The Brand “You”

“Welcome to ad tech! You’re fired!”

In 1999, Tom Peters— best known for writing In Search of Excellence— wrote a book called The Brand You 50: Or: Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself from an 'Employee' into a Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion!

I know I bought it. I’m not sure I read it.

But 2 years prior, he covered the same ground in a piece in Fast Company. That I did read, and it was foundational for me.

In September of 2000 the dot com bubble burst, and every Starbucks south of 14th Street was full of young hipsters dressed all in black, sobbing into their lattes, “My options! My options!” The start-up I was working with did not in fact start up, and I found myself gainfully unemployed.

That’s when I remembered the Tom Peters piece. The lesson I took from it was, as I’ve recounted dozens of time since, that “in the future our careers will be made out of the work we do, not the jobs we hold.” This inspired me to stop looking for jobs and start looking for work. I started a consultancy (Warp Speed Marketing), and basically managed to cobble together enough consulting gigs and fractional roles to make a living for 7 years.

Maybe it’s AI, maybe it’s the economy, but a scary number of companies in the ad tech and advertising analytics spaces are laying off hundreds of people. It is for these people— for you— that I offer this advice. Read the Fast Company piece (if you click the link above you should get to it.) Maybe it will help.

When I joined VideoAmp in 2020, I thought we were going to create the next generation of cross-platform measurement, go public, and I’d make millions and ride off quietly into the sunset. (Or at any rate, ride off.) But that’s not what happened, and one afternoon in January 2024 I learned I’d been downsized.

I eventually decided that— especially at this age and career stage— a job was insufficiently durable for me. This led me down the path that culminated in incorporating as KnotSimpler, built around the brand “me.”*

So I want to offer this advice to all my friends, colleagues, and vague acquaintances who find themselves recently downsized: it might be a good idea to think in terms of looking for work, not jobs. Ideally you can cobble together a couple of part-time (or “fractional,” as they say now) engagements that sum to full employment. And too, I think that for a lot of companies, hiring a third of a person is more desirable right now than hiring the entire person.

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*I am reminded of something guitarist Dickey Betts said, after having been fired from the Allman Brothers in 1999, when asked why he was now touring as the Dickey Betts Band: “I figured if my name was on the band, they can’t fire me.” I’m NEVER getting fired from KnotSimpler.