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A strong personal brand is easier to build before a career transition begins. Career expert Catherine Altman Morgan identifies three common mistakes: Letting profiles go stale, blending into generic executive language, and losing touch with former colleagues. Her guidance reframes career readiness as ongoing visibility, distinctive positioning, and authentic relationship maintenance for senior marketing leaders.
A layoff is a difficult moment to begin reconstructing years of accomplishments, reviving dormant relationships, and deciding what makes an executive distinctive.
In a Renegade Marketers Unite conversation, Catherine Altman Morgan, career transition expert and founder of Point A to Point B Transitions, identified three career-management gaps that can make a transition harder.
Her central idea is simple: Career readiness is easier to maintain than to rebuild.
Senior leaders accumulate results, responsibilities, and stories quickly. When those details are not captured along the way, reconstructing them later can become difficult.
“Not keeping your resume and LinkedIn profile current. I don’t care how busy you are, I don’t care what’s going on. I don’t care if you feel really safe in your job, you need to keep your resume and LinkedIn profile current.”
An occasional update can preserve:
The profile does not need to announce an active search. It can simply reflect the executive’s current value.
Terms such as strategic, data-driven, transformational, and growth-oriented may be accurate. They are also widely used.
Catherine argued that positioning becomes stronger when it expresses a recognizable point of view, operating strength, or area of depth.
“It’s generic words, but there’s some point of view that you have, some way that you approach your work, some depth of industry expertise that you bring.”
That distinction can appear in a LinkedIn headline, About section, featured media, published content, or speaking appearances. The goal is not novelty for its own sake. It is helping the reader understand what kind of marketing leader they are encountering.
Catherine shared one example of a VP of sales whose podcast appearance helped create an opportunity.
“A VP of sales that I worked with recently got her job because the CEO listened to a podcast she was on.”
Visibility worked because it gave the CEO a chance to hear how the executive thought, not merely read a list of credentials.
Former managers, peers, direct reports, and recruiters often become part of an executive search. Some provide introductions. Others serve as references or offer an informed view of a company.
Reconnecting after several years can feel awkward. Catherine observed that this discomfort is usually larger in the sender’s mind than in the recipient’s.
“The best opportunities you will likely be referred into by somebody.”
Relationship maintenance does not have to resemble formal networking. A thoughtful note, congratulatory message, relevant article, or short conversation can keep the connection genuine.
It also makes the relationship reciprocal. Senior leaders may be able to recommend colleagues, share market intelligence, or help recruiters understand who might fit another opportunity.
A strong executive profile offers evidence of how someone thinks and where they create value.
That evidence might include:
As Catherine put it:
“If somebody only reads that, they should more or less know who you are and what you do.”
While employed is often easier because recent work, relationships, and accomplishments remain accessible.
Not necessarily. Catherine sees LinkedIn as the primary destination for many corporate executives, especially when the profile includes strong featured content.
A useful headline combines an accurate role, relevant expertise, and a specific point of view or operating strength.
A brief, genuine message tied to shared history or something relevant to the recipient can reopen the conversation without forcing an immediate request.
Listen to the full conversation with Catherine Altman Morgan.
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