Build a Personal Brand: Publish on LinkedIn/Medium, Grow Audience, Monetize with Online Courses | Admond Lee Kin Lim

The transcripts are edited for clarity, sometimes with AI. If you notice any incorrect information, let us know.

Alexey: Let’s start with the second talk of today. We will talk about personal branding and we have a special guest today, Admond. Admond is a data scientist, writer and speaker. He is currently a data science instructor at Hakwagan Academy with a mission to make data science accessible to everyone through education. Welcome, Admond. (0.0)

Admond: Hi Alexey. Great to join and very excited to be part of the conference. I hope to add value by sharing some of the experiences and mistakes I have encountered along my journey. I look forward to this. (6.0)

Alexey: Thanks for coming. Before we move to our main topic about personal branding, let’s start with your background. Can you tell us a bit about your career journey so far (24.0)

Admond: Sure. It has been a roller coaster. I started about two and a half years ago as a physics student. During an overseas internship in Switzerland I attended my first machine learning workshop and immediately fell in love with it. When I returned to Singapore two months later I started learning data science concepts on my own. (54.0)

Admond: I learned through seminars, conferences, mentors and books. I found all of it fascinating. That was how I started my data science journey. Later I moved to my first full time role as a data scientist. I did not start as a full timer immediately because I wanted more experience to build my portfolio. (1:17)

Admond: I worked as an intern for a few months and then moved into a full time role as a data scientist. Now I am a full time data science instructor at Hakwagan, hoping to share what I have learned with people who want to start their data science journey but do not know how to begin. (1:43)

Alexey: Helping people start fits very well with today’s topic. Let’s begin with a simple question. What is personal branding to you What does it mean (2:18)

Admond: It is a broad idea. To me personal branding is more than getting followers. That is a vanity metric and should not be the goal. For me it is about sharing your expertise, experiences, knowledge and even your mistakes so you can help others. (2:44)

Admond: As you keep sharing you build an online presence and people begin to know you. For example on LinkedIn recruiters or hiring managers may notice your profile. That is how personal branding helps others notice you while you help people learn. (3:02)

Admond: Throughout my personal branding journey this has been the most fulfilling part of my career. (3:41)

Alexey: In your opinion this makes you more visible on social media. When someone is searching for a job they want to get noticed. They become active on social media and hiring managers start recognizing them. When they apply for a job employers might think they have seen this person before and prioritize them. Is that correct (3:56)

Admond: Exactly. This is one of the most effective ways to differentiate yourself during a job search. If you just submit your resume like everyone else it is hard to stand out. A strong personal brand makes a big difference. (4:38)

Alexey: Is personal brand the same as online presence or is there something more (4:55)

Admond: It includes both online and offline presence. How you are perceived online often becomes how you are perceived offline. First impressions matter. When people meet you in person they already have an impression formed through your online presence. (5:06)

Admond: Personal branding requires consistency. You cannot share something once a month and expect results. It requires a long term commitment. When your presence stays on people’s minds they think of you when opportunities arise and they reach out. That leads to more chances to grow your career. (5:24)

Alexey: So you need to be known in a specific area. For example if someone thinks about people in Singapore who are good at teaching data science they immediately think of you. Is this a form of personal branding (6:09)

Admond: I would rephrase it. Instead of being famous it is about being known as someone established in your expertise. (6:28)

Alexey: How do we establish this expertise (6:46)

Admond: Everyone has their own preference. Some like writing articles on Medium. Some prefer podcasts. Some prefer videos. I prefer writing and face to face sharing which is why I became an instructor. I also share many data science articles on Medium. (6:52)

Admond: Writing helps me think deeper about what I know. It helps me reflect, understand better and share with others. So the choice of channel depends on what you enjoy. (7:30)

Alexey: So you started posting actively on Medium and that is how people noticed you (7:56)

Admond: Exactly. Back then I just wanted to share my data science journey. I did not know about personal branding. I submitted articles to Towards Data Science and they got published. I received comments from readers and realized I was onto something. (8:03)

Admond: I committed to writing one article every week. Not every day but consistently every week for months. That is how I built momentum. You cannot write once in a blue moon and expect to establish yourself. Consistency is key. (8:55)

Alexey: You wrote consistently for a few months and people started responding. That helped you stay motivated (9:36)

Admond: Yes. That led to publications picking up my work and republishing it across platforms which helped me reach a wider audience. (9:48)

Alexey: When you publish regularly most posts go unnoticed. At some point they start getting traction. How did you convince yourself to keep going when almost nobody reacted (10:19)

Admond: This is true. When nothing gets traction you doubt yourself. What kept me going was passion. I love writing. Second I received messages mostly on LinkedIn from people who read my articles. They told me the articles helped them. Even helping one person was enough for me to continue during the early days. (10:55)

Alexey: You also mentioned Towards Data Science already had an audience which helped your work get noticed (11:51)

Admond: Exactly. Leveraging existing audiences is important. Publishing on your own makes it harder for editors or readers to find you. Joining a publication was the best decision for me. (12:04)

Admond: It is very hard to get noticed even by Medium editors or other publications. (12:25)

Admond: For me getting into Towards Data Science was the best decision to start. (12:25)

Admond: For me yes. (12:25)

Alexey: I personally know you from LinkedIn. This is where I saw you. I am not very active on Medium. I sometimes stumble across posts from LinkedIn or Twitter but I do not read Medium daily. How did this transition happen for you from being known on Medium to being known on social media? (12:38)

Admond: Good question. I did this at the same time. When I was deciding which social media to focus on I knew I could not be everywhere because there is only one Leng. So I decided to focus on Medium and LinkedIn. I put all my time and effort into these two channels. (13:08)

Admond: I started writing articles every week. That was one thing. The second thing was committing to post content on LinkedIn every one or two days. One week I would post three to four times by sharing my experience or a snippet of my articles or by sharing the articles I wrote on Medium. (13:32)

Admond: It was a difficult process especially on LinkedIn. It is not like Medium and it is a completely different ecosystem. To get traction I needed to understand how each ecosystem works because every platform has its own audience with different preferences. Medium is long form writing but LinkedIn has a strict limit. I needed to write an engaging story within about thirteen hundred characters. (14:03)

Admond: People need to follow the story and have a takeaway at the end. Creating content is one of the toughest things ever. (14:43)

Alexey: Yes it is very tough. You started writing on Medium and at the same time you started writing on LinkedIn right? (14:53)

Admond: Correct. (15:15)

Alexey: I thought you wrote on Medium first and then posted articles on LinkedIn. LinkedIn does not like links. When I share a link it gets very few views and when I share a story it gets more engagement. I wanted to ask how you overcame that but now I understand that besides sharing links you also shared personal stories on LinkedIn. (15:22)

Admond: Exactly. Sometimes it was different types of content beyond articles. I shared personal journeys not related to data science and something inspiring. I also shared a bit of data science content. Sometimes it was something random or funny that I found. (15:52)

Admond: When sharing content to help people it does not always need to be related to your field. It can be personal or career related. It can be inspiring or sad. Sometimes sharing a quote motivates others. You never know who is having a hard day and finds your content helpful and this impact is what I love. (16:24)

Alexey: I can relate to that. I am also curious because you said people do not usually do this for personal brand and you did not know that term. Did you just wake up one day and decide to share on LinkedIn and Medium? How did you decide to post once per week on Medium and three or four times per week on LinkedIn? What led you to this decision? (16:51)

Admond: Before I started sharing anything I followed many data science mentors long before two years ago. They shared a lot on LinkedIn. At that time I had just started being active on LinkedIn and I did not post anything. I only read what they posted and found it very helpful. I would say seventy to eighty percent of the data science knowledge I learned was not from books but from LinkedIn. (17:29)

Admond: That is when I realized LinkedIn is not just a job search platform. It is much more than that. People think they just upload a resume to find a job but that was not how I saw it. LinkedIn is great for networking, learning, and sharing. That made me want to move from being only a consumer to being a producer. (18:08)

Admond: I also realized the data science community on LinkedIn is very helpful. You can ask a simple question like what should I learn and it will trigger real discussion. People are passionate. That is why I love it and why I share. (18:46)

Alexey: For me it started when I gave a talk and shared the slides on LinkedIn. The post blew up for me. Maybe fifty likes but that was huge for me. Then I understood there was something there. If I shared again after giving a talk people reacted and this pulled me in. Was it similar for you? (19:17)

Admond: Yes. Not every post goes viral. Once you see traction like your fifty likes you start thinking you should post more useful content. When you see comments and people saying they found it helpful it motivates you a lot. (19:53)

Admond: That is why I kept posting consistently. Even now I share content at least three to four times a week on LinkedIn. I am not so frequent on Medium because of work commitments but LinkedIn is still my favorite platform. (20:30)

Alexey: Writing a full Medium post takes more time. On LinkedIn you can draft something quickly and see if the idea resonates and then convert it into an article. (20:55)

Alexey: Correct. Exactly. Did you do that? (21:15)

Alexey: Yes. (21:15)

Admond: How I put up content is through Hootsuite. It is a platform to schedule content. I do not prefer writing a post every day because that is very time consuming. I spend one or two hours on a weekend. Within these hours I generate all the ideas I have and make them bite size content to share on LinkedIn or Twitter. (21:22)

Admond: I schedule everything right away throughout the next week. So this week I generate some content and schedule it for next week. This is my workflow. It saves me time and makes me more productive. (21:54)

Admond: If you imagine coming home after work every day and writing content you will spend half an hour daily and more weekly. Productivity is important for me. (22:05)

Alexey: I am curious about this. You said once a week you sit down for one or two hours and generate as many ideas as possible. How does the idea generation process look to you? Where do you get inspiration? (22:24)

Admond: Good question. Content generation is not easy. I always have some resources. For example Feedly. Feedly is a data aggregator platform and it is free. (22:36)

Admond: It aggregates all the platforms you select every day. If you wonder what content to post you can refer to it and see which articles catch your interest. You read the article and if it is helpful you can generate your content right away. You write your thoughts about the article and what you think about it. (23:02)

Admond: Another way is through BuzzSumo. BuzzSumo features the top content on the internet for many topics. If you wonder what topics get attention right now you can read what is trending. You can also check trending topics on Twitter. (23:19)

Admond: From there you can get ideas for your content. For example if I see how to go into data science trending that means people are very interested in entering data science. I might write a post with seven steps to raise their chances and this increases interest. (23:57)

Admond: There are different ways to find ideas. Another preference is writing down ideas whenever I have them. When I work and I have an idea I cannot memorize everything. So I use Evernote. (24:22)

Admond: I jot down my thoughts there. I write only the topic because I will write the full thing on Sunday. I compile them and write on Sunday. (24:47)

Admond: Another source of inspiration is looking at other people's content. In the data science community some posts get more engagement than others. I look at what moved people. I check the format such as video, written content or audio. (25:06)

Admond: Sometimes it is a PDF. I tested one time and posted a PDF cheat sheet on LinkedIn. That went crazy. It is all about experimentation and sharing. (25:37)

Admond: Once you notice the pattern you focus on it. But LinkedIn's algorithm always changes. The most important thing is the quality of your content. Make sure your content adds value instead of copying others. (25:50)

Alexey: We have Ravit in the comments. He uses the PDF format a lot. He shares cheat sheets and gets a lot of engagement. What do you think about other platforms? LinkedIn is not the only one. There are others like Reddit, Quora, Twitter. What do you think about them? (26:14)

Admond: There are many platforms. I would love to try Clubhouse some day. When I get an iPhone because I am using Android. Clubhouse is my future platform to try. (26:50)

Admond: The current platform I am trying is Twitter. Recently I am moving more toward Twitter because I see opportunities to share content there. But Twitter is a very different ecosystem compared to LinkedIn. (27:12)

Admond: It is crowded and noisy. You cannot write long form stories like on LinkedIn. When I want to share something I need to restrict my word count or create multiple threads. (27:30)

Admond: Another channel I would like to try is Quora. It is a Q and A platform. Also Stack Overflow for technical answers. I would suggest these as well. (27:49)

Alexey: These question answering platforms are interesting. You said you started because you wanted to share knowledge. These platforms are great for sharing knowledge and answering questions. (28:09)

Alexey: Quora, Reddit and Stack Exchange platforms are good for that. (28:21)

Admond: Correct. People can upvote your answers. If the answers are helpful and add value people upvote and you gain visibility. You then build your portfolio on Quora or Stack Overflow. (28:28)

Alexey: One trick I used when I was active on Quora is that it gives inspiration. When you get a question you see what people are curious about. You answer it and then put the answer on LinkedIn or Twitter. It resonates with people. (28:45)

Alexey: It is a nice trick for anyone listening to try. Be helpful on Quora and then repurpose the content on other platforms. (29:17)

Admond: Great. I will try it out soon. (29:24)

Alexey: You mentioned Clubhouse which is an iPhone only thing. I have not tried it because I also have Android. It is not inclusive. It is audio only. Podcasts are also audio only. Sometimes podcasts include video like this one because it is on YouTube. We will release it as audio too. What is your opinion on podcasts? (29:31)

Admond: I have been wanting to start a podcast since last year but I did not have time to commit. It requires more time than writing content. From what I have heard and seen I think podcasts are a great way to share content. (30:03)

Admond: You can have fifteen minutes, half an hour or one hour with one guest or a few guests discussing a topic. You share opinions and perspectives. It helps the audience learn from the conversation. (30:20)

Admond: Instead of only writing articles people hear different opinions. They may form their own perspective. That is helpful for others. (30:36)

Alexey: So basically when it is a discussion rather than one person talking or writing it can be more entertaining and more exploratory. You can explore a topic by exchanging opinion and talking about it. (30:55)

Admond: Exactly and it is a good way to network with others. (31:06)

Alexey: So is it a good thing for establishing a personal brand like being on a podcast as a guest or as a host? (31:19)

Admond: What I would say is it is definitely a huge opportunity. You can see on LinkedIn many people are pushing written content. Let us focus on the data science domain. You see a lot of written content and step by step posts. It is unlikely you see someone sharing podcasts about data science unless they are celebrities. (31:26)

Admond: Usually people share articles or YouTube videos. So I think podcast is another domain to build a personal brand and if audio is your strength by all means go for it. I think there is a huge opportunity to build your personal brand there. I like places where not many people are and you go in and build your expertise and your personal brand. That is how you get an early game opportunity. (31:56)

Alexey: But it is also a bit challenging because when you have video or write you can use diagrams and visuals. In data science we have formulas and code and it is challenging to do that in audio only without slides or text. You have to be good at explaining things. (32:33)

Admond: That trains your communication skills. One of the good things about podcasts or videos is you can redistribute your content in different formats. When you have a podcast recorded you can turn it into a written format and share it on Medium. You can also share podcast snippets of maybe one minute on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. (32:52)

Admond: If you have one hour of podcast you can split it into ten different content. I learned this from Gary Vaynerchuk. (33:35)

Alexey: I know he is famous. I have not followed him but many people mentioned him as their inspiration to be active on social media. What do you think about offline stuff? We talked mostly about online platforms like LinkedIn and Medium and podcasts which are more online. (33:49)

Alexey: What about the offline world? How can we become more visible outside the internet? Right now it is difficult with lockdown but in Singapore maybe restrictions are less strong. (34:22)

Admond: How can we be more visible outside LinkedIn and Medium? Now because of Covid we cannot go out to meet new people daily but let us assume Covid is not here. (34:42)

Admond: One platform I use is LinkedIn. I bring my online connection to offline through LinkedIn. We know each other on LinkedIn and comment on posts but have not met. When I meet someone I say I would love to have a catchup and ask if they have time in Singapore at a cafe. (34:58)

Admond: Another way is through meetups. I attended many meetups in Singapore. Google organizes monthly meetups and from there I knew many people. We got to know each other better and I learned about the industry. (35:28)

Admond: Another platform I use which is not very popular yet in Singapore is Lunch Club. (35:54)

Admond: Have you heard of that? (36:00)

Alexey: Yes I did. (36:05)

Admond: I recently joined Lunch Club and it is fantastic. I did not meet people in person but we meet online on Zoom or Google Meet. I met people from different industries like lawyers, designers, entrepreneurs and students. I learned a lot not only in data science and it broadened my perspective. (36:13)

Admond: Who knows maybe in the future you may have business opportunities together. Lunch Club is underrated but it requires invitation like Clubhouse. (36:43)

Admond: These are the ways I bring online to offline. Not all connections but maybe someone you have known for some time and want to catch up. (37:01)

Alexey: It makes sense. Connections on LinkedIn are shallow. We comment on posts but when you meet a person the weak connection becomes strong. It is better for networking and job opportunities. (37:09)

Admond: I recommend that in the beginning when someone starts to build a personal brand if someone invites you for offline catchup do not say no. Always say yes. You will not know what comes next. Many times people say they do not have time or do not know the person and do not feel like going out. (37:40)

Admond: Just say yes and try. Cool opportunities come when you meet someone new. My experience is that all amazing opportunities came from people I knew offline that I brought from online. (38:08)

Alexey: I am curious about people who are not extroverted and prefer not to meet people. They like to sit in front of a computer and talk maybe only with close friends. When someone invites them to a cafe they think what does this person want and is it safe. (38:33)

Alexey: I imagined awkward situations where we sit and drink coffee without talking and after ten minutes I say I need to go. When I eventually agreed to meet someone that awkward situation did not happen. What happened was amazing. I met new people and got good connections. (38:50)

Alexey: How to overcome this barrier and say yes? (39:45)

Admond: I feel you because there are awkward moments. You cannot talk nonstop for one or two hours. There is always silence and people by nature hate silence when with others. (39:50)

Admond: I would say maybe two things here based on my experience. Being vulnerable as you are is important. If I meet someone I do not mind sharing some of my weaknesses and saying I do not know something. By admitting that you do not know people are more open to share what they know to help you. People are willing to help and you just need to give them a chance. (40:08)

Admond: You give that chance by being vulnerable and that is how we connect by opening our door first. The second thing is to think about common topics we can relate to. If I am meeting someone at a cafe I may talk about recent news like Covid or Clubhouse and ask if they use it. (40:42)

Admond: Then they share their Clubhouse experience and now there is a new topic. It is something the person is interested in and you are curious to know so there is an exchange of information. I find that very interesting. (41:13)

Alexey: It is not just about one on one meetings in the offline world. We can also go to meetups not only as visitors but as speakers. If we talk about personal brand this is a more scalable way of establishing offline presence. (41:31)

Alexey: How can one get invited to a meetup to speak or how can one try to speak at a meetup? (41:51)

Admond: Good question. I remember the first time I got invited to a meetup. It was in a bank and I would not imagine I would go in and talk. What scared me was that most people were from a big company and I was speaking side by side with a CTO. (42:05)

Admond: I was the second speaker so I listened to the first speaker and thought I am not going to share what I prepared because these people will listen to me. I was fortunate to join but the reason I got invited was because I knew the person through LinkedIn. (42:28)

Admond: I brought this connection offline after meeting a few times and collaborating. People know you better and will start noticing you and inviting you when they need a speaker. That is the passive way where you wait for someone to approach you. (42:54)

Admond: A more active way is to look for conferences. Currently due to Covid there are many virtual conferences. You can search for data science conferences like DataTalks Club or Data Catered by KDD. They all need speakers and you can ask if they have vacancies. (43:11)

Admond: You can say you have this expertise and you would love to share something to add value to their audience and they might give you a chance if you just ask. (43:47)

Alexey: But speaking of dedicated conferences I approached Kate and asked if I could speak at her conference and the answer was no because it was booked. When you ask people if you can speak there is a process where you submit a proposal and they review it and often you get rejected. (44:08)

Alexey: How do you deal with rejection when you want to teach something but they say no or it is already full? (44:32)

Admond: That is understandable. Getting rejected is sad but I try to get feedback. I ask what their concern is, if it is full or if there is some mismatch with expectations or maybe it does not fit the conference theme. You cannot fit into every conference. (44:39)

Admond: I try to get feedback and reapply next round. With that feedback I refine my pitch and send it to another conference organizer to increase the chance of being featured or noticed. If you know someone who knows the organizer ask that person to recommend you. (45:22)

Admond: You then have a higher chance of being shortlisted. That is how I would suggest doing it. (45:53)

Alexey: So basically have a good network. It is not just about your personal brand but also who you know. (46:00)

Alexey: The interesting situation is that we talk because I invited you but at some point you were reaching out to conference organizers. How did it happen that instead of you applying to conferences organizers started reaching out to you? (46:07)

Admond: How did it happen to me? This is a very good question. Throughout the two year journey of attending online and offline meetups and conferences one reason is that I shared my speaking experiences on LinkedIn. (46:31)

Admond: People notice that you speak in public platforms and they notice you as a speaker in the data science space. When they have availability they approach you. The other thing is changing your headline which changed a lot for me. (46:55)

Admond: I read an article saying if you want something you have to let people know you are in that space. The LinkedIn headline is the first thing people see even when reading comments. I changed mine from data scientist to data scientist vertical bar speaker. (47:19)

Admond: You can still see it now. It gets you noticed not only through comments but also when people search for data science speaker. These three keywords increase the chance of your profile appearing at the top. LinkedIn is like SEO and your headline is like your SEO title. (47:52)

Alexey: Interesting trick. For you personally when I looked for speakers for this conference I thought about the career session and I needed someone who can speak about personal brand. Your name immediately came to mind. (48:16)

Alexey: This is the power of personal brand. Who talks about personal brand in the data science space? For me your name popped up and this is a good example of a strong personal brand. (48:53)

Admond: I am grateful for that. Personal brand is underrated not just in data science but in general. People tend not to share their experience. In many Asian countries people are reserved and conservative and do not like to share. (49:06)

Admond: I always recommend that people share and let others know. People are scared to be judged and we all fear that. You need to accept it and embrace it and share with the mindset that you want to help. (49:33)

Admond: Then you are free from that. (49:52)

Alexey: This is a good topic because we have a question in Slido. How do you get the confidence to write when you learn data science yourself? (49:59)

Alexey: You talked about pressing the post button and thinking that everyone will see it and think you have no idea what you are talking about. You might be mistaken and you know you are not an expert. How do you convince yourself to have enough confidence to press the post? (50:07)

Admond: I definitely feel that. If you read software articles and the comments there I get many disagreements and I make many mistakes. These are not only grammar mistakes but also technical mistakes. I admit that because I am not experienced enough and I share for the sake of sharing my experience and helping others. (50:48)

Admond: To get the confidence to press the publish button do not write to impress or show how good you are. If you write only to impress that is not a good reason to write. Write because you want to help others who have gone through the same struggle. (50:54)

Admond: When you write with the mindset of helping it does not matter if people criticize you because you do it out of goodwill. You are not doing it to impress so that gives me confidence to write even when I get many comments. We all learn from the process. (51:18)

Alexey: Maybe on LinkedIn it does not happen as much. When I share the community is friendlier. (51:10)

Alexey: On Twitter it is sometimes like the wild west. You can be anonymous and people write many nasty things. (51:16)

Alexey: They say you do not know anything and ask who allowed you to write. That is demotivating. Next time you want to write you wonder if you should press the button because of those comments. (51:23)

Alexey: How do you develop thick skin so these comments do not get to you. (51:51)

Admond: Different approaches work for different people. To deal with negative comments try to engage them and understand where they come from. I receive this from time to time and I reply with thanks and appreciation and see where I can improve. (53:02)

Admond: Instead of going against them understand that everyone has an opinion and nobody is always right. Be open minded so you will not feel the need to fight back. (53:20)

Admond: When you appreciate their comment it makes them feel acknowledged and less offended. They would not think you are hiding something. (54:00)

Alexey: The energy may be negative and someone may want to start a flame war but you are turning that negative energy into something positive. (54:21)

Alexey: We have a related comment about imposter syndrome and this is what stops us from clicking publish. (54:38)

Alexey: I imagine you also deal with that. How do you overcome it especially on social media or public speaking. (54:50)

Admond: I face this from time to time. I always admit that I am not a technical person. I tell people that if you ask me general machine learning questions I can answer but if you ask something very technical I will say I do not know because I am not an expert. (55:02)

Admond: To overcome imposter syndrome I try to understand myself better. I recognize what I am good at and what I am not good at. (55:22)

Admond: One of the quotes I like from Jack Ma is when people say you are not good think about whether you really are not good. When people say you are good think twice about whether you are really that good. (55:47)

Admond: This keeps me balanced so I do not get overly confident or too depressed when people say I am not good. (56:07)

Admond: Be self aware of your strengths and weaknesses by analyzing your journey and what you have learned. (56:18)

Alexey: I want to talk about your teaching experience because it is connected to personal brand. Sharing knowledge and teaching is a good way to establish a personal brand. (56:32)

Alexey: Is building online courses a good way to do that. (57:04)

Admond: Teaching definitely helps and building your own online course can scale well. If you can teach and share your expertise it builds your personal brand and can also bring revenue. (57:16)

Admond: There are free data science bootcamps organized by others that teach for the sake of helping. That is one of the best ways to build your personal brand. (57:37)

Admond: If you work on this full time you also need income so you need to balance building a personal brand and earning money. (58:03)

Alexey: If I want to build a course and sell it I need to already have a personal brand so people trust me. If nobody knows me nobody will buy. (58:28)

Alexey: One way to build this trust is giving content for free like the bootcamp you mentioned. They became known and people trust them. (58:57)

Admond: That depends on how you frame your brand. Everyone has their own brand and you cannot copy others. To build your brand you need to know what you stand for and what your values are. (1:00:15)

Admond: Once you know your values you can build your brand well. If you build it without knowing your values you may get confused later. (1:00:39)

Admond: Corporate brands and personal brands are similar. Apple stands for innovation. For me I value serving others and sharing. (1:01:11)

Admond: When I post online I know I want to help. I may be wrong but I admit it and improve. (1:01:26)

Alexey: Having these values helps you click the publish button because you know why you are doing it. (1:01:44)

Admond: Exactly. Know your why. If you do not know your why you cannot do this long term. (1:01:55)

Alexey: You also have a course about personal brand. Does it include developing values. (1:02:11)

Admond: I cover two main platforms in the course which are Medium and LinkedIn. I show how to build your personal brand and how to polish your portfolio. (1:02:17)

Admond: For someone new I help them build their Medium profile and show how to publish content and scale it. I share resources and my content strategy. (1:02:55)

Admond: I only share what I use so it can help others. (1:03:21)

Alexey: What is a content strategy. (1:03:28)

Admond: To find content I compile resources I look at Feedly Quora Twitter and Stack Overflow to get ideas. (1:03:35)

Admond: To write a good story you need storytelling skills. I am still learning how to write in a way that engages people. (1:04:07)

Admond: Another part is when to post and how often. Every channel has an optimal time based on your audience. My best time on LinkedIn is 6 pm Singapore time. (1:04:32)

Admond: On Twitter I test three times which are 9 am 12 pm and 6 pm. (1:05:04)

Alexey: How did you find that 6 pm works best. (1:05:16)

Admond: I tested mornings and nothing happened. I tested noon and got some engagement. I tested mid afternoon and people were working. (1:05:23)

Admond: Posting from 6 to 9 pm works best because many of my audience are from the US or India. (1:05:43)

Alexey: How can people find your course. (1:06:08)

Admond: They can type Personal Brand Toolkits. (1:06:14)

Alexey: A question for you. Are there disadvantages to having a strong personal brand. (1:06:33)

Admond: Sometimes I get too carried away by social engagement. I commit to engaging with others by liking commenting and sharing. This takes time and I lose focus on priorities. (1:06:55)

Admond: It is time consuming and content generation takes time. Managing priorities is the main disadvantage. (1:07:28)

Alexey: We have one more question. How much time do you spend creating and sharing content and how do you manage time to build a personal brand while doing data science. (1:08:20)

Admond: Every week I allocate two to three hours on weekends to generate content by writing my posts and scheduling them. (1:08:46)

Admond: It takes about an hour to find ideas and the rest to write. It is not easy to write a good story. (1:09:10)

Admond: For the second question it depends on your job nature. My current job is more on the teaching side. Before when I worked as a data scientist it was hectic. (1:09:47)

Admond: I limit my content creation to two or three hours weekly and I engage no more than thirty minutes a day. (1:10:24)

Admond: Use your commute time to engage on social media so you do not need to check your phone while working. (1:10:45)

Alexey: This is probably the best time to publish because people are commuting. (1:11:03)

Alexey: Last question. Do you have book recommendations. (1:11:21)

Admond: I recommend Andrew’s book The Hundred Page Machine Learning Book. It is a bestseller and easy to understand. (1:11:27)

Admond: The second book is An Introduction to Statistical Learning. It is like a bible for learning machine learning and it gave me a strong foundation. (1:11:56)

Alexey: Thanks for taking the time to join us and share your story and everything you learned. (1:12:44)

Admond: Thank you so much. I appreciate your time and I enjoyed sharing. I hope you found it helpful and I look forward to joining future sessions. (1:13:03)