Welcome to my first newsletter (Every Other Sunday)!
I’m so happy that you’re here and you’re taking a piece of your precious time to read this so I’ll try not to waste it. These letters should take 5 minutes or less to read.
My aim is to provide you with value in each letter.
I want you to come away after reading these with a clear vision or action item of how to build/improve upon your own personal brand or at least a takeaway concept that you can use in whatever thought process you have for creating.
I have a very non-traditional path but that’s what makes me unique and adds to my brand. You’ll find through this process of building your personal brand that you also have a very unique story.
We all do.
Blue-collar trades are where I hail from.
I’m a second-generation high-voltage lineman.
My father was a dual ticket tradesman and entrepreneur holding certifications as an electrician and lineman.
He and my mother successfully owned and operated a power line contracting company through the late 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s with an exit in 2010.
I grew up around linemen my whole childhood. These were rugged men in those days. No bullshit, give it to you straight, hard-working blue-collar individuals.
They always had amazing stories and this is what I remember about them as a kid.
Line work, especially contracting takes you all over the world. Think about it, power lines cover some incredible distance and these were the guys building those lines.
I would listen to them tell stories about the places they’ve traveled, the thrill-seeking work they did, and the unique people they met along the way.
When I graduated high school I began an apprenticeship as a lineman and started to accumulate these stories for myself.
During my time “on the tools” as a journeyman lineman, I got to tick off boxes on my bucket list of cool shit I wanted to do in the trade.
Here is a list of just a few of the extraordinary things I accomplished while working as a lineman:
- Traveled North America
- Helicopters - Hung under, sat on the side of, flew inside, and used helicopters in every way possible.
- Energized Barehand lineman - Wear a metal suit and energize your body with up to 500,000 volts of electricity while working hundreds of feet in the air for 8+ hours a day.
When I decided to leave the tools I wanted to tell our stories.
While traveling and working as a lineman I was always the guy with a camera trying to document what we were doing.
My focus was doing my job as a lineman but it was just so amazing that I wanted to show others what I got to do for a living.
This was before social media as we know it now.
I’m talking about the early 2000s up to about 2015.
That’s when I decided to leave the field work and I would end up in management then teaching youth how to be a lineman.
Ok if you’ve read this far thank you.
You’re probably wondering how thi relates to personal branding and what gives me the right to talk about how to grow a personal brand.
As I said earlier I was always the guy wanting to capture and document the trade.
So in March of 2019, I started a podcast called Powerline Podcast which I grew to a top 1% podcast that focuses on telling the stories of linemen.
We have an exciting job that's full of adventure, travel, interesting work, and unique people.
The photo above was taken on day one from a nook in my tiny apartment.
Along with the podcast I grew the social media accounts to thousands of followers.
Let’s not forget that this industry is very niche so I consider a top 1% podcast and thousands of followers a huge accomplishment.
Through the journey of making content and putting it on the internet, I realized the value and opportunities it provided me.
I was getting recognition from people and in places I never would have dreamed of.
My network expanded.
I was invited to speak on stages and platforms that gave me exposure.
I was able to create and monetize products.
Job offers came rolling in without even trying to outreach and one day I received a DM on Instagram from the COO of a Fortune 200 company that would later purchase the podcast and pay me full time to continue to host the show.
Again, guys, this is a very niche industry and topic so you can imagine how crazy this felt to me to be able to have such an opportunity like this.
All of this happened because I decided to make content for the internet. I built a brand that was largely based on myself and my experiences.
For three years I showed up consistently with content, built an audience, monetized it, and was able to turn it into a full-time career.
It’s been almost 6 years now since starting this journey and I’ve learned so many incredible things through the process that I’m going to be sharing with you in these letters.
I’ve learned the value of building a personal brand.
I’ve lived it and I want you to live it too.
I want you to have endless opportunities that come to you instead of having to reach out so hard to get them.
I want you to be able to take the high-value skills you’ve learned and make money off of them.
If building a personal brand, writing, content strategy, and making money interest you then these letters are for you and you’ve come to the right place.
You can definitely increase the surface area of your luck.
Everybody should hope for the opportunity to put their skills on display.
You don’t know when you will be called to deliver on the things you have learned.
You don’t know when the skills you’ve been developing will be called on to step out onto the stage.
So, learn and develop your skills.
Put them out there for the world and build your personal brand.
That’s all for now. If you’d like to continue here is the link to my next letter. I published three letters to start so I would love it if you read the next one as well.
You can find my website here.
You can also find more free value so follow me on social. Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and TikTok.
If you need help kickstarting your personal brand journey keep an eye open for my new course releasing in the next couple of months.
Ryan
