6. On Navigating Careers & Building Your Personal Brand with Philip VanDusen

Overview

In this episode of the Sustainable Ambition Podcast, I’m joined by friend, mentor, and business colleague Philip VanDusen. Philip is one of my favorite people to talk to, and I seek him out often for his wisdom. Philip has held esteemed roles in his creative career, such as VP Design at Old Navy and Pepsico, as well as serving as an Executive Creative Director on the agency side. After Corporate life, Philip went out on his own and now runs his own branding agency, as well as fosters a creative community. Philip offers a lot of free content to creatives and entrepreneurs, which I encourage you to check out (with links below in the resources section).

I wanted to talk to Philip and hear his insights on navigating a career over time, what it’s like to jump out of a traditional corporate gig and into entrepreneurship, and why, when and how one should build a personal brand. As you’ll hear, we cover a lot of ground, and I still didn’t get to ask him everything on my list! I’ll definitely have to have Philip back again.

I hope you find the conversation as enjoyable as I did. Thank you for sharing all your wisdom with us, Philip!

More about Our Guest

Philip VanDusen is a creative entrepreneur and owner of Verhaal Brand Design a branding agency based in New Jersey, USA. As a thought leader, Philip shares his expertise in marketing, design and entrepreneurship on YouTube to his 200k subscribers, in his Brand•Muse newsletter, on the Brand Design Masters podcast, and in his Brand Design Masters Facebook community.

In his career, Philip has led creative teams on both the client and agency-sides— serving as VP of Design for PepsiCo and Old Navy and Executive Creative Director at the iconic branding firm Landor Associates. Past clients include a host of Fortune 100 companies.

Connect with Philip through his website and handles shared below in the resources section.

Topics Covered

  • We started the conversation discussing how to think about career transitions, and Philip shared advice he received from ex-CEO of Gap, Paul Pressler, that careers are not a ladder but a web. We talked about how side steps are always about expanded learning and while they might seem like they are taking you off track, they can actually lead to your next boost forward. He shares his own example of this, how his fine art background led him to a t-shirt business and ultimately landed him in the fashion business at Old Navy. Plus, we come back to it at the very end of the conversations. You don’t often know where the movements on the web will take you!

  • Philip shares how mentors can fuel your learning and help you rise in your career. His mentors saw his potential, gave him opportunities for stretch assignments, and invested in his learning. I asked his advice on what to do if you aren’t so lucky to have mentors see you and give you opportunity. He advises to seek them out and nurture relationships before asking for such mentorship. He also champions joining groups, such as MasterMinds.

  • Another important career lesson and key piece of advice, "Do what you think is right and ask for forgiveness later." Philip shares an example in his career where he took this advice to heart. Even if you do get your hand slapped in the end, applying the advice demonstrates that you have ideas and initiative.

  • I talked with Philip about what he learned going out on his own and what surprised him most. He shares that when he left the corporate world, he felt naked both in finding his footing and crafting new identity. He shares how working with a coach can be helpful, and we talk about one of the key pillars of Sustainable Ambition—Right Aspiration—and how satisfaction with one’s work and one’s ambition can change over time.

  • Philip also shared that at the time of leaving the corporate world, he was burnt out and took a year off to figure out what was next. I ran out of time to explore this more with Philip, so I hope to have him back and talk about how to deal with burnout and the idea of taking a sabbatical.

  • We cover where to start in building a personal brand and what that even is. Importantly, Philip shares how you should build your own thing and not build your brand on rented land, be it your employer’s or pick any social media platform. So, start with a personal website and have at least one social platform you are on to drive people to find you. He also shares great advice if you aren’t a writer or have limited time to not get overwhelmed by content writing and creation and to instead curate content to build your own voice.

  • And Philip’s parting advice, “Dare to suck,” which is especially important for those making a pivot or taking a new course after a long corporate, standard career. We all need to continue to practice new things as we go along in our career, and we don’t start out good. We have to “dare to suck,” as Philip says.

Resources Mentioned

Find Philip:

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6. On Navigating Careers & Building Your Personal Brand with Philip VanDusen

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2021, 2020Kathy OnetoRight Aspiration