Regarding personal branding, do you think what matters more is the "person" or the "brand"?
Initially, I hope everyone returns to their heart and asks themselves this question.
Recently, I've received many inquiries from netizens and friends around me, and I noticed their questions are all quite similar.
This netizen learned about my experiences and personal branding through Ho Ze-wen's book Personal Brand, and she said:
"Through the content in the book, and after reviewing your personal website and related reports, I deeply felt the importance of personal branding! I've set you as my goal to strive towards!"
Additionally, as I've recently started planning and implementing this, I wanted to understand the benefits of establishing a personal blog. She mainly hopes to share her own experiences and perspectives through personal branding to bring more positive influence to the public. She also hopes that through continuous operation and writing practice, she might have opportunities to be invited to give speeches at schools and other institutions to help more people.
On the other hand, the writing process can also help her develop deeper understanding and insights about things. However, she's currently weighing whether to share book reviews and professional knowledge (long-form content) on Facebook, share travel experiences or life reflections on IG, or create a WordPress as her main personal branding platform.
Finally, she wanted to ask me about the purpose, significance, and benefits that WordPress brings, and whether receiving speech invitations mainly comes through operating WordPress or through other channels and platforms.
Actually, when it comes to personal branding, establishing a personal website is quite important because it's like a portfolio—your first impression to others.
However, in the early stages, a common mistake is wanting to gain massive attention through personal branding. Usually, I would suggest: don't initially think about how long after writing articles or producing content you'll receive speech invitations. You have to genuinely enjoy doing this so that your passion can infect others and capture their attention.
If you treat content production as a means to receive future speech invitations, you'll go through a period of being chased by metrics, feeling exhausted and tempted to give up. For me, writing articles and organizing events are part of my life. Writing is very therapeutic for me. Getting feedback is unexpected, adding extra achievement and motivation. Recording things you truly love is far more important than thinking about how your future will develop.
Back to the opening question: what matters more—the person or the brand?
For me, personal branding is merely a labeled term. What truly attracts people is how you live your life, what personality traits and thoughts you have, what makes people willing to understand you and believe you can help them in certain ways—that's the core value.
But what propels you forward is always about "who you are." So whether "you" as a person understand yourself and can authentically express your thoughts matters. When you start building your personal brand, the simplest and easiest way to begin is by observing the details around you. What you think is simple may be a whole expertise in others' eyes. So no matter what, don't underestimate yourself because:
"The world doesn't lack professionals; it lacks sharers."
When you continue doing something out of love, perhaps initially no one will be willing to pay for what you offer. But because you have passion, even without compensation from others, you're willing to invest time to persevere. Over time, people will notice your talent and be willing to pay for the skills you possess. Your income will grow exponentially, not linearly. Before it happens, you may not be able to imagine it, but as long as you hold onto your beliefs, time will repay you for what you've invested in the long run.
