It seems like everyone is talking about building an audience — but I still think it’s criminally underrated.

Even by me.

I’ve been in an on-again-off-again relationship with building my personal brand and audience for years.

But it really works:

• My personal posts get 10x - 100x more distribution than a typical PR campaign. In good times, my tweets were viewed up to 50 million times a single month.
  

• Marketing and PR programs take weeks (if not months) to craft and execute on a single message. When I post from my personal social media accounts, it’s instant — and authentic.
  

• And it works for anything: product announcements, content distribution, hiring, and even fundraising.

For instance—

When I shared this tweet with my (at the time) only 3k followers, I ended up receiving offers from a dozen investors:

When sales were dipping, tweets like this usually attracted 10 to 15 qualified leads, easily equating to $100k or more in revenue:

And when I needed to hire someone to help me create killer content for Twitter, I turned to… Twitter. 

This post attracted over 400 applicants, most of whom had been following my journey on the platform, enabling them to dive into the job a lot more quickly and effectively than a “cold” hire would.

Because of my commitment to building my personal brand and my audience on Twitter, I’ve also had opportunities to showcase my thought-leadership off of social media. 

There have been many times when I’ve been contacted by reporters, and featured in articles with:

• CNN

• The Washington Post

• The Wall Street Journal

• Forbes

• Business Insider

• And plenty of others

With all of this combined, at one point, Twitter was bringing in 40%+ of new revenue for Lemon.io.

Ok, what’s the catch?

So if personal branding has such a mega impact on my business, why am I not posting 24/7?

Because creating content is hard. 

You get some wins, and dopamine fuels you for a while. But when you create something, and there is silence on the other end, it becomes even harder to motivate yourself to keep going.

If I were starting over today, this would be my advice:

1. Choose one platform. It’s hard to be good everywhere, and it’s hugely time-consuming. If you want to do Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and a newsletter…. You need to be a full-time creator with a whole team behind you.

2. Post consistently. Every day, people scroll through thousands of posts that they don’t read. If you’re not posting regularly, they won’t recognize you and start paying attention.

3. Choose one topic. Our brains cling to patterns, so associating yourself with a single topic, even if it’s just for a specific period of time, is a great way to be memorable. One year, I was building in public with a transparent goal of reaching $10 million in revenue. I shared updates, showed what worked and what didn’t, and created contests for followers to guess our revenue. Many followers who became customers wanted to be a part of helping us reach our goal.

4. Share personal stuff. You want people to feel like they know you — or even better — that you’re friends. For instance, Michael Girdley’s infatuation with Chili’s (yes, the restaurant) is an inside joke for his audience. And everyone who follows Sam Parr knows that he used to sell hot dogs. 

5. Own your audience. If you are building on social media, try to convert your followers to newsletter subscribers. Algorithms change, and your motivation to post on social media will go through ebbs and flows. In recent months, my reach on Twitter shrunk from millions down thousands — yet the open rate for this newsletter is consistently at 50%+.

I think this can work for everyone in any industry.

Being a founder with a personal brand is a competitive advantage because people don’t connect with companies — they connect with people. 

So while I’m no Gary Vaynerchuk or Alex Hormozi, I’ve carved out my own corner of the internet for people who feel like they’re part of my journey—

Because they are.

And I’ve seen this work wonders for smaller businesses, too.

I’ve been following Brett Williams for a while now. He created a million-dollar one-man design studio by consistently posting on Twitter.

It wasn’t some viral moment that earned him 100k+ followers — it was a steady and intentional effort:

It can be tempting to quit early when the effort seems huge and the results seem tiny. But the more consistently you stick with it, and the longer you keep at it, the effort diminishes — and the results compound.

Even last year, when Twitter became turbulent, and I had stopped posting consistently, my business continued to see revenue from the effort I had put in, and my personal brand still attracted 19% of new sales:

Building a personal brand isn’t about ego — it’s about building a sustainable network. 

So if you’ve been hesitant to start building a brand on social media, I encourage you to just get started. Every day waited is a day wasted.

—Aleksandr

P.S. — Yes, I still call it Twitter. That’s not a habit I can easily break.

A Q&A with Char Modelle

Char Modelle is the mastermind behind the personal brands of founders such as Codie Sanchez and Michael Sartain. She helps thought leaders dominate on social media through her courses and consulting practice.

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Question 1: What is the most common fear you’ve seen founders face at the beginning of building their personal brand, and how can they overcome that fear?

CHAR: Imposter syndrome. 

Almost everyone who starts building a personal brand experiences it, especially in the beginning. On social media, you only see the highlights of everyone’s life, which makes it easy to think, “What makes me the expert?” or “Maybe I haven’t accomplished enough”. It’s a mix of self-doubt and the comparison trap.

How do you overcome it? 

Face it — head-on. One powerful trick is to create a version of yourself in your mind as a superhero. This version has already accomplished everything, impacted many, and is fully owning their success. How would that person speak? How would they show up today? Step into that energy — even if you have to fake it at first. I promise, just shifting your posture, laughing, and shaking off the doubt makes a world of difference.

And if we’re getting technical, 9 out of 10 people don’t even have a strategy — they don’t know where to start. It is one of my main offers to create a blueprint to begin. But mindset is what prepares you to execute that strategy.

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Question 2: How should founders locate the line between being authentic and maintaining some personal privacy?

CHAR: You have to decide upfront what you’re willing to share. Set clear boundaries. For some of my clients, that means never showing their children or talking about their relationship. For others, it means opening the door to every aspect of their life. There’s no right or wrong — just what feels right for you.

This is something I go over with every client because I’ve seen it interfere with personal lives. But here’s what I’ve noticed: most people start with strict boundaries, and as they grow, they naturally open up more. They get comfortable over time, and that journey looks different for everyone.

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Question 3: What book changed your life, and why?

CHAR: The War of Art (not The Art of War, to clarify).

This book is about the internal battle we all face to start and finish our work. I used to struggle with that, and this book spoke directly to the creative in me. I believe we all have creativity inside us, and this book helps unlock it.

Catch you next Sunday!