Today is the day. I am officially launching a project that I have been working on for a solid few months now; How to Create a Stunning Personal Brand Website.
Let me take a second and bring you back to where this all started. Let me bring you back to why I even made a website for myself in the first place.
During my second year at Wilfrid Laurier University, I was accepted into their co-op program. This accomplishment is what I had worked so hard for, as it opened up opportunities to land a 'real-life job' at some of the world's most reputable companies. But it also posed a serious challenge; I was directly competing against over 350 of my classmates, some of whom I knew were a lot smarter than me. If you were to simply compare our grades, I didn't stand a chance.
I've told this story a few times before, but I shouldn't have even been able to make it into Laurier in the first place. If I didn't 'hustle' my high school teachers for an extra 2%, I would have never made the 87% acceptance cutoff.
So to land one of these dream jobs, I knew I would have to do something different from everyone else. How could I show these companies that they couldn't afford NOT to hire me?
With a hobby in graphic design and web technologies, the answer came naturally: I'll make a website. I'll create a platform where employers can learn more about who I am. A platform that almost none of the 350 other applicants have.
And I hate saying this because it makes me feel old, but at the time, my eyes were set on a marketing position at the RIM (now known as BlackBerry) corporate headquarters. They were one of the world's most innovative companies, and happened to be conveniently located just down the street.
I thought, what better way to show them how badly I want to work there, than to show off my skills through a website that takes the form of a BlackBerry Playbook. So I did. Here's what it looked like https://sunnytrochaniak.com/old/ (the pages even swipe across!).
There is a minor twist in this story though. Despite my attempt to pass the link around through their campus ambassadors, and putting it prominently on my resume & cover letter, no one from RIM ever visited the site (who knows what their shares could've been trading at now!!).
But many other companies did. My interviews typically started off with the employer saying "Sunny, we selected you not only because we were impressed by your resume, but because we checked out your site and thought it was extremely neat."
It was at that point that I truly realized the value in having a personal website. Employers were taking notice, and were going out of their way to tell me so.
Over the past few years since then, I've put a lot of effort and focus into continuously enhancing my personal brand website. The more I put in, the more I get out of it. At the same time, a lot of people have been asking me how I made my website (www.sunnytrochaniak.com), and if I could help them with theirs.
These people understand the value. Unless you make a wrong turn, it can't do anything but increase the chances of being successful in your career.
Rather than trying to help them one-by-one, I thought it would be cool if I could help hundreds of people, all at the same time. I made this class to show you (even if you have no coding/design experience), how you can begin unleash the potential of your personal brand, just like I have.
If you're interested in checking out the course, here's the link: https://www.udemy.com/create-personal-brand-website/?couponCode=earlybird-launch
BONUS: Since some of you have helped me from the beginning, I wanted to make a special early-bird offer. Take 35% off, valid until 11:59PM tonight (Jan 12th) only!
I would love to hear from you and get your feedback if you have any. Thanks for reading!