My New Personal Brand Thesis

I've been creating content through my personal brand since 2018.

The system has evolved many times, but the last 12 months have been the biggest shift yet. What I've landed on for 2026 is leaner and simpler than anything I've done before.

I've got a thesis about where personal branding is heading.

There's going to be a split, and I think the people who get ahead of it will build real community, brand depth, and deal flow. Not just vanity metrics.

The Big Change

Over the last year, I decoupled my personal brand from my core education business. I discuss this in detail here.

Up until late 2024, my entire personal brand was tied to my core Education Business, Caris Digital. That's where I help people sell information products online. It worked, but it boxed me in. I could only talk about that one thing.

As my business grew, I got involved more in consulting, advisory work, partnerships, investments. I wanted space to talk about all of it.

So I put the education business into its own silo.

It runs with ads and email. It has its own YouTube channel and offers. It's real, it's always running, but it's behind the scenes now & 'decoupled' from the 'JC' brand.

This gave me two things.

One, more leverage in that business. Less tied to my time.

Two, more margin in the personal brand to explore different projects and document the whole journey.

The Real Lens

The major lens sitting on top of all this is building a time capsule for my kids.

A record of the moves I'm making in real time. What succeeded. What failed. What I'm reading. Who I'm learning from. How I'm synthesising lessons while managing businesses, investments, partnerships, advisory work, and being a present dad.

That's what the brand is now. Not a niche. Not tips and tactics. Just documentation of the journey. The good, the bad, the ugly.

Where Personal Branding is Going

As I restructured everything, I paid attention to what content I actually consume.

There's a guy who creates YouTube videos. Worth a few hundred million. He just shares his life. And another guy who writes a monthly newsletter. Probably a billionaire.

The common thread (aside from being worth a shit load of $$$)

They're simply sharing their life. No set cadence. Not posting daily. Not teaching. Not chasing content schedules or launch calendars.

They're running their businesses, living their lives, and using content as an outlet to capture the ride and share lessons when they want to.

That's my thesis. That's where personal branding is heading.

It's not new. It's come full circle. When personal branding first appeared, that's what it was. Before it became about redlining the algorithm. Before AI made it 10 times worse.

The people who focus on building what they want and share that journey truly, in its beauty and ugliness, who they are, what they're working on, why they're building it.

That's the future.

At least that's the content I love to consume and create, so that's where I'm heading.

The Minimalist Strategy

The video above is the anchor. The pillar content, to use creator terms.

Once a week, if there's something worth talking about, I'll sit down and film a video about what I'm thinking about, working on, learning, achieving, failing at. Real time stuff from the trenches wherever I may be in the world.

Over time, as the catalog builds, I can reflect back. I was right. I was wrong. That went well. That was a shit show.

This goes on a new YouTube channel (above). It also goes on this Substack journal with supplementary notes (literally what you're reading now).

And out to my email list called Notes. Just my building notes from the Quiet Empire.

Think of it like old TV shows. One episode a week. You'd get excited for 6pm Thursday. Watch it. Then wait until next week. Not bingeing 10 episodes at once.

That cadence. That flow. One episode a week about what's happening now.

I'm also layering in a deeper monthly update. Like this one here from December 2025.

Longer form. Going out to the email list and journal. What we covered in videos, what else happened behind the scenes, things that weren't big enough for a full video. The good, the bad, the ugly.

The Point

My game plan as I sit here today. Can it change? Yes. May the cadence evolve? Yes. Will there be weeks I don't upload? Yes.

That's the entire point.

It's not about forcing videos. I want to focus on building my education business, consulting with clients, working with partners, revenue share partnerships, running marketing departments, building my investment portfolio, reading, being a present dad, watching live football, traveling, having good conversations, working on interesting projects.

Then I'll bring back the lessons.

The good stuff, the bad stuff, the interesting, the quirky. What I find interesting. Maybe you will, maybe you won't.

My Thesis

If you're disconnecting from content, if it feels shallow, maybe there's something here worth thinking about.

I'm not saying this is right for everyone. But I think it's coming full circle.

Documentation. Sharing the ride in real time. Warts and all. That's where we're heading.

Those brands won't get the most views. Not the most viral. Not the most algorithm friendly. But they'll build depth, community, loyal fans. Strong philosophies. The things that should come with building a personal brand.

More notes coming as we build into 2026.