How I Built My Personal Brand from Scratch in 7 Months

The Box I Lived In

I used to think building a personal brand meant writing LinkedIn articles and watching the likes pile up. If a post performed well, I felt like I was doing something right.

That was my world, a small, safe box where recognition meant metrics, not meaning. I didn’t realize how narrow that mindset was until 2024. I decided that it was time to expand my horizons and see what’s out there.

Wake-Up Call from YouTube

One random day, I opened YouTube and started watching Gary Vee and similar creators. I don’t know why I hadn’t tapped into it earlier, even though YouTube had always been there. But this time, it was different.

I must have binge watched around 55 videos. Video after video made me realize just how limited my idea of “brand” had been. I thought visibility came only from LinkedIn. That was my first mistake. There was a whole world out there I was ignoring.

It was time to transform my ways of working. I had to put a plan in place that would help me build a brand for myself. There was a lot of talk about working with a mentor. But which one? And the costs? So, I decided to start small and go with the obvious options i.e. build a website, build a social following and then get into Youtube. It was scary, but I knew I had to do it.

Getting My Own Domain

Within weeks, I bought my own domain, noeldcosta.com. It felt personal. I didn’t want to be just another name in someone’s feed. I wanted to create something that felt like mine. Since my work revolves around ERP and AI solutions, I started writing articles from my own experiences. Not perfect writing, but honest.

The early results weren’t impressive. I got a few views here and there. But even a few real humans landing on the site felt like an achievement. It gave me something I didn’t have before: momentum.

I doubled down on writing about my experience. Learning about website design, UX and UI… were overwhelming, but I got through by watching hundreds of Youtube videos and learning from the experience of others.

Discovering SEO

Once I had the basics up, I realized something obvious. I didn’t understand how people were finding (or not finding) my content. That led me to SEO. I started reading up on how search engines work. What I learned changed everything.

I dug deep. Meta tags, page speed, internal linking, image alt texts, it was really a rabbit hole. I spent late nights tweaking and optimizing every post. I tracked keywords, rewrote headers, tested different formats. After three months, traffic went up 4x. The work paid off. Today, the site brings in around 6,500 page views a month. For a seven-month-old project built from scratch, that number makes me proud.

Fixing LinkedIn

My next focus was LinkedIn. Until then, it had been stuck in time, a dusty profile, blurry banner, outdated job title. I gave it a full cleanup. Created a sharp banner, rewrote my bio, added real keywords based on what I do, and most importantly, linked my website.

I didn’t start posting every day. But I posted with intent. A short insight here, a lesson there. The goal wasn’t to go viral; it was to be clear. A few weeks later, messages started rolling in. People had seen the site, liked the content, and wanted to talk. Not generic compliments, real questions about ERP issues and AI solutions. That’s when it started to feel real.

Understanding the Legal Part

Someone mentioned to me that I needed to have a company registered, to be compliant with tax and regulations. I had also noticed that interest had picked up from both local and international clients.

To handle it properly, I registered a company in the US and one in the UAE. I learned a lot during this process: how to legally set up a US entity as a non-resident, how to handle taxation, compliance, banking…the works. It was necessary, and I had to do it.

Registering the business added credibility. Clients took me more seriously. Invoices looked professional. Conversations shifted from “freelancer” to “consultant with a company.” A subtle but important difference.

Facing the Camera

The one area I had avoided until now: video. I’m camera shy, and the whole YouTube thing seemed too much. Studio setup, lighting, audio, scripting, editing, B-roll was overwhelming. But I knew I had to do it.

So, I decided to break it down. I turned a corner of my room into a DIY studio. Nothing fancy. Just curtains for sound, soft lights, a lapel mic, and my laptop. I wrote scripts the way I talk, no teleprompters, just notes. The editing took forever. But finally, I had something that felt good enough to publish.

I’ll be releasing my first YouTube series in July 2025. It’s about ERP and AI implementation, the stuff I live and breathe. It’s not polished TV content. It’s me, sharing what I know.

Lessons I Picked Up

This whole journey, right from that first YouTube video to launching my own site (and another for trainings on ERP and AI), learning SEO, fixing LinkedIn, registering companies, and finally creating video, taught me a lot. These are the points I now live by:

1. Platforms Reflect What You Put In

If you half-post, you get half-results. Consistency and intent matter.

2. Write Like You Talk

People connect with real language, not corporate jargon and technical terms. The idea is to keep it simple.

3. Share While You Learn

You don’t need to be an expert. Just document what you’re figuring out. Someone will relate.

4. Own Your Space

Social platforms are borrowed ground. Your website is your home. Don’t build everything on rented land.

5. Legal Stuff Matters

If you want to scale, you need structure. Get the paperwork done early.

6. Video Builds Trust

Even if it’s rough, showing your face builds a different kind of connection. People assess your authenticity and realize that this is a person.

7. Help Others Grow

I believe that this entire exercise was not completely about me, it was to push myself to do something that most people would not. If your journey helps someone else, you’ve already won.

8. Stay Curious

Trends change. Tools change. If you treat everything like a chance to learn, you won’t get stuck.

My Final Thoughts

What started as a casual experiment became a full-blown shift. I stepped out of that box I’d been sitting in for years. And I’m not going back. I even went ahead and showed my son the results I achieved, and I was happy that he decided to move in the same direction. I set an example which I am proud of.

He went ahead and created a site in his own name and focused on the 3 things, he was passionate about i.e. Fitness, Food and Finance.

The most important thing I’ve learned is that Branding is more than just building a name. It’s about building trust. And that happens when you stop trying to look perfect and start showing up consistently, even when you’re still figuring things out.

If you’re in the same place I was, stuck wondering if it’s too late or too difficult to start, my advice would be to just start. Your story, your struggle, your wins, they’ll help someone else. That’s how you build something real.