When people talk about personal branding, they often obsess over the wrong things.
“What’s your niche?”
“Have you picked your brand colors?”
“What’s your tagline?”
I used to spend a long time on this stuff. Designing the perfect website. Tweaking my bio endlessly. Crafting a tagline that would “seamlessly capture” all my ideas.
But the truth is, none of those really mattered — yet.
Building your personal brand, which is what actually builds your audience, isn’t really about aesthetics or positioning. It’s not even a matter of consistency (although, to succeed as a writer, being consistent is a given).
I learned this the hard way when I was starting out as a writer struggling to break even just 100 views.
The real reason writers fail to build an audience
It's because they, like me a few years ago, do not understand how powerful personal brands are actually built.
For example, if Naval Ravikant tweets:
"Focus on building assets, not chasing paychecks.”
This statement is not especially unique or special. But it would likely get lots of traction.
Any unknown writer can say the same thing. But I doubt their post will get anywhere.
Sure, Naval has millions of followers. But the biggest factor here is trust.
People trust Naval. Or at least, they trust his personal brand as a philosopher-entrepreneur who built wealth and shares wisdom.
When you think about it, Naval can say the most basic thing that any other writer can post, but the response to Naval’s words will be different.
That's because his personal brand makes whatever he says have more "gravity" and importance.
Have you ever noticed how certain writers and creators are essentially saying the same things? And yet one writer gets far more engagement than the others.
It's largely because the successful writer has built a certain level of trust with their readers. This trust is built through their personal brand.
The three-part anatomy of trust
I realized that trust wasn’t random.
Instead, it followed a specific sequence. It had an “anatomy” made of three elements, and these elements are almost always in the same order.
Miss one element? Your brand stalls.
Do them out of order? You get ignored.
But nail all three in sequence? You build something unstoppable.
The sequence looks like this:
First, you need Attention: attracting enough people.
Then, you layer in Authenticity: demonstrating your personality and values.
Finally, you establish Authority: showcasing what you’re good at.
Most creators do this backwards. They try to establish authority before anyone knows who they are. Or they dump their life story before proving they can provide value.
Both approaches fail because they violate how trust actually develops between humans.
Let me show you how each element works and why the order matters.
1. Attention: Be seen first
Your brilliant insights don’t matter if no one sees them.
We need to earn attention first, before we can do anything else.
This means studying what works
Understanding why it works
And adapting those principles to your own content
Attention isn’t about gaming algorithms or going viral. It’s about understanding what makes people stop scrolling and pay attention.
Try this today: Find the 10–15 highest-performing posts in your space/niche. Don’t copy them. Understand them. What emotions do they trigger? How do they structure ideas? What makes them impossible to ignore?
Then apply those principles to your own ideas. Think of it as learning a new language. You study grammar and vocabulary first, then develop your own voice.
2. Authenticity: Differentiate your content
Once you can consistently create content that gets noticed, you face a new problem: differentiation.
There are thousands of people talking about your topic. Millions who know what you know. So why should anyone choose you?
This is where most writers panic and try to be different for the sake of being different. Or worse, they try to please everyone.
Here’s what actually works: Focus on demonstrating your personality and values in your work.
For example, let’s say two writers write about the same topic: Morning routines. Writer A values simplicity, Writer B values optimization. Their content will feel completely different even though the subject is identical.
Writer A writes: “My morning routine is three things: drink water, take a 5-minute walk, write one paragraph. That’s it. Most morning routines fail because they’re too complicated.”
Writer B writes: “I’ve tested 5 different morning routines of successful people. Here’s the exact sequence that increased my focus by 40% and why the timing of each step matters.”
Same topic. Completely different approaches. Each attracts their own tribe.
This is why you don’t need to find some untapped niche or invent revolutionary ideas. You just need to consistently filter common topics through your unique worldview.
But here’s the catch: your values only matter once people are already paying attention. That’s why authenticity comes second, not first.
3. Authority: Prove you can deliver
Authority without attention is just talking to yourself. And authority without authenticity feels hollow and generic.
When you’ve earned attention and shown your unique perspective, that’s when authority becomes powerful. People are already listening, and they know what you stand for.
Now they want to know: can you actually deliver results?
What authority really does is demonstrate your depth of knowledge and the results you can achieve for yourself and others.
Successful writers don’t build an audience because they have a PhD in audience-building. Instead, people trust them because they consistently shared insights that worked and proved their effectiveness through their own transformation and the success of their readers.
The compound effect
First, you get noticed (attention). Then, you connect on personality/values (authenticity). Finally, you demonstrate competence (authority).
When you nail all three elements in sequence, something powerful happens: they start reinforcing each other.
Your attention-getting strategies become more effective because your authentic voice makes you memorable. Your authenticity resonates more because you have the authority to back up your beliefs. Your authority carries more weight because you’ve proven you can attract and serve an audience.
This is why some creators seem to effortlessly build engaged audiences while others struggle for years.
It’s mostly rooted in understanding how trust actually develops between humans.
thats about the size of it with any relationship though, isn't it?