I believe the most important strategic decision you can make as a thought leader is choosing which type of business you actually want to run, not which one you think you're supposed to build. When you design your business around your genuine desires instead of external expectations, you create something that feels like a playground rather than a prison.
In this episode, I share a framework from marketing expert Julie Chenell that completely reframed how I think about building a thought leadership business. Julie outlines three distinct types of brands: personal brands (where you are the brand), hybrid brands (where your personal brand works alongside a company brand), and faceless brands (the sellable enterprises with no individual face attached). Through examples like Amy Porterfield, Marie Forleo, Patrick Lencioni, and Donald Miller, I walk through what each type requires and why understanding these distinctions can free you from the pressure of building something you never actually wanted.
What surprised me most about this framework is how many successful entrepreneurs who built and exited faceless brands are now choosing to come back as personal brands. Sara Blakely, Jamie Kern Lima, Alex Hormozi: they had the ultimate exit everyone supposedly works toward, and they chose thought leadership. This tells us something important about what a personal brand offers that other structures do not. As you head into planning for the year ahead, I want you to hear this: you do not have to build a massive company to generate meaningful revenue and impact. You get to choose, and that choice needs to be made on purpose.
IMPACT POINTS FROM THIS EPISODE:
⚡ Personal Brands Are Legitimate Destinations, Not Failure States – Having a business built around your personal expertise is not what you do while figuring out how to build a "real company." Amy Porterfield, Jenna Kutcher, and Marie Forleo have built wildly successful businesses as personal brands with teams supporting them. You can make great money, have significant impact, and never manage a team of 30 people.
⚡ Hybrid Brands Require Intentional Design, Not Default Drift – Moving from a personal brand to a hybrid brand is achievable with time and intention, but treating the hybrid brand as a temporary stopover to a faceless brand creates friction and problems. The strategies that bridge personal to hybrid do not work for the jump to faceless. Build a hybrid brand because that is where you want to be, not because you think it is the path to something else.
⚡ Self-Knowledge, Desire, and Decision Making Determine Your Path – Your archetype does not determine which business model you should build. Any archetype can thrive as a personal brand or choose to build a hybrid brand. What determines your path is what you actually want: whether you enjoy leadership and management, whether you want something sellable, and whether developing people energizes or drains you. The worst place to be is building something by default instead of by design.
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