Am I a Sellout?

I came across a Vox article the other day that I can’t stop thinking about. The title was simple and unfortunately resonated all too well for me: “Everyone’s a sellout now.”

The article centered around the “tyranny of the personal brand” — how artists, authors, and musicians have to engage in relentless self-promotion on social media to survive in today's digital landscape. The piece also reflected on how expecting these artists to be salespeople shilling their work compromises quality and artistic integrity.

The article left me reflecting on a lingering question: Am I part of the problem or a product of it? Turns out, probably both.

For the last six years, I’ve run a video marketing agency that makes personal branding videos for professionals and their employers. I’m one of those people extolling the virtues of ‘putting yourself out there’ and ‘developing your personal brand.’ I believe in it, at least in part because I’ve benefited from having one myself. After all, the only reason I have a business today is that I lost my job eight years ago and started a YouTube channel. I made 100 videos in 18 months, experimented a lot, learned a thing or two, and got hired by people who saw my videos pop up on their screens week after week.

By this article’s logic, I’m ruining it for the real artists — those filmmakers and video creators who are far more talented, passionate, and competent than I am, but just didn’t market themselves well. That may very well be true.

But artistic integrity aside, there are a lot of advantages to personal branding, even for the maestros.

It gives you a degree of control

In the ‘before-times’, you didn’t have the level of choice and control that a social media-enabled personal brand can now afford you. You might have had a nine-to-five that paid the bills, but secretly dreamt of becoming a singer, dancer, or writer (and had the talent to back it up). Back then, you had few options and were likely beholden to your employer. Even if you did get discovered, you were then at the mercy of the gallery, studio, publishing house, or record label. You didn’t get to tell your story and control the narrative.

These days, social media enables you to showcase your art outside of working hours (maybe even during them), communicate your story and your ‘why’ (I believe this is called a personal brand). You can then potentially build a large enough audience to justify turning that dream into your full-time gig.

It levels the playing field

Nepo babies and privilege have always existed. But today, if you’re a talented artist who doesn’t have a ready-made network of mentors, sponsors, and fans, you can still build one. I’m not saying it’s easy, and social media does have its biases — some people absolutely have a leg up over others because of the way they look or their proximity to power — but you no longer have to wait on someone else to pluck you from obscurity. In fact, that might be the worst strategy. Social media provides a scalable and relatively inexpensive way to be visible, showcase your work, find, and make an emotional connection with, your audience.

The audience ultimately decides your fate

Has social media given a disproportionately large platform to mediocre talent based on looks and ability to hack the system? Absolutely. But in the absence of artistic chops, these social media stars usually face backlash and rejection once they venture off their native platforms to make it in music, TV, or film. Ultimately, they’re forced to retreat back to social media and/or find a side hustle. Only the true artists seem to have staying power.

In the end, I agree that it’s unfair to task artists with marketing themselves when they should be working on their craft. It’s something they didn’t sign up for and something previous generations weren’t saddled with. Even as an entrepreneur in the business of personal branding, I can tell you it’s very difficult to work in your business and on your business at the same time.

But there’s an upside here. Personal branding via social media offers artists a level of control and presents opportunities in a whole new way. It helps amplify traditionally marginalized voices and gives artists the power of choice. And that’s always a beautiful thing.

To read more of my writing, head over to my Substack.