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Personal Brand & IP
Hey Guys,
I’m struggling with how to position myself, my personal brand and my IP.
I am full time employed and have no intention of moving jobs any time soon, if ever.
At the moment I’ve been producing content on behalf of the company instead of under my personal brand. But the more content I produce the more I start to realise that it’s my knowledge that I could do with protecting.
I’m thinking about two options:
1. Setup my personal brand, using branding that’s similar to my company – This will make conversations easier with my employer that they can see I’m a brand within a brand and my platform is feeding them business.
2. Setup a completely different brand alongside by employer – This will make conversations difficult as it will potentially be seen as a ‘side hustle’ and a separate project to my main job.
I’m leaning towards option 1, BUT, if I am using their branding, and something were to happen in the future, it may be difficult for me to separate myself from their brand without ending up in some sort of legal battle.
Has anyone got any recommendations for me?
Adam
2. Setup a completely different brand alongside by employer – This will make conversations difficult as it will potentially be seen as a ‘side hustle’ and a separate project to my main job.
This is the option I went for. Fortunately, there’s quite a lot of trust.
It is a separate brand, but the theme is the same.
I think you made a smart move but it’s your life and so it would be more than appropriate to have a strong personal brand too.
Everyone says they’re not going to change jobs but the average time salespeople stay in their roles is around 2 years and so don’t count your chickens yet!
Hey Adam, following up on your email too.
Obviously I’m not a lawyer and so can’t provide legal advice…
All that stuff is pretty standard for a contract. BUT it’s only enforceable if they took you to court. Which they’re never going to do.
No judge is going to give them your content when it’s your face on it, and you’re speaking your mind. I’d start adding a tag at the end of my posts along the lines of “this is my personal opinion, not the opinion of X company”.
Now, when you’re using the brand colours, assets, images… the water is more muddy. I’d be weary of that.
What I’d do –
1) Build my own personal brand over the next 10 years. This is my side-hustle and insurance policy. Get paid from YouTube ads, side-consulting on the quiet and it will get me my next job.
2) If it does well and starts driving leads, I’d go to my employer and say that they’ve got to start paying to leverage everything that you’re building. New job title (CRO or equivalent), pay bump, budget to build a team.
BUT, and I want to be real blunt – Don’t fucking waste time debating and pondering over all of this until you’ve build something that people give a shit about! Until you’re driving attention, traffic and leads non of this stuff matters. It’s just procrastination. It feels good to try and predict the future but it’s pointless until you go and create it.
I think you made a smart move but it’s your life and so it would be more than appropriate to have a strong personal brand too.
Everyone says they’re not going to change jobs but the average time salespeople stay in their roles is around 2 years and so don’t count your chickens yet!
Thanks Stuart
BUT, and I want to be real blunt – Don’t fucking waste time debating and pondering over all of this until you’ve build something that people give a shit about! Until you’re driving attention, traffic and leads non of this stuff matters. It’s just procrastination. It feels good to try and predict the future but it’s pointless until you go and create it.
This is why we love you Will haha. Thanks for the tips. I’ll come back on the stats soon
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