DMR #30: Trevor Young – Is it best to brand your business as your personal name?

David:    Is it best to brand your business as your personal name? What is a micromaven and how do you build your personal profile into a global microbrand? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask today’s special guest, Trevor Young. Trevor, welcome to DMR.

Trevor Young
Trevor Young

Trevor:    G’day, David. How are you?

David:    Very good, thanks. How are you doing yourself?

Trevor:    Pretty good in sunny Melbourne, in Australia.

David:    Sunny Melbourne. I remember my time in Australia last year and it was mostly sunny. Trevor is a speaker, a consultant and an adviser who helps businesses to tell their story, grow their audience and build their brand using social media and content marketing. You’ll find him over at prwarrior.com.

Trevor, in your recent book, “Microdomination,” you talk about building a mini business empire around a personal brand. Is it better to brand your business as a personal name in the modern business world, do you think?
Trevor:     I guess it depends on what your goals are and given that we’re now starting to operate virtually and as collectives and a lot of people, they are the business, so, certainly, if you’re going down the pathway, you’re going to be the main … you’ve got the expertise and you are the business, then, absolutely. Because as we know, people do business with people and as the old saying goes, we do business with people we know, like, and trust so, therefore, the goal is to use all the tools that are at our disposal to get more people to know us, like us and trust us.

We have a personal brand whether we like it or not. What people think about you as the … the saying from Jeff Bezos, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room,” so it opens the question up what do you want people to say about you when you’re not in the room and so, wouldn’t you want to have an influence on that?