Personal Branding vs. Corporate Branding | Which Wins?
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Why does Brad argue people follow leaders more than logos?
The fastest way to build trust at scale is not becoming more corporate. It's becoming more human. People don't follow logos, okay? They follow leaders. Tesla is a massive brand. SpaceX is a massive brand. But who gets more attention? Elon does. One of the biggest shifts happening in business and in marketing right now is this. Here's a question that changed the way I think about business marketing forever. Do people follow Tesla or do they follow Elon Musk? Do people follow Apple or did they follow Steve Jobs? Do they follow Virgin or do they follow Sir Richard Branson? The answer really matters because one of the biggest shifts happening in business and in marketing right now is this. People trust people faster than they trust companies.
And if you're building a business today, understanding the difference between a personal brand and a company brand could be worth millions, tens of millions, in fact. I struggled with this for so long. I struggled with building a personal brand. I was like, no, build Action Coach's brand, make the company famous, do the whole thing. And finally, I had to recognize that people want to get to know other people. So I suffered from the biggest branding mistake. Most businesses hide behind their company. They think, I don't want to be the face of the business. This was me, by the way. I literally was that guy. I don't want to be the company brand. I want the company to be out the front. I want to stay behind the scenes.
I used to think the exact same way. I was happy to get on stage and deliver education, but I didn't want to be the front man. I didn't want to have to be famous and stuff. In fact, for years, I resisted becoming more visible because I wanted Action Coach to be famous, not Brad Sugars. Then I started studying what was actually happening in the marketplace. And as I've said to you before, and if you're a fan of this pod, you'll have seen Gary V beat me up around this. I realized something very important. People connect with humans, not logos. OK, so when I do drive times on my social media, people connect with me because it's real. It's a story about me, my life, my business, what I had to learn, how I had to learn it sort of thing.
See, the human connection. Think about your social media feed. What gets more engagement, a company announcement or a personal story? You know it's that personal story. It's Mr. Beast. It's not about some TV brand. It's a person that is out there. What gets more, a corporate post or the founder sharing an experience they had, a logo or a face type thing? Humans are wired for human connection. We always have been and probably always will be. We love connecting with other people. That's why great TV shows, great movies, you connect with the character, you connect with the people and their story, what they're going through, their emotions, their relationships. See, even though technology changes and platforms change, the psychology of humans does not.
So let's deal with probably one of the best case studies of that right now, and that's the Elon Musk effect, okay? When you think about Elon Musk, and he's got so many brands that are behind him, Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, all of these things, the boring companies, solar companies, this, this, all of these things, He's a great example. Tesla is a massive brand. SpaceX is a massive brand. But who gets more attention? Elon does. Who gets more followers? Elon does. Not SpaceX, not Tesla.
How did Brad's experience with ActionCOACH change his view on personal branding?
Yes, they're massive brands. But here's the thing. Who gets more engagement when they post? Elon. Why? Well, this comes back to the central debate we're having here today, because people connect with other people. Humans connect with humans, not the organizations. Now, admittedly, the organization's fun to go and follow, to follow SpaceX and watch the rockets and do stuff. But if Elon goes on SpaceX's page and talks about the product, the rocket going to space, or you watch him watch the rocket, all of a sudden it's totally different. OK, and this is not a criticism of any company. This is just reality.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
Why does Brad argue people follow leaders more than logos?
0:00–3:50
2
How did Brad's experience with ActionCOACH change his view on personal branding?
3:50–8:15
3
What psychological reasons explain why humans prefer personal stories over corporate posts?
8:15–11:13
4
How does the 'Elon Musk effect' illustrate the power of a personal brand?
11:13–21:39
Speakers
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