[MrAlmostWrong]

I'm of the opinion that you should focus on building an audience but it depends on the type of audience.

Whenever I'm working on a new brand I think about the problem that the audience has and that's what I want to create an audience around.

When you create an audience around a problem then when you have the solution (your business) the audience fuels it.

However, too many people take the advice of building an audience before a business to mean that they need to build an audience around their personal brand/persona and that's why you end up with the things in the author's post.

While building a personal brand can be very helpful for clout and opportunities, it's never a surefire way to generate success for a business because who is your audience at that point?