It’s not working.
You’ve updated your LinkedIn profile with the help of a professional resume writer. You’ve contacted everyone in your network and beyond. You optimize your resume to hack ATS’s. You’ve lost count of how many jobs you applied to, most of them loosely related to the expertise you’ve built throughout your career, or to what you really want to do in your next chapter.
You’re in full launch mode. Except you skipped the fundamental part where you define what you’re actually bringing to market.
The product launch you’d never approve
Imagine your team comes to you with a go-to-market plan: a polished deck with a solid strategy and tight timeline. A strong brand name. And when you ask “What’s the core value proposition? What problem does this solve that nothing else does? Or better than anything else? Who is this for?” they launch into the history of the product creation. They list features, say, “It’s really good, it is a big beautiful product and people badly need it.”
You’d shut that down immediately. “We’re not launching anything until we can articulate exactly what this creates, for whom, and why it matters. Without clarity on value, we’ll just be making noise.”
Are you just making noise?
(That nobody is actually hearing.)
That’s unfortunately what most executives do in transition. They launch and execute a job search: rewriting, optimizing, networking, applying, interviewing.
Often without ever defining their actual value proposition. Not the generic “seasoned leader” stuff, expanding on what this impressive job title means. We’re talking about: “What specific problems do I solve? In what contexts do I create impact? What do I bring to the table that few people do?”
And let’s not forget the answer that is true today to: “What do I really want to do? What will make me want to get up in the morning?”
The comfort of tactics
Those questions are difficult. When you’re in a role, your identity is carried by your title, and recognition comes from the value you communicate through your track record and the KPIs you hit.
Now you’re in open market, and you have to define something you haven’t had to sell in a long time, if ever: yourself. Free solo. No badge, no title.
So you skip to tactics. Tactics feel productive. Tactics feel like action. But launching without a value proposition doesn’t work in business, and it doesn’t work in career transition.
Worse than spray and pray, it’s hoping the market will figure out your value as you show up, and that the right opportunity will reveal your passion to you.
The ground work
So before launching yourself into action, pause. Create some space with your latest role and company, and reflect:
- What achievements am I really proud of?
- What were my key learning and growth moments?
- What are my unique gifts?
- What problems do I solve?
- What impact do I want to have?
- Are all my answers above true to my values, to what really matters to me and to what I want out of my life?
The answers may not be crystal clear immediately. Or ever. But the reflection process will help you sharpen your story: uncover some gems, reframe some experiences, rewire some perspectives. It will help you craft a narrative that connects the dots of the journey and project yourself in the future in a compelling manner.
Your story
Your story is one you need to believe in first. The first sale is always to yourself.
If you can’t articulate your value proposition in a way that makes you lean in, no one else will either. But when you know what you’re positioning, networking becomes purposeful and interviews become conversations between peers. You show up as the leader you are, not a candidate.
Start there. Everything else follows.
If you need a provocative soundboard to reconnect with your value proposition, let’s talk.
