Why Your Brand Sucks Now (From Someone Who’s Been There)

In another life I was an aspiring TV writer.

I hadn’t yet produced a segment with then President Barack Obama for the Colbert Report.

Or been the only woman in the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia writer’s room.

I hadn’t yet won a Peabody Award.

I had made YouTube sketches (made a series about famous people as roommates — Socrates bunking down with Lincoln etc. Clearly, hilarity ensued).

I did write short funny essays about being young and female in New York City - you know, the lighter side of getting cat called by sanitation workers.

I also wrote a sample Modern Family script that was a shambling train wreck of flaming trash cars (imagine a string of dumpster fires all colliding at once).

Like many people finding their voice, I was all over the place.

I thought this was a badge of honor. When, even then, people asked me what my “thing” or “tone” or in the parlance of our times, what my “brand” was I’d resist any labels.

“I’m creative,” I’d cry to no one. “I can be whatever I need to be for the job!”

A decade on I teach just the opposite:

you know what you are good at (even if you don’t know how to talk about it) - help people move you to that future making that your brand and living that story.

Our early careers are about getting our bearings. We’re bound to experiment in all kinds of directions.

By mid-career, if you are looking to take on more challenges and grow your impact, it pays to choose an expertise and build on that.

The good news is that you already have one. It’s just a matter of excavating it.

Mine emerged quite organically - I became the go-to young funny feminist voice in my writers room. To this day, I’m still that voice.

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