“Starting today you are a brand.”

That’s how I started the article that would change my life.

I didn’t know how much it would give my career a much-needed boost – but it did.

Truthfully, the words aren’t my own. For the article, I borrowed the concept from a FastCompany piece by Tom Peters.

Nevertheless, I took the concept of personal branding to heart. In writing the article, I was taking ownership of my brand – the Dave brand.

I wrote the article for a weekly internal newsletter at the organization I worked for at the time. They were looking for contributors – and I thought I’d give it a whirl.

Up until that point, I was an auditor by day and an entrepreneur by night. I started RunTheMoney.com and FinancialBin.com – two personal finance and entrepreneurship blogs – in an attempt to satiate my creative drive.

But, I still had this pull to try to do it “for real.” I wanted my day job to reflect what I longed for after hours.

That’s when I saw the email in February 2020. The public affairs office wanted contributors for their newsletter – from outside their team.

I gave it a shot. As I’ve learned, people can either say yes, no, or not respond.

In this case, they responded. They loved the article I pitched.

It ran in the March 2, 2020 newsletter. The response from my colleagues was incredible.

The most shocking one came from my boss – who not too long before told me I couldn’t write. “You’re a writer!” – she said repeatedly when the newsletter came out. It was something I knew all along about myself. It was something I was told ever since I could string a few sentences together.

Yet, I feel like it was a vindication moment for me. It was nice to convince someone – who didn’t really want to be convinced – that I was good at anything.

The public affairs office wanted more. So, I gave them more.

It eventually lead to a detail with the public affairs team. An executive even encouraged the public affairs director to take me on.

I had the chance to write. I wrote (and edited) speeches, more newsletter articles, and press releases. I created a new slot for the newsletter that covered COVID-19 extensively as news developed over the next few months.

I even created an interview series called Ask The Experts, where I interviewed my audit colleagues about their roles. I also put together micro trainings for different tools and techniques that would help my fellow employees do their jobs better.

I was good at this. I liked my job for the first time in a long time.

It truly changed my life. This detail lead to an opportunity to work in public affairs full-time.

I jumped at the chance. I got the job.

During a pandemic, my life completely changed. I went from a bored, uninterested auditor to an engaged, energetic writer and storyteller. I was in public affairs and now representing a brand.

I took a chance in February 2020. I took a new role in October 2020.

In doing so, I officially launched the brand of Dave.