I had ignored my personal brand since I was last job-hunting in 2014.

When people would ask, "what do you do?" I would default to describing my role at the company I worked at... but that didn't feel like I was describing the real me. Red flag. After working our asses off for said company my team and I found ourselves "restructured" out of our jobs. I was quietly walked out of the building by the HR team I had helped to hire countless colleagues and, arriving home before dinner for the first time in months, I stood in the kitchen explaining to my wife what had happened... at least as best I could. Still in shock, it started to occur to me that if I wasn't Dean, the guy with fancy-sounding title at the fancy-sounding company, I was just Dean... and who was that?

I'd been so wrapped-up in being a high-performer as someone else's vision of me that I'd lost touch with my own vision of me. I didn't have a personal brand. I was borrowing one from the company I worked for. Now, without that, my brand was nothing. Or, as NOFX would say, I "got soul doubt."

Take control of your personal brand.

If you don't, someone (or something) else will.

You may get by for years as "Steve from Apple" or "Mike from NOFX", or "Thom from Against Me!" But what if that company turns it's back on you, or you retire? And, dare I suggest, your vision of your true self may just be something more than what you do for your current company... even if you're a founder. The three people above all have well-known personal brands. Outside of the company brand. Without Steve Jobs, Fat Mike, and Laura Jane Grace, our world would be a different place. No iPhone? No Punk Rock Museum? More transgendered members of the community afraid to come out? These are the initiatives of the individuals. The personal brands. They worked (in harmony and dischord) with company brands to do the things we know them for.

What will your community be without the fully-realized version of you? What is your personal brand? Who is that brand's audience?

I know that the punk police will say that we're not supposed to care about what other people think about us. Joan Jett didn't give a damn about her bad reputation... but the reputation she created for herself was not giving damn about her reputation... right? Take ownership of it, or it will get swallowed up by the Nothing (like in the Neverending Story). I'm not saying you need to be famous. I'm saying you need to be deliberate. Design who you are for your community (big or small) so that you can make the most of it.

Don't let the next recruiter offering a fancy title swoon you. Don't let the years pass at your day job while you dream of a different purpose. This is one of the key benefits of taking ownership of your personal brand: an intentional life. Another is the holy grail of work-life-balance: spending your time doing something fulfilling.

Are you a nine-to-fiver? An entrepreneur? A creator? One of the members of NSYNC that isn't Justin Timberlake? You have a personal brand. You should nurture it. Here's one way you can get started building your personal brand today.

#1. Uncover your obsession.

The whole thing will feel fake, or not worth the effort, until you do this.

• Identify your favourite skill. Something you feel confident in.

• Identify your favourite interest. This should be something you could talk about all day, every day and never get bored of.

• Combine your skill with your interest; skill + interest = obsession

#2. Indulge & share it every day.

Do it over and over in different ways. This refines your ideas and the way you communicate them. It sharpens your brand.

• Build or borrow a system for creating content to share your obsession.

• Pick a format you enjoy producing in. Switch if it's not working.

• Pick a channel that is suitable for that format. Commit to publishing in that channel at a pace that works with the rest of your life.

#3. Engage and listen to your audience.

Attention is the currency of the modern world. Give some to the people that give some to you. You'll deepen both your connections and your knowledge.

• Put time in your calendar following each regular posting to read and respond to comments.

• Remember that you get what you give, multiplied.

• Haters gonna hate. Ban/block/delete them and move on.

Build your personal brand, even a little bit every day. You might find yourself out on your own (like Jawbreaker describes) . With your own personal brand, you will be much better prepared for the gig / creator economy of the future. Much more than I was. And if you're running or starting your own business, getting clear on your personal brand (especially the vision and purpose for it) will add clarity and focus to every step you take.