Imagine that the whole purpose of your professional brand is to answer the question, “Why should I hire/advance/speak to you?” The quality of your response to this question is crucial, whether you are a job seeker or seeking career advancement. Whatever your response, it’s important that it be memorable and stick with your audience. This is where “the juice vs. the sauce” comes in (article continues below video).
The Juice
When it comes to crafting a professional brand, many people stop once they feel they can succinctly articulate their key skills and achievements. While this doesn’t seem inherently bad, it’s not necessarily memorable or inspiring. This is what I would call “juice branding.” Your spiel will likely be quickly consumed by your audience, it’s temporarily satisfying, and just as easily forgotten.
Juice Branding Statement
Q: “Why should I hire/advance/speak to you?”
A: “I am a market researcher with 10+ years’ experience in both quantitative and qualitative research, focusing on fast moving consumer goods. I excel at using a range of qualitative methodologies such as focus groups, ethnography, and in-depth interviews, to uncover consumer needs and motivations in order to develop actionable insights.”
The challenge here is that this type of content is essentially a list of facts about you interspersed with some connective language. While facts are important, several studies have shown that we as humans remember things far better when we are told stories. By listing a particular subset of skills necessary to perform and/or excel at your job, all you have described is “how” you get things done (i.e. your job description). The question, “how,” is most commonly responded to with a set of steps (i.e. facts). The original “why” question has yet to be answered.
The Sauce
According to my fellow coach and friend, Anish Majumdar, many job seekers make the mistake of mainly describing the “hows” in their resume and LinkedIn profiles. The problem with the inherently factual nature of a “how” response is that facts don’t create feelings. To be memorable to any audience, you need to make them feel something. The fact is, facts don’t create feelings until they are conveyed in a story. This is where “sauce branding” comes in. When you tell a good story, it’s consumed as it unfolds, it’s satisfying, and it’s sticky [pun fully intended] and memorable (lasts a while like that sriracha sauce in your fridge).
Sauce Branding Statment
Q: “Why should I hire/advance/speak to you?”
A: “I am a market researcher and over 10 years I’ve gotten really good at asking the off-beat questions, using projective and co-creation techniques, that not only uncover deep underlying motivations/beliefs, but also make focus group participants pause and think differently. Some of my questions have led to product feature updates, tweaks to slogans, and even brand new marketing campaigns in the fast moving consumer goods space. I have a lot of fun synthesizing my findings from both qualitative and quantitative research to develop insights and strategies for my clients.”
Why The Sauce Wins
Do you see the difference between the two responses? The first response provides a standard set of skills that any market researcher worth their salary is able to do very well. There is nothing particularly special or interesting about the message that would allow this person to stand out in a room of market researchers at a networking event or waiting for an interview. Since this candidate’s “juice” is so easily interchangeable with others, here today gone tomorrow, they are easily replaceable with another juice on the shelf.
The second response however...that’s the “sauce.” The same core information is communicated -- years of experience + expertise + industry. However, this response provides imagery that allows you to almost see this person in action, winning, all while having fun. Secondly, this response immediately hones in on what makes this candidate unique and weaves it into an impactful story about why they made a difference. What is unique about you is the sauce that will give your brand longevity. To do your job, everyone with your job title has arguably the same skill set with varying levels of ability -- Juice. What makes you stand out is the unique flavor that you bring to the game to generate results -- Sauce.
“Why should I hire/advance/speak to you,” really means, “why should I care?” By answering the “why” question effectively…you can make your audience care. When they care, that means you have achieved buy-in. When you have achieved buy-in, you can be hired or advanced to the place you wish to be.
How to Turn Your Juice into Sauce
To create your own sauce, it’s important to do both personal and professional reflection about who you are and what you contribute to the world. Your personal and professional brands are arguably one and the same because you bring your character and values with you to work. Your brand should not only focus on your skills but also reveal who you are as a person.
Personal
Reflect/brainstorm about your values and your character. Write down the adjectives (e.g. intuitive) and nouns (e.g. integrity) that you feel best fit you and that you have often heard used by others to describe you.
Professional
Reflect/brainstorm on some of your biggest achievements (especially those that make you feel proud/satisfied) and try to decipher the common thread(s) that run through all of them that demonstrate why you were successful.
Once you have done these two exercises (solo and/or with input from trusted sources), try boiling the content down to 3-5 core ideas (sentences) that will form the basis of your brand. From there you can weave your branding into your resume, LinkedIn profile, and interview stories.
Ultimately, your brand is about articulating what makes you, uniquely you. It is irreplaceable and can’t be imitated or duplicated. It’s your sauce and it will last as long as you do.
If you would like to discuss how you can transform your brand, I’d love to support you! BOOK NOW for a free consultation.
niiato@avenircareers.com | Call/text 917-740-3048