You have a unique point of view, but your resume, no matter how polished, may not be the best place to showcase it.

Applying for an internal promotion, going after a new client, and even entering the dating pool are all opportunities to market yourself. Recruiters across industries are also screening bigger, more AI-sorted applicant pools and making their final selections based on more than credentials, all of which means your personal brand just got more valuable.

Kaelin Kost, a director at Diane von Furstenberg, told Vogue Business something similar: "...it's more important to focus on developing your own distinct hand." Knowing what you're holding, and deciding how much of it to show, is the move.

Investing in Your Personal Brand

A strong table image, in poker, and a sharp personal brand, in life, have a lot in common. At the table, they’re built from how fast you act and how much you give away. Strong players invest in this image on purpose, the way they'd build any other advantage — deliberately, with a plan for what it should say.

The same read is true in a work context. As one Harvard Business School article put it: “Without intentionally shaping your personal brand, others may form assumptions that don’t fully reflect your value. Taking ownership of your narrative can help ensure your strengths, qualities, and contributions come through clearly.”

Whether you’re speaking up in meetings or posting on LinkedIn, you’re choosing what to put forward. A strong table image, like a strong personal brand, comes from intentionally deciding what gets air time and broadcasting your value. 

Five Moves for Directing Your Own Table Image

Harvard Business Review (HBR) has described a widely used approach to personal branding, developed by Marketing Professor Dr. Jill Avery alongside branding consultant Rachel Greenwald — no personality overhaul required.

1. Take Inventory of the Read You've Got

Before you decide what's next, look at what's already landed. Pull up your last few performance reviews, or think back to how the last three people who worked with you would describe you in one line. Look for where those evaluations agree, and where they surprise you. Once you know the perception that’s out there, you can start actively shaping it. 

You can skip the brainstorm by simply finishing one sentence: people should think of me first when they need someone who ___. Maybe that's someone who takes bold, strategic risks, proven by the time you left a stable job for one that scared you. Whatever you write, that's the read you're building toward.

2. Identify Two or Three Things You Want to Be Known For

Tibi founder Amy Smilovic tells Vogue Business you can practice this by: sorting your own work into two piles by instinct, then studying what the stronger pile has in common. Pull up ten projects from the last two years and sort them fast — the ones you'd frame, and the ones you'd rather forget. Then look at what the winning pile has in common. That thread is closer to your real point of view than any bio, no matter how impressive.

Before you commit to a vision, run one gut check: could a stranger tell this thread apart from everyone else's in your field? If not, keep sorting.

3. Choose Your Platform, Show Up Consistently  

To showcase your brand, pick the channels where it gets seen most. Sometimes that's a recurring meeting or a new working relationship. Increasingly, it's also online channels like a LinkedIn presence, a Substack post under your own name. Treat those the way a hiring manager or client already might: as an unofficial portfolio.

If you'd rather your current employer not be part of that audience yet, look to your privacy settings. On LinkedIn, that means posting to Connections Only instead of Anyone. On a newsletter, it means a private list rather than a public sign-up page. Pick one of these rooms this month and show up there the same way every time, instead of spreading yourself across five half-built ones. One consistent room beats five inconsistent ones.

Remember, none of this is permanent. The room can start small and grow with you — it doesn't have to be public on day one to make an impact.

4. Focus on Your Circle Matters More Than Your Reach

The idea here is to focus on the specific people whose buy-in changes outcomes, like an involved mentor, or someone two levels up who's invested in your advancement. Write down two or three names. Then ask what each of them would need to see from you this quarter to vouch for you in a room you're not in. That's a more useful list than any follower count.

5. Set the Clock on When This Changes

The last step in HBR's framework is reevaluating your brand on a schedule you set yourself, once or twice a year, ahead of whatever outside pressure might force the question later. Put that date on your calendar: a regular check on whether the read people have on you still matches where you're headed. If it doesn't, that's just new information — available to act on before anyone else weighs in.

Deal Yourself In, on Your Own Terms

Every one of those five moves comes back to the table image you started with, a forming read you can shape. From here, you're the one steering it, deciding what surfaces, and what stays face-down.