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A few weekends ago I participated on a panel discussion hosted by Darnyelle Jervey. The focus of her event was Maximizing the Incredible You. The very first question to the panel was, “What has been instrumental in helping develop your brand?”

Once you get beyond the buzz, at the core of branding is the concept of being able to position yourself. Positioning yourself as an employee or entrepreneur is critical to communicating your value, being connected to the right opportunities, and creating the right environment for success. In this series of posts I’ll be sharing the five things that have been important in helping me effectively craft my brand not only as the Career Makeover Coach, but what helped me position myself throughout my career with corporate employers as well.

The five keys that have helped create my brand are:

• Authenticity
• Passion
• Knowledge
• Attraction
• Leveraging Technology

Let’s start with authenticity…

Authenticity allows you to leverage who you are and what you’ve done in establishing credibility. Although not impossible, it would be a challenge to market myself as the Career Makeover Coach if I had ever only had one job in my entire career.

You can read my full profile on the Tai’s Story page, but here’s the snapshot: I started out as an AmeriCorps member serving in Philadelphia schools. Flash forward about 14 years a you’ll find me managing and building e-learning courses for a global IT company. In between those two roles I’ve had about five different positions in different industries never with the same title or exact responsibilities. I can’t say that I was always strategic but I always chose my next move-based online wanting to do work that I was passionate about with assignments I knew I could be good at (even if I hadn’t done it before). I finally added strategy to the mix when I decided to make a move to something that I could not only love but get paid the salary that I wanted too. It didn’t happen overnight. It took some work. It took some planning and it took time. But in four years I was able to not only have the position that I wanted in the kind of company that I wanted to work for, I was also making the salary that I wanted. Without moving into a management position I was able to more than double my salary. If you had asked me 10 years ago would I be in a position to turn down a six-figure management position with a Fortune 500 company because I had a better option it would seem like a joke but that’s exactly what happened. I still have the most recent job offer letter that I turned down from Canon a few years ago. I joke about framing it. [click to continue…]

As “The Career Makeover Coach”, Tai Goodwin is on a mission to help ambitious individuals reinvent their professional lives by centering on their passion and purpose. Holding as a core belief that we are all called to divine purpose and gifted with a unique passion, Tai uses a results driven, spiritually grounded approach to help clients create career paths to support the lifestyle they desire. Whether it’s helping people go from embittered to empowered professionals or making the transition from employee to entrepreneur, Tai is committed to helping clients tap into their own potential for brilliance. Tai has been empowering others through teaching and coaching for over 14 years. A gifted and insightful communicator, Tai holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Drexel University and a Master of Science in Education from Capella University. She has completed ASTD’s (American Society for Training and Development) Coaching Certificate program and is pursuing professional coaching certification through the International Coach Academy. Originally from Philadelphia, Tai currently lives in Delaware with her daughter. She is currently working on her first book: Reclaiming Your Brilliance: Seven Ways to Take Your Life from Bright to Brilliant.

Web site: http://www.careermakeovercoach.com