I will start filling in my Brand House and check recommended videos as well.
my audience (SaaS companies, publishers & authors, and game studios) values personal connection over agencies
Makes sense. A chunk of my audience is agencies, and they surely value non-agency working with them.
it gives me space and permission to be myself (yes, I can talk about SEO content, brand messaging, and narrative writing, but I can include my feral love of Star Trek, books, and games.) There's a fluidity that exists, and it's easier to pivot with a personal brand. For ex: I used to exclusively write for online coaches before I switched.
Makes sense.
I can position myself as an expert who's still learning and growing, while with a company there needs to be more surety of "the best."
That's valuable!
It felt weird when I talked in the royal "we" when it was mostly just me lol
For this one I it doesn't say "we" as there is someone there to help me out with the client. But it totally makes sense.
I realized I DON'T want to build a corporation with lots of employees and have no intention of selling my business.
I definitely don't want to build a corporation for this business as well, so it aligns.
I will have to process everything couple times, but I think I have a one question now.
Question
So if I structure my Brand House to be mostly a personal brand, does it mean I sort of "abandon" or at least "slow down" efforts on the company brand? For instance, all useable expert credit should go to the personal brand?
"So if I structure my Brand House to be mostly a personal brand, does it mean I sort of "abandon" or at least "slow down" efforts on the company brand? For instance, all useable expert credit should go to the personal brand?"
This really depends! What I'd do before changing anything right now is define more of your personal brand and figure out where the distinctions are.
Here's a practical example for content:
Personal brand: thought leadership content, things you're learning/growing in (like the lessons you've learned so far), anything that'd demonstrate your knowledge/authority. All your collaborations and networking should be under your personal brand because people want to connect and collaborate with a person.
Company brand: service-focused content like case studies, client success stories, new projects (related to the agency, of course), etc. You can then leverage your personal brand to amplify the company brand by sharing your expertise in getting these specific results.
Let's talk actual offers because this is where it gets interesting (jk it's all interesting lol):
If you give talks, write a book, create a podcast/YT channel, or send out a newsletter, it'd be under your personal brand.
Full-service agency work (or anything you can fully to another person that doesn't need your voice to create the same impact) would be under the company's brand.
Things like YouTube videos or podcasts: You'd have to film them/be the face in them, but you can delegate the editing, for example. That'd still be you using your voice to create it, so it'd be your personal brand.
You COULD delegate something like a newsletter to another person on your team/a freelancer (I ghostwrite things like this all the time), BUT it's still written in your voice and is still your name, so it'd still be your personal brand.
(I'm going to wager that you're not that busy that you can't take an hour to write a newsletter (and I'll bet you don't have a brand style guide to be able to effectively delegate this), so just do this yourself lol)
What I'd start doing now is differentiating between your personal vs company brand.
Where do they intersect? Where do they differ? What's the ENTIRE scope of your expertise, and where is the agency's focus within that larger subset? What's your personal brand story? What's your company brand story?
These will be very different. Your personal brand story is MUCH bigger and starts way earlier than your company origin story.
(For ex: In my personal brand story, I talk about (TW) how I was trafficked for 5 years, my struggles with suicide & addiction (and how I got through them), and about being a single parent while running 3 businesses. It's the stuff that gets me invited on stages to share my story and grows a connection with people. It's also related to my big pillars, values, and causes I stand for (like mental health is a big one, and I donate 10% of every contract to suicide and sexual abuse-related nonprofits). That's the stuff that I believe in, which means the more I talk about it and take action toward it, the more it strengthens my personal brand.)
That got really deep, but this stuff IS really deep. A personal brand isn't just some cutesy thing. It's the stuff you truly believe in and value as a human being that help you learn and grow.
Which is completely separate from your business, but there SHOULD be some threads tying them together.
(Mine is creativity and storytelling as a way of self-expression, which is not just the services I offer (ghostwriting, editing, etc.) but also an integral part of my personal brand story.)
Find those common threads and talk about what lights you up.
I'm a brand strategist, so I could keep going forever, but I hope this gives you something practical to work with!
More questions are allowed, of course :) And if you want to hop on a 20-minute Zoom, I'm more than confident we could hammer this out quickly.
Thank you so much for such an elaborate response.
I will start filling in my Brand House and check recommended videos as well.
Makes sense. A chunk of my audience is agencies, and they surely value non-agency working with them.
Makes sense.
That's valuable!
For this one I it doesn't say "we" as there is someone there to help me out with the client. But it totally makes sense.
I definitely don't want to build a corporation for this business as well, so it aligns.
I will have to process everything couple times, but I think I have a one question now.
Question
So if I structure my Brand House to be mostly a personal brand, does it mean I sort of "abandon" or at least "slow down" efforts on the company brand? For instance, all useable expert credit should go to the personal brand?
"So if I structure my Brand House to be mostly a personal brand, does it mean I sort of "abandon" or at least "slow down" efforts on the company brand? For instance, all useable expert credit should go to the personal brand?"
This really depends! What I'd do before changing anything right now is define more of your personal brand and figure out where the distinctions are.
Here's a practical example for content:
Personal brand: thought leadership content, things you're learning/growing in (like the lessons you've learned so far), anything that'd demonstrate your knowledge/authority. All your collaborations and networking should be under your personal brand because people want to connect and collaborate with a person.
Company brand: service-focused content like case studies, client success stories, new projects (related to the agency, of course), etc. You can then leverage your personal brand to amplify the company brand by sharing your expertise in getting these specific results.
Let's talk actual offers because this is where it gets interesting (jk it's all interesting lol):
If you give talks, write a book, create a podcast/YT channel, or send out a newsletter, it'd be under your personal brand.
Full-service agency work (or anything you can fully to another person that doesn't need your voice to create the same impact) would be under the company's brand.
Things like YouTube videos or podcasts: You'd have to film them/be the face in them, but you can delegate the editing, for example. That'd still be you using your voice to create it, so it'd be your personal brand.
You COULD delegate something like a newsletter to another person on your team/a freelancer (I ghostwrite things like this all the time), BUT it's still written in your voice and is still your name, so it'd still be your personal brand.
(I'm going to wager that you're not that busy that you can't take an hour to write a newsletter (and I'll bet you don't have a brand style guide to be able to effectively delegate this), so just do this yourself lol)
What I'd start doing now is differentiating between your personal vs company brand.
Where do they intersect? Where do they differ? What's the ENTIRE scope of your expertise, and where is the agency's focus within that larger subset? What's your personal brand story? What's your company brand story?
These will be very different. Your personal brand story is MUCH bigger and starts way earlier than your company origin story.
(For ex: In my personal brand story, I talk about (TW) how I was trafficked for 5 years, my struggles with suicide & addiction (and how I got through them), and about being a single parent while running 3 businesses. It's the stuff that gets me invited on stages to share my story and grows a connection with people. It's also related to my big pillars, values, and causes I stand for (like mental health is a big one, and I donate 10% of every contract to suicide and sexual abuse-related nonprofits). That's the stuff that I believe in, which means the more I talk about it and take action toward it, the more it strengthens my personal brand.)
That got really deep, but this stuff IS really deep. A personal brand isn't just some cutesy thing. It's the stuff you truly believe in and value as a human being that help you learn and grow.
Which is completely separate from your business, but there SHOULD be some threads tying them together.
(Mine is creativity and storytelling as a way of self-expression, which is not just the services I offer (ghostwriting, editing, etc.) but also an integral part of my personal brand story.)
Find those common threads and talk about what lights you up.
I'm a brand strategist, so I could keep going forever, but I hope this gives you something practical to work with!
More questions are allowed, of course :) And if you want to hop on a 20-minute Zoom, I'm more than confident we could hammer this out quickly.
This is very valuable, thank you.
All makes sense, and I get it 100%.
I’ll just need to structure it, dots dig deeper and then connect the dots!
As soon as all of it settles down into its own buckets I’ll get back to you 🙏
Precisely! I also have a few book recommendations if you're a book person.
Yes, I would really appreciate a book, the one that goes into the basics, so I can build a better "canonical" structure for myself.