In the online business world, there are three distinct types of brands.
Type 1 – The Personal Brand
This is your classic Marie Forleo, Jenna Kutcher, Rachel Hollis type of brand. Focused on the person, their platform, expertise, etc. It’s common to have courses, memberships, masterminds, podcast, book, etc. It’s not really sellable without the person. Type 1’s are usually also service based coaches and done for you providers.
Type 3* – The Faceless Brand
For these brands, you see a lot of SaaS companies doing this. Acuity, Calendly, Asana, Kartra, etc. There’s no person attached to the brand at all, and the accounts online are the logo of the company, with social media teams running them. Most people when they get tired of being a personal brand, really crave that sellable asset and faceless aspect of a brand that can run without them. They long for a type 3.
*I did type 3 second in line for a reason. 🙂
Type 2 – The Hybrid Brand
Usually these brands start out as a Type 1 (think about Russell Brunson for example), and then build something like ClickFunnels, and on it’s way to trying to be a faceless brand (a type 3) it stops at type 2 – the hybrid. It’s almost as if the person and the brand are in a competition to see what is going to become more known, liked, and trusted. Both the brand and the person help push the company forward.
Funnel Gorgeous is Type 2 by design and not as a stopover to type 3.
Take a look at this doodle. Notice the peaks of the mountains of 1 & 2 are close together, but the gap to 3 is FAR.
Going from a personal to a hybrid brand isn’t super hard to do. I think about my client Julia, who started with me in Digital Insiders nearly 7 years ago. She was a personal brand, building her course WP Rockstar from the ground up, and over time, she developed a brand called GeekPack.
This brand of hers brought a lot of customers and community and loyalty. She transitioned rather seamlessly to type two, the hybrid brand, and is RIGHT NOW AS WE SPEAK, in China receiving a prestigious award for her company. Many of you know and love her, and she’s such a fantastic example of expanding a personal brand into an initiative people can rally around. I think she’s going to make the jump to type 3, and it’s been so fun coaching her along the way.
But back to the first two mountains.
Why do people move from mountain 1 to 2?
- Bigger impact (want to reach more people)
- More “owner” vs “doer” (building a team)
- Legacy (leave something going even when they are done actively working)
- Scalability (more money)
Some people also move from 1-2 because they really want to be on mountain 3 – where the business is sellable. It’s interesting to note when Type 2 is a stopover mountain or when it’s the destination.
Theorizing here (NO actual evidence or proof) that ClickFunnels was attempting a type 3 brand and stopped on mountain 2. They were really trying to move away from Russell as the figurehead and putting it squarely on mountain 3. A sellable asset that can run without a face.
The problem of course is that most 3 brands… need a LOT of capital (aka money) and resources. Think of the typical venture start up, Shark Tank style business. When you start out and you try to build a #3 type business FROM THE GET GO, there’s a significant investment in branding, people, advertising. It’s hard to do this without raising some money
That big gap between 2 & 3 is money really. And if you’re doing it without venture capital, it’s hard to beat the guys that are. This I believe was the critical issue with ClickFunnels 2.0. They wanted to make the jump but didn’t take in enough resources to scale to mountain 3 where their primary competitor was already sitting.
Think about how Nike or Burger King advertise vs. a bootstrapping type 1 or 2 brand?
- Money.
- Corporate structure.
- The opposite of our gritty bootstrapping Internet Marketing philosophy.
I think most people starting a business to make money should start on Mountain 1. It really is the easiest way to get revenue flowing. Service based done for you services work the best because of the low overhead. Then evolve into courses and programs that are more scalable.
If you know you’d like to do something with a bigger impact and legacy, you can start on Mountain 2 or transition over. The goal of course is to build a really rock solid brand identity ALONGSIDE your personal identity. You will still need to lead with you, but over time, your brand identity will take over. If this is you, I recommend you reach out for some coaching!
If you’re on Mountain 2 and thinking about the jump to Mountain 3… I would consider the question… how can I make my business the kind of company that people want to invest in? Money in terms of venture capital or grants, or a combination of both.
It seems the journey from 2-3 is quite treacherous if you’re not willing to adopt the structure of how these bigger brands operate. It takes money and it’s a fundamentally different world than you’re in now. It’s not going to be the same materials you used to build the bridge from mountain 1 to mountain 2.
As with anything I teach, the goal is to help you see where your dreams are today and where you’re headed, and what you really want.
I believe most people who are on mountain 1 or 2, probably should stay there. Few brands make the jump to 3 if they didn’t initially start out as a faceless brand. And that’s okay! But a 1 or 2 type brand will always need you the owner in some capacity.
You can sell a type 2 brand but not for what you can a type 3. Type 1’s you can sell the assets but usually not the company as a whole.
Was this helpful? Do you like hearing the musings in my head?
Let me know, and reach out if you need coaching or this sparked a question for you!
xx Julie
0 Comments