One of the many changes that the social internet has brought is that the divide between business and personal life has been blurred. Business is no longer a 9 to 5 activity. Mobile phones, email, laptops and high speed internet means that our ‘personal life’ is now inexorably permeated by business to the point that sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference.
This fact raises the question however of how much of you should be in your business – should it be defined by your personality, or should the business be something other than your personality. John Jantsch argues that personal branding is not business building, suggesting that the two of them should be separate. He warns that people who spend their time building their personal brand are not in fact building their business. He even goes so far as stating in the title of his post that ‘Business isn’t Personal’.
I can understand his argument – a business needs to be something that you can sell (everyone who has read the E-Myth will know this), and if you build the business solely on your personality, you haven’t really got a going concern. It is tough to sell yourself. However, I am not sure I entirely agree.
Yes, a business is an asset, but while you are in it, you are a fundamental part of that business. No matter what, whether you like it or not, your personality will affect how people see that business. Can we think of Virgin without Richard Branson? Even though he only owns a part of the company now, his personality still has an effect on our perception of the brand. Michael Gerber’s personality is a fundamental part of the E-Myth, and yet he has still built a business which can sell. If you try to separate the two entirely, you may end up doing less well at both.
John Jantsch does recognise this when he acknowledges that you can start with a personality, but then you need to allow what you have started to grow into a brand. Absolutely, but in my opinion you will help that no end by continuing to work on your own personal branding in relation to that business. Then, when you get to the point where the business sells, you will carry the residue of that success into your next venture and it will carry the residue of your personality to its next owners. They will be buying the business with the expectation of that residue.
The comment is made in the post that it is very difficult to sell a personal brand, and I am not really sure you would want to. What you want to do is to boost your company and personal brand simultaneously using one another for support, then take your personal brand to the next location to boost the next company. Of course, you don’t want to be doing that at the expense of your business brand – it needs to be a balance. Too far one way or the other won’t work.
Ultimately, social media demands that you have a personality, and that personality is visible. It is through this that people will begin to trust you and ultimately trust your brand. John Jantsch has a distinct personality – you see it in his blog (he even has a prominent photograph), you hear it on his podcast. He has built a great brand which is successful in part because of who he is. And even when Duct Tape Marketing sells, people will still associate his personality with the company. I would bet on the fact that the prospective buyers would be counting on that.
Thank you daveelf for the image
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Tags: Branding, Business, Personal branding, personality
