Since I’ve recently wrapped up my first year of law school, I’m sharing tips on how I managed to balance school with building a personal brand, #EniGivenSunday, on Instagram, this blog, and sometimes Youtube. Keep in mind that I’m sharing this from the perspective of a law school student, but odds are most of these tips apply to anyone in college, graduate or professional school.
Start With a Clear Vision
Is your content going to change now that you’re in grad school? For example, is your focus or “niche” going to be on giving advice on admissions and success in grad school or in a career after the fact? On the other hand, you might want to stick to your niche and not deviate too much from the type of content you originally set to put out. If you’re a lifestyle blogger, maybe that means sharing more about your personal experience and reflections about school, while still keeping other content at the forefront. After all, if graduate school is a new part of your life and you are a lifestyle blogger, it might make sense to share some of that.
Ask yourself: Is your content going to change now that you’re in grad school?
I decided that #EniGivenSunday would NOT be the source for all things law school or legal career advice. I knew that beauty, with a focus on skincare, would still be my primary niche. Every now and then I share reflections about law school because it is a part of my life. Pursuing a legal career was a valuable addition to my content however, because an important aspect of my brand is the fact that I don’t have to pick a traditional profession over beauty influencing or vice versa. Keep in mind you can be creative if you have multiple platforms. Maybe YouTube might be geared towards grad school advice and your Instagram is more lifestyle content. Just an idea.
For some examples or inspiration here are a few bloggers I follow who are in graduate or professional school: @MedSchoolMilah (med student), @Mezonthemove (med student), @gabbywhiten (PhD student).
Set Realistic Goals and Don’t Be Too Hard On Yourself
Before the school year started, my audience knew I’d be on social media less. Up until law school I posted on this blog and on Instagram EVERY single #EniGivenSunday. I had to get realistic with myself about the fact that school would come first. First, I am paying a lump sum for it, so I better make sure I get my money’s worth. Second, I knew that law school would be a few years of sacrifice for a lifetime of opportunity. That sounds incredibly cheesy but hear me out: I will only be in law school once. After that, many of the experiences I have in law school will stand to impact my career in some way. I can’t say the same framework exists when it comes to blogging and working with brands.
I will only be in law school once.
Of course there were times I felt like I was missing out on opportunities to work on my content. But many of these brands weren’t going anywhere. Collaborations that I “missed” wouldn’t be gone forever. There would be plenty of time to put out content when the time was right. That meant I had to revise may posting goals. Instead of aiming to post once a week, I scaled it back to bi-weekly posts during the semester, and put out no new blog posts during finals. I also scaled back my in-feed posts on Instagram so that I wouldn’t need to plan photoshoots as often.
Stay Organized
I kept track of many events and deadlines this past year. If I didn’t have a planner, I wouldn’t have been as effective in doing so. I chose to color code my planner based on what was related to law school and what was related to #EniGivenSunday so that it was easier for me to visualize when I would need to scale back on the blog related work. Organization is really about finding what works best for you.
Connect with blogger, Youtuber, and Influencer friends
It’ll be easy for you to be around people on a similar career path as you through school. Similarly, it’s nice to maintain community with other content creators who can relate to you on that level. They’ll understand the effort that goes into creating. Overall, community serves as a great form of inspiration and motivation.
Maintain community with other content creators who can relate to you on that level.
Accept that there will be some sacrifice
If you truly want to balance school with building a personal brand on a high level, something has to give. If I truly wanted to get through my readings, draft blog posts, go to the gym, go to church every Sunday, and carve out time on the weekends for filming or photoshoots, that likely meant that I wouldn’t be going to law school social events like “bar review” or happy hours. For me, that was something I was fine with sacrificing every now and then. Sometimes I’d receive invitations for influencer events set to take place in the middle of a class. As excited as I was to attend some of the events, I knew I had to go to class. All of this is not to say I wasn’t social at all, but these examples speak to the idea that I couldn’t possibly do everything and be everywhere, so I had to prioritize what was most important to me at the time.
Check out this video on my quarantine law school routine. It featured some bits of me working on content. It’s a pretty solid example of how to balance school with building a personal brand.
HOW DO YOU BALANCE SCHOOL WITH BUILDING A PERSONAL BRAND?
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1: 27
