This yr alone, firms have introduced over 740,000 job cuts to date, a excessive since 2020. And that’s simply within the US.
However for a rising variety of professionals (even earlier than 2025), the answer hasn’t been in sprucing their résumés, however in constructing private manufacturers that create true job safety for them.
Constructing a private model can allow you to:
- Showcase your skills
- Create an viewers/community
- Get individuals to know who you might be, what you do, and what to return to you for
When executed nicely, a powerful private model attracts job presents earlier than roles are even posted, results in consulting or talking alternatives, and opens the door to new networks that may’t be accessed with a résumé alone.
For me, constructing my private model over the previous 10+ years has meant creating content material on-line (totally on LinkedIn & Twitter), and writing for publications like Entrepreneur, Inc., The Subsequent Internet, and lots of others.
All these efforts have opened numerous doorways—from beginning out as a contract author to operating a six-figure content material advertising company, after which ultimately changing into the cofounder of Leaps (an AI platform that helps individuals and groups flip their uncooked experience and expertise into content material that builds their private manufacturers).
For this text, I spoke with 4 professionals who’ve used their private manufacturers to show their careers round.
Andres Vourakis, an information scientist, constructed a security web of alternatives and additional earnings after layoffs shook his early profession. Ana Calin left a 15-year govt function and have become the creator of one among Substack’s fastest-growing newsletters, giving her full freedom and a thriving enterprise. Paul O’Brien, a veteran marketer, leveraged his repute to evolve from “the website positioning man” right into a thought chief on startup economics and public coverage. And Joei Chan, as soon as a content material advertising chief, turned unemployment right into a inventive rebrand that now attracts shoppers who need her to inform their reality, present up totally, and construct their model with authenticity.
We received into fears, breakthroughs, identification work, and the way constructing a private model is remodeling not simply their careers, however their lives.
From layoffs to lightbulbs
What made you understand you wanted a private model, and the way did that second spark your journey?
Andres Vourakis: I used to be sadly laid off early in my profession, and that have opened my eyes to the actual that means of job safety. I noticed that job safety wasn’t about working exhausting to grow to be an “important employee,” as a result of at any second, a enterprise may determine to allow you to go.
And over the previous few years, I’ve seen many proficient pals grow to be victims of large layoffs in tech. That’s when it actually clicked for me: actual job safety is staying future-proof.
Constructing my private model shouldn’t be solely permitting me to develop, share my information science experience, and join with plenty of nice individuals, nevertheless it’s additionally serving to me generate further earnings. It helps me sleep higher at night time understanding that my livelihood received’t be determined by a enterprise which will now not discover my work beneficial tomorrow.
Ana Calin: I didn’t got down to “construct a private model.” I simply needed freedom. I had simply left my 15-year govt function; large title, world journey, the entire “you made it” package deal. And but, I felt executed, prepared for one thing that felt mine.
I bear in mind gazing a clean LinkedIn publish, questioning what to say. I had no area of interest, no technique, no concept what individuals would care about. However I wrote anyway, about quitting, about reinvention, about ranging from scratch. And other people listened and responded. That was the spark. From that one publish got here DMs, leads, and in the end an actual enterprise.
Step one: discovering the boldness to indicate up
What was your very first step in constructing your private model, and what gave you the braveness to share it publicly?
Joei Chan: The primary actual step was launching Model New, my Substack e-newsletter. I used to be freshly unemployed, creatively uncooked, not sure of my subsequent chapter. However I had this deep urge to inform the reality. To show my mess right into a message.
So I began writing. Once I began posting on-line after being fired, there was positively hesitation. I frightened about trying unprofessional, scaring off future employers, or being labeled as “emotional” or “tough.” However now I see vulnerability as a inventive technique. It’s not oversharing, it’s storytelling that names the deeper reality and helps others really feel much less alone.
From there, I began a video sequence referred to as “Rebranding My Life After Shedding My 9 to five.” It was scrappy and private, simply me, documenting the messy center.
Paul O’Brien: Having come from Yahoo! after which serving to HP benefit from search engine marketing (website positioning) and Google, it simply clicked and made sense to kick off my private model and begin sharing my experience in public. What gave me confidence was that in 2002, only a few individuals knew methods to do website positioning. Confidence to place your self on the market typically comes from understanding that individuals will discover worth in what you must provide.
Ana Calin: I finished making an attempt to sound sensible and began sounding like myself. I didn’t have a distinct segment, and I wasn’t promoting something.
However I had actual tales about quitting, reinventing, and failing ahead. I wrote a publish on LinkedIn about strolling away from my govt function. And it wasn’t the spotlight reel; the precise messy model. No technique or name to motion, however simply reality. That one publish introduced in over 50,000 views. And that gave me the nudge I wanted.
The sudden rewards of exhibiting up authentically
Trying again, what’s one shocking approach your life or profession has improved due to your private model?
Ana Calin: I believed I used to be constructing a model. Seems, I used to be constructing a life. One with no boss, no Sunday scaries, no pretending. I discovered my voice, the one I had buried beneath “professionalism” for 15 years. And whenever you discover your voice, every thing shifts. And also you cease chasing alternatives, you begin selecting those to simply accept as they arrive, due to your private model.
Joei Chan: I really feel extra me than I’ve in years. What started as a profession disaster grew to become the best rebrand of my life. It led me again to my voice, my creativity, and a deeper reality: The branding and inventive work I like isn’t simply strategic, it’s non secular. And unexpectedly, that is the work individuals now come to me for: serving to them reclaim their very own story and present up totally as themselves.
Paul O’Brien: Being on the market enables you to evolve over time, as all of us do. I began out recognized for website positioning; I even leaned into it with the nickname website positioning’Brien, due to my early work at Yahoo! and HP. However as I stored writing and sharing, my pursuits shifted towards startups, financial improvement, and innovation. Over time, the content material I created adopted that shift, and so did my viewers. Now, as a substitute of being recognized for search, I’m sought out for my work as a startup economist and my views on public coverage for entrepreneurs. That evolution wouldn’t have occurred and not using a private model that allowed me to develop in public.
Andres Vourakis: It’s improved my confidence, my skill to speak concepts, and even how successfully I do my work as an information scientist. I’ve spent a lot time reflecting on what I do and why I do it, particularly when creating content material, that I now have far more readability in how I strategy issues and clarify my considering.
Your story is your security web
Conventional job safety is fading away quick. I can’t rely what number of high performers I’ve seen with spectacular résumés who’re discovering themselves out of labor with little warning.
However what does exist, and is more and more highly effective, is the flexibility to place your abilities and expertise in a approach that makes individuals wish to work with you. That’s what a private model does. It makes you seen, builds belief, and reveals not simply what you do, however the way you suppose.
And that mixture attracts new alternatives (job presents, shoppers, collaborators, even buyers) typically earlier than roles are ever publicly posted.
Private manufacturers are the brand new, actual job safety—the security web that ensures individuals know who you might be, what you deliver to the desk, and why you’re price betting on. So begin now. Begin sharing your experience, your story, your perspective. The sooner you construct your model, the extra protected, and in demand, you’ll be.
