The Two Most Important Things You Can Do to Market Your Career

Whether you're focused on building or strengthening your "personal brand" or want to land a new role with a new company that fits the next logical step in your career, understanding two things - what you do and who you do it for - is essential.

Both of these things represent the primary pillars of marketing.

Without a specific answer to both, you're just flailing, which leads to failing.

The most common trap that marketers fall into is that they try to be everything to everyone. That's impossible. Not to mention expensive for you and confusing for your customers.

When you offer a product or service to the world, it needs to speak to the people you want to serve. They need to see it and say to themselves, "yes! THIS is for me."

If they can't quite tell, they'll move on, usually within seconds.

You Have Less Than 10 Seconds

We're bombarded with information like no other time in history. This has also made us really good at quickly deciding whether we want to spend more time on something or move on.

If you're not crystal clear on what your product/service does and who it does it for, then you're wasting your time and everyone else's.

The same is true when you're looking to make a career move.

If it's not clear what you do and who you do it for, then you'll be ignored.

Everything Must Align to Tell the Same Story

This doesn't just apply to your resume, but your other profiles and bios as well, no matter where they are.

Let's say someone sees one of your tweets that someone they're connected to retweeted or your LinkedIn post that a connection 'liked' or shared- what's the first thing they'll do if it piques their interest?

They'll take a look at your profile to determine if they should follow or connect with you and ask themselves, "was this post a flash in the pan, or is this person for me?"

Your audience - whether the people you're intentionally creating the content for or potential employers - is doing this to your profiles daily.

There are Riches in Niches

I'll admit, I need to be better about this, too. It might be time to sit down, determine what I really do and who I want to do it for. That may be different than who I'm doing it for now because I may find that my current audience is too broad.

The further you can niche and the more specific you will be, the higher the likelihood you'll be successful- whatever that "success" may mean for you.

If you're a commitment-phobe like me, niching is hard. The FOMO associated with it is a real bitch.

But it's essential.

What's even more essential is being specific about it. Make sure the 'who' and the 'what' align with your interests. Don't chase the money.

I'll repeat that because it's that important - don't chase the money. You'll end up hating yourself and what you do.

So, I'll challenge you to figure this out over the next week. Sit down and write out what you do- not what you could do, but what you do right now. Then write out who you want to do it for - be very specific. It can be a particular type of person or a specific market.

I'd love to hear what you come up with. Send me an email (travis at windingroadpodcast dot com) letting me know. I also want to know how it makes you feel to have more clarity.

Photo by Magnus Engø on Unsplash