Brand Yourself

From NBC, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX

Wed, May 6, 2009

Laid Off? Executive Coach Reinvents Careers
By BRIAN CURTIS

If your employer has sent you packing, perhaps it’s time for a career makeover.

A Dallas-based executive coach helps people who’ve lost their jobs reinvent their careers by developing a personal brand.

The key to succeeding in a tough market place may be understanding who you are and what you need.

Valerie Sokolosky stresses the importance of developing a personal brand and uses a “360″ evaluation. It involves her clients sending questionnaires to their family, friends and colleagues.

Sokolosky said developing a strong personal brand is critical to a successful job search.

“I haven’t found anyone it hasn’t worked for,” Sokolosky said.

Sue Moore is one of Sokolosky’s clients. After being laid off from her job as a bank executive, she turned to Sokolosky for help in developing her personal brand. Sokolosky guided Moore through the 360 process.

“It helped me to get very clear on who I am — what I bring to the marketplace,” Moore said.

It worked. Moore has since landed a job as a financial advisor with a global financial services company. And she looks at her layoff in a whole new light.

“It was probably one of the better things that’s ever happened to me.”

Sokolosky’s organization is called Valerie & Company.

There’s also a quiz you can take on your personal brand at: http://www.reachcc.com/brandquiz.

Read the original story.