundamentally wrong. You want to optimize for trust.” Every successful personal brand starts here. Beyond a logo and color scheme. Beyond the clickbait hooks and the YouTube title everyone is copying. By spotting what everyone else gets wrong.
Gary Vaynerchuk saw Fortune 500 companies burning cash on billboards while Facebook sat untouched and underleveraged. Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty watched Victoria’s Secret market to one body type. They chose diversity instead. Three billion dollar valuation in three years. Your contrary belief becomes your competitive advantage.
Make your anger work for you
Write two columns. Left side: everything people in your industry say that triggers you into an angry rant. The lazy advice. The outdated thinking. The practices that hurt customers. Right side: write the opposite. That’s your differentiator staring back at you.
Maybe you’re the business coach who tells clients to follow their intuition, not common practice. Maybe you’re the accountant who advises spending more, not cutting costs. Your frustration shows your opportunity. Most people complain about their industry. Winners build brands by fixing what’s broken.
Share your struggles too
“Nobody makes changes purely off information,” says Ralston. “They need to see themselves in your story.” Facts tell. Stories sell. But most people share only their wins. They don’t let themselves look vulnerable. They hide the losses that made them relatable.
See what happens when you show your realness. Share the team meeting where everything went wrong. Document the client who fired you and what you learned. Show the messy middle. Your audience connects with your struggles, not your highlight reel. 77% of consumers trust recommendations from individuals over brand messages. Give them a human to trust.
Document everything you do
Ralston learned this from Gary Vee: “Document, don’t create.” You don’t need a videographer following you around. You need to capture what’s already happening. Get used to filming what you do. Taking snapshots to capture key moments. The conversations with your team. The problem you solved for a client. The realization you had on a walk.
Being an expert makes this harder. What feels basic to you is a breakthrough for someone else. 82% of people trust companies when executives are active on social media. Stop waiting until your thoughts are perfect. Share them now. Refine them in public. Your evolution becomes part of your brand story.
Build trust through micro wins
Viral moments don’t create trust. Consistent usefulness does. “Every transaction comes down to trust,” says Ralston. “The amount varies, but trust is always the currency.” A pack of gum requires minimal trust. A $300,000 consulting contract requires massive trust.
Create content that helps people take action today. Not motivation. Not inspiration. Actual steps they can implement. When they get results from your free content, they’ll pay for your premium offers. 84% of consumers say company reputation is influenced by employees’ personal brands. That includes you as its lead role. Make every piece of content a micro win for your audience.
Test everything without fear
“The best environment for content creation is psychologically safe,” says Ralston. Most brands post the same safe content because they’re terrified of flopping. But playing it safe is the riskiest strategy in personal branding.
Try the motorcycle video instead of another talking head. Write the controversial opinion you’ve been holding back. Share the failure everyone told you to hide. Podcast strategist Harry Morton talked about podcasting surrounded by his cows. I share a personal LinkedIn post every Saturday and Sunday. Your 10% experiments become tomorrow’s winning formula. Find what resonates when you just hit publish.
Scale your million dollar personal brand from zero
People think a personal brand makes your business unsaleable. Actually it’s the opposite. It means you can scale bigger than before. Clients don’t expect you in every meeting. You attract superfans who buy into you and trust what you’re selling. Your brand becomes an asset, not a liability. Make yours count.
Find your contrary beliefs, make your anger work for you, share the struggles, document everything, build trust and test everything. It’s already inside you. Start sharing your truth.
Access my best ChatGPT prompts for personal branding.