Two years ago, I got a message from a university asking if I’d lead a subject in their master’s program.
I had never taught at a university before.
No formal teaching experience. No academic track record.
Just the diagrams.
They’d seen the work, decided I understood something worth teaching, and reached out.
I said yes. Went all in. And it became one of the most formative things I’ve done professionally.
That’s the thing about a personal brand. It works when you’re not in the room.
Most data professionals I know want nothing to do with the word. It sounds like something influencers do. Like you need a ring light and a content calendar and a strong opinion about your morning routine.
That’s not what it is.
A personal brand is just the answer to a question you’re not there to answer yourself: who is this person, and can I trust them with this problem?
Someone is always asking that question about you.
A hiring manager.
A potential client.
A colleague recommending you for a project.
Without a visible body of work, that question gets answered by whoever else is visible.
You don’t get to opt out of being evaluated. You only get to decide whether you’ve left anything behind that answers it fairly.
The objection I hear most:
“I just want to do good work.”
Good work that nobody can see is a private record of competence. It compounds inside one organisation, or it doesn’t compound at all.
The university didn’t find a CV. They found thinking made visible.
You don’t need to be famous. You need to be findable by the right people.
The bar is lower than most people think. The cost of staying invisible is higher than most people feel until it’s too late.
— Josep
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