How to Turn Time on Social Media into a Profitable Personal Brand (4 Steps)

If you spend a lot of time on social media but you are NOT using that time to build a personal brand...

You're doing half the work for NONE of the reward.

As of 2023, the average person spends 2.5 hours a day on social media (15 hours per week).

That’s the same amount of hours as a part-time job.

Most people spend that time scrolling, and maybe chuck a picture of their margarita on their Instagram story.

What if you could take that same 15 hours per week, still spend it on social media, but do it differently…

In such a way that allowed you to quit your job, live anywhere, and do work that you love?

It sounds too good to be true, yet it’s happening right in front of our eyes.

Dan Koe started posting content on social media and grew a huge following…

He now makes a couple million per year and he doesn’t even have any employees.

I have a small following - about 20K if you combine the platforms and my email list - but this still brings in a six figure income and I only work 20 hours per week.

Online brand builders are earning six figure incomes working part time hours doing what they love.

If you’re new to this, it’s going to be confusing and hard to believe.

I’m going to break it down into simple steps you can take…

But before I tell you what to do, I want to show you how to think.

Society is Going Digital

Society is becoming less localized. As everything moves online, where you live matters less.

We are becoming decentralized in the way we connect with each other.

Instead of being limited by your own city, you can connect with anyone in the world who has similar interests.

This is made even more powerful by the fact that people are spending more time on social media than ever.

As we talked about, it’s 2.5 hours per day, or 15 per week.

Yet, here’s what’s crazy….

70% of people don’t even post anything during that time. They just consume.

Another 27% of people do post, but it’s just shit about their ski trip or their chips and salsa trio platter.

Only 3% of people post with the intention to build a brand and a business.

This type of business where you build up your social channels and an email list…

The type where you sell courses and coaching and make money through affiliate income and sponsorship…

It’s commonly referred to as the online education market.

The online education market has a valuation of 200B and is expected to hit 600B by 2028.

Yet, only 3% of people are positioning themselves to capitalize on this.

Can you see the opportunity that is right in front of us?

Leave the 97% of consumers and join the 3% of producers.

When you produce, you create a piece of digital real estate that you own.

You become the “landlords of the future”.

Everyone else who just consumes will be a tenant.

Russell Brunson is the founder of Clickfunnels, a company that does 9 figures per year.

He’s an expert at brand building.

He consumes for just 30 minutes per day, with the purpose of getting ideas and inspiration.

Then he logs off social media and spends the rest of his time producing.

If you want to be successful, model successful people.

4 Steps to Start Building Your Brand

It’s hard to relate with the guys like Russell making millions because we’re so far behind them.

We probably shouldn’t even be doing the same stuff they are at our stage.

So, let’s look at some people at the very beginning of the same journey, as it will be much easier to grasp.

Recently, I’ve started to get active on X (formerly Twitter).

There are a lot of new “I’ll help you make money” guys on there who are very relatable because they’re at the beginning of their journey.

And, they perfectly embody what you need to do to start a business.

Their bios say:

“I’m here to document my journey of replacing my 9-5 income by writing online”

They have a link in their bio where you can join their newsletter.

They post valuable stuff a few times per day.

They deepen the relationship with longer form content by sending out a weekly newsletter and/or pushing you to their Youtube/podcast.

They have built a following on X, sometimes just a couple thousand, and they’re starting to see money trickle in because they created a digital course.

These guys are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do.

They are building their digital real estate—which they can leverage more and more as time goes on.

Let’s break down what they are doing so you can join the fun:

#1 - Optimize your bio

Just like the Twitter guys, you need to put something in your social media bio that shows people you aren’t just another person on here for the memes.

Tell them the journey you’re on and what you’re trying to achieve.

It doesn’t have to be about making money.

It could be “I’m a working Mom of 3 who is on a mission to get as healthy as possible”, or…

“I’m a Dad who is here to share what I’m learning about parenting”

It depends on the niche you want to go in.

#2 - Create authentic content that educates

Create authentic content means content that’s true to who you are.

Are you funny, serious, sarcastic, insightful?

Then, what topics are you most interested in?

If you don’t care about money but are obsessed with relationships, that’s going to be your primary niche to start with.

Don’t create content on a topic if you don’t love it.

#3 - Capture emails & deepen the relationship

Here’s a quick lesson on making money online.

Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, and Tiktok are based on short form content.

You build your followings on these platforms but the goal of them is just to get them to the longer form content where you can build authority and let them see that you can actually help them.

This happens in places like a podcast, youtube channel, and newsletter.

These are also the places where you promote your stuff a lot more, especially in the newsletter where you have the most authority.

Don’t spam people with your products on the short form platforms.

The ones that join your newsletter are the ones who are the most interested in hearing from you.

It’s where people in the online education space make most of their money.

So right from the start, have a way to capture emails.

Then, lead them somewhere that you create longer form content.

They need to see that you really know what you’re talking about before they’ll ever buy from you.

#4 - Sell solutions to the people 2 steps behind

When I post content, a lot of it is about how to start a brand online and use it to make an income and an impact in the world.

A lot of people who follow me are still just getting started on their journey

I’m a few steps ahead so they follow me to learn stuff to make their journey easier.

When I create products, they’re going to be around this theme—since this is something I’ve already solved and can speak on.

When you create content, talk about the things you’re interested in and have already gotten some results in.

If you don’t think you’ve gotten results yet, document your journey.

You could say:

“I’m documenting my journey to buying my first rental property”

People will follow along.

I had a client who started coaching others on how to invest once he had about 4-5 properties.

People had been following his journey and he was way more knowledgeable than the ones who didn’t have a single house yet.

There are a ton of ways to monetize, and everyone is super worried about this step.

Just know that the size of your following is way more important than the exact details of how you monetize.

People with huge followings can put out a generic course that isn’t even that good (not recommended) and make six figures in a day.

People with tiny followings will deliberate forever about their offer when they have no one to sell it to. (this was me for a long time)

Isn’t This a Lot of Work?

Some of you might say “isn’t this a lot more work to build a brand?”

You might not want to give up the passive relationship that you have with social media.

Yes, it’s more work to create a valuable post versus just tossing up a picture of your 10% IPA.

It’s more work to create a website and an email list.

Once you want to make money, you’ll have to do the work of creating products and programs and fulfilling on them.

But, if 2 years later you:

• Replace your income and quit your job
• Work 4 hours per day from the coffee shop
• Do what you love and help people

While the person just scrolling social media has to keep grinding in the cubicle from 9-5 until they’re 70…

Then who’s doing more work in the end?

Can you see the ROI that building a brand can potentially have, not just in terms of money, but overall lifestyle?

What to Do Next

One of the big hangups people have when they start down this path is “what will my niche be”?

They just aren’t sure how to choose or what they should even create content on

I’ve written an entire book to help you with that called Nail Your Niche

You can grab my book for $5 plus the audiobook and free trainings at:

https://www.nailyourniche.net

It’s also on Amazon in all formats (go check the reviews to see what other people thought about it).

Here's to your success...

Brian