Fame is becoming more accessible. Now within less than a year, a 15-year-old girl can gain over a million followers by simply dancing. Although this may sound like a golden age for would-be celebrities, without proper preparation, we may be entering an age in which we have more signs of depression from people who gain fame too quickly. Let us not forget what happened to Britney Spears in 2007.
Fame doesn’t necessarily need to constitute having millions of followers. Having 10,000 people actively following you can make you a famous person. There are levels to the game, and with that come different costs. One common thread amongst all levels of fame is that there will come a threshold where you won’t be able to handle your audience engagement by yourself. The bigger the effect you have on culture, the more responsibility you have. As you scale your audience, you will eventually have to create a team that helps manage your personal brand.
Publicists have existed since the 20th century. There are publicists who specialize in doing PR for a whole range of individuals, from high-level execs to actors. Now with the emergence of influencers and social media, there are publicists who manage online personal brands.
The practice of managing the brand remains the same. A publicist, personal branding consultant, or media agency that specializes in these types of accounts all work to promote the client’s brand. This can be done through content development and optimization, community management, booking speaking gigs and events, managing relationships with other celebrities, and more.
If you are to take the chase for fame seriously, hiring a person or entity to help you, will eventually come into play. $2,500 as a monthly investment is an arbitrary number. There are agencies that charge over $25,000 a month to help manage and grow your personal brand. The fees that they charge can be seen as an investment because of how valuable their services are.
Your personal brand can be used to gain options. That’s what fame does, it provides options. However, fame doesn’t necessarily equate to financial success. Fame can aid in acquiring financial success, but only if it is used correctly.
There are a variety of decisions that you could make that can both grow your financial opportunities and that can also damage your brand. Hiring someone to help you in growing your personal brand is always the right decision if you are to take the endeavor seriously. You will need someone to vet potential sponsorship deals, handle responding to comments, and do damage control in the event of any social blunders.
Increased exposure will come at the cost of your privacy, increased hate (because there are always haters), and an increased need for preserving that exposure. Before you gain what you seek, think about what you want to be known for. Exposure without a purpose leads to you being a temporary viral sensation. People get bored quickly. A person dedicated to helping you grow your brand can help you in defining the purpose of your exposure.
If you don’t provide the public with entertainment or utility, then there is no reason that you should be seeking fame. You are more likely to become successful by seeking to improve your current skills. However, if you do find that you have an engaged audience that actively follows your work, you are in a good spot. At a certain point, you will want a team to help you manage your audience so that you can continue to focus on the work that got you your fame in the first place.
Many of us want exposure but, we aren’t willing to pay the price for it. Shift your thinking from costs to investments. If you truly consider that your personal brand should be managed like a company, the idea of hiring a person or a team of people to help grow your exposure becomes an obvious must-have.