How to Use Your Personal Brand In Your Job Search, with Tonjala Eaton
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Whether you realize it or not, you already have a personal brand — it’s your reputation and the value you bring to the marketplace. On this episode of Find Your Dream Job, career coach Tonjala Eaton explains how to intentionally shape and share that brand to stand out in a crowded job market. She shares why self-reflection is the first step in identifying what you want to be known for and how to define the unique mix of skills and attributes that set you apart. Tonjala also offers guidance on using tools like ChatGPT to explore your strengths, clarify your message, and discover the impact of your work.
You’ll learn how to be intentional about your career goals, focus your job search, and communicate your brand effectively — from your LinkedIn profile to your interviews. Tonjala also explains why having a clear, consistent message helps you attract the right opportunities, avoid burnout, and show employers exactly where you fit. By owning your story and showing up authentically, you’ll build credibility, confidence, and momentum in your job search.
About Our Guest:
- Tonjala Eaton is a career coach who helps her clients move into new careers.
Resources in This Episode:
- Connect with Tonjala on LinkedIn
Transcript
Find Your Dream Job, Episode 525:
How to Use Your Personal Brand In Your Job Search, with Tonjala Eaton
Airdate: October 29, 2025
Mac Prichard:
This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.
I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.
Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.
Whether you know it or not, you have a personal brand.
And it can help – or hurt you – when you look for work.
Tonjala Eaton is here to talk about how to use your personal brand in your job search.
She’s a career coach who helps her clients move into new careers.
Tonjala joins us from Birmingham, Alabama.
Well, Tonjala, let’s jump right into it. Let’s start with definitions. What do you mean by a personal brand?
Tonjala Eaton:
That is a great question, Mac. And what I like to say is that in its most simplistic term, your personal brand is your reputation. And we all have a reputation from our relationships with other humans, family, and friends.
But in the more sophisticated term of the personal brand from Harvard Business Review, it’s the intentional messaging of the values that you bring. And I like to say the values that you bring to the marketplace.
Mac Prichard:
And why does a personal brand matter when you look for work?
Tonjala Eaton:
Great question as well. When we look at the job market, there’s so much competition in the market right now. The market is oversaturated with talent. And a personal brand really helps a candidate set themselves apart from other candidates in the marketplace.
And so that personal brand is going to allow your personality, your distinctiveness, your values, all of that is going to come out when a candidate really nurtures and cultivates a strong personal brand.
Mac Prichard:
So those are the benefits of a personal brand when you look for work, Tonjala. But a lot of candidates I talk to, they struggle with this. In your experience, you coach a lot of people looking for work. Why can having a strong personal brand seem daunting?
Tonjala Eaton:
It is so overwhelming because a lot of times we haven’t thought about these things. The average worker goes to work and they perform their role without really thinking about what impact is my work having.
Impact is not something that we think about on a day-to-day, but impact is the core of developing a personal brand. So it really challenges people to think about the return of their work and what difference their work is really making.
And these aren’t things that we think about on a day-to-day. So that’s why it can feel very overwhelming because we have to really set aside time to intentionally evaluate our work, evaluate the impact it’s having, and think about the measurable impact that our work is having on our teams and in our organizations.
And so that’s why it can be very challenging to get started, but once the candidate gets started, it doesn’t feel as overwhelming.
Mac Prichard:
What do say to someone in the audience who thinks, “Well, I’m not a marketer, Tonjala. How can I have a good personal brand or share it with others?” What’s been your experience?
Tonjala Eaton:
In that regard, I would say to the person, even though you’re not, you don’t consider yourself a marketer, we all have to share our message. We all have to tell someone else what we do and what we’re good at. And so we have the ability to do it.
And I would recommend that that person really thinks of sharing a personal brand is just really informing others about what they do. And so when we think about it like that, we inform others of products and services that we use all the time.
And this is our opportunity for us to inform others about what we do and what our products are that we bring to the marketplace.
Mac Prichard:
Well, we’ve talked about why brand matters and how it can help you get your next job. Let’s talk about how to use your personal brand in your job search. And you’ve got three tips, three steps rather, that you recommend people follow. The first is to start with self-reflection. What do you have in mind here, Tonjala?
Tonjala Eaton:
This is your opportunity to really think about your career and your previous roles and what you’ve contributed to those teams in your organizations. And also think about what do you want to be known for? That is an excellent question to start with. Just really thinking through what do I want people to associate with me?
If you are an accountant, do you want people to associate transparency with you? If you’re in research, what do you want to be known for as a researcher? That’s one question that I ask people to really think through.
And think through what have you already achieved? A lot of times candidates aren’t aware of their achievements and contributions, but really naming those out can be very impactful. And then think about who needs to know about my gifts, skills, and abilities.
And what promise do I want to give to my audience? And your audience are the people that should know you.
Mac Prichard:
Are there tools or exercises you found to be helpful in your work with your clients to help them figure all this out to answer those questions you’ve just raised?
Tonjala Eaton:
Yes, I think I keep it very simple. Sit down with a blank sheet of paper and a pen and just answer those questions. And don’t try to eliminate what’s coming up. Sometimes we like to filter our thoughts.
And so if you can answer those four questions just with a blank sheet of paper, we don’t have to do anything fancy but to do self-reflection but we just need to answer the questions.
For people who want a little bit more guidance, I encourage clients to use ChatGPT or AI or any other tool of that nature to really have the AI tools, such as ChatGPT, ask your series of questions to help you think through your personal brand. You can put in prompts, very simple prompts, to help you think through your personal brand.
Mac Prichard:
Say more about that. What prompts do you recommend people use? What are your top three ChatGPT prompts to figure out what you’re good at, what your strengths are, and to help you create that personal brand for your job search?
Tonjala Eaton:
I would encourage people to treat ChatGPT like they’re having a conversation with someone else, and you can tell ChatGPT first, you would give it an identity, so you can say, “You are an expert marketer, and I am your client. I need assistance creating my personal brand. Can you ask me a series of questions to help me self-reflect on what my personal brand should be?”
And you would be surprised that ChatGPT would give you so many excellent questions for you to answer. And then, as you answer those questions on a blank sheet of paper, you can let ChatGPT know, “This is great. Here are some things that I’m thinking about. Can we further develop my personal brand?” And going through that exercise with CHAT GPT would really help a candidate solidify what their brand is.
Mac Prichard:
You also recommend that people be known for three things. Why is that important to pick three, and what’s the best way to figure that out, Tonjala?
Tonjala Eaton:
Yes, I would say the reason why I say pick three things is because you want one technical piece, like one clear skill, and then two attributes. Let’s say that you are in accounting and you specialize in governmental accounting. That would be your key skill. And then those two attributes are your ways of being that you want associated with you.
So maybe transparency and inefficiency. So those would be the core messages of your brand that those soft skills are wrapped up with your hard skill of governmental accounting. And there is a framework by Karen King, I think, that I’ve come across recently about the cake and the icing.
So one way to remember this is that your cake are your technical skills and your icing is what makes you different, what helps you to stand out. And so we can relate it back to this example that I just gave about accounting.
It could be transparency and efficiency. That would be your icing. That helps you to stand apart from other accountants. And so those are the ways that I encourage clients to really develop their messaging around those three ideas.
Mac Prichard:
We’re going to take a break. When we come back, Tonjala Eaton will continue to share her advice on how to use your personal brand in your job search. Stay with us.
We’re back in the Mac’s List studio, I’m talking with Tonjala Eaton.
She’s a career coach who helps her clients move into new careers.
And Tonjala joins us from Birmingham, Alabama.
Now, Tonjala, before the break, we were talking about how to use your personal brand in your job search. And we talked about why a personal brand matters, what it is, and how it can help you when you look for your next position.
And we started walking through three steps you recommend your clients and others take to strengthen and use your personal brand when you’re looking for your next job.
The second of your three steps is to be intentional in using your brand. What do you have in mind here, Tonjala?
Tonjala Eaton:
Yes, with being intentional, this is really about setting a clear goal. So maybe you want to land a role with a specific title, in a specific industry, or in a specific location. I really encourage clients to really get clear on what the goal is and who the audience is so that you can measure the impact of your work when you start to spread your message.
Mac Prichard:
Okay. And what if you’re not focused, if you try to be too many things, what happens then?
Tonjala Eaton:
You just don’t get a lot of traction, and you can get to burn out much sooner than if you’re focused. And by traction, I mean, you may not start getting the interviews that you want, and you may not be called by recruiters because it could be really difficult to say, “This person is interested in marketing. They’re interested in sales. They’re interested in customer service.”
So when you really have that focusedness to your brand, you can measure who are the recruiters that are contacting me? What type of interviews am I getting called back for? And so when you’re not focused, it can just drain your energy and really lead to burnout.
Mac Prichard:
And to be clear, we’re talking about having a clear focus for the job you want. I meet many candidates, and candidly, I did this myself early in my career, who say, “Well, I’m open to a lot of different things.” And they apply for different positions.
What do you say to someone who is doing that, particularly if they’re feeling some urgency, that they’ve got some bills to pay?
Tonjala Eaton:
Great question. I would advise a candidate to be very specific in what you are public-facing about. So when I mean public-facing, that is the work that you’re going to share on LinkedIn, other social media platforms that you may use for your job search, like X, and even Reddit. Be public-facing there with one clear message.
But behind the scenes, you can apply to a multitude of different roles if that is what you choose to do. But you want to be known for one clear thing by a multitude of people. I give the Nike example. Just do it is Nike’s mantra. We all know that. And a lot of us know that.
So clients can do the same thing using those three attributes with one clear message from one target audience. But behind the scenes, you can apply to a multitude of different roles if you so choose, but you want to be known for a clear thing with a clear message by a lot of people.
Mac Prichard:
You work with a lot of applicants, but you also work with employers. What is your experience, Tonjala, what do you hear from employers directly when they’ve got a number of applications and one person they can tell is focused on one goal and has a brand that supports that, and somebody is focusing or applying for a position that their brand doesn’t really support.
They’re known for something else. What do employers tell you about that second candidate?
Tonjala Eaton:
Yeah, employers will say, I don’t know what to do with this candidate. I don’t know where to place them. And so if the employer has a clear role that they’re looking to fill, the person that they can envision, this person will do really well here because of A, B, and C. That candidate oftentimes has a better fit in the organization.
Candidate B, the employer may try to look for different ways to bring the person on the team, but it just isn’t as smooth. And so sometimes employers will say, you know, it just wasn’t the right fit because of the placement. I don’t know where this person is going to fit the best in my organization and in my team.
Mac Prichard:
So your three steps, the first one is to start with self-reflection. Figure out what you want to be known for. Pick your top three. Your second step is to be intentional. Have a clear job search goal and a brand that supports it.
Your third step for using your personal brand in your job search, Tonjala, is to share your brand. You’ve touched on this, but tell us more about what you mean. What’s the best way to put your brand out there?
Tonjala Eaton:
Number one, I advocate for clients to be on LinkedIn and be vocal about your message. And the areas in your LinkedIn profile that you can share your brand is in your banner, in your headline, and in your About section.
So those are three areas that you can begin to hone your message and cultivate this identity. Other places on LinkedIn that you can share your brand is through what you post and what you support because that’s where you’re going to demonstrate what your knowledge is and share your skill set.
Other than LinkedIn and your day-to-day life, you can attend certain association meetings or different networking events and different conferences where you’re sharing your brand.
When you’re on the job market and you are completing your applications, you’ll share your brand in your interviews so that your interviewers have a clear message of who you are and what your value is.
And also in your cover letters, you can begin to share your brand there. So there are multiple ways to share your brand, both virtually and in person.
Mac Prichard:
Why is LinkedIn so important? Why do you recommend LinkedIn first? How does that help you communicate your brand, especially when you’re looking for work?
Tonjala Eaton:
Because most often times that’s where your audience will be. The recruiters looking to fill positions are on LinkedIn. Many people don’t know, but recruiters often use a LinkedIn tool called Recruiter Tool. That helps recruiters source talent.
And so, as someone looking for work, that’s where you want to be, where those decision makers are. And so definitely being on LinkedIn is huge to your success because that’s where your audience is.
Mac Prichard:
Many of us use other online platforms, often for personal use, to share news with friends and family. How important do recruiters pay attention to those channels as well?
And is that something you should pay attention to? Maybe you’re not using them to promote your professional brand, but can they make a difference to your brand, especially?
Tonjala Eaton:
Depending on the perspective of the decision maker, they will be looking to see how does this person fit with us, whether there are common interests, what type of person this is.
So I’ve had decision makers tell me, “I’m gonna look at the person’s Facebook because this is who I have to work with. I wanna make sure that there’s a personality fit there as well.”
So in that regard, I would encourage clients to just do an assessment of all of your social media profiles to make sure that what you are portraying even socially supports your professional brand.
Meaning, make sure that your personality is likable on your other social media channels and you’re not posting anything that can be controversial, that will hurt your job search.
Mac Prichard:
Well, it’s been a great conversation, Tonjala. Now, tell us what’s next for you.
Tonjala Eaton:
What’s next for me, Mac, is to continue to support job seekers in landing their dream roles and doing more career coaching.
Mac Prichard:
Well, I know that our audience can learn more about you by connecting with you on LinkedIn. And when you do reach out to Tonjala, please mention you heard her and saw her on Find Your Dream Job.
Tonjala, quickly, what is your website again? I know you just relaunched your website. What’s the URL?
Tonjala Eaton:
My website is coachtonjala.com.
Mac Prichard:
Terrific. Now, Tonjala, given all the great advice you’ve shared today, what’s the one thing you want our audience to remember about how to use your personal brand in your job search?
Tonjala Eaton:
Be really clear about what your message is, the value that you bring, and who you want to serve. And when you do those things, you’ll see that your personal brand will take you very far.
Mac Prichard:
Next week, our guest will be Kacie Bail.
She’s a career coach who helps introverts and non-native English speakers get more fulfilling jobs.
Many candidates only answer questions in a job interview.
That’s a lost opportunity.
Because when you engage a hiring manager in conversation, you stand out from your competitors, make yourself memorable, and build trust and credibility.
Join us next Wednesday when Kacie Bail and I talk about the three steps to build a connection in a job interview.
Until next time, thanks for letting us help you find your dream job.
This show is produced by Mac’s List.
Until next time, thanks for letting us help you find your dream job.
This show is produced by Mac’s List.
Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media and creates our transcripts.
Our sound engineer and editor is Matt Fiorillo. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.
This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.
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