Should We Inter-Mingle Our Personal Brand with Our Business Brand?
I get asked about this question a lot from young companies who are committed to invest in their brands.
I often responded with the idea that “people do business with people whom they trust.”
The reason that individuals and companies build brands is because we want our people to trust us, our reputation to be known, and that we can deliver the values that we’ve promised.
Personal Branding Essentials for Young Companies
When a young company starting out as a one- or a two-person team, your name(s) and brand(s) are lesser known simply because you’ve not been actively talking about it and promoting it to your people. Unless you’ve garnered your reputation as an industry expert before you started your company, then that would be a different story.
Hence, as early-stage companies, without a known reputation, you’ll need to express your personal brands at deeper level, and building the early trust that’s essential to cement a solid foundation on your relationships with people whom you want to invest in your company, and for some, buy from you.
At this early stage of your journey, your personal brand is your business brand, and they inter-mingle, because what you do in life or what happens in life affects your business directly, and vice versa.
As you continue to build your personal brand, people will get to know you, your expertise, your core values, and your authenticity, all of which contributes to making your personal brand attractive to people who resonate with you and your story.
Business Brands for Companies Scaling
When your company grows and scales, your business brand will take on more responsibility in representing your company, and your personal brand will evolve to become more of a supportive pillar. Because now, you may have a team of people under you, and everyone needs to act and speak accordingly to represent the business brand in positive lights.
These days, however, it’s common for CEOs and CMOs of established, growing companies to consistently show up and be the face of their companies, leveraging their personal brands to ensure likability of their companies, while maintaining trust with their customers and shareholders.
As Zig Ziglar once said: “When people like you, they will listen to you. When they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”
That’s what we’re aiming for, right?
To be a trusted brand that people want to do business with.
Intermingling Personal Brands with Business Brands
So regardless of the artificial barrier that we want to put between our personal brand and business brand, those who practice inter-mingling their personal brands and business brands will win.
Because at the end of day, people want to know that they are working with humans. The inter-mingling helps us be authentic and show up as a whole person – and that’s what matters.
Want to learn more about how to build your authentic personal brand before you build your company? Contact us for a free, 15-minute discovery session. We can determine best ways to help you.
