Don't Build Businesses! Build Projects!

Part 1/5: The multi-passionate personal brand-based founders guide to a business that prints cash, serves well and sets you free.

Me, working on a VIP (Very Important Project, clearly).

This one is aimed squarely at you, my little ‘personal brand-based’ founder darlings — in other words, the current and aspiring content creators, consultants, coaches, freelancers, creatives and knowledge-based founders of the Internet.

I’m going to start strong here 🥃, because I fear that if I don’t?

MANY, MANY PEOPLE will ‘fail’ at building this FRANKLY BEAUTIFUL BUSINESS MODEL..

.. And then spend the rest of their days laughing and eye-rolling at the preposterous thought that you can *actually* have a personal-brand based lifestyle business..

.. Because they tried and put themselves out there and it DIDN’T WORK, and so they went back to their safe, bland, okay-ish corporate job that pays the bills whilst secretly lying awake every night at 2am wondering if they’re really, truly living up to their true potential..

.. And it feels better for them to eye-roll and point blame at them Internet for their “silly false promises” (*I will caveat this with an acknowledgement that there IS plenty of this online*) than to admit that perhaps the Marketing 101 advice they didn’t listen to was right all along.

AND OF COURSE, WE DON’T WANT THAT DO WE!!!!

Here’s the truth:

Despite rumours of their demise being greatly exaggerated (mostly by Instagram coaches sharing hot takes for likes), personal brands are VERY VERY MUCH still the new black..

..Right now, and likely forever — as long as this AI jive sticks around, leaving people CRAVING REAL, HUMAN AND DIFFERENT.

They’re the VEHICLE that allows founders to ditch the traditional “scale and exit” model of business, and instead build small, mighty and very high cashflow businesses on the Internet around topics that genuinely fulfil them and that deeply align with their values and WHO THEY ARE AS A PERSON and who isn’t on board with that, honestly?!

I mean, seriously:

Imagine trying to tell your now 83-year grandmother sixty years ago that there would come a time when her granddaughter could make a *handsome* living interviewing others about their wellness routine..

Or that their grandson would quit his $70,000, 14-hour a day rigging job to spend time with his family and teach people around the world how to play bass..

Or that her daughter would become the poster girl for AGEING WELL and write her little heart out, her words read by HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS of people each week collectively paying her double her pre-retirement salary.

I know, I know.. she’d scoff, spit out her sherry and cola and “pffffffftttt, as if” SO HARD (or whatever the equivalent of that sixty years ago was).

But!

Whilst that IS a reality now for many, there is (still) one universal truth that separates those who embark on building a personal brand based business successfully, and those who (metaphorically!) die trying.

UNIVERSAL TRUTH AND MARKETING CONCEPT 101:

To succeed as a personal brand in 2025, YOU NEED A GODDAMN NICHE.

You do. You dooooooooo. You just goddamn do.

And it pains me, because in my experience having worked with over 2,000 students in my various courses and programs, it’s the ONE thing new founders will fight tooth and nail against.

They fear it will pigeon hole them.

They fear it will cap their earning potential.

And especially? They fear that it will BORE THEM TO TEARS, because the idea of choosing one specific, defined niche as a MULTI-HYPHENATE, MULTI-PASSIONATE HUMAN BEING who is, does and enjoys many different things feels like the online business equivalent of strapping on golden ‘niche’ handcuffs and WEARING THEM FOREVER.

Here’s the cold hard truth, though:

The fact that you are a beautifully multi-passionate, multi-dimensional human should abbbbbsolutely be celebrated, supported and encouraged!!!!

But also? When it comes to making money, the Internet. Doesn’t. Care.

They care about two things, and neither of them are you or what you want.

They care about:

A: Their problems.

B: How clearly you demonstrate how you can solve them.

And so, if you can’t do A in a B-like way STRAIGHT AWAY, they’ll walk away faster than you can say “sun-soaked-arvos-writing-remotely-from-a-lovvvvvely-little-cafe-in-Matera”.

And so, to both succeed as a personal brand business and fulfil all of your creative whims SO THAT you can get paid to do what you love and work from anywhere?

You need to know how to set yourself up as a personal brand based business the right way from the start (or to course correct right NOW if you’re on the wrong track).

And to do that, you need to know how (and where) to niche your personal brand..

How to position it properly for MAXIMUM IMPACT..

And how to set it up for the success you and it deserves..

(But in a way that doesn’t bore you to tears, destroy your soul and keep you trapped in a box that feels like the online equivalent to maximum security prison for your happy, creative, multi-passionate little soul).

Happily? I know how to do exactly that — I’ve done it, I’ve taught thousands of others at this point how to do it, and right now I’m feeling share-y!

And so, over a series of five newsletters (because brevity ain’t my strong point), I’m going to break down for you everything I know about how to set a personal brand based business for big fun, big freedom and BIG money.

Let’s goooooooo 🤠

[Part One] Don’t Build Businesses! Build Projects!

Repeat after me:

A personal brand business is not a traditional business.

And thank god for that honestly, because the idea of grinding it out for 20 years to build your EBITA and sell for multiples only to end up zapped, trapped and needing a decade of naps.. oh, and with zero memory of your kids early years because you spent them behind a desk.. DOES NOT SOUND LIKE MY IDEA OF A GOOD TIME.

Happily, the whole ESSENCE of a personal business is the opposite of that (or at least, it can and should be — read on).

And so, it requires a completely different approach to business.

Here’s the biggest difference:

In a traditional business, the business and the brand are one and the same.

With a “personal brand” business though, the business is fuelled by your personal brand but the two are NOT one and the same.

There can be a very big difference between who you are as a person, and the way you are perceived by the world.

The former is you.

The latter — whether you intentionally design it or not — is your personal brand.

Every single human in the world (whether they consider themselves a “personal brand” or not) has both.. but not everyone intentionally designs the way they are perceived and so their personal brand ‘happens’ by default.

When setting up a personal brand-based business, that’s a big no-no.

Here’s why:

In 2025, your personal brand is your business superpower.

It is the unique combination of interests, values and identifiers that set you apart from others, and that either magnetise or repel people to or away from you (both are powerful in a good way, by the way).

Defining this intentionally helps you to draw in the right people.

But! There is an important nuance here, and it’s where personal brand-based businesses differ from traditional businesses.

As a personal brand-based business, intentionally defining your brand DOES NOT mean choosing ONE NICHE.

*Cue confetti and cheering!!!!*

Instead, your personal brand (if set up the right way) can and SHOULD BE capable of feeding and fuelling MULTIPLE, DISTINCT NICHES.

This is different to a traditional business.

With a traditional business — the brand needs a niche.

It looks like this:

The niche BECOMES the thing that allows the business to set themselves apart.

For a personal brand though, it’s DIFFERENT.

Here’s how it works (and an example scenario using yours truly):

• Firstly, there’s YOU:

IMPORTANT FACT: YOU are not the business.

This is an important distinction that will support your brand, your business.. and likely also your mental health.

You are a human being that is a lot of different things, some of which you might like to include in your personal brand and most you likely won’t.

• Secondly, there’s your Personal Brand:

These are the interests, identifiers and attributes that you intentionally choose to comprise the “Things You Are Known For”.

You might pick one thing.

You might pick three, or six, or..

It doesn’t matter.

Point is, they are the things that you INTENTIONALLY choose to build your personal brand around. They can clash; they can feel like they don’t fit together.

That’s okay, they are the things that make your personal brand uniquely YOURS!

• And thirdly, there are your business interests.

I call these projects, and they should feel FUN AND EXCITING!

Your personal brand might have one project, or over time you could add more.

Each project will fall under one or more of the Things You Are Known For — in my example, I could have projects related to business, or being a millennial, or skincare.

Each project will have its own assets:

Its own name.

Its own website.

Its own marketing channel/s.

Its own product suite.

And it will be separate and distinct to YOU and your personal brand, but will be fuelled by it.

Here’s the exciting, fun part (especially for all of the multi-passionates out there):

Although it’s smart (for your time, bandwidth and capacity) to start with one project?

Over time, your personal brand can expand to fuel and feed MULTIPLE projects, each with their own niche, name, product suite, marketing assets and all of the other “things” that make up a successful business.

The important point here?

For every project you start under your personal brand, your niche is set at the PROJECT level.. not at the level of the personal brand.

Here’s what I mean.

Example:

Gwyneth Paltrow.

She’s known for acting, wellness and.. well, consciously uncoupling ;)

In the wellness bucket? Her brand Goop, which started as a wellness newsletter and very much a personal brand-based business (though now, it’s.. more).

But, Goop is not HER. Wellness is not HER.

It’s simply a project that forms ONE PART of her personal brand, and that is fuelled in a large part by it.

If she ever wanted to, though, she could also start other projects related to other parts of her “personal brand”.

For example, if she ever wanted to make conscious uncoupling a Thing She Is Known For (which I get the feeling she kind of doesn’t, but you get my drift), she could start the Conscious Uncoupling Company.. and a podcast interviewing others doing it, and monetise it.. and it could become a whole business in itself.

The project has it’s own niche, NESTED UNDER Gwyneth the personal brand.

Example Two: Me!

One of the elements of my personal brand? Lifestyle business.

My project under that pillar is currently Lifestyle Business School, with its own business name, podcast, website and social media assets.

But, I, Stevie Dillon, am not JUST lifestyle business.. and my personal brand doesn’t have to be JUST THAT either.

There’s two ways this can be true:

Firstly, I can bring the other elements of my personal brand into the subject of lifestyle business.

For example, within my Lifestyle Business School project, I can focus on business ownership as a mum, how I make time for self-care like skincare as a busy business owner, juggling it all as an elder millennial in business — all things I have intentionally engineered to be Things I Am Known For

This naturally acts as an attractor (for some people) and detractor (for others), and it makes my flavour of business unique.

Secondly, I can expand my personal brand to create NEW projects that cater to other aspects of my personal brand.

Things like being an elder millennial!

With (maybe I should do this!) a Substack called Millennial(ish) covering all of the topics that affect life as an elder millennial.

And, my one true love (SKINCARE!!!!)

With (maybe I should do this, too!) a project to explore my love (obsession!) with skincare.

With this one, I would choose a niche (for example, skincare for women 40+ who want to age naturally but with intervention.. and I might go ON A QUEST to try out every procedure, documenting my experiences, seeking out brand deals to monetise.

Three entirely different Things I Am Known For.. lifestyle business, skincare and being a millennial.

Three projects with entirely different niches.

But all nested under and FUELLED by my ONE personal brand.

The key?

To brand these projects with different names (‘Lifestyle Business School’! ‘Millennial(ish)’! ‘Skin Stuff’!) instead of the personal brand-based founders name (‘Stevie Dillon’).

Why?

Because you don’t want Nancy-looking-for-skincare-Stevie to come across random articles talking about lifestyle business, or for Heather-the-creative to Google “Stevie Dillon” looking for personal branding help only to find the Instagram Reel of my face post-Fraxel Duel (frankly, no-one needs to see that).

This is actually the danger of getting the personal brand hierarchy wrong.

Your NAME becomes a niche, and you can never diversify.

The solution? Projects, each with a specific niche, name and assets.. but FUELLED by brand you.

And this, my friends, is the MAGIC of a personal brand-based business.

I mean, traditional businesses can’t create multiple projects.

Imagine Nike starting a skincare line?!?!

Weird right?

It wouldn’t happen, because TRADITIONAL businesses niche from the top. They have to because it’s how they stand out.

With a personal brand-based business that focuses on PROJECTS though, you’re free to make money and spend your time on ALLLL of the fun little projects you wish.. and it will all make COMPLETE sense because they are the Things You Are Known For as a multi-passionate three dimensional HUMAN.

SO… SEE?

See how as a personal brand you need to intentionally pick the things you want to be known for?

And then, see how you can then create different projects under those interests??

And then finally, see how you are then NOT confined to golden niche handcuffs talking about one thing forever, but you get to pursue AS MANY INTERESTS AS YOUR LITTLE HEART DESIRES BUT STILL KEEP THEM COMMERCIALLY VIABLE BECAUSE YOU’RE NICHING AT THE PROJECT LEVEL???

SEEEEEE?

Told you I’d show you how to do it ;)

In Part Two of this series, I’m going to break down the “how to” of effectively niching each project/business under your personal brand, so that you have the RIGHT people BANGING DOWN YOUR DOOR to pay you attention and give you money.

This is how your projects become businesses that Make Actual Money, and not just little hobbies on the Internet. And that’s where the real fun (and freedom) begins.

Subscribe now if you aren’t already (and send this to a friend if you are!), so you (BOTH!?) get the next edition in the series into your hot little hands the second it drops.

And leave me a comment, I’d love to know — was this helpful? Do you have questions?

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