The Future of Personal Branding Online is YouTube

YouTube is trending to be the future TV. So, how is your personal brand leveraging the influence of this digital giant?

If there is one platform I would personally bet on for the future of personal branding it would be YouTube. YouTube is trending to be the future TV and as the name implies, it’s all about you - authentic user-generated content.

Despite being decades old, the platform is taking over the digital landscape like only an industry OG can do best.

So, when it comes to your personal brand, are you taking advantage of the potential of YouTube?

This blog will share my tips for making 2025 the year to build your personal brand on YouTube.

1. Start before you think you’re ready

I’ve been there myself, and I hear it from my personal brand coaching clients all the time. You want to launch the perfect YouTube channel. Here’s some advice a mentor once told me earlier in my career: “Start before you think you’re ready because you’ll never be ready.” Perfectionism is just procrastination in disguise. Be less perfect and more proactive. Start messy if you have to, or start as best you can for now. Just start. Experiment. Assess. Adjust.

YouTube is only gaining more and more traction at a rapid rate. Last year, YouTube accounted for 10.4% of all TV viewing - it was the first streaming platform to break the 10% barrier. Some research has shown that for over 50% of people, YouTube is the first app viewers open on their TVs. YouTube is the new TV. So you’re better off starting imperfectly than being left behind. Otherwise, a year from now, you’ll wish you started a year ago. You’ll wish you knew everything you spent the last year learning, through doing, about the platform.

2. Document, don’t create

The pressure to ‘create’ can be intimidating. Instead, take marketing guru Gary Vee’s advice to:

“Document, don’t create.”

Authentic, under-edited videos are proving most popular on YouTube.

Or, if you have a vlog today, this is now less about, for example, mind-blowing theatrics in a country on the other side of the world, and more about what you’re doing in your every day. This makes your personal brand relatable.

3. Start small

As BJ Fogg shares in Tiny Habits, sometimes the ‘motivation monkey’ can also lead us astray:

“Big spikes of motivation are awesome for doing really hard things — once.”

Instead, consider a strategy and sustainable approach to consistency for your personal brand on YouTube. With this approach, motivation becomes part of an important trio:

• Motivation

• Ability

• Prompt

Mix your desire with your ability to actually do the thing, and a prompt to tell you exactly when you’ll do it. Consistency and building the habit will be more important than waking up one day as an overnight five-videos per week creator.

In set periods, say every quarter or year, reassess your ability. Can you add another video? Can you make your videos longer? After you’ve mastered one strategy, consider the next step for your personal brand evolution on YouTube.

4. Think big

Don’t confuse starting small with thinking small. YouTube breaks down all the borders of your personal brand. It’s an opportunity for your personal brand strategy to think outside of the norm of your local market.

One of my favourite pieces of advice in Grant Cardone’s The 10x Rule is that if you’re going to follow anyone, follow the biggest players in your desired field on the world stage. If they did it, so can you. Draw inspiration from them, instead of just your local leaders or the norms of your current echo chamber. Consider taking a topic with a large global ‘total addressable market’ and finding an angle that relates to your personal brand niche.

In the digital age, we consume creators on the other side of the world like we know them personally. We dial into Zoom meetings. We purchase products from overseas. We engage services all across the globe. On YouTube, your location is not your limitation. If anything, it’s an opportunity. What’s making waves across the world, what’s lacking in your market? Giving you a runway to be a local market leader for this hot topic.

5. Experiment

One of the biggest draw-cards of YouTube, compared to traditional TV, is that you can consume as your heart desires, when you want and where you want. Some consistency in your video formats, e.g. video length, sets expectations for your audience. But, don’t forget to experiment with content formats. If you film long-form podcast-style videos, consider cutting shorter video segments to highlight key topics. Or, cut your videos into clips. You’ll start to understand what resonates with your audience.

You may think your potential audience may never have time to watch your 30-minute video, but the beauty of YouTube is that your audience can consume at their own pace.  While they might not have the time straight away, they might find the time days, weeks, months - even years later.

The future of personal brand is YouTube. Imagine arriving with a personal brand edge.