The Two Types of Personal Brand

By
Oren Greenberg
December 20, 2024

I go back to that comment I made in the first article.

Most SaaS CEOs shouldn't try to build personal brands. They're missing the key ingredients to do it successfully, and if you can't do it successfully, your time is better spent elsewhere.

But those who have those ingredients and AREN’T building a personal brand are missing a golden opportunity to attract talent, investment, and customers if they're not building one.

So, what are the ingredients?

The more time I spend observing CEOs who develop successful brands, the stronger my conviction that there are only two different routes to success.

Both work as well as each other, so you pick the one best suited for your skill set and experiences.

Before I reveal, though, let's acknowledge a fundamental truth…

Being known for something and being differentiated are not the same thing

Rand Fishkin was known for SEO, but was he incredibly differentiated? Not really. He was simply a well-known authority on SEO. Same thing with Adam Robinson, Peep Laja and Carl Sackas. Are they really differentiated with what they talk about? I'd say no.

But are they all distinct, reputable and worthy of our attention?

Absolutely.

Because differentiation doesn't matter, voice does. You say the same thing as other experts, just in a different way.

Let's look at Wes Kao

Known for her take on the importance of 'having a spiky point of view'. Is she the only person who said you need a contrarian point of view? No. Is she the only person that named it spiky? Yes.

Same with Amanda Natividad and zero-click content.

Is she the first person to say, 'Hey, links in your post will really reduce reach. You should just keep value on your channel.'

No of course not. There's nothing new there.

It's not differentiation, it's framing, and frame leads to fame (atomic habits, visualise value, zero to one, innovators dilemma, etc.)

Plus, fame is much more valuable than differentiation.

Fame is the premise of marketing - attracting as much (quality) attention as possible.

Obviously, the word 'quality' is important here. Reaching a million 16-year-olds doesn't count if you're selling to 55-year-old accountants.

It's quality + quantity of attention.

But how do you become famous if you're not differentiated?

We celebrate many companies for wildly successful marketing activities when, in reality, they had a gigantic marketing budget. Sure, they were smart in how they spent it, but the route to success was only available to them because of the investment they had at their disposal.

For example, Clay had a large budget to spend with micro-business influencers. Monday.com killed it with performance marketing.

The rest of us need to do it through incredible product or personal brand. And, like Wistia and Profitwell…

That route to fame is driven by the personal brand strategy

People like Amanda Natividad, Rand Fishkin, and Nathan Latka are subject matter experts.

They know their market, or job-to-be-done, inside out. In public, they share their unique perspective on the job. And to reiterate, it's unique in the way it's articulated.

Take this example.

Here's a definition of branding from some familiar names:

"Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room." Jeff Bezos

"Brand is the sum total of how someone perceives a particular organisation. Branding is about shaping that perception." Ashley Friedlein

"A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is - it is what consumers tell each other it is". Scott Cook

"Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time." Elon Musk

Notice that those ideas are not materially different, but each sentence hits differently. Each has the authority to deliver an opinion on branding, and their concept of branding is formed through their unique articulation.

You figure out your own language and framing, and the way you do that is by producing content to uncover that unique point of view, not the other way around.

We live in a world where deep expertise is highly valued.

This may be leading you to the question…

What if you're not a subject matter expert?

People will smell you a mile off if you falsely present yourself as an expert.

Don't do it.

Instead, take the Tyler Dent route. He's regularly sharing his story of building Beehiv.

Look, I know Beehiv is a huge success story, but this personal branding route isn't exclusive to VC-backed SaaS.

Take a look at the community on IndieHacker, and you'll see dozens of founder story posts picking up traction.

It's like a documentary

Hiten Shah, Dharmesh Shah, and Nathan Barry all built their personal brand by sharing the story of growing their business.

But nobody wants a polished sales story. They want the good, bad, and ugly.

Authenticity is essential if you're following this path of Story-led personal brands. But take care here. Audiences want real, and they can spot fabricated authenticity a mile off.

More on how you do that in the next article.

Article by

Oren Greenberg

A fractional CMO who specialises in turning marketing chaos into strategic success. Featured in over 110 marketing publications, including Open view partners, Forbes, Econsultancy, and Hubspot's blogs. You can follow here on LinkedIn.

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