12 Jun What No One Tells You About Building Your Personal Brand.

I remember sitting in a conference room for a work function and listening to a senior partner talk about personal branding.

She hit all the main points:

You need a 30 second elevator pitch!

Be authentic in your interactions!

Build a personal connection with your clients!

You need to differentiate yourself from the others to succeed in your career!

It meant nothing to me.

I understood everything and I agreed with everything she said, but I didn’t know how to take that advice and turn it into something more action-able.

I’m going to let you in on a secret that not many people will ever tell you:

Your personal brand doesn’t matter until someone goes out of their way and endorses you for it.

I joined a mid-size company where my title was a “Senior Consultant”. Although that was my title, I assisted with other IT functions in the office just because I knew how.

A Director in my office invited me to a networking event and he introduced me to everyone in the group as the company’s “Director of IT”.

I corrected him because that wasn’t my title. I didn’t like representing myself as something that I wasn’t. After I while I gave up, because he would still introduce me as the Director of IT no matter how many times I corrected him.

A few months later, a position opened up for Director of IT. This same Director recommended me for the job even though I have never held a “Director of IT” position before and didn’t even have any relevant job experience for this position, especially for a company of this size.

I was offered the job for Director of IT.

I took it.

If it were never for him, I would have never been offered this job or even thought of myself as remotely qualified for the position.

So my advice for you is while you build your personal brand: Convince one other person first, and then you can convince yourself.

—

PS: Read the only resignation letter template you’ll ever need.