<p><strong>3. You haven’t cataloged your work to tell your story.&nbsp;</strong></p> <p>In being so narrowly focused on doing great work, it never occurred to you to keep a record of all you’ve done. But that will become a requirement when it’s time to pitch yourself for a new opportunity. Inevitably, when you’re sitting on the other side of the interview desk, someone is going to ask you to talk about your achievements. They’re going to want to hear about your best work, your favorite projects and the case studies you’re most proud of.</p> <p>Start building that bank of evidence now so you aren’t scrambling to pull a narrative together all at once.</p> <p><strong>4. You haven’t made your unique value known.</strong></p> <p>If you were to ask someone what you’re better at than anyone else, would they be able to tell you? Try it as an experiment, and if you don’t like the answer, it’s time to start revising your public narrative.</p> <p>If people don’t know what you are great at or what you are an expert at doing, the fault lies with you and it’s time to make a change. You may hate lofty terms like &quot;thought leadership&quot; and &quot;expert,&quot; but they are a critical component in positioning yourself in the minds of others. Start sharing information around your area of expertise and let people know what you’re about.</p> <p><strong>5. You’re inconsistent.</strong></p> <p>You shared one article on LinkedIn. It was so well received that it blew up your engagement for a week, so you thought that was enough. You thought that doing two live streams would get people talking and your phone ringing. You did one media interview and didn’t see an immediate spike in sales, so you gave up on press.</p> <p>It’s not that all of these brand awareness strategies aren’t working. They take time, and the most positive results typically come cumulatively. Brand awareness is gradual, so you have to be consistent with your approach. If you don’t see your brand getting traction after the first week or so, keep at it. Give any new tactic at least six months of consistent effort before you throw in the towel.</p> <p><strong>6. You’re waiting to be discovered.</strong></p> <p>You see others in your company getting promoted, recognized and invited to speak on panels. You see other colleagues in your field winning awards, doing press interviews, and landing plum contracts. You know these colleagues and you’re familiar with their ideas. You know the quality of their work is comparable to yours, so&nbsp;you assume that since you’re just as good as them, your audience will automatically find you.</p> <p>This is a dangerous and faulty assumption. In the digital age, you cannot wait to be discovered or expect it will happen. With so many qualified candidates vying for the same coveted positions, it’s up to you to make yourself memorable. Put yourself out there for others to find you! Or better yet, create the type of opportunity you wish would fall into your lap. Organize your own seminar, bring people together for a networking event and publish your ideas online.</p> <p><strong>7. You obscure what you do, making it hard to hire you.</strong></p> <p>Exposure can only get you so far. Even if you get all of the media attention in the world — your next Facebook live stream goes viral or you are lucky enough to be retweeted by Oprah — it all means nothing if people can’t quickly figure out how to take the next step with you. That could mean&nbsp;making it easy for others to contact you to invite you in for a job interview or providing clear directions on your website on how someone can hire you as a speaker or a consultant.</p> <p>Once you have people’s attention, it’s your job to make it known how they can take the next step if they choose. If people find your LinkedIn profile or website through your marketing but read through your materials and still have no idea what you’re selling or how they can work with you, they won’t reach out. They can’t refer you, and the buck stops there.</p>” readability=”118″>

You do great work — no one is disputing that. You consistently get great reviews and affirming client feedback. But for some reason, your career is not quite taking off. Your business is not getting as much traction as you thought it should have by now. What gives?

If you know you do great work, but still feel like the best-kept secret of your industry, here are a few reasons that might be to blame.

1. You keep your head down and stay focused on the work. 

You are an employer or client’s dream. You are singularly focused on producing an excellent work output, and that excellence is confined to the project at hand. You put off thinking about the future and don’t think about marketing yourself at all. You focus so much on doing a great job in your current role or for your existing clients that you neglect to think of the day when you may need to move on. Should you lose your job suddenly or your biggest client not renew, you know you’re not prepared.

Instead of keeping your head down, find ways to balance building your brand and doing the great work your brand is built on.

2. You think self-promotion is obnoxious and refuse to do it.

Somewhere along the way, self-promotion got such a bad rep that the self-respecting person inside of you felt like it was beneath you. But think about large companies that sell our favorite products: No one begrudges them for aggressively marketing every new innovation. Take a page from their book and reframe building your personal brand as talking about what you’re doing. It’s marketing. Remember that marketing yourself could help you land the next opportunity.

3. You haven’t cataloged your work to tell your story. 

In being so narrowly focused on doing great work, it never occurred to you to keep a record of all you’ve done. But that will become a requirement when it’s time to pitch yourself for a new opportunity. Inevitably, when you’re sitting on the other side of the interview desk, someone is going to ask you to talk about your achievements. They’re going to want to hear about your best work, your favorite projects and the case studies you’re most proud of.

Start building that bank of evidence now so you aren’t scrambling to pull a narrative together all at once.

4. You haven’t made your unique value known.

If you were to ask someone what you’re better at than anyone else, would they be able to tell you? Try it as an experiment, and if you don’t like the answer, it’s time to start revising your public narrative.

If people don’t know what you are great at or what you are an expert at doing, the fault lies with you and it’s time to make a change. You may hate lofty terms like “thought leadership” and “expert,” but they are a critical component in positioning yourself in the minds of others. Start sharing information around your area of expertise and let people know what you’re about.

5. You’re inconsistent.

You shared one article on LinkedIn. It was so well received that it blew up your engagement for a week, so you thought that was enough. You thought that doing two live streams would get people talking and your phone ringing. You did one media interview and didn’t see an immediate spike in sales, so you gave up on press.

It’s not that all of these brand awareness strategies aren’t working. They take time, and the most positive results typically come cumulatively. Brand awareness is gradual, so you have to be consistent with your approach. If you don’t see your brand getting traction after the first week or so, keep at it. Give any new tactic at least six months of consistent effort before you throw in the towel.

6. You’re waiting to be discovered.

You see others in your company getting promoted, recognized and invited to speak on panels. You see other colleagues in your field winning awards, doing press interviews, and landing plum contracts. You know these colleagues and you’re familiar with their ideas. You know the quality of their work is comparable to yours, so you assume that since you’re just as good as them, your audience will automatically find you.

This is a dangerous and faulty assumption. In the digital age, you cannot wait to be discovered or expect it will happen. With so many qualified candidates vying for the same coveted positions, it’s up to you to make yourself memorable. Put yourself out there for others to find you! Or better yet, create the type of opportunity you wish would fall into your lap. Organize your own seminar, bring people together for a networking event and publish your ideas online.

7. You obscure what you do, making it hard to hire you.

Exposure can only get you so far. Even if you get all of the media attention in the world — your next Facebook live stream goes viral or you are lucky enough to be retweeted by Oprah — it all means nothing if people can’t quickly figure out how to take the next step with you. That could mean making it easy for others to contact you to invite you in for a job interview or providing clear directions on your website on how someone can hire you as a speaker or a consultant.

Once you have people’s attention, it’s your job to make it known how they can take the next step if they choose. If people find your LinkedIn profile or website through your marketing but read through your materials and still have no idea what you’re selling or how they can work with you, they won’t reach out. They can’t refer you, and the buck stops there.