If there is one thing I’ve learned about building a personal brand, it is this: Everything has to come back to strategy.

Not just the content you’re creating. Not just the offers you’re selling. Not just the things you are posting on Instagram.

Everything.

I always tell people to ask themselves: What do I want to be known for? That question needs to become the filter for everything that you do.

And recently, I realized just how important that filter is as I started tackling something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time: vlogging.

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking…. Vlogging? What does that have to do with personal branding strategy?

Honestly? A lot.

Because I didn’t want to start vlogging just because vlogging is popular. I didn’t want to capture my day-to-day life just for the sake of having more content. I wanted to figure out how to make this new type of content actually support the personal brand I’m building.

Of course, that required a strategy.

Your Personal Brand Strategy Starts With a Filter

When I do anything, I really want to make sure there’s always a link back to what I want to be known for.

(Practicing what I preach over here).

So when I started thinking about vlogging, I knew I didn’t want to simply start documenting my life.

My vlogs aren’t necessarily going to be “get ready with me” or beauty content because those are not things that I want to be known for. I don’t want people to think I’m now a skincare influencer or wellness influencer.

But there are parts of my life that do connect to my personal brand.

And I would say, if I may: I do a lot of cool shit. I stay in cool hotels, I have cool experiences, I hang out with cool people. I do a lot of really cool, famous people shit.

And so much of that never really gets used as content beyond maybe me sharing it in the moment or talking about it on this podcast.

That’s what I was missing. I wanted to show a different, more unpolished, more unfiltered side of me.

Not just the Katrina who is educating or teaching or speaking in this more polished way. A different side. And that’s where the strategy comes in.

You Don’t Need to Capture Everything as Content

This was one of the biggest things I had to figure out. Before I started vlogging, the examples I looked at were of people capturing a day in their life or documenting their travels.

And I’m glad I dug into those because it helped me realize that’s not really what I want to do.

I’m not interested in capturing my day-to-day life. I’m really not.

If I’m going to spend 30 minutes showing you what I did in Toronto, that’s not necessarily going to be interesting just because I was there.

Instead, I want my vlogs to pull out one distinct storyline from an experience I’m having or a trip that I’ve gone on.

My goal isn’t to simply show “Here’s how I spent three days in Toronto.”

My goal is to emphasize “One big takeaway that I have kind of taken from this trip or this experience.”

That is a completely different way of approaching content, and a much more strategic way of approaching content.

Now I don’t have to capture everything. I just need to know what story I’m trying to tell.

The Content Strategy Comes Before the Content

Hear me out because this is where I think a lot of personal brands get stuck.

We think we need more content.

More reels. More photos. More videos.

More stories. More podcasts. More blogs.

More everything.

But sometimes the problem isn’t that you need more content.

The problem is that you don’t have a clear enough strategy behind the content you’re already creating.

For me, the strategy is always going to come back to what I want to be known for.

So when I started planning my first vlog, I didn’t know exactly what the final video was going to look like.

I actually just went on my trip and started capturing content.

I dumped it all into a folder and handed it off to my marketing director, Irma, and I said “Irma, please find the storyline in this content.”

Because obviously, Irma can then hand that off to a video editor who can actually edit it.

And that is part of what has made this process so much easier for me.

I don’t have to know exactly what the beginning, middle, and end of the vlog are going to be before I live the experience.

I just need to know what I’m trying to communicate through my personal brand.

Build Systems Around Your Personal Brand

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a million times more: I could not do this without my team.

There is a point where building a personal brand stops being about you doing everything yourself and starts being about creating the infrastructure to support the visibility you want.

That’s something I have really had to learn.

I now have my Instagram content. We are running one for Get Fame Ready and the programs and podcast, and we’re running another for Big Brand Energy Live.

Then there is my personal LinkedIn content, email marketing my podcast (which is on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, but also YouTube).

There are speaking engagements that I want to capture professionally.

There are blogs.

There are book promotions.

There are programs.

There are brand partnerships.

There are media opportunities.

My book coach told me, “You’ve got a lot of plates spinning in the air right now.”

And I’m like, yeah, that’s what it feels like.

So if I want to add something else to that mix, I need a system. And that system is the team I have built around me to help manage it.

I can’t just add another content platform and expect myself to personally tend to every single part of it.

Your Content Doesn’t Have to Feel Like More Work

This is probably my favourite part of the strategy I’ve developed.

The whole point of building a personal brand is that eventually, you should be able to live your life while your brand continues to work for you.

I don’t want to spend my entire vacation vlogging. I want to also enjoy the vacation, so the strategy needs to allow me to do both.

That is why I started using my travel planning documents, business strategy documents, and other PDFs to help me think through potential storylines before I even leave.

For my Spain trip, for example, I had my itinerary, outfit planning, business priorities, promotional storylines, and all of the other things I was already thinking about.

And I thought: I’ve got all of these freaking PDFs. How can I use these more efficiently to help me make the freaking killer vlogs that’ll come out of this trip?

That’s when I started using Adobe Acrobat PDF Spaces to pull everything together.

I can put my documents into one space and use the AI assistant to help me find the really juicy storylines.

So instead of spending my entire trip thinking, “What should I film today?” I can ask questions like:

What storylines make sense based on everything that’s happening on this day?

What will I have experienced by then?

Where am I going?

What are the promotional storytelling angles in my business?

How can I continue to create a great vlog out of this trip?

That means I can spend more of my vacation actually vacationing. And when something is vlog-worthy, I already know.

You Don’t Need All the Equipment

Another thing I’ve learned: This is not really an equipment problem.

I think people get stuck because they think they’ve got to have all the equipment.

I’ve watched enough vlog tutorials to know that you can go down a very deep rabbit hole of cameras, microphones, tripods, lighting, and all of the other things you could potentially buy.

But I actually don’t think this is an equipment thing at all.

I think this is about having the systems behind the actual vlog.

Right now, I have two iPhones, mini microphones, and a little tripod. And I don’t think I need much more than that.

My personal phone has a really good camera, and that was strategic because I still want to be able to capture high-quality photo and video when I’m out living my life.

I’ve also found having two phones really handy when I’m working and filming at the same time.

But the equipment is not the thing making this work. The strategy is.

Your Personal Branding Strategy Should Make Your Content Easier

When I have a clear idea of the story I’m trying to tell, I don’t have to capture everything.

I don’t always have to be carrying around my mini microphones. I don’t always have to have the tripod. Sometimes I can just go out and live my life.

Which is the whole entire point of building a personal brand in the first place.

That, to me, is the bigger lesson.

A personal brand should not make you feel like you have to constantly perform.

It should create a framework that allows you to communicate who you are, what you know, what you care about, and what you want to be known for.

And when you have that framework, you can start experimenting with different types of content without completely losing the plot.

Maybe it’s vlogging.

Maybe it’s a podcast.

Maybe it’s Instagram Reels.

Maybe it’s TikTok.

Maybe it’s speaking engagements.

Maybe it’s behind-the-scenes content.

The same system can be applied to so many things.

Let Your Team In On the Bigger Picture

Another major piece of this for me has been collaboration.

Ever since I brought Irma into the mix as my marketing director, I’ve had to get better at explaining my goals, my vision, and what I want to achieve—and then letting someone else help me achieve it.

That’s a big shift.

When you’re used to doing everything yourself, it can feel strange to let someone else into the brainstorming process.

But now we’re bringing a PR coordinator onto the team, too, and it’s going to be really important that everyone can see what I’m thinking about.

That transparency creates more opportunities.

For example, if my PR coordinator knows I’m currently on a Spain trip vlogging, and she knows the storylines I’m already working on, those become potential pitches.

Maybe there are brands I could work with.

Maybe there’s a media story.

Maybe there’s a speaking opportunity.

Maybe there’s a partnership.

The content I’m creating doesn’t exist in a silo.

It connects back to the bigger personal brand strategy.

Everything’s got to come down to this: What do I want to be known for?

Your Personal Brand Should Create More Opportunities

This is really what all of this is about.

I’m not vlogging because I want to become a full-time vlogger.

I’m vlogging because I want to create another way for people to experience my personal brand.

I have reality TV dreams.

The vlogging is part of that.

It’s starting to build up different ways where people can watch me in a different environment, talking a little bit more unpolished and showing me a little bit more, sharing perspectives in a really different way.

And I know that when I travel, I am in a different headspace.

I know that I make money while I travel.

When I travel, that’s when I sign clients. That’s when I bring new people into my world. There’s something about my energy or the content or the lifestyle that I’m showing that just makes the magic of what I do so much more real and tangible.

So I’ve got to capture that.

But I don’t want the capturing of it to take me out of the experience.

That’s why the strategy matters.

The Personal Branding Strategy You’re Not Using Yet

If you’re building a personal brand right now, I want you to stop and ask yourself one question:

What do I want to be known for?

Then use that answer as your filter.

Not everything you do needs to become content.

Not everything you experience needs to be documented.

Not every trend needs to become part of your brand.

And you don’t need to create content simply because everyone else is creating it. 

Instead, think about the bigger story you’re telling.

What parts of your life support that story?

What experiences could give people a different perspective of you?

What content could show another side of your personality?

What opportunities could come from being more visible in that way?

And then build the systems that allow you to actually capture those things without making content creation your entire life.

Because I think this is the part we forget.

The goal isn’t to spend your entire life creating content.

The goal is to build a personal brand that allows you to live the life you actually want, and then use that life to create the content, opportunities, and visibility that support the bigger vision.

And once you have the strategy, you can start building the systems that make the rest possible.