Business Owners Don’t Want to Hear This About Their Personal Brand

It's likely that as a business owner or founder, you have a lot of pride in your business. In many ways the business is what it is today because of your efforts and how you shaped the company.

That is admirable and I hope that you've made a difference for your employees, customers, the applicable industry, and more!

Something Unpopular to Say to Business Owners and Founders

While you did a great job of infusing your ideas into the company, you need to know something: Your business has its own brand. You have YOUR own Personal Brand.

?? These two brands are not the same thing. They are not interchangeable. They are distinct and separate.

The Business Brand

Yes, your idea - or how you gathered key people - is what got the business started. That's how you have infused yourself in the business. Which is wonderful and amazing, and you should be proud of how you've made a difference in the world because of the services that your business is offering!

Remember that the business has its own brand. If you sold the business tomorrow, the next business leader will lead from their Personal Brand... while the brand of the business stays the same.

Think of major brands - when they have a business leader change, it doesn't change the brand of the company. Yes, the new business leader will operate from their Personal Brand. (At least I assume they know their Personal Brand... and the board who selected the new CEO better well know the Personal Brand of the new leader!) That's why solid business brands can evolve over time as they have different business leaders.?

Look at McDonald's for example. They have evolved as the needs of consumers have changed and yet they have simplified what they do and how the do it for consistency over the decades. In the end we all know what to expect when we go to McDonalds - which is to be expected anywhere you go in the world. Although, I do remember enjoying a really cool curry dipping sauce for my McNuggets while in Madrid, Spain and wondering why don't they have this cool sauce in the States??! Sauce varieties aside, McDonald's has a consistent business brand.

Meanwhile, the personal leadership style of each CEO has been different. And likely those different CEOs were important to the overall development of McDonald's as a business since the 1950s.?

Knowing your Personal Brand as Business Owner

While the brand of the business is important for marketing and meeting the needs of target customers, your Personal Brand as the business owner, leader, or founder makes a difference for how YOU are showing up in the world.

As I tell my clients "Your Personal Brand is the HOW and WHY behind WHAT you do". Therefore, when you're clear on your Personal Brand it will help you with:

?? Running your business ?? Leading the people connected to the business ?? Have more professional success ?? ... and so much more!

When you're not clear on your Personal Brand, it gets messier and more chaotic to be a leader. Unnecessarily messy.?

Something Awesome about Personal Brand for Business Leaders

As a founder or business leader, a cool thing about knowing YOUR Personal Brand is that when you're ready to sell the business, you can move forward and continue to live YOUR Personal Brand.

You can walk away from the business and then go forward and #LiveYourBrand with whatever else you want to do... because YOUR Personal Brand is YOURS!

But until you're ready to sell, you have a lot of cool things to do as a business owner. As a Personal Brand Strategist, I feel it's my responsibility to help business owners know their Personal Brand are so that they can lead their business more effectively today.?

Knowing your Personal Brand will definitely help you to lead better today.?

And you'll also be set up better when you're ready to sell, retire, etc.!

Catch the full video here where I share insights about what Business Owners don’t want to Hear about their Personal Brand and how that differentiates from the Business Brand.

Get clear on what your Personal Brand is now!

Join the Personal Brand Ambassador Community to get YOUR Personal Brand determined and then learn how to leverage YOUR Personal Brand as the Business Owner, founder, or leader!