Why Personal Branding is Crucial for Business Success | James Dooley interviews Craig Campbell

**James Dooley** And I wish I had listened to you sooner. Is there any specific mistakes that people can make with personal branding? **Craig Campbell** Absolutely. For many years I was the guy saying I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to be public. I’m not doing a podcast. I’m not doing anything. And here you are. **James Dooley** If you had to close down all of your platforms and only keep two channels to build a personal brand in the digital marketing space, what two channels are you keeping? Probably YouTube. Back again mate. Same clothes on. How you doing? **Craig Campbell** I’m good. **James Dooley** Today I’m joined by Craig Campbell and today’s video is about personal branding. With the growth of AI, how important is personal branding now? **Craig Campbell** Massive. Even without AI, ninety percent of people don’t want to build a personal brand. They’re camera shy. They don’t want to be out there. They’re introverts. There are a hundred reasons. AI gives people a way out. They can put themselves out there through an avatar or a fake head. But that will get saturated. People will relate more to real people having real conversations. People buy into people. Your personal brand will never be liked by everyone. You only need a percentage of people to connect with you. My style isn’t for Coca Cola. I’m tattooed, I swear, and I’m direct. That filters out the people I don’t want. My personal brand attracts the people who understand my style. And the same will happen with you. Someone somewhere has said they don’t like you. But most people buy into you because you’re relatable, honest and not pretending. People even tell me you give away too much. You talk about failures. You tell people when you mess up. They like that. **James Dooley** I’ve never actually heard anyone say they don’t like me. But I get what you’re saying. **Craig Campbell** There’ll be someone. But most people say you know too much and you give too much. You’re relatable. And what it does is filter the audience. And I’ve always said if someone doesn’t like me swearing, good. That’s not my client. **James Dooley** You always pushed me for years to do personal branding and I argued back. I wish I listened sooner. You always said personal branding matters. I pushed back because I wanted my brands to be the focus rather than my name. I wanted to be a key person of influence behind the brands. But I should have done both. Personal branding makes hiring easier. People want to work with you. It also brings investment opportunities. People now approach me because they’ve seen the content. It gives trust signals like E-E-A-T. My knowledge panel and entity help the businesses I invest in. Plugging my entity into a site brings traffic and conversions. Previously, without personal branding, I couldn’t do that. Another big thing is this. If you don’t own your personal brand, someone else delivers the message about you. And it might not be the one you want. Trolls could have ranked for my name and said anything. So I needed to take ownership. I wanted people to understand who I am and what message I want to deliver. **Craig Campbell** Exactly. **James Dooley** I also didn’t get the multiplier I wanted when selling assets. The brand was strong, but buyers wanted to know who was behind the brand. They Googled me and found old videos where I appeared next to people talking about PBNs. They connected me to things I wasn’t doing. So I needed to show I’m a businessman who leverages SEO, not a black hat spammer. **Craig Campbell** You are one of the biggest names in SEO now. People like Neil Patel get hate, but they’re brilliant marketers. Neil runs ads with models holding signs saying “Who is Neil Patel?”. That drives branded search. Genius. He makes people sit on his site for five minutes before a video plays. He manipulates dwell time. He’s been doing CTR tricks for years. The Google leak confirmed engagement matters. Navboost. Clicks. Dwell time. He was years ahead. **James Dooley** So let’s fire some quick questions. First one. Is writing a book advised for personal branding? **Craig Campbell** Absolutely. If you can be bothered. If not, get a ghostwriter. Or speak for two hours on Zoom and let them turn it into a book. It’s worth doing. **James Dooley** Next. Should someone start a podcast? **Craig Campbell** Yes. Hosting your own podcast lets you control the narrative. You can choose guests who position you well. You can talk business, investment, systems, not just SEO. Going on other people’s podcasts is great as well. You leverage their audience. If time was against me and I had six months, I’d go on every podcast possible. **James Dooley** Completely agree. It builds your following faster. **James Dooley** Next question. Personal branding mistakes? **Craig Campbell** Biggest mistake is pretending to be someone you’re not. People try to be generalist, well-liked marketers. That kills the brand. I went the route of automation, testing, loopholes. That filters half the industry out. But at least it’s real. You need to decide who you are and stick with it. **James Dooley** Final question. If you had to shut down every channel and keep only two to build a personal brand in digital marketing, what two do you keep? **Craig Campbell** TikTok and YouTube. TikTok grows fast. YouTube is a goldmine. Facebook is mates. Instagram is visual. Twitter is short and sharp. I could shut everything else and still make money with those two. **James Dooley** For me it’s YouTube and LinkedIn, because of the inbound leads. But I get your point. Great chat on personal branding. You’ve always been a leader in this space. Final question. Are you leveraging your personal brand for investment opportunities? **Craig Campbell** Absolutely. People come to me because they want to tap into the exposure, the audience and the reach. It opens doors. And that’s exactly why personal branding matters. **James Dooley** Where can people find you? **Craig Campbell** CraigCampbellSEO.com. Or any social media platform. **James Dooley** Craig, it’s been a pleasure.