Why a personal brand is your most valuable business moat

I’ve been writing on the internet for over a decade now. It has been a platform to build several businesses off the back of my personal brand. 

I was recently asked why I spend time building my brand, rather than focusing on building it within my businesses.

Here’s my take

Every business should aim to build an economic moat. A defence against competitors. A hurdle to make taking your castle much more gruelling.

A moat maintains a brand’s edge and is a distinct advantage a company has over others in the market. If it’s deep enough, it protects a company’s market share and profitability.

After network effects, the most powerful moat is a brand.

A brand allows a company to convert commodities into valuable goods. And it takes more than a slap of a logo and some good copy.

Brands are hard to start. The best ones take decades to build. A normal person can’t build a Coca-Cola or a Toyota.

Buying a moat is also hard. The opportunity to buy such a business is rare and expensive by design.

The newest type of moat is a personal moat: a personal brand with a following and a community of people who listen to you.

Until the internet, having a personal brand wasn’t that great. You were reliant on middlemen — TV networks, radio or newspapers — who owned the audience.

The internet has upended this. Everyone has a platform at their fingertips to connect with their desired audience via a blog, podcast, or YouTube. There is no middleman, so the barriers to entry to building a brand have never been lower.

Then why doesn’t everyone build it?

Because building a brand comes with accountability. Every business is accountable to someone or something — its values, its customers, its employees.

And being personally accountable to the market increases the stakes.

As an employee, you can walk away from a brand that has a tarnished, even ruined reputation. But if your personal brand is damaged, you are stuck with that forever.

Building a personal brand is, therefore, risky.

But what comes with risk also comes with reward.

And herein lies the personal conundrum: The question of whether to build a personal brand versus a company brand. The equity and moat lie in the brand.

So the real question is this: do I invest the efforts in building the moat of my company, or dig the moat around my personal castle?

The trade-off: Personal brand vs company brand

Advantages of building a personal brand

• It’s portable. Projects evolve. Companies may fail. Your personal moat stays with you.
• It compounds. Every article, tweet, or podcast builds trust and distribution.
• It adds halo value. Just ask: how much of Tesla’s market cap is really Elon Musk’s brand equity?

 Disadvantages of a personal brand

• It’s time-consuming. You can’t outsource authenticity.
• You’re exposed. With visibility comes criticism and responsibility.
• You can’t hide. A personal brand is a lifelong asset and liability.

So what’s the takeaway?

All things considered, the true value of building a personal brand compared to a company brand is the flexibility it provides.

As we evolve, so do our projects. The personal brand moat is an asset I can carry in my toolbelt and can be leveraged to build other castles.

Entrepreneurship is the ultimate form of self-expression. So, every founder should allocate some time to building their personal brand in addition to their business brand.

Ultimately, no matter how big or small you are — people still buy from people.