What shaving my head can teach you about creating content for your personal brand

Once upon a time I had hair. Lots of it!

But then … not so much.

It took a little while for me to get to the completely ‘chrome dome’ stage, although looking around, I daresay I bit the bullet way, way quicker than many guys out there!

But I digress :)

When I started cutting my hair with clippers,?I kicked off with a #6 clipper size.

FYI, this is what a #6 looks like (hat-tip to?Men’s Hairstyles Today?for the example):

Then, once I got used to #6 hair clipper size (wasn’t?too?hard, truth be told), I tried out a #5 …. followed by, yep, you guessed it, a #4.

You can see where this story is going …?or can you?

Clipper size #3 was starting to get a little short for my liking, but I soon got used to that, then on to #2 it was. I was pumped up with confidence now.

BRING ON #1! ??

FYI, this is what a #1 clipper haircut looks like:

Interestingly, I found the transition between #1 and #0 (no guard used on the clippers) to be a bit of a hurdle. Not sure why, as there’s not a heap of difference between the two styles: nothing a couple of days’ growth couldn’t fix. That said, it took me a little while to graduate to #0, which essentially reduces your hair to stubble.

Once I got to #0, I stayed with that look for quite a while.

That was, until I worked up the courage to ditch the clippers altogether and graduate to the big daddy of them all, the razor blade cut! (Should that be called a #-1?).

I remember I got the blade out once the family had gone away for a couple of days. I figured if I didn’t like the look, things would be back to normal in 2-3 days’ time!

This is what a razor blade cut looks like ??

There is a point to this story, and here it is:

When it comes to publishing original content for your personal brand, it takes time and practise to?find your voice.

When you start blogging, for example, your early articles will be like getting the clippers out for the first time and shaving your head with a #6.

It feels weird, and in all probability, you won’t want to do it.

In blogging terms, you’re putting yourself out there on the world wide web for all to see.

There’s no hiding.

Your head is above the parapet and you’re wide open to public criticism.

Potentially, people might judge you on your ideas and opinions.

They might critique your writing.

For some people it can be scary, and for that reason, they tend to pull back in their early blog posts.

The same potentially goes for tweeting, posting to LinkedIn, or producing ‘to-camera’ YouTube videos, or recording podcast episodes, or doing interviews on other people's podcasts.

If you’re not used to it, it can make your guts churn.

But it gets easier.

Overly cautious

In all probability – unless you’re a bona fide shit stirrer – the feedback won’t be negative. Indeed, you won’t have much of an audience if you’re new at this content caper. So dig in, get writing (or tweeting, or filming) and pretty soon, you’ll get used to publishing online and will start to recognise how tame your output really is.

Maybe you’re overly cautious with your point of view, you’ve held back on voicing a strong opinion, even though you’d like to.

Maybe your writing is a little stilted and conservative, and you’re still comforted by the use of jargon and corporate speak you’ve become so used to using.

That’s okay, because you still have a #6 clipper in your hand.

Keep at it!

Keep writing, producing videos or podcasts, posting content to your social channels.

Once you start getting comfortable with what you’re putting out there, push a little harder because to?succeed, you’re going to need to progress through those clipper sizes until you find (and are comfortable in expressing) your unique voice.

Thank you for reading :)

Onwards!

Trevor ??

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