Personal Brand Authority Is Key to Customer Connection
Recently I was asked to give a workshop for entrepreneurs and startup business people at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City.
Since the Foundation was taking the trouble of flying me all the way out to the “Paris of the Plains,” I thought long and hard about the most useful message I could give to people trying to connect their businesses with the people who could and would become their customers.
Though there were many topics I could have covered, I kept coming back to reflecting on how powerful building what is commonly called a “personal brand” has been for me and for Virante. It took time and a lot of hard work and perseverance to build my reputation online, but eventually my hunch that that had value for my agency paid off.
People trust people long before they trust trademarks.
That simple truth makes me wonder why more businesses don’t actively seek to put a person (or persons) out front. Below is the presentation I have in Kansas City, and in it I explain why your personal brand is your businesses’ fastest and most effective way to bring people into your fold.
I’m grateful not only to the Kaffman Foundation, but to friends like the Fitness and Nutrition Community on Google+ for partnering with me in testing my theories and hunches.
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