Important Lessons for Creating a Lasting Personal Brand
Don't wait until your personal introduction or goals are perfectly written before you start sharing what you are currently working on. Showing that you are active and can adjust is more helpful to potential employers than having a profile that looks finished but has no recent activity.
Concentrate on recording your daily tasks and solving small issues rather than worrying too much about colors or layouts. When you provide real proof of your skills, people trust you more professionally and know you can actually do the job you claim to do.
Stop just looking at things and start taking part by leaving useful comments on posts made by important people in your field. By always adding helpful thoughts to what others are saying, you build connections with well-respected people who will start to recognize your expertise.
The Quick Start: Showing Evidence Instead of Just Selling Yourself
Looking fancy is no longer a way to get ahead. The time when a professional could get by just by having a perfectly designed LinkedIn page and color scheme is over. In a tough job market, a slick profile doesn't build trust; it often just suggests you haven't been producing any actual work.
Most motivated professionals get stuck in the cycle of being "Busy but Hidden." You spend hours making your profile description perfect and getting ready to post, but your network stays the same. You feel like you are working on your career, but because you aren't sharing anything useful, the recruiters and important peers who matter don't notice you. This is how talented people get worn out before they even truly start.
To get an immediate advantage, you need to switch from "building a brand" to "sharing proof." This is the Quick Start: a practical change where you focus on Showing What You've Done instead of just updating your profile. Instead of telling people what you know, solve one small problem in public every week. When you share real evidence of your ability, you force the job market to focus on your results instead of just what your profile says.
How to Choose Your Personal Branding Level
As someone working in Technical Product Management, I look at personal branding like launching a new product. You are the product, and your efforts determine how many people (employers/clients) you reach and keep. This chart compares different levels to help you pick the one that fits your current effort and career goals.
The Basic Level
If You Are:
Happy in your job but want to make sure recruiters can easily find you if they search for you.
Your Quick Action
What You Need (The Basics): A good LinkedIn profile, a professional picture, and a short title explaining your job. Action: Share or post one helpful item once a week.
Why This Helps (Small Advantage): Basic Visibility: This makes sure that if someone searches for you, they see a basic professional page. It provides the minimum trust needed for a recruiter's first look.
The Good Level
If You Are:
Trying to switch careers or wanting to become the recognized expert in your current field or area.
Your Quick Action
What You Need (The Basics): Active Connecting: Posting your own ideas 2–3 times a week. Tools: Using a simple email list (like Substack) or a personal blog. Joining the conversation in the comments sections of industry leaders to build trust from others.
Why This Helps (Big Advantage): Building Trust & Authority: This shows you know your field, going beyond just a resume. It creates people who already know who you are, so you get more recommendations before you even ask for a new role.
The Expert Level
If You Are:
Planning to start your own business, speak publicly, or become one of the highest earners in your industry.
Your Quick Action
What You Need (The Basics): Your Own Space: A personal website/portfolio, appearing on podcasts, and sharing content in different ways (like Video and Writing). Checking Data: Using information to see which topics people like best and focusing more on those.
Why This Helps (Top Advantage): Opportunities Come to You: At this stage, you don't look for work; work finds you. You create a strong barrier around your career, making you a known expert. This gives you the most power when negotiating salary or getting high-paying consulting jobs.
The Three Parts of Brand Strength
To build a personal brand that lasts, you need to start from the inside and work your way out. This set of three steps, The Brand Authority Stack, organizes your growth into logical stages that turn your knowledge into a recognized reputation.
The Core Identity
What it is
- Goal: To clearly decide who you are, what problems you solve, and for whom you solve them.
- What to Do: Look at your unique skills and values to create a main guiding statement for everything you share online.
The Online Proof
How you appear
- Goal: To have a clear and professional presence where the people you want to reach actually spend time.
- What to Do: Make your social media profiles look good and start posting useful thoughts regularly that show your skill.
The Trust Circle
Your Reputation
- Goal: To turn people who just follow you into a loyal group and be seen as a leader in your area.
- What to Do: Talk directly with other professionals and offer deep value through emails, speaking, or working together to truly establish your credibility.
These three stages build on each other: A clear Identity makes your Public Proof meaningful, and consistent meaningful Proof builds a loyal Community, which completes your authority structure.
Quick Actions: Turning Problems into Progress
Fix common career roadblocks by turning them into simple steps. Stop planning too much and immediately show your value by replacing things that stop you with small, daily wins.
Spending Too Long on a Title: Spending days trying to write the "perfect" short description or mission statement before you feel ready to talk to people.
Use a Quick Rule: Use a 10-second sentence: "Right now, I help [Who] solve [What Problem]." Update this sentence every month based on what you actually worked on that month.
Obsessed with Looks: Spending hours choosing profile colors, fonts, or logos instead of showing your real professional skills.
The Proof Picture: Stop designing and start showing. Post one picture of a project, a useful chart, or a piece of code you wrote today. Let the actual work be your visual.
What Should I Post?: Feeling like you must write long, deep essays to get noticed by recruiters.
The Small Fix: Find one common small mistake in your industry. Post the "Wrong Way" versus the "Better Way" using 100 words or less. Practical help is always better than just "inspiration."
Quiet Profile: Waiting for the "right" people to visit your page while you quietly fix your skills list privately.
Direct Helpful Comment: Spend 15 minutes daily leaving useful, short answers on the posts of 5 industry leaders. This puts your name in their notifications right away.
7-Day Plan to Build Your Brand Base
Follow this structured 7-day plan to quickly set up a clear, professional, and interesting personal brand base.
Search your name online to see what others see. Remove or hide old posts that don't match your current career goals, and decide on one main topic you want people to associate with you.
Use the same professional photo on all your work accounts so you are easy to recognize. Write a two-sentence description that clearly says what you do and the exact problem you solve for your field.
Write one post about a big lesson you learned, one about a project you recently finished, and one with a helpful tip for others in your job. Keep them short, honest, and easy to read.
Share your first post on your main platform (like LinkedIn). Right after posting, find five key people in your field and leave a helpful, thoughtful comment on their recent posts to get noticed.
Get Better with Cruit
Fixes: The Bio Problem LinkedIn Profile Tool
Uses AI to instantly write eye-catching titles and professional summaries. Stop worrying about the right words and start getting seen.
Fixes: Looks / What To Say? Journaling Tool
Our AI Coach helps you write down your wins and automatically turns them into short, professional posts that show your real skills.
Fixes: Quiet Profile Connecting
This gets you actively connecting. The AI guide helps you think of things to say and drafts messages to send so you can talk to people easily.
Quick Questions About the Signal Sprint
Should I wait until I have a "perfect" focus area before I start sharing my work?
No. Trying to find your focus area while doing nothing is what keeps you "Busy but Hidden." Your focus area is something you discover by taking action, not by thinking alone. Start by sharing solutions to small, real problems you face at work right now. As you share these "signals," you will see which topics people like and which ones you enjoy solving the most. Let the information from your Quick Start guide your brand, instead of trying to guess what people want before you begin.
How do I deal with the worry that my "Proof of Work" isn't good enough for smart people to notice?
The goal of a Quick Start isn't to show you are the smartest person; it's to show you are someone who solves problems. Experts value seeing your process more than seeing "perfection." If you share a critique or a sales plan, explain the reasoning behind your choices. Even if someone disagrees with how you did it, they will respect that you are actually doing work and thinking clearly in public. Being seen as an expert comes from being helpful, not from being perfect.
Should I focus on fixing my LinkedIn description first to look professional when people visit my profile?
Don't get stuck making your profile look perfect when you haven't shown any work. Spend 10 minutes on a basic description of your job, then spend the rest of your week creating something real to show. When someone sees a helpful post from you, they will click your profile to see more of your work, not your "About" section. Your recent posts are your real resume; focus on the proof before you focus on the polish.
Stop making the glass look nice.
The time for just having a beautiful profile is over. To escape being busy but hidden, you must start the Quick Start plan. Stop "getting ready" to be noticed and start sharing the clear proof of your skills. Focus on Showing What You've Done over updating your profile details so the job market values you for what you can actually deliver.
Start Sharing Now
