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  • Writer's pictureKatarzyna Hasnik

Personal Branding - Career Advice for Life

Updated: Jun 14, 2022


Design and navigate your life as mush as possible. Establish the course and go for it.

However, think again and adjust at every stop. Take breaks to enjoy the breath, view and achievements and failures.


Why be happy with failures as they give you time to adapt and take a thought, and make you humble.


You can succeed in many career paths. You can become better at one because you know second, or third. A career doesn't have to be always linear and up. It can be entirely in various directions.


Be ubiquitous. Think like the wise indigenous people.

The world is around us not only in front. Observe and absorb all. To be a good designer, be a customer, user, or even professional in those industries for which you design. What can be better than this? Enjoy paths. Not only one path. But many which all link together as the map. The Map of your life. Choices. Cul De Sac. One Way. Turn Back. Reverse. Park. Speed. Stop. Ticket. Move on. Start the engine. Again. Stop to Enjoy and Rest. And the move again and drive until you will be dead obviously. Do not forget to do service and maintain your car: body, mind, heart + spirit?

Transparent, Honest, Vulnerable and Courageous are the Lost Forgotten Values. You want to build your Personal Brand starts with establishing the high standard values ​​with strengths, calmness, quietness of your character to help yourself, others and the project overall on which you and your team working on. That's the first smart and confident step towards the Personal Brand. Not the loudest moves, not the loudest person in the room, team, department, company, social media, society. Most of the time those loudest are made to the prize, sell, earn money on, laugh about, gossip about, and some of us fall for it. Well, not me. How about you? But I asked is this the Personal Brand XXI? As the loudest are often the weakest. Proved it already millions of time. True confidence is quiet. Build your confidence within by embracing your values ​​and establishing those which do not yet awaken or not aware of. First, bring value to your workplace with the greatest values you have within you and add the Personal Branding, Social Media, Visual Design as Logo around it - not the opposite! First You within Your work circle later a bigger audience.

There is only ONE WAY! Here is why? Career Advice for Everyone at any stage of your career regardless if you are just transiting to new industry, company, department, team or you are where you are, establish values, mission goals and boundaries. Btw it is not only for professional career but as well for personal life but let's stick with work for now. Being open with your insecurity paradoxically makes you more confident and charismatic around others. Openness brings transparency, honesty, vulnerability and only comes with courage. Build the courage to build everything else. Recommended to check e.g. George Orwell, Albert Camus, Alan Watts and many others if you are new to establishing your own truthful self build on self esteem with values truth to the core. Let's get to the point: "Elephant in the Room" - are you one of of them or have you noticed one? In the team or in the project itself? Never be afraid to lift your hand and say what you think, even if you are Newcomer or Junior. Your VOICE matter equal to CEO, COO, CTO, Lead Design etc. Just by having the desire for more positive experience itself, improvements of the product design, team bound, life-work balance, erase the negative experiences but you have to be willing to try to speak up for yourself, or for you piece of project, whole project, team, department and company! Whenever sh.t. happens, paradoxically, the acceptance of those situation, moments, mistakes, failures etc, the acceptance of one's negative experiences itself is a positive experience from where you, team, company and product grow. But you have to speak loud! Because: It is ok to fail.

It is ok to not be ok.

It is ok to make mistakes.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: It is ok that non every mistake is lesson. Many mistakes are just MISTAKES. Nothing else. Period. That's why they call Mistakes. ;-) It is ok to be negative - do not fake positive vibe all the time as it is fake to be always positive and simile - Sh.T. happens to everyone! Admit to it. It is ok to feel frustrate. It is ok to feel angry that things didn't work out as want them to. - At the end you will be happy of another outcome, which overall will you serve you better but at this moment, right now, you do not know this yet. Wait and See. The PAIN of Honest Confrontation is what actually generates the Greatest Trust within Your Company, Department, Team and Bring overall the Greatest Respect in any connection, your own within yourself, your professional at work and as well any other relationship. Do not ever deny the PAIN. Hide or cover, try to forget, forgive. Your Workmate was mean, say it! Otherwise this will grow to clearly unknown yet area of feelings. Maybe not direct to them but direct to others. Unspoken and understood pain might cause resentfulness. This might be tiny from rejection of your work project idea to idea for social team day out...Say it with courage, transparency, honesty and vulnerability. Suffers through fears and anxiety is often happening not because of work duties itself but about the people work relationship. If you act well, early enough, those moments won't expand to work relative anxiety or worst depression, what all together bring productivity down. So act fast to prevent! Suffering from stress it actually allows you to build the courage and perseverance to become fully truthful, transparent, honest and be able to open up. Good Mentors, Peers, Agile, Scrum Masters, Leaders, Team Managers, Bosses will notice that. They sense what is going on within each individual and within the team. In Leading Product Design it is not only about the Product but it is all about the Team. Any attempt to escape the negative, to avoid it, blur it, or silent it only back fires it up! Healthy Boundaries not Walls is MUST BE & HAVE TO BE established within you

Addressing the issues, any errors in early (as soon as noticed, not possible) stage to find solution quickly and effortlessly and after that let go and move on. That's the recipe for your Personal Brand - before making logo, make Values and stick with them! The Avoidance of the Struggle is the struggle itself. The Denial of the Failures is the failure itself. Hiding own mistakes, errors, not admitting to it, is the biggest ERROR and MISTAKE. Hiding what is shameful within the team itself is a from of shame. Do not ever avoid a pain, a mistake, and error, what you or someone else screw up. Regardless of hierarchy. Do not be afraid of wolves. ;-) If you afraid of them now, they will eat you anyway. Pain is the process of life, business, project, growth, establishment, profit. By waiting to admit, notice, speak up, you suffer more and the project suffer more together with every other stakeholder. You might be the ONLY ONE who notice it! Seriously. It happens. Or other version, none else even the old wolves cannot admit to it. So address it early. Address any problem within the Product Design itself and within the management of project or team. IF YOU ARE ABLE TO NOT GIVE A F.CK ABOUT THE PAIN, YOU BECOME UNSTOPPABLE! This process will be painful. Life is painful. Birth even C-section is painful. Racing child is painful. Racing puppy is painful. That's the part of the Deal. Amount of Pleasure comes with having business, company, career, child, family, spouse, dog that dog which listens have parts of pain within playfulness, pleasure. Once again This Process will be painful and You become unstoppable if you know how to admit to this part and be able to grab within both hands to hold the positive part too as everything has to sides. This is ESSENTIAL. When mistake, problem, issue is found it, it is recommended to stay tune. Observe. Before Act. Establish the strategy how to focus and prioritise your thoughts effectively. However, I must warn you. It is incredibly difficult. It takes a life time of practice and discipline to achieve this stage of peace when comes to problems and be able to act on them appropriate with professional manners. Easier when comes to Product Design problem found at any stage of Design Thinking Process, worst when comes to people problems within the team or life, personal which effects professional career and it must be communicated due to challenges to deal with. You will never complete it fully as it is the life process and you will regularly fail. But who give a damn xxxx if you know how to deal with it and lift up, embrace it and admit it and continue without a shame. Business is made by people, and quite often not the product and service are bad, but the people within the business do not know how to run the business, often start-ups with great ideas with a greta supportive investments, fail because of the people, or at certain point some people within even well established company might just end up in the corner and if you notice that, HELP THEM OUT TO GET OUT FROM THERE. That's your Personal Brand to be Establish First! But THIS entire struggle with the business, product, design, life makes CAREER and LIFE spicy. Not fluffy. Being too soft is no long term option. Being Hard Rock - Hard Trunk of The Tree make you possible to stay long years instead of break or bend too easily. That's the part of DEAL too! This makes Career more and even more courageous and even more adventurous.


And you know what it is Contagious! You will get followers, first within your workmates, team, department, company and later within social media present Boundaries, Boundaries and once again Boundaries. Values, Values and once again Values. Your Truth Goal is to have a mission that speaks for your logo, not the logo itself just to stand out. You have to stand out within yourself first. That's your personal brand's mission.

So not everything will be as you exactly want to be! Just get this now and you will breath deeper and better! And thinking the way that you can have everything it is some sort of sickness of XXI. No, you cannot. Just get this now and your general wellbeing will erase a greta amount of stress which actually comes from this sick idea. As this idea will eat you alive. Every Advert is in justice.

Every Challenge is a potential failure.

There are plenty of Inconveniences within both professional and personal regardless how well you establish your sights.

Do not be afraid of Disagreements as they do not come with betrayed. Want to be Leader, Manager, Director, Boss, Founder, CEO - know first how to be one! For now, establish how to be your own leader within your own duties. When you manage them well, climb the leader, step by step while building your Personal Brand within those sounding you daily. Including the Man in the Mirror meaning you! Embrace being embarrassed - Know it is right and ok.

Key Communication within yourself and after with others.

Clarity to clarity - do not speak when you not clear.

Clearance not only at the desk, desktop, design but within yourself

Courage ALWAYS MUST BE.

Give a Credibility to Others FIRST and after to yourself.

Notice others work even if it is just a tiny icon or interesting POV! Become Confident as never before. But not Arrogant. See the difference. Always within you and others. Charismatic is the way to be! And the most BE COMFORTABLE TO BE DIFFERENT! Different as person, team player, leader, employee, designer. Different matters and Different is Value like nothing and none else. Different is WORTHY a Prize. Different ideas are worth Million. The same with People. Be yourself and care about others - but not too much, make sure you respect yourself first and your own energy, time, duties. Helping too much others it is actually doing their work for them. Never deny what you see. Speak up. I will be more brutal with a language but let's stay classy. ;-) I am sure you know what I mean and what you supposed to never do. Being over nice, over helpful is not serving anyone. That's the right way to Personal Branding. The Path internal to external establishment. Comes with long time, greatest values, huge amount of energy, clear mission to be the best of the best of yourself first, focus goals and answer to question WHY and for Who?


For you. First. For others equally. Why to help! Bring Value and Be a Value. And all of this comes with the PRICE - PRICELESS - The Willingness to be Different. To stick to this as mission itself where the forgotten, uncomfortable values are the centre, the core and the frame of your Personal Brand. That's my advice for Career Path. Big or Small. That's the right way and the ONLY WAY. One more thing: NEVER BE AFRAID OF CHANGE. CHANGE IS LIKE DEATH. IT ALWAYS COMES IN MANY WAYS SO DO NOT LET IT SURPRISE YOU TOO MUCH. BE READY! YOU GOT THIS!



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