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Growing a personal brand as a dental student

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

bobbatov

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Hey guys, thanks for the warm welcome previously!

I am JK, a dental student from the sunny island of Singapore. In this thread, I will be documenting my personal branding journey. I decided to document this here, because I feel this forum provides the right community for my mindset to grow. While I also hope that you can learn something from this,I’d love to receive feedback on how I can improve! I will genuinely appreciate your support.

Why do I want to build my personal brand?

It would be a way to make good memories for my class. Unlike other university classes, 1 class of dentistry students here is very small and we basically see each other every day (at least before covid). We are in the final 2 years together so it’ll be nice to have memories to look back on after we graduate. I hope my content would also give potential students a better insight to dental school.

In the long run, it’s a way to build rapport with people so they can have a dentist they follow and trust over time and also teach them about oral health, hygiene, and more.

What do I plan to do:

The main obstacle I have is time constraints from school. My school’s curriculum is very rigorous and I definitely need to invest extra time in and outside of school to hone my skills in becoming a competent dentist.

But that’s exactly what I plan to use, I will be documenting my school life and creating candid vlogs (like David Dobrik’s style) and produce them once every 2 weeks.

In addition to the vlogs, I will be documenting other interesting things outside of fitness that I have learnt, (like handstands, fitness etc), or making dentistry related videos.

Well, what are my alternatives for now?
  • Wasting the extra time playing computer games
  • Feeding the shiny object syndrome chasing that quick buc
Creating some good memories sound like the best deal for me

A little history + what I have now:

I actually experimented making such content 2 years ago in year 1 and the content actually exceeded my expectations.

However, I caught the shiny object syndrome, abandoned my work and tried all the typical nonsense as MJ DeMarco said in his book (dropshipping, SMMA, etc) under the guise of exploring and learning.

So my half-assed efforts got me 14 youtube subscribers, granted most (if not all) are friends, but I think I was onto something.

I have also been posting comedy content on tiktok landing me 600+ followers. My 1.6k followers base on instagram also landed me some paid advertising deals.

My school has also taken notice that I like to make such videos and have asked me to help them before. So there’s no better time to start to produce focused content that is more coherent with my image.

In addition, I have everything required to start vlogging:
  • My trusty iPhone 8 to film
  • Tripod
  • Surface Pro that can edit videos
  • Even a microphone that my friend lent me
There's really no reason why I shouldnt start.

Aims:
My current main focus will be to produce videos consistently. I hope to produce biweekly vlogs and 1 self-improvement video every month. I think this is very doable within my schedule.

Once I get the hang of uploading videos on a consistent basis, I may up the frequency to monthly vlogs. I may also build a desktop to optimise the video editing process. My surface pro is quite weak

Monetisation, getting viral, new content themes can also all be explored later, but are not of priority now.

Experience so far

I have been vlog a bit of footage at school and the main problem I got into was vlogging anxiety. I think this is largely due to me being a bit rusty socially; staying home during quarantine and it not being part of my lifestyle then.

To overcome this, I have just decided to vlogging part of my lifestyle, filming more than just when I am in school.

I also realised when I started I didn't really talk to the camera when I was filming, so I have become more aware of that.

Final thoughts

I am aware that this isnt the typical fastlane business, but I believe it will open up doors and can eventually lead to one. It’s also something productive that I can do alongside school. I may have a slow start and my vlogs may not be the best now, but i believe it'll improve with time. Everyone starts from somewhere.

I have been editing and will release the first vlog soon! Watch this space
 
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bobbatov

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Starting this off with a primer.


Announcing that I will be posting vlogs of dental school life in time to come in my year 2 reflection video. My year 1 reflection video was my best performing video, so I thought to kick things off in a similar fashion.
 

Madame Peccato

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Your video's volume is too low, I had to considerably raise my pc and headphones' volume to be able to hear you.

Another issue I have with your video is that your camera is either placed way too high, or too far away. There is too much space between your head and the upper corner of the video, it makes you look weird. Try different positions.

These are two things you can fix right for your next video.

I am glad you got started, now keep going :thumbsup:
 

bobbatov

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Jun 3, 2020
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Your video's volume is too low, I had to considerably raise my pc and headphones' volume to be able to hear you.

Another issue I have with your video is that your camera is either placed way too high, or too far away. There is too much space between your head and the upper corner of the video, it makes you look weird. Try different positions.

These are two things you can fix right for your next video.

I am glad you got started, now keep going :thumbsup:

Thanks for the feedback! I've been receiving the same feedback from my friends as well! Will definitely work on it.
Thanks for your kind words as well!
 
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bobbatov

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I did it! Finally uploaded my first Vlog.

Thoughts:
When I was filming this, I honestly thought I was just filming random stuff in my life that comes across as routine for me. But I was pleasantly surprised when I pieced them together it was actually pretty decent. This is getting me excited and I'm looking forward to making more!

I also tried removing as much noise as possible in this one (thanks @Madame Peccato for the feedback), not sure how it comes across now. Will love to hear your feedback!

 

bobbatov

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Jun 3, 2020
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Hi guys,

Just uploaded the second episode of my vlog!

We just saw our first patients and things are getting exciting. I was a bit anxious at the start, but things went just fine :)

Here are some lessons I have learnt so far with respect to juggling this along side with school:

Time management
I learnt that I dont have the luxury of time to worry about perfecting my vlogs/hate. I just got to produce it because once I am done, I will have to go back to studies. However, this doesnt mean I have the time to not engage my followers or be careless (for example I made a mistake in the opening of the 2nd vlog). If anything, this serves as a reason why you should execute first and worry later.

Discipline
This applies to all aspects of my life and not just creating content. For example, I didnt focus during lectures thinking I have the luxury of time to revise them again once they are over. However this caused me to lag behind in lectures, which split over to my vlogs. I edited this vlog late as a result. I have since noticed this and taken actions to prevent it.

Always keep your pipeline full (be documenting)
Towards the deadline of this vlog, I realised that I haven't been filming and might be short of content. Fortunately I had filmed enough content earlier on contribute to the vlog and achieve my desired length. Always keep your pipeline full so you can have an abundance to choose from.

Audio problems
The hardest part of editing these vlogs is the audios. They range from being too soft to too loud and it's quite hard to balance everything nicely. I guess this is why the big vloggers update to a camera and mic. For now, I have to focus on getting good audio as I take this as practice for balancing audio.

Thank you guys so far for your support!
 
Last edited:

bobbatov

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Jun 3, 2020
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Last week, as I was about to share the 3rd episode of my vlogs with you guys, I was asked to take down my dental school content due to unforeseen circumstances.

Here is the announcement video I made for this.

I have to say the past 1-2months of taking action has been very fruitful and I have learnt the importance of taking action. You just pick up so much nuances on how social media works, how you tailor it into your schedule, how to constantly improve your content and more about yourself. I would be lying if I said the positive feedback loop (from others' support) didnt inspire me more to keep going. Having to take down my content, in a sense, means my content was doing well and reaching out to an audience.

Moving forward, I have decided to take this as a timely break from content creation to focus on my upcoming exams in September. Meanwhile, I'll be planning how to pivot my social media towards a new direction, away from dental school content. Generally, I would like to to pivot to videos with a more professional feel. However, having fun and clowning around a bit is a part of me as well. I am a little stuck with this dichotomy for now.

If you guys have any suggestions, I am all ears!
 
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