Three Key Rules for Building Your Brand by Writing
Don't wait for a huge idea. Turn your actual emails, team chats, and meeting notes into short posts. This proves you solve real problems, showing you are a person who knows how to get things done, not just a person who talks about theories.
Forget about trying to get famous online. Write your content for one specific person you want to impress, like a future boss or a mentor, and send it to them. Earning real trust from a few important people brings more career chances than getting thousands of likes from strangers.
Use real screenshots of your work or simple drawings instead of perfect graphics or generic photos. Showing your actual work builds trust fast and makes your professional reputation feel real and hard for others to copy.
Changing How You Create Content
The old advice to "always post regularly" is now hurting careers. Many professionals still think writing a long article every week will eventually build them an audience just by sheer quantity. This is a losing effort that treats your skill set like a slow online search engine project instead of a real tool for your career.
This leads to the Void Effect: you spend hours on a detailed piece only to hear complete silence. When your hard work gets no response, it causes a mental block that makes your skills feel ignored. This isn't just annoying; it wastes your most precious resource—your time.
The platforms you choose matter more than how often you post. Substack crossed 50 million active subscriptions in 2025, according to platform data, while Medium reaches roughly 60 million monthly readers — two distinct audiences with two distinct career payoffs.
To get ahead, you need to switch from a long, slow race to a Quick Proof of Work. Stop writing for everyone and start writing for one specific person. Your blog should be a fast, high-impact business card, not a dusty library. Publishing one clear, evidence-based analysis that solves a specific problem for one important person proves your worth before you even apply for a job. You aren't just saying you can do the work—you are showing the results.
What is a Proof of Work Sprint?
A Proof of Work Sprint is a targeted writing effort where you publish one expert piece aimed at a specific person — a hiring manager, potential client, or mentor — to show real skills rather than general credibility. Instead of posting weekly for a nameless audience, you create one evidence-based post and send it directly to the person whose opinion of you matters most to your career right now.
The sprint takes under an hour. The post acts as a business card backed by evidence: a real problem, a real solution, and results you can point to from your own experience. The platform — Medium, Substack, or your own blog — matters far less than the clarity and specificity of what you write.
Framework for Choosing Your Content Place
As someone handling product management, I look at these publishing places as different "content systems." Which one you pick depends on what you want: a fast start, a direct way to talk to readers, or complete ownership of your online presence. The chart below helps you pick the right level of effort for your current brand goals.
Level 1: The Beginner (Basic Start)
Best If You Are:
Place:
Medium.
Things You Do:
- Writing posts
- Using the site's topics
- Sharing on social media.
Your Quick Action
Speed & Finding Readers: You don't need to build a website or find people from scratch. Medium shows your work to readers right away, making it the fastest way to see if people like your ideas.
Level 2: The Connector (Professional)
Best If You Are:
Place:
Substack.
Things You Do:
- Collecting emails
- Using your own website address (like yourname.com)
- Sending out regular emails.
Your Quick Action
Direct Contact: You stop waiting to be found and start owning the relationship. Collecting emails lets you send messages straight to someone's inbox — and email open rates run 40-50%, compared to 2-5% for most social media posts, making the list far more valuable than followers. Substack added 32 million new in-app subscribers in a single quarter in 2025, showing the platform's momentum is only accelerating.
Level 3: The Owner (Expert Control)
Best If You Are:
Place:
Your Own Blog (using Ghost or WordPress).
Things You Do:
- Getting found on Google (SEO)
- Tracking visitor numbers
- Controlling the look and feel completely.
Your Quick Action
Being Independent: You have total control over your brand and data. If a platform changes its rules or shuts down, your brand is safe. This setup lets you rank on Google for specific words, bringing in new readers passively for years.
Guide for Making the Choice
Pick the Beginner Level if you just want to write sometimes and don't want to deal with technical setup or marketing.
Pick the Connector Level if your main goal is to build a group of dedicated followers and you want an easy way to talk to them often.
Pick the Owner Level if you are building a long-term career/business, want to be found on search engines, and need full control over everything you post online.
The Online Presence System
To help you choose between Medium, Substack, or your own blog, I created The Online Presence System. This system treats your online writing as a structured way to build your professional name.
Finding New Readers
Goal: Find People
Goal: To show your ideas to people who don't know you yet.
Action: Use a place with built-in readers, like Medium, to "borrow" their visitors by posting articles that solve common industry problems.
Building Loyalty
Goal: Connect Deeply
Goal: To turn casual readers into a loyal group you can reach anytime.
Action: Start a Substack to send your best thoughts straight to people’s emails, creating a private chat that skips social media rules.
Owning Your Space
Goal: Create a Home Base
Goal: To build a permanent online spot that you completely own and control.
Action: Keep a simple personal blog on your own address (like YourName.com) to act as a professional portfolio where all your work is saved and organized for future employers or clients.
The "Finding New Readers" part brings people in, the "Building Loyalty" part turns them into fans, and the "Owning Your Space" part gives you the permanent place that locks in your professional reputation. Once you have your platform set up, building a professional content audience is the next step to turning readers into career opportunities.
Medium vs Substack vs Personal Blog: Side-by-Side
| Feature | Medium | Substack | Personal Blog |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in audience | Yes — 60M monthly readers | Growing — 50M+ active subscriptions (2025) | No — you bring your own traffic |
| Owns reader list | No — Medium owns the relationship | Yes — you own the email list | Yes — full data ownership |
| Setup speed | Fastest — publish in minutes | Fast — account + first post in 30 mins | Slowest — domain, hosting, design required |
| SEO potential | High — Medium's domain authority lifts your posts | Moderate — indexed but weaker domain | Highest long-term — you own all rankings |
| Platform risk | Medium can change algorithm or paywalls | Low — email list is portable | None — you control everything |
| Best for career sprint | Getting noticed quickly by recruiters searching your name | Staying top-of-mind with hiring contacts over time | Building long-term topical authority in your field |
| Bottom line | Start here if you need visibility now | Move here once you have something to say regularly | Build this for your 2-year career, not just next month |
The Practical Sprint
These quick changes immediately move you from overthinking to actually doing valuable work. Stop worrying about the perfect plan and start sharing useful insights right now.
Waiting for the Perfect Topic: Spending days trying to find a "perfect" niche or a unique idea that everyone will like.
The "Sent Folder" Trick: Check your sent emails from the last week. Find a detailed explanation or solution you gave a coworker. Copy it, clean it up, and post it.
The Google Search Trap: Spending hours looking up keywords to rank well on Google, only to get no clicks.
Sending it Directly: Ignore Google search. Write for one specific person (a manager, a mentor, or a potential client). Send them the link directly with a note like: "I wrote more about our chat here."
The Long Post Pressure: Thinking a post has to be long to show your expertise, which leads to giving up from exhaustion.
The "Small Analysis": Use a simple "Problem → What I Did → Result" format. Share one picture of your work, list three points about how you did it, and that's it.
Too Much Visual Work: Getting stuck trying to pick the right fonts, colors, or the perfect header picture before you even publish.
Visuals That Show Work: Skip nice photos. Use a cut-out screenshot of a chart, a quick drawing on a whiteboard, or a piece of code. Real, rough data builds more trust than a fancy design.
Launch Plan to Be Seen as an Expert in 60 Minutes
This fast plan is meant to quickly build your professional reputation online. It focuses on picking the right platform, setting up your profile clearly, creating one piece of expert content, and sending it to the right people.
Choose one place based on your goal: Medium to reach new people, Substack to own your email list, or a Personal Blog for full design control.
Make it act like a digital business card: use a good picture and write one sentence explaining the problems you solve and for whom.
Write 500 to 800 words about a common challenge in your field. Offer a real solution or a unique point of view to prove you have hands-on skills to potential employers/clients. If you've never written a professional post before, our guide to writing your first professional blog post walks through the full process step by step.
Post the link on LinkedIn and in related professional groups. Include a short summary (three sentences) and one specific question to start people talking in the comments.
Improve Your Skills with Cruit
To Create Proof
Journalling ToolThis is the answer to "waiting for the perfect topic." It helps you break down your past work experiences and create professional descriptions of what you have achieved.
For Your Main Online Spot
LinkedIn Profile HelperQuickly creates a professional summary, headline, and job descriptions that perfectly match your skills.
For Direct Contact
Networking GuideHelps you organize your contacts and uses AI to write polite, professional messages for reaching out and following up.
Common Questions Answered
If I need a job fast, should I use Substack, Medium, or my own website?
If you want people to see your work right away, pick Medium. It is trusted by search engines, so your article is more likely to show up when a recruiter searches for your name.
If your goal is to build a lasting group of people who already know you, use Substack.
For the "Proof of Work" Quick Plan, the platform matters less than the actual content; choose the one where you can hit "publish" fastest. The important person looking for you just needs a clear, professional link they can open easily.
What if my best work is secret (under an NDA)?
You don't have to share secret company details to prove you're good. Instead of naming the company or sharing private data, write about your method.
Create a general "template" or "step-by-step guide" based on how you solved the issue. For example, instead of writing "How I boosted Sales for Company X," write "A 4-Step Method for Increasing Sales in Any Business." This shows how you think and what you know without breaking any rules.
Should I remove my older, more personal blog posts to focus on this new professional strategy?
No, you don't have to delete your old posts. Just make sure your new "Proof of Work" posts are "pinned" or shown first on your profile page.
When you send a direct link to someone important, they will most likely only look at that one article. Your older posts show you are a well-rounded person, but the featured "business card" post proves you are a high-value expert. Keep the main attention on what you can offer right now.
Is Medium or Substack better for SEO?
Medium wins on immediate SEO because its domain authority is high enough that posts can rank on Google within days. When a recruiter searches your name or a topic you've written about, a Medium post often surfaces faster than a fresh personal blog.
Substack gets indexed but has weaker domain authority, so SEO takes longer. Its real strength is direct delivery — your post lands in an inbox rather than waiting to be found in search results.
A personal blog has the highest long-term SEO ceiling. Once your site builds authority over months, posts you publish rank permanently under your own domain. If long-term career visibility matters, a personal blog is the only platform where you own the rankings outright.
How often should I publish to build my professional brand?
Frequency matters less than quality and targeting. One focused post sent directly to the right person does more for your career than ten generic articles posted into the void.
A practical starting point: aim for one post per month that solves a specific problem you actually dealt with at work. That's a sustainable pace that adds up quickly — 12 evidence-backed posts in a year create a portfolio that speaks louder than any resume line. When a hiring manager or client searches your name, they find a track record, not a blank page.
Focus on what counts.
To stop getting stuck in the Void Effect, you must stop acting like someone who just posts things and start acting like someone who solves problems.
The trap of "being consistent" is a slow way to get nowhere, based on wishing someone will eventually notice your effort.
Switching to a Quick Proof of Work Sprint returns your time and puts you back in control of your career trajectory. You are no longer writing where nobody reads; you are crafting a fast, effective business card designed to open doors.
Stop building a collection of unseen work and start solving real problems for the people who can help your career. Write your sharpest analysis today, send it to that one key person, and make your expertise something impossible to ignore.
