I talk to a lot of people in tech with side hustles (👀 DiscoLink Club members), and one of the things I hear constantly and without end is: I’m super, super good at the thing I do. I’m really good at building the thing/ doing the thing/ executing on it. 

I just really hate selling myself. 

Why can’t I just do the thing, and people will find me because it’s so good? 

The antidote to having to sell yourself (and hating it) is no secret at all: build a personal brand. 

When you have a solid personal brand, you don’t have to stress about selling when the pipeline runs dry or the bank account runs low. You build a habit of sharing about yourself in a non-cringe, true-to-you way, and then eventually, yes, people really do come knocking on your door. 

That may not be news to you, but it feels like what no one ever talks about is the how of building a personal brand. 

The processes, muscles, and steps behind actually doing it. 

That’s why I really love this step-by-step process from the HBR. I love that it starts with an audit and forces you to think through your touchpoints. And I would also add an addendum about committing it to a plan, similar to a fitness plan. Add milestones and your own daily/ weekly/ monthly/ quarterly cadence to it. Basically, turn this HBR process into a non-negotiable calendar entry.  

It’s not a magic bullet and it definitely takes time to reap the results, but it’s well worth it. 

Try it on for size as you’re building your side hustles in tech and let us know how it goes ❤️

— Irina, Saron, and the team behind DiscoLink Club

New Members in DiscoLink Club!🪩

Know someone you think would be a great fit for our community? Make sure to tell them about us. Let’s spread the love and make this community even more incredible 🧡

See more information about DiscoLink Club and apply here!

Coming up: AMA with Nadia Odunayo on “How I bootstrapped my side project to a profitable startup with nearly 3M registered users.”

On Tuesday, September 17 at 9 AM PT/12 PM ET/4 PM UTC, Nadia Odunayo will be diving into how she bootstrapped her side project to a profitable startup.

​>> RSVP HERE << ​​

​Nadia is a developer, speaker, avid reader, and founder of The StoryGraph, the number one competitor to Goodreads. ​In a few short years, she took her coding skills and her love of reading and built her book-based side project into a profitable, fully bootstrapped company. ​

She shares how she did it, with plenty of stories, lessons learned, and advice on how you can take your own side project and build it into something more.​

Topics we’ll cover:

• ​How she came up with the idea

• ​The importance of user interviews

• ​Personal runway and funding your projects

• ​Viral moments

• ​Growing a community around your project

• ​Coding as a one-woman dev team

• ​Wearing multiple hats

• ​Product-led growth and marketing

• ​Pros and cons of bootstrapping

• ​Good and bad luck

​​Tune in and come to this AMA with all your burning questions. If you’ve got a side project, or maybe just an idea, and you want to know how you might build it into something more, this is for you. You’ll leave inspired, informed, and ready to get to work.​​

​​This AMA will be hosted by DiscoLink​ and is free and open to the public.

​Nadia Odunayo will also be hosting a Masterclass for our community, DiscoLink Club, this month. Masterclasses are free for our members - check our discord for your code.

Membership is free, apply today.

Don’t Miss Out

Our bookmarks from the week - good reads, listens, and general inspo from all around.

Live from DiscoLink Club

DiscoLink Club is a community of professionals in tech who are building side hustles.

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