What If You Used Career Branding to Professionally Excel?
- Brainz Magazine
- Jun 16
- 6 min read
Written by Jeanette Walton, Career Brand Consultant
Jeanette is spreading the word about the essentiality of career branding for all professionals. As a Career Brand Consultant, she has pioneered a career branding framework, amongst other educational resources, to amplify the use of career branding to cut through and stand out.
What if you stopped viewing your professional aspirations as fantastical, using career branding to transition them into something more realistic? What if you defined a strong foundational career brand to convert those distant career ambitions into something more present and inspiring? What if speaking and exemplifying a future-focused career brand transformed those aspirational thoughts into actual objectives and achievements?
Many of us delay or deter our ‘what ifs.’
If you have unrequited or unfulfilled career ambitions, I’ve been where you are. I wouldn’t say all my ‘what if’ aspirations have been fully tackled, but I have managed to progress some of them to ‘let’s do it.’ It’s really since I established my own career brand 18+ months ago, as a Career Brand Consultant, that I have observed and experienced a range of career-aligned shifts, pivots, and expansions. And there’s been some valuable external advice and internal lessons along the way. A key one is the self-realisation that I’m pretty much the only one who can stop or limit me from professionally excelling.
This aligns with the University of Tennessee’s 2023 research focused on the devastating power of self-doubt, which found that 70% of respondents admitted to lacking confidence at work. Another recent psychological study reported that 85% of people (adults and adolescents) worldwide struggle with low self-esteem. I’ve been one of these common global denominators, in terms of delaying or deterring my career ambitions.
It's often uncomfortable to chase dreams
I recently read an article about the importance of feeling comfortable with being uncomfortable in order to fully realise our professional goals and aspirations. Five key reasons why many of us don’t chase our dreams are the fear of leaving our comfort zone, a lack of confidence, a fear of the unknown, feeling too overwhelmed, and a fear of failure.
All of the above has applied to me, most likely influenced by a childhood where any sniff of self-confidence was quickly quashed by the household patriarch. There were so many times I felt those ‘what if’ urges as a working adult, wondering what it would be like to step up and excel. Yet I didn’t have the inner strength (or wisdom) to face and embrace those consequential feelings of discomfort, despite an awareness that trying something new, unfamiliar, or exhilarating is likely to release feel-good dopamine.
It’s only after defining a right-fit career brand, and undertaking complementary life and career coaching, that I felt okay with emerging out of my shadows of doubt and discomfort.
"Uncomfortable doesn't mean bad, uncomfortable simply means you're doing something you haven't done before." – Michael Phelps, US swimming legend
So what’s the worst that can happen
It took some serious thought-process rewiring for me to accept that failures and redirections are fine when kickstarting a career transformation. That if I didn’t reach my initial goals, other opportunities would no doubt arise. And that I would no doubt gain some value-add skills and knowledge along the way.
Medium.com uses the term ‘catastrophising’ to describe our human assumptions that the worst will happen: “It is a distortion in our perception of how things are and where things are going.” In a professional context, the more willing we are to continue to assess and adapt as necessary, the more likely we are to achieve professional growth.
When first promoting myself as a Career Brand Consultant, I was aware career branding was a less familiar branding concept, meaning it might not attract as many interested parties as other terms like ‘personal branding’ and ‘career development.’ I have therefore applied a slow-burn approach in terms of deepening career branding awareness, including building on and fine-tuning content to convey what I do and what I offer. I’ve also learnt to accept that a career branding project is not going to appeal to every professional I encounter, and that that’s okay.
If you build it, they will come
In this well-known, Bible-affiliated line by Kevin Costner's character in Field of Dreams, the core message is that effort and belief will deliver strong, positive outcomes. The establishment of a foundational career branding strategy aligns with this analogy.
In addition to clear, consistent, and constant career branding igniting and fuelling confident, insightful professional promotions and interactions, it's going to escalate brand reach, interest, and engagement. Whether planning on starting your own business, striving to grow your customer base, seeking career advancement, or opening yourself up to new opportunities, credible, authentic, and informative career branding (applied across multiple platforms and collateral) will pave the way.
The more you promote, speak, and exemplify a well-defined career brand, the higher and wider you'll go.
Don’t be afraid to test the market
One of the best pieces of advice I was given when starting up my career branding service was not to worry too much about what others think, as you will never please everyone. Another sage snippet was that there’s no one on platforms like LinkedIn who’s going to openly question how you brand yourself, within reason, of course!
If anything, professional platforms like LinkedIn are structured to encourage you to strategically and organically market yourself, and to use their analytics to continually test and fine-tune your brand content (e.g. how many profile views, how many job recommendations). They are also set up to facilitate the slow-burn approach, where you consistently grow interest via the expansion of your connections, followers, and subscribers.
I know I’ve adapted my LinkedIn headline multiple times, along with my top banner, my ‘about’ summary, and other primary sections, based on what I’ve been continuing to learn and achieve.
Start small and build momentum
That’s what I’ve done in my own business. Slowly but surely, I’ve continued to extend my reach and reputation as a career branding advocate. That has included the continual expansion of my digital content and assets, as my confidence, self-belief, and target audience recognition have positively spread.
It’s likely to be overwhelming if, when starting up a new career or venture, you ‘go big’ quickly in terms of where and how you promote it. Commence with the defining of a clear, insightful career brand that you feel connected and committed to, and gradually build out from that starting point.
For example, consider first testing your new career brand on LinkedIn, in terms of whether it attracts and resonates with your preferred people (e.g. recruiters, industry partners, customers), and then filter out from there across other online platforms and channels. In my case, this has included an expansion into podcasts and self-produced reels, including for my YouTube channel, regularly writing articles for this global digital magazine, and delivering workshops, presentations, and webinars (including participating in a SIETAR Global symposium).
Why not give your ‘what if’ some airtime
So, if you've been considering alternative professional adventures or endeavours, why not start to dial things up and see where those new airwaves take you? Whether that's a professional side hustle you’ve been contemplating or the urge to undergo significant career change, there's so much to gain from getting out of your comfort zone, progressing that ‘what if’ into a ‘hell yeah’.
Speaking from my own firsthand experience, I have gained so much more than I’ve lost in terms of professional and personal evolution. I’m continuing to positively surprise and gratify myself, based on some of the lofty, lifelong hurdles I’ve overcome. Public speaking was at the pinnacle.
I can vouch that embracing ‘what if’ discomfort will enable you to professionally excel.
Read more from Jeanette Walton
Jeanette Walton, Career Brand Consultant
Jeanette is a Career Brand Consultant who helps professionals worldwide to enhance their career prospects. To address a gap in the market, she designed a career branding framework that helps professionals design and apply their own unique career brand. She also avidly writes articles, newsletters and eBooks, features on podcasts, partners with industry alliances, and delivers educational presentations on the benefits of career branding. In her spare time, Jeanette fosters dogs, visits an aged care resident, and co-facilitates a LinkedIn Local networking group.
