We hear all about creating your BRAND in business. The most common approach is to focus 100% on a company brand. However, I believe that having a strong personal brand will fuel success in many ways. I have admired our guest today for years in what he has built in his industry. He answers the question…Company Brand or Personal Brand? He is Rand Fishkin of Moz, the premier resource for SEO tools in the industry. Rand is an icon to so many that have grown up learning from his training.
In this episode we’ll cover:
- Why your personal brand fuels success
- How Rand helps businesses do SEO effectively
- How to get SEO to work for you
- Establishing lifestyle goals before biz goals
- Why knowing your niche is about knowing YOURSELF first
Target Audience: Rand’s mission includes organizing all of Google’s information and making it universally accessible and understandable. There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity in organic source traffic for businesses. And in that sense, Rand serves pretty much everyone who relies on SEO to grow their business.
Rand’s Journey with SEO
Rand knew SEO was going to be important some 10 years ago and saw the importance in organizing this information. He was very angry at Google because he felt it held secrecy in a way that it hid information from people.
Consequently, he saw this prevented businesses from doing SEO effectively. For instance, certain businesses with valuable information or products were not getting recognized. Rand knew he wanted to make it accessible to everyone. It was sort of that naive nobility he had as a 20- something year old. He admits that he didn’t exactly have some sort of strategic strategy- but it really worked out!
What do search engine companies need to understand to grow their businesses?
In the world of SEO services, it is about figuring out what you want your business to be. For many providers- growth is not necessarily the true north. It’s more about stability and attracting better customers.
One thing Rand sees a lot of is people don’t have a clear idea of what they are going after. You’ve got to ask yourself the questions: What do you want your daily life to look like? What do you want the business that enables that life to look like?
Once he helps his clients get clear here, he is then he is able to help them strategize what types of clients to target and where to focus their expertise in.
Practical and Actionable:
To those seeking their niche: it can pay to start with doing the work you enjoy doing the most. Then, create a mind map or outline and sort out what niches match that expertise and passion. Recognize in yourself what it most important to you. Work from there. Figure out your motivation first and choose based on that.
