Build From the Inside Out: The Strategy That Ends the Performance Game

Most marketing advice sounds helpful on the surface:

• Pick a niche

• Tailor your message to what the market wants

• Study your competitors

• Target the right customers

• Hook attention

• Sell until they buy—or die

But here’s what no one tells you:
Following this advice too literally can slowly separate you from yourself.

You end up building a brand that might work in the market—
but feels meaningless and artificial to you.

What happens next?

You start second-guessing every post.
You use unnatural language that leaves you empty.
You chase algorithms instead of building real connection.
You hook attention using urgency that isn’t yours.

On the surface, it works.
But underneath, your work feels less like expression—
and more like maintenance.

The Inside-Out Shift

“No one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories you have to tell.”
— Charles de Lint

Your story, your voice, and your way of seeing the world—that’s what makes your brand different.
Not a niche. Not a strategy. You.

So the goal isn’t to be louder.
It’s to stop editing yourself to fit what’s popular.

Build your business around what’s real for you.
Let it reflect how you think, how you work, and what you actually care about.
Make it something you can stand behind long-term.

When you stop changing yourself to fit a strategy—
and instead design a strategy that reflects who you truly are—
you don’t just build a brand.
You build alignment.
And alignment is a superpower.

Where to Begin

“Nature never repeats herself, and the possibilities of one human soul will never be found in another.”
— Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Start from what you’re called to do—not what the market wants from you.

Ask yourself:

• What have I actually lived through?

• What do I value more than anything?

• What am I burning to say or create?

• What problem am I here to help solve?

• What do I wish existed in the world?

• What are my intellectual obsessions?

• What energizes me—and what drains me?

That’s where your brand begins.
Not in a perfectly crafted niche—
but in the clarity of your own lived experience.

Until next time,
Shaan