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Why Personal Branding Is a Trap for Former Educator Founders
Danny Bauer
April 27, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
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Hey — it’s Danny.
In today’s newsletter:
Why personal branding is a mistake
Canada boycotts my digital launch
How to write cold emails that work
10 marketing hacks you should put into practice
And more …
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OFF CAMPUS
🤔 Great Advice: What’s the one bit of advice you’d give a Former Educator Founder starting out? Here’s what 150+ people said.
🥶 Cold Outreach: According to this founder a few cold emails changed his life. What works? Check it out.
✅ Spot On: 10 FREE marketing hacks. Use these principles writing your next copy.
🫣 Just for Fun: Check out these weird optical illusions.
🤓 Interesting: Last Friday’s post is my #2 top performing post of the year (and inspired next week’s newsletter). Can you spot why it performed well? Add a comment too if you have a second.
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THIS WEEK’S LESSON
Why Personal Branding Is Garbage
You've heard it a million times:
“Build your personal brand.”
And sure, it sounds like good advice. Until you realize it’s not.
Here’s the truth:
Personal branding is just reputation management dressed up in skinny jeans.
It’s vague. It’s overused. And for most Former Educator Founders like you, it’s a trap.
Let me explain ...
You spent years mastering K–12. You know how to command a room. You know how to write curriculum, coach teams, and lead under pressure.
But building a business? That’s a different game.
When people say “build your personal brand,” what they really mean is:
“Post selfies and try to be liked.”
Here’s why that’s a dead end:
It puts the spotlight on you — not the problem you solve.
It’s reactive — you end up chasing likes instead of leading a category.
It doesn’t scale — you can’t outsource you. Eventually, you'll hit a wall. You also can't sell you if you ever want to sell.
You don’t need a brand. You need a point of view.
You need to own a problem.
This is the essence of Category Design.
Currently, I'm working with a tech start up. They help create accommodations to lessons and assessment in about 6-seconds.
So do we lead with "look how awesome we are" or "Introducing the Name of Our Product"?
Hell no!
We lead with the problem. Which is Hidden Non-Compliance. Districts all over the nation lose big time lawsuits in court because IEPs and 504s are not followed. That's a problem districts want solved.
And what is the solution? The category we designed. Instructional Integrity. Who wouldn't want that?
That’s category design.
Creating a new way forward and becoming the only one who offers it.
(If you identify as a Ruckus Maker or Former Educator Founder ... where are YOU going for help?)
People don’t buy personalities.
They buy clarity. They buy frameworks that solve problems they didn’t even know they had. They buy results.
So stop building a personal brand. Start building a category.
Let the influencers chase attention.
You? Chase Category ownership.
POP QUIZ
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