Week #3: Embrace and Expound Your Experience

I have a story.

You have a story.

We ALL have a story.

Our personal brand is all about what kind of experience people have with us online and in-person, and that experience has a past. We need to embrace it.

During a personal branding workshop I delivered recently, we talked about our professional histories. What was our educational experience? How did we get into our niche? What were our professional passions? What did we find hard? Where did we want to be in three years’ time from a career perspective?

In just five minutes talking about themselves (not an easy or comfortable thing for many to do), the participants had started to cultivate a story about their career that had structure — a beginning, middle and desired end.

When it comes to articulating your experience, it’s important to set out your professional skills in a compelling way. Many people have an issue with writing down what, of all the experience they have in their career to date, is actually interesting or matters.

It all matters.

While embracing your experience and crafting a story you can succinctly articulate at a networking event or job interview is a goal, getting that information down in writing on your website or social platforms like LinkedIn is critical, as well.

Share Your Unique Value Propositions

When you're writing down your experience under present and past roles within your profile, include as much detail as you can. This means not just your job role, but expounding that experience with responsibilities, successes, awards, client names (if not confidential), and what value you brought to the role.

Detail, detail, detail.

It’s crucial to think about how people might be searching for you or your expertise. You don’t have to write an essay, but share enough for people reading your profile or looking for your skillset to have a much more robust understanding of your past than a thin, buzzword-riddled, two-sentence rush job.

As I was talking through each of the fields on LinkedIn during the workshop, I had to stop people furiously editing their profile in real-time. I suggested they take time away from the workplace and jot experience down in a Word document before committing it to be published.

These things take time!

Hiding your light underneath a bushel does you no favors. Share the highlights (and lowlights) from your past professional experience. Your target audience is looking for you, but you're not providing them sufficient detail to figure out if you're the right person to answer their need.

If you're a procrastinator like me, take one job role at a time and write everything down you can remember. Then return to edit it down to salient points that help tell your story. This isn’t something you can do in an hour or even a day.

You have a great story.

Start telling it more completely!