This document provides advice on building your personal brand at work. It emphasizes that your brand is how you are seen by others and is defined by what you do and how you do it. It encourages developing expertise in a niche, teaching and sharing knowledge, leaving your comfort zone to meet new people, and standing out through signature work rather than just completing tasks. The overall message is that career success depends on actively promoting your brand through contribution and becoming indispensable rather than just putting in effort.

1. Build Your Brand
On the Job
Terri Trespicio
WORKFRONT LEAP / May 2016

2. @territ
territrespicio.com

3. Creating, maintaining,
and refining your brand
is the most important investment of your career.

4. You already
are a brand.
You’re just not using it
in a way that benefits you.

6. But what is your brand?

7. It’s what you do
& how you do it.

8. Promise.
Presence.
Practice.

9. Let’s talk about
passion for one sec.

11. “Conventional wisdom on career
success—follow your passion—is
seriously flawed. It not only fails
to describe how most people
actually end up with compelling
careers, but for many people it
can actually make things worse:
leading to chronic job shifting
and unrelenting angst.”
—Cal Newport

12. “The thing that most people don’t
realize is that in today’s world your
business and your personal brand
need to be one and the same.”
—GaryVaynerchuk, Crush It

13. Meet Shir. He teaches excel.

14. What does it
do for me?

15. Stand out
at work…and everywhere else.

16. Meet Dorie Clark.

17. “There’s a lingering cultural belief that if
you just work hard enough, you’ll be
lauded as an authority if your work merits
it. Unfortunately, that’s a recipe for
professional disaster.”
–Dorie Clark, Stand Out: How to FindYour
Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It

18. With a great brand, you’re not just worth keeping;
you’re indispensable.

20. “The indispensable employee brings
humanity and connection and art to the
her organization. She is the key player, the
one who’s difficult to live without, the
person you can build something around.”
–Seth Godin, Linchpin

21. Being indispensable
is a skill you can learn.
“You can train yourself to matter.” —Seth Godin

22. Contribute
in a bigger way.
No one wants you to play small.

23. Take me, for example.

25. Build
your network.

26. You can be a LinkedIn slut…
Just don’t be a one-night stand.

27. Your resume is your past.
Your job is your present.
Your network is your past,
present, and future.
It’s where you’ve been and
where you’re going.

28. Start
a side hustle, biz, project.

29. Why now?

30. • Working hard is not enough.
• Being brilliant is not enough.
•You will not be in this role forever.
• Your company wants you to do it.
Because…

31. Your brand
is how the world
sees you.

32. “It matters less how you see the world.
It matters more how the world sees you.
If you fail to understand what your
audience truly values, then you can’t
communicate yourself in a way that
makes people want to build connection
and loyalty.”
–Sally Hogshead, How theWorld SeesYou

33. Let’s talk about what
makes you nervous.

34. Fear of self promotion
ENVY
Not a team player
Conflict of interest
Suspicion
Sending the wrong message
Looking like a douche
“What will they think?”
“Who do I think I am?”

35. Why you?

36. If you can’t answer that without
getting defensive, you haven’t
landed your brand.

37. “So, what do you do?”

38. Talk to me like
a fifth grader.

39. Don’t sell the feature.
Sell the face.

42. You are more than the tasks you do
or the services you provide.
Ex: Every resume, ever.

43. You’re not just a professional;
you’re an expert.

44. expert (noun)
a person who has a comprehensive &
authoritative knowledge of or skill in a
particular area.

45. “One of the mistakes I see new
business owners make is that they
don’t consider themselves experts.
They’re adamant that they’re not
ready yet.”
—Scott Stratten, Unmarketing

46. Day jobs have
an unfairly bad rep.

47. Meet Ramit Sethi.

48. “Most of my students still have a day job. A lot of them are planning
to quit as soon as they make enough money to replace that income.
But I also have plenty of students (and a number of employees) who
make more than enough on the side that they could quit whenever
they wanted. So why haven’t they? It’s not fear of going out on their
own. It’s that they’ve found their Dream Job.”
–Ramit Sethi, creator of Zero to Launch & FindYour Dream Job

49. Meet Kabir Seghal.
Has a full-time job in finance.
Likes to write.
Enjoys playing music.

50. So here’s what he did.
Wrote a book about jazz.
Wrote a book about money.
Wrote a children’s book.
Became a NY Times best-selling author.
Grammy award-winning producer.
…all while being full-time at JP Morgan

51. Master your brand
at work

52. Don’t throw it into park.
Stay in drive.

53. Don’t think like a freelancer.

54. • Waiting for people to give you work.
• Waiting to be asked to do a thing.
• Complain about low wages.
• Afraid to do more than you’re paid to do.
• Server mentality
• Compete on price.
Freelancer mode

55. Even full-timers get
stuck in freelancer mode.

56. • Waiting for people to give you work.
• Waiting to be asked to do a thing.
• Complain about low wages.
• Afraid to do more than you’re paid to do.
• Server mentality.
• Compete on price.
Ummmm…it’s the same thing:

57. Put yourself in entrepreneur mode.
• Seek out opportunities.
• Aim to do things differently, and better.
• Be like no one else.
• Overdeliver.
• Be looking five steps ahead.
• Stop waiting to be told what to do.

58. Be the chef,
not the server.

59. Let’s talk about your
niche.

60. Apprentice
yourself.

61. Identify your favorite problems
and solve them—for everyone.

62. Meet Maggie Mistal

63. Don’t wait for your next job interview
to figure out what you do & why it matters.

64. Case in point: Lori
“Results driven marketing and brand management executive with
over 10 years experience creating and implementing strategies
that drive consumer engagements, sales and brand awareness.
Consultative and collaborative leader with strong business
acumen working in a corporate or agency environment who
brings independent thinking and fresh ideas.
Reputation for insight driven strategies that enhance the creative
process. Proven ability to work with and lead cross-functional
teams to deliver on budget and on time.”

65. Lori’s sweet spot
“When marketing is done well, you shouldn’t see it at all.”
“Helping a brand get more traffic and attention—and a leg up
on the competition.”
“Lousy websites.”
“When Target knocked off a product I created for Macys.”
“I don’t just pay lip service to a brand; I thrive at the
intersection of product development and marketing, and
develop the products and solutions that make a brand stand
out.”
Industry insight:
I love:
Pet peeve:
Most proud of:
SWEET SPOT:

66. Be the resource—
so people come to you.

67. Meet Paula Rizzo

68. Teach, share, socialize.
Don’t keep your wisdom to yourself.

69. Don’t just have info.
Have an opinion.

70. Here’s mine.

71. Ask yourself
• What do people always come to me for?
• What do I wish people came to me for?
• What’s different about the way I work with someone?
• What’s my professional “signature?”
• How do people feel after any interaction with me?
• Why do they come back?

72. Leave the bubble.
Meet new people inside &
outside of the organization.

73. Develop
your signature work.

74. Patch up the holes
in your power map.

75. (Check out Dorie Clark for more on powermapping)

76. Share
your story.
(And please update your Linked In profile.)

77. “Withhold none of you and give
yourself without reservation.
–Grant Cardone, Sell or Be Sold

78. Thank you!
WHY YOU:
Live online workshop
coming this summer!
territrespicio.com/workfront