You Are a Brand
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
In a world of ordinary, what makes you different?
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Are you feeling totally invisible in your job search? You know, like your resume is just one in a thousand. Yeah, it’s a huge problem in today’s crowded market, but listen, there’s a really powerful way to make sure you’re the one who gets noticed. So let’s break it down.
All right. To really get this, we’ve got to go back in time. Let’s dive into a story from the world of 1960s advertising.
Picture this, a smoke-filled boardroom, a bunch of tobacco executives, and they’ve got this massive problem. See, every single cigarette is basically the same. And to make things worse, they can’t make any health claims anymore.
They are totally, completely stuck. So a creative director is in the room and he’s just listening to them talk about their process. And then he hears one little word, toasted, and bam, a light bulb just goes off over his head.
He points out, Hey, wait a minute. Everybody toasts their tobacco, right? But Lucky Strike could be the only one talking about it. It’s the story you tell.
That’s the one thing that can make you different. And right there, that’s the connection to the modern job search. Think about it.
You might have the same degree, similar years of experience, and pretty much the same skills as dozens, maybe even hundreds of other people applying for the same job. So what makes you different? How do you become the one they actually remember? Here’s the hard truth. If your resume and your LinkedIn profile just list your job title and your duties, you’re basically invisible.
You’re just another senior financial analyst in a sea of them. To a recruiter who’s scrolling through literally hundreds of profiles, you look identical to everyone else. And let me tell you, that is a failing strategy.
Okay. So what’s the solution? You’ve got to find your own toasted quality. It’s all about figuring out and defining what makes you uniquely valuable.
In other words, it’s about building your personal brand. Just look at this transformation right here. Senior financial analyst.
Okay. That’s a job title. It’s what you are, but eliminating inefficiencies, improving quality, growing revenues.
Now that’s what you do. See the difference? That simple little shift turns a totally passive label into an active promise of the value you’re going to deliver. And here’s a perfect example of just how simple, but incredibly powerful a brand can be.
Imagine your entire company network goes down. It’s chaos. Who are you going to call? Some generic systems administrator or the one person who confidently says, I solve problems.
Come on. The choice is totally obvious, right? So what this all boils down to is that your personal brand is your unique promise of value. It’s your answer to that one critical question.
Why should I hire you over everybody else? And to find yours, you got to ask yourself some tough questions. Like what problems do I seem to solve for people over and over again? What’s the common thread that runs through all my biggest wins. That’s where you’re going to find the gold.
That’s your brand. Okay. I get it.
This might all sound good in theory, but you’re probably wondering, does this stuff actually work in the real world? Well, let’s look at a fantastic case study that shows just how powerful rebranding yourself can be. This story is, it’s just incredible. So this woman was out of work for more than two years, two years.
And as you can imagine, she had pretty much convinced herself. She had nothing of value to offer, but here’s the thing. She had this massive accomplishment.
She wasn’t even talking about, she was part of a team that won a regional Emmy. The second she started branding herself as an Emmy award winner, everything changed, she got a job almost immediately. The lesson here is huge.
You have to claim your accomplishments. Even if they were part of a team effort, they’re part of what makes you, you. All right.
So let’s say you’ve done the work. You’ve defined your brand. You know, what makes you toasted? Awesome.
But now what? Well, the next step is to make sure the whole world knows it. So where exactly do you put this new message to work? The magic word here is consistency. Your brand has to show up everywhere to create one single unified message about who you are.
We’re talking a powerful LinkedIn headline that makes people stop scrolling, a value proposition deck that tells your story, even something as simple as your business card or your email signature, every single one of these little touch points reinforces your professional image. And when you start doing this, something amazing happens. You stop being just another applicant.
You become a strategic marketer for the most important product you’ll ever have yourself. And trust me, that sends a really powerful signal to employers. It tells them you’re a pro who gets how to communicate value.
A Well-Respected Man/Woman–Branding Yourself to Stand Out
But hold on. This goes so much deeper than just coming up with a catchy marketing slogan for a brand to have real power. It’s got to be authentic.
It has to be rooted in who you actually are. It has to be rooted in your character. Just imagine you’re in a final interview and you say something like this.
You say, look, at this point, I’m sure we’re all qualified to do the job. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can tell you, I’m very proud of my reputation and my character. Wow.
When all the candidates are technically qualified, what’s left? It’s character. It’s integrity. It’s your reputation.
And that, that is the ultimate differentiator. You can’t fake it and you can’t copy it. It’s the foundation of trust.
And that’s what every employer is really looking for. There’s this idea. Sometimes it’s called the law of the harvest, and it really shows how character is built step by step.
It’s not something that happens overnight, right? It all starts with a single thought. That thought leads you to take an action. You repeat that action enough.
It becomes a habit and those habits over time, they forge your character. And ultimately your character determines your destiny. So in the end, what is your brand? It’s not just some clever headline you cook up for your LinkedIn profile.
No way. It’s the sum of all your actions, your habits, and your reputation. You know what it really is? It’s the story people tell about you when you’re not in the room.
It’s the destiny that you are actively building every single day.
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS Career Advice globally because he makes many things in peoples’ careers easier. Those things can involve job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, career transition, as well as advice about resolving workplace issues.
Seven Steps To Branding Yourself As An Expert
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