WHEN STARTING FEELS IMPOSSIBLE
The real reason brand building feels confusing.
Welcome to Issue #035 of Sojourn. Each week, I share two original essays to help you slow down, reconnect, and rebuild with intention — in a private community that uses travel as a path to reinvention.
Your Personal Brand Can’t Be Clearer Than You Are
Five months ago, I didn’t set out to build a personal brand.
I was at one of the lowest points of my life, and all I wanted was to find my voice again.
Not the curated version.
Not the professional version.
Just the part of me I’d slowly lost along the way.
And for a long time, I believed what most of us believe at the beginning:
“I’ll start once I’m clear.”
“I’ll share once it’s perfect.”
“I’ll post once I know where this is going.”
But clarity doesn’t come first.
Clarity comes from beginning.
When I finally sat down to write my first post, I wasn’t confident.
I wasn’t certain.
I wasn’t ready.
I just knew this time I wanted to do it differently.
What surprised me was how much the act of showing up… imperfect, uncertain, and honest is exactly what gave me direction.
Because here’s the truth no one says out loud:
Your personal brand can’t be clearer than you are.
And five months ago, I wasn’t clear. I was lost.
But slowly, something shifted.
Not because I found the perfect ‘strategy’…
but because I stopped trying to perform.
I logged in to my old LinkedIn account,
wrote the first post.
Then another.
And another.
No niche.
No perfect angle.
Just one honest expression at a time.
And from that, a few things became obvious:
1. Your brand comes from expression, not certainty.
You don’t need the whole map to take the first step.
You just need the truth of where you are.
2. Consistency comes from identity, not discipline.
When you stop pretending, you stop running out of things to say.
3. Direction comes from honesty.
Your lived experience is the message.
Your story is the strategy.
4. A personal brand isn’t something you manufacture.
It’s something you uncover.
In hospitality, this is the same shift we’re seeing worldwide,
brands moving from performance to presence.
From ‘angles’ to alignment.
From engineered impressions to emotional truth.
People follow coherence.
They trust what feels lived, not staged.
And the same applies to you.
If you’re trying to grow a presence online, begin where I did:
With the one sentence you’ve been avoiding because it’s honest.
Say the thing you’ve been circling around for weeks, months, years.
Your real clarity will come after that.
Not before.
~ Ana