What's up brand builders! Stephen Houraghan here of BrandMasterAcademy.com and in
this video you're going to learn the difference between personal branding
and business branding so you can get some clarity on the brand that you want
to build and start making some strategic decisions.
now if you're a subscriber welcome back as always if you're new to the channel
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it'll let you know when we've got new videos coming out so let's get the bare
basics out of the way in the difference between
business branding and personal branding so business branding is a brand that you
build around an entity that is a business an entity with
people with operations with products or services so we're
talking Nike Apple Red Bull etc when it comes to
personal branding we're building a brand around
an actual person so we're talking Tony Robbins
Gary Vaynerchuk Oprah Winfrey Chris Do now when it comes to the structural
difference between business brands and personal brands
there is no real difference there it's all one and the same whether you're a
business brand or a personal brand you're still trying to be more appealing
to a person or a certain group of people in
the way you go about your life and the way you go about your communication your
operations now if you think about a business brand
business brands today are all trying to be more human so they're all trying to
adopt a personality or authenticity or a unique tone of voice beliefs values
but when you think about personal branding this person already
exists they already have beliefs and values and a personality and
a tone of voice with personal branding it's all about
leaning into what's already there but whether you're
a personal brand or a business brand the more real you
are and the more of yourself that you give the more connections
you're going to make now one of the most common questions
that I get in around branding is should I build a personal brand or
should I build a business brand I've had many many clients ask me that in the
past and I asked myself that question when I
started out as a freelancer as well because
my thinking back then was that if I just call myself Stephen Houraghan
then I don't sound professional enough I don't sound like
a real business and nobody is going to take me seriously
now today that has completely changed that environment
about personal branding has completely changed and it's so much more common
today to see people named just themselves and
to build a personal brand around their own name
but it really comes down to the goals that you have what do you want to
achieve and what do you want to build if you
want to build something that is bigger than yourself something that you might
want to sell later on or take a step back from and
allow it to grow without your involvement well then
building a business brand is something that might appeal to you
but if you want to develop your own personal brand if you want to
develop an asset that will act as an asset that will open doors for
many many years to come that will help to build
relationships that will help you to pivot in whatever direction that you
want well then a personal brand might be the choice for you but it
really depends on your goals what is it that you want to achieve what is it that
you're building and where do you see yourself in the
next 10 to 15 years now although a lot of people think that
you need to choose between a business brand or a personal brand
the reality is that's not a choice that you have to make
you don't have to build one or the other now there is a saying in branding that
goes something like this brand or be branded and that plays into
what Marty Neumeier once said that your brand is what
they say it is not what you say it is so essentially
whether you decide to build a personal brand or not
your name is your brand your reputation is your brand so when you go on to
social media when you go on to Facebook or Linkedin and you're
liking or you're sharing or you're commenting you have a brand you have
a personal brand whether or not you take the time to nurture
that personal brand or not is irrelevant you will have a brand because your brand
is what they say it is so even if you do decide that you want to build
something that's bigger than yourself if you want to build an entity
that's bigger than you that you can sell later on or that you can take a step
back from that doesn't mean that you don't build
your personal brand today it's a common strategy to have
both a business brand and a personal brand if you have
products and services that you're offering
well then you can build a business brand around that at the same time
if you're sending out content if you're commenting
liking sharing engaging building relationships on social media
then you're likely doing that through your name you're likely doing that
through your personal brand so if you are building a business brand if
you do have products and services then you can still build that entity as
its own brand but that doesn't mean that you can't go
away and build a personal brand at the same time
and use that as the front lines of your own brand use that to get attention
use that to build relationships and then once you develop those relationships
then you have a business brand on the back end of that to offer
products and services but remember as with anything in branding there is no
one size fits all branding at the core is creative and it's the same when it
comes to the strategy so it's all about knowing what you want
to achieve where do you want to go what are your goals what are your objectives
where will you be in 5 10 15 20 years and
will a business brand help you get there will a personal brand more likely
help you get there it really depends on what you want to achieve maybe you can
use both maybe you can build a business brand for your products or
services and use a personal brand to make connections
so as I said it really depends on you and where you want to go
and what you want to achieve so take the time to map that out
and get some clarity there and then make some strategic decisions
but I'd really love to hear from you about your challenges and experiences
when it comes to personal branding versus business
branding what are you building at the moment
do you have any questions around that or any sticking points I'd really love to
hear from you in the comments below I'll do my best to answer all of those
if you like this video please give it a thumbs up hit that subscribe button and
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for that list there's plenty of resources on there as well but as I said
let me know in the comments below what your experiences are
what your challenges are I'll do my best to answer all of those
until next time brand like a master and I will see you in the next video!