I used to break-dance back when I was a teenager, and man, I’ll tell ya, it was fun! I used to spin on my head, do these sick back-flips, jump in the air like gravity didn’t exist, and rock my soul to the funk of American pop and R&B music from the previous century. Anyways, that’s when I dubbed myself B-boy Ibsta, which now I guess is my Medium username, and I am PROUD of it. Roots, we all have roots. Which poet said that? I don’t remember. But some poet did say it. Anyways, back to break-dancing, I continued it for like three years (sixteen, seventeen, eighteen)and then I decided that I’d danced enough and that it was time to move on to other things. Not better things, necessarily,
Here’s the thing: I’m an American in every single way besides that I don’t live there and don’t have a visa or anything, but that has never stopped me from doing stuff that your not-so-average-pop-culture-literate Joe does in the great, fabled United fucking States of America.
I read Stephen King, I listen to American music, I eat McDonald’s, I watch American shows, I ardently follow Hollywood, and I fucking enjoy the living fuck out of American video games. Yeah, so I think I’ve flexed enough and should now stop digressing and go back to what this story is really about — building my brand.
Okay, so I’m twenty-six now, I have this really lucrative job at one of the best software development firms in Pakistan, AlphaSquad as their business development lead, and I work as a professional ghostwriter on the side (which, according to my boss and beloved elder brother of sorts, Arslan Qamar Khan, is wasting my talents because he believes that rather than writing for other people, I should write for myself, hence the migration to Medium). I’ve ghostwritten around 150 books in both the fiction and non-fiction categories, which I can’t stop mentioning. Proud much, Abe? The Dunning-Kruger effect runs deep in me, which is also something that my boss mentioned recently, and I agree a 100%. I need to tone myself down. Pace myself, so to speak. I have got this megalomania streak in me that I keep in check with anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers, and anti-depressant SSRIs.
Some people are under the impression — these some people being two psychiatrists from this backwater, slum-city, undeveloped city called Faisalabad — that I have bipolar disorder. I’ve since then consulted other, better shrinks in other cities and online and they’ve told me that I don’t have any disorder; I’m just a little hyperactive. That’s because I eat a lot of sugary stuff, drink a lot of tea, and smoke a lot of cigarettes. I really have this death-wish where I want to die at the age of 27. I don’t actually really wanna die at that age, it’s just that if I end up dying as a result of my habits and everything, I won’t be surprised.
Anyhoo, where the fuck was I? Oh, yeah, my mental health. One might get the impression that I’m a bit full of myself. Well, I weigh 81 kilograms. I’ve got tubs worth of guts. So, yeah, I am a bit full of myself.
So building my brand was something that happened really organically, pretty much on its own, and I had literally no part in it other than a passive one, i.e. just being there.
So I’ll get to it.
I started writing my blog at WordPress five years ago. I named it Abe Learning Things. Abe’s me. I’m learning things. That blog became sentient and took a life of its own (it didn’t kill anybody!) and became a smorgasbord of poems, pastiches, all sorts of prose ranging from short stories to musings and rants, and five years later, Abe Learning Things has got hundreds of followers and a ton of content that I can at any time later in my career publish in the form of a book or something since I own all the rights to it.
Recently I took to teaching and made a sub-category in my blog called Abe Teaching Things.
I have an Instagram page called Abe Reading Things where I review books.
My main Instagram is Abe Capturing Things.
My Facebook is Abe Doing Things.
My Dev.to is Abe Coding Things.
My Twitter is Abe Tweets Things.
Abe ___ Things is my personal brand and that’s something that I’ve not strived towards or anything. I have yet to invest in it. But since the groundwork is already laid, I’ll have my hands full in the near future.
I intend to start my YouTube channel soon. Other than that, I intend to get traditionally published as an author sometime in the next five years. I’ve already written a novel of my own that I’m editing and rewriting these days.
I think my problem is that I’ve got too many things going at the same time. I am juggling two jobs right now — my ghostwriting gig that I take care of after 10 PM and my day job from 1 PM to 10 PM — I’m reading a lot of books (currently reading The Witcher series and some Stephen King classics), I’m listening to a ton of music, I’m watching a lot of shows and movies, and I’m so into the gaming-sphere. I intend to buy the PS5 on release date because I’m fucking crazy. Oh, and I’m also mentoring around a dozen kids on how to earn money through freelancing. Whatever time that I have left goes to my social life. I go back to Faisalabad on the weekends and meet some of my university friends. I also give some time to my family (insert some Mafia reference or other, such as “Nothing’s more important than family, capische?”).
One might ask why I’m inclined to build my brand. Well, good question. I firmly believe that if you’re not working on your brand these days, then you’re working on someone else’s brand. Why not yours, then? I’ve been ghostwriting for the past 5 years. All of those novels that I wrote, all those articles and blogs and reviews, those were promoting some writer’s, some website’s, some company’s brand. I’m done with that shit. Long have I toiled for others. Long! Also, like, I’m not strapped for cash or anything. I can sustain myself, thanks to my jobs and my meagre savings. So, I can devote my time to building my brand now. It’s timely, no? I’m twenty-six.
The other reason why I’m all about my brand is because it’s in line with my next career goals. I want to work at Ubisoft as their game writer for the Far Cry division. I also want to be a published author. Both these jobs have an unsaid prerequisite that says that you have got to have your own brand. It’s for your own good, sure, but literary agencies and companies have an easier time signing you on if you’ve already got your own thing going. It speaks to them that this particular individual is capable of promoting themselves and are backing a good product/commodity/value/service, ergo all the followers, fans, supporters, patrons.
So, yeah, I’m playing the long-game. I’m all set for the short-term, I’m young, I’ve got the skills and I like to think that I have a little talent of my own.
I kind of want to become an influencer too, but that’s way, way, way, way in the future. Not right now.
Do you have a brand? How have you built it? Any tips?
Thanks for reading.