Hi Alec,

First, thanks for reading this. I hope you found it useful.

Here’s the long answer. Hope this doesn’t sound to preachy or simplified, but it is just how it happened for me.

I am 50 years old. I landed my first full-time job right out of college. My dad is my greatest influence on my work ethic. He was a high school counselor, and from as long as I remember he would tell me these things: “Always arrive on time. Work hard. Help others.” In a way, he was explaining to me the importance of personal branding without calling it that back in the early 1980s. My dad lived those words every day, working 12 hour days so that he could be involved and help the kids at hi school. He’s an inspiring character to this day.

So, in every job I have ever had, I always worked hard, volunteered for stuff that was even outside the scope of my responsibility, and I help others as much as I can. What led me to start the business was losing my job after a very difficult experience with workplace abuse and bullying. As I was recovering from that experience, I took my dad’s old advice, and applied it to my business.

The way I landed my clients is good, old-fashioned networking. I had a few close friends that I told I was planning to start my business. These friends have known me for years and they are what I call “work friend,” since our relationship was born from being longtime colleagues. They knew my skill set and my work ethic through the personal brand I have always had. It started out slow: I helped write a press release. I researched a few things. Then, a friend who is in another industry reached out to ask if I wanted to be a temporary part-time writer at her business, assigned to do interviews and write 40–60 page brochures to promote their products. That job took off for me in late 2017.

Other jobs I landed were also through friends who would check in on me and ask me how I was doing. I told them I was excited about my new business, and that I was working on finding great clients to work with on projects. That’s when these folks referred me to people they know to do projects. Now I have repeat business from these early clients. I have two meetings next week with people who I have never met who want to work with me, and I will do the “dating” thing and do work for free.

So, my success has been 30 years in the making in some sense. I have always been mindful of my personal brand and living up to it. I believe brands are controlled by audiences. If you want to be a hard worker, you have to do the work, not just say you’re a hard work. I always made sure my actions matched my words.

If you are young and starting out, focus on developing your network. Work really hard, even when you don’t feel like or when you’re invited to go hang out with friends. Focus on finding ways that you can solve someone else’s problem. Be the solution guy — that could be your brand. People want to hire people who can eliminate some stress from these very stressful lives we lead. Don’t take on too much work and disappoint people. There is a balance to having the right number of clients, especially if you do the collaborative model that I do.

I hope this helps. Sorry it’s so long. Feel free to ask more questions or reach out anytime!

Best,

Ree