Personal Branding vs Business Branding [in 2023]

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 where have you been if you love branding if you like actionable brand strategy tips and techniques you're gonna love this channel hit that subscribe button and the notification bell as well 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 the notification bell as well it'll let you know when we've got new videos coming out if you want actionable brand strategy tips and techniques head on over to BrandMasterAcademy.com get yourself signed up for the list it's free and I keep some exclusive content

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!