Before sharing my personal experience, I want to first define what I understand as "personal branding" and how it differs from entrepreneurship. In one class, a student asked a question: "In all your talks, has anyone ever asked the wrong question?" I thought about it, and actually, I don't believe things in this world are so absolute. I don't interpret any question someone raises as a "problem"—rather, it's a difference in thinking, which requires communication and mutual understanding.
Someone once asked me if entrepreneurship and personal branding are the same thing. I believe they're different because the starting point is different. In today's era, a personal brand is built on something you love that possesses three qualities:
First, expertise
Second, passion
Third, the ability to help others
In fact, in this era of creation, the definition of expertise has become much more personalized and broader.
In the past, we thought "expertise" required a license, credentials, or working in an industry for over ten years to be considered "professional" or an "expert." This caused many people who wanted to share their knowledge to worry about being challenged by others, encountering trolls, or being criticized—all because they lacked confidence in themselves.
But expertise can be understood in another way: "combining what you know with your personal insights and background, and conveying it to someone from a completely unfamiliar field." This means that as long as you have a certain level of understanding about a field or something, you can communicate it to people who are completely unfamiliar with that area. You don't necessarily need to understand academic knowledge at the deep level a traditional professional does—in fact, you can share it in a more accessible and easy-to-understand way.
Of course, most people wonder: can sharing just the basic knowledge in an industry count as expertise? I believe the answer is definitely yes in this era. Don't hesitate to take that step.
For example:
A TV reporter's microphone is a "directional microphone." Because of this, when the reporter holds the microphone, it must point toward the interviewee's mouth or voice source. If the direction is wrong, even if the distance is close, the recording will be muffled or won't pick up sound at all. Conversely, if the direction is correct, even if someone speaks very softly, the microphone will still capture it clearly.
This skill is extremely basic and simple in the media industry. Of course, if you try to share it with colleagues, you'll definitely be laughed at. But for someone who knows nothing about this industry, it becomes professional knowledge. So when you start building your personal brand, the easiest and most accessible approach is to observe the details around you. What you think is simple might be a whole set of expertise in someone else's eyes. So never underestimate yourself, because
"The world doesn't lack professionals; what it lacks is sharers."
When you persist in doing something you love, perhaps initially no one will be willing to pay for what you offer. But because you have passion, even if people don't pay you, you're willing to spend time continuing to persist. Eventually, people will notice your talent and be willing to pay for your abilities—and your income will grow exponentially, not linearly. Before it happens, you might not be able to imagine it, but as long as you hold onto your beliefs, over time, the effort you've put in will come back to you.
But entrepreneurship is about "production, sales, personnel, development, and finance." You have a product and need to worry about revenue, costs, managing employees, finding buyers willing to pay for your product—only then do you have income. You also have to deal with payroll, taxes, and other administrative matters. Of course, managing a personal brand doesn't mean you won't encounter these issues, but the mindset is completely different. Entrepreneurs have corporate visions and goals; they aim to lead employees and change society. But personal branding is about someone noticing you because you have a certain expertise and passion for what you do, and they're willing to pay for your professional knowledge. So I believe entrepreneurship is about people chasing money, while personal branding is about money coming to find you.
# Creating Personal Value: Start by Understanding Yourself
Therefore, if you want your value and talents to be seen, before you take action, I want you to pay attention to the details of your life. Is there something you really love doing every day, something you spend time on without even thinking about it? Something that makes you forget to eat and sleep? If so, that's your calling.
If you can't think of anything like that in your life, I recommend using the "WPV Principle"—think about the intersection of "what you're good at," "what you love," and "what has value for society and others." I believe you'll suddenly discover in your daily life that you actually have resources, and you have the opportunity to create your own path.
Using myself as an example, my full-time job has been as a text journalist. I used to write seven or more articles a day and have taken on many different types of projects—from entertainment and pet news to ghost writing. In 2016, I worked as a ghost writer, using interviews and written records to help authors publish personal books. I can write both in-depth research articles and light lifestyle pieces. Over five years, I've accumulated over 3,000 articles of various types. So I can say writing is definitely something I'm good at. Based on actual data, it takes me just 15 minutes to complete a 1,000-word article, and I can do it entirely on my phone.
Later, I realized that writing, beyond helping me organize my thoughts, is most importantly a way to relieve stress. Some people find writing articles painful, but for me, writing is genuinely stress-relieving. If I have something I want to express and no one understands, I spend time writing it out. If I don't, I become anxious. That's "passion."
When I first started my WordPress blog, the theme was "Rookie Workplace Observations," documenting my feelings from the perspective of someone entering the workforce after turning 30 and facing setbacks. My articles were reposted by multiple media outlets, and I received feedback from many fresh graduates. Even managers messaged me, saying they recommended these articles to new employees, hoping they could adjust their mindset through my writing. As I received positive feedback, I realized that beyond feeling accomplished, the most important thing was being able to help others through my articles.
Many people misunderstand what "having value for society and others" means. The first stereotypical response many have to value is "being able to make money." I really disagree with this way of thinking. While money is certainly important and can quickly solve problems, "value" can also represent personal image, influence, appeal, and networking—things that money alone can't build into genuine relationships.
I also want to share that finding your personal positioning is definitely not something you do by studying materials in one place, learning knowledge about a field, and then starting to search. Finding yourself is built up from the little details of life. For anything, don't just imagine, don't just look at data, don't just listen to what others say—you absolutely must actually try it out for yourself. Only then will you know where your bottlenecks are, filter out what you like and don't like, sketch out an outline, concentrate your energy in that direction, and keep moving forward.
# Starting a Personal Brand: Defeating Your Own Inner Demons
"I'm not seeking massive reach; I believe I'm still halfway there." This is what Hsu Chuan, founder of XChange, who earns 7 million TWD annually and works in an international corporation, said. It's not just modesty—before publishing his book, he asked me to read it first and give feedback. I thought the book has great reference value for young people in the workplace. Rarely does someone strategize job choices so carefully. Yet before publishing his work, Hsu Chuan had doubts about himself, unsure if his insights were too personal, uncertain whether he could really help others.
Another example is my university best friend who worked in China for five years as a department director. A year or two ago, he asked me to review an article because he "wanted to start writing casually." This friend has been there for me at critical moments in my life and career, giving me substantial help and solving my doubts. So when I had the ability to give back, I worked hard—carefully restructuring his articles in hopes more people would see them. But he worried that "my methods are too personal; I might mislead people."
These two friends are already considered people with high social status in their workplaces. Yet when facing publishing their own ideas and articles, they also had doubts. From them, you can see that breaking through your inner demons is difficult, but such thoughts are also very normal. Don't worry—you're not alone.
# Personal Branding: Doing It Won't Change Anything, But What You Do Will Be Very Different
How powerful can personal branding be? I reviewed my two "different lives" since entering the workforce.
Year
Full-Time Life
Side Hustle Life
2015
Social Media Editor
Online Reselling
2016
Public Relations Specialist
Ghost Writing
2016.10
TV Station Intern
Gig Economy Work
2017
TV Station Local Reporter
Slash Millennial
2018
TV Station Text Reporter
Building WordPress Personal Website
2019
Personal Brand—Remote Work
2020
Internet News Program Host
Creator
# Turning Setbacks Into Nourishment: Creating Your Own Work Rather Than Working for Others
In 2017, I took on ghost writing work, helping a college student publish a personal book, and regularly worked as a contributing reporter for internet news media. This became my starting point for writing as supplementary income.
As a contributing reporter, my workload was one news article per day, paid per piece. So over 30 days a month, besides my full-time salary, I earned over 10,000 TWD monthly. For someone with a low full-time salary who had to cover rent, student loans, family mortgage, and insurance, this was truly a blessing. But good things don't last. After a year, the unit I was working with decided to cut fees due to company considerations. My daily workload increased from one to two articles per month, earning 20,000 TWD, but the per-piece price was cut to 60% of the original. The original compensation was already extremely low in the industry, but I accepted it to survive—except that after long-term cooperation and stable page views, deciding to cut fees was truly unacceptable.
The reason was that I didn't want the value of the writer profession to be devalued, nor did I want to be part of declining corporate quality. If the company needed more articles but not more page views, they didn't really need me. If they wanted more page views, then cutting fees was genuinely stepping on my value.
I was also grateful that a friend pointed out: "You need to start accumulating your own work. Why not write a column under your own name without charging? Isn't that more meaningful for you long-term?" So I signed with a media outlet for a column and started down the path of building a personal brand.
You need to understand that even when lacking money, people still need backbone. Stick to your own path. When you encounter people devaluing your worth, you might doubt whether you're good enough, hesitate to express yourself clearly, and even avoid communication while beating yourself up in hiding.
Though such wounds heal, scars don't disappear. Instead, if you face things positively, understand your needs, treat setbacks as learning lessons, and use setbacks and the harm others cause as nourishment and fertilizer to stand up again, you'll become stronger and stronger. I can say this with certainty because later, it was because of the "fee-cutting incident" that I started creating my own work by thinking in reverse.
# Posting on Anonymous Platforms: Building Self-Confidence
"Write down your unwillingness!"
After the fee-cutting incident, I thought about how to create my own work. Thinking calmly, I seemed to have no particular topic. Sharing daily trivia seemed too much like a stream of consciousness and had no meaning. But "workplace" experience was what I understood most when first entering society. However, it's really hard for someone fresh out of school to convince others by sharing personal insights. This was also my doubt about myself, the same as most people wanting to develop personal brands and use writing to promote themselves—not knowing how to break through their own inner demons.
I tried several methods to adjust my mindset:
- Anonymous posting and submissions
- Posting on anonymous platforms
When you see these two, they might seem similar, right? But actually, they're completely different ways of thinking and strategy.
Anonymous Posting and Submissions
If you haven't formally started publishing your articles or work, you'll definitely worry: "Will people think I'm weird?" "I don't have real skills; can I really share posts?" "Will posting suddenly attract criticism?" and all sorts of worries about others' opinions. These are all very normal—I was the same way at first.
At that time, my Karen the Girl Page had around 16,000 followers, mostly because of my editor identity. I can't say I had no supporters, but I was really worried that my workplace articles would be discovered by former colleagues or be discussed. Plus, I wanted to know if, excluding my identity and labels, my articles would still be read. So I changed my identity, took another name called "MiKi," and created a new fan page specifically, putting all articles written under the Miki identity there. My main page completely didn't mention it.
On the other hand, after writing for a while, I submitted to Cheer Magazine's online column, wanting to know if my articles had a chance to appear in commercial media. If possible, it meant my thinking and perspectives were recognized and had reference value. Because of several articles I submitted, I eventually got affirmation—I knew my content had a market and could be appreciated.
Posting on Anonymous Platforms
Having content isn't enough; the platform and delivery method are particularly important. Initially, I put articles on a job site's social platform, but it didn't get much traffic and I didn't receive substantial feedback. Soon after, I posted my first article on Dcard, Taiwan's largest anonymous social platform. Dcard's main demographic is college students and young people, which better matched my identity and article audience. Also, because the platform is completely anonymous, you can choose to only show your school or set your own nickname, making it harder for people to connect article content to the actual author.
I posted the article on the "Work" section, which is a relatively niche section on the platform. Popular articles in this section get around 60 likes, with comments around 10-20—that's already considered a well-performing article.
Initially, every time I posted an article, it would reach the trending section of the Work board. Later, it jumped directly to site-wide trending with discussion. Many people's comments encouraged me, saying my article gave them encouragement and courage. This also encouraged me, so I published the article under my real identity on my own website and created my personal site.
Actually, persisting in something without knowing how it will develop can feel helpless and hopeless—that's normal. But whenever you want to give up, give yourself some time to think about your original intention, find back what you love and enjoy, and perfect one thing, even if it's very small.
Perhaps initially you don't know that such small effort from you can create great influence, but time will repay all your effort. Thank the platform for letting everyone find resonance—this resonance means that no matter how small your voice is, there's a group of people attracted to your content by shared interests and topics, giving you encouragement. There's no path better and more irreplaceable than the one you create yourself.
Someone once asked me how I'd define myself during those anonymous days. Looking back, those days posting on anonymous platforms gave me courage, helped me go from lacking confidence to building it, provided nourishment to find personal value—and showed me that even without much attention, as long as people can get encouragement and growth from my articles, that's the source for me to keep creating, recording, and expressing my perspectives.
