Stealing is a source of flattery. I've had logos I've designed outright copied. Jokes on them: They discovered they could not copyright the mark and had to rebrand (again).
Stealing is stealing unless you're really good at it.
Agreed. A bunch of tech professionals I work with, in private, talk about how scary AI is but nobody dare say anything in public as to hurt the bottom line. Add that to climate change...
Just start writing and publishing things online. You don't need to have a brand name or a fancy web site at first. The first step is getting in the habit of constantly publishing content. After awhile you will figure out what you like to write about and post.
Old saying I hear years ago: "If it doesn't exist online or in a museum - it doesn't exist at all."
Branding comes after you understand what direction you want to go. Then my advice is steer your content in a direction focused on what makes you money. Design, programming, etc. I have been at my site for 10 years. It started as a random pile of images but after years of slowly working on it, my site is really coming together: http://thoughtmerchants.com/.
I was talking to a friend about it and he was telling me that it is the "Best in the business at what it does." That is a scary thought.
To give more context, my grandparents asked me to help them "figure out" their new car. After a few minutes driving it, I told them I was in no position to offer them guidance.