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Over the last 30 years, I’ve worn a lot of different hats.
I’ve worked in food service, retail, holistic health and nutrition, internet marketing, and now digital media.
And through all those different careers, I’ve learned one important lesson:
Your reputation can either make or break your career.
Think about someone you know who complains all the time. Maybe it’s the coworker who is negative about every project, the person who creates unnecessary drama, or the person who always finds a reason why something won’t work.
Most people naturally avoid working with that person.
Now think about someone different.
The person who stays calm when things get stressful. The person who gives great advice. The person who makes people around them better.
Those are the people you want to work with.
That’s the power of reputation.
And this applies directly to your career.
If you’re struggling to get promoted, earn a raise, find a new job, or grow your business, your reputation may be playing a bigger role than you realize.
That’s why your reputation may be the most valuable career asset you have.
In this episode:
- Why your reputation is one of your most valuable career assets
- How your reputation is built through everyday behavior
- How a positive reputation has helped me create career opportunities
- How you can intentionally build a reputation that pays off for years and even decades
The Pattern: Your Reputation Is Being Built Whether You Realize It Or Not
Most people think of reputation as something you build intentionally, like a personal brand.
But the reality is that you’re building one every day, whether you’re trying to or not.
People form opinions about you based on repeated experiences.
Think about the workplace. Over time, people tend to develop reputations like these:
- The person who always complains
- The person who creates unnecessary drama
- The person who is always late
- The person who refuses to help outside their job description
Most people don’t wake up one morning and decide they want to have that reputation.
Eventually, people stop seeing isolated actions and start seeing a pattern.
The same thing happens with positive reputations.
Think about the people organizations naturally trust:
- The person everyone goes to when they need help
- The person who stays calm during a crisis
- The person who explains complicated things clearly
- The person who finds solutions instead of creating more problems
- The person who understands how the business works
Those people usually didn’t wake up one day and decide:
“I’m going to build a great reputation.”
It happened through consistency.
- The way you respond when something goes wrong.
- The way you treat people when there’s nothing to gain.
- The way you handle responsibility when nobody is watching.
Your reputation is built through your actions, not your intentions.
The question is:
What are your actions telling people about you?
The Shift: Build Your Reputation Intentionally
For a long time, I thought career growth was mostly about skills.
- Work harder.
- Learn more.
- Become better.
And those things absolutely matter.
But eventually, I realized something important:
Skills create opportunities, but your reputation determines who thinks of you when those opportunities appear.
Two people can have similar skills, similar experience, and similar qualifications.
One person gets recommended.
The other person gets overlooked.
But why?
Because people already have an opinion about them.
That opinion usually comes down to a few simple questions:
- Do they trust you?
- Do they enjoy working with you?
- Do they believe you make problems easier or harder?
- Do they know what you’re capable of?
That reputation becomes the shortcut people use when they need to make a decision.
I learned this firsthand when I was a hiring manager.
A resume tells you where someone has worked and what they’ve accomplished.
But it doesn’t always tell you what someone is actually like to work with.
When I was involved in hiring decisions, one thing we always wanted to understand was the person behind the resume.
- How do they communicate?
- How do they handle themselves?
- Are they someone people enjoy working with?
- Can we trust them to represent the company well?
According to research published in Frontiers in Psychology, employers may use information from a candidate’s online presence, including social media, as part of the hiring process. The goal is often to get a better understanding of the person behind the resume and how they may fit within the organization.
And honestly, that makes sense.
A resume tells you what someone has done. A reputation gives you insight into who someone is.
The same thing happens inside companies.
A manager doesn’t always have time to evaluate every employee for every new opportunity.
Often, they ask a simple question:
“Who do I know that can solve this problem?”
And that’s where reputation becomes powerful.
The Leverage: Your Reputation Is One Of Your Most Valuable Career Assets
The reason reputation is so powerful is that it compounds over time.
A skill helps you complete a task, but a reputation helps opportunities find you.
Throughout my career, I’ve seen this happen repeatedly.
Being Known As Someone Who Solves Problems
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always enjoyed solving problems.
Growing up, I was the person messing around with computers, installing software, burning PlayStation games, and even recording video game footage from my Sega Dreamcast.
This was before YouTube made everything easy.
If you wanted to learn something, you had to search forums, read books, or talk to people who already knew how to do it.
That curiosity followed me into my career.
As a manager at multiple companies, I often found myself solving technology problems for my teams.
Not because it was technically my responsibility.
People knew I’d probably figure it out and that I’d take the time to help them.
That reputation was built around a few consistent behaviors:
- I was curious
- I wasn’t afraid to figure things out
- I looked for solutions instead of waiting for someone else
- I shared what I learned with others
Over time, I became the person people came to when they needed help.
Being Someone Who Helps People Succeed
But I think the most valuable reputation you can build is being someone who genuinely wants other people to succeed.
People remember that.
A positive reputation creates leverage because people remember:
- Who helped them
- Who made their job easier
- Who was reliable when things got difficult
- Who they could trust
When I left my automotive editor position in 2024, I didn’t need to spend months searching for my next opportunity.
A former editor who had also left the company thought of me when he needed someone for his new team.
Later, when I wanted to return to automotive, another former editor reached out to me.
I didn’t send hundreds of applications.
I didn’t need to go through multiple interviews competing for a handful of positions.
Someone simply thought: “Who should we call?”
And my name came up.
Some people might call that luck. I call it leverage.
Because years of consistent behavior created a reputation that continued working for me even when I wasn’t actively looking.
3 Actionable Steps: Build A Reputation That Creates Opportunities
1. Audit Your Reputation
Before you try to improve your career, you need to understand the reputation you already have.
And that requires honesty.
How do people see you?
- Are you someone who solves problems?
- Someone who makes work easier?
- Someone people trust?
- Or are you someone who creates friction?
Earlier in my career, I worked for a reputation management company.
We helped small businesses manage their online reviews by collecting customer feedback, posting content online, and helping businesses improve their public image.
I remember two businesses that showed completely different approaches.
One was a plumbing company named after the owner. Let’s call him “John Doe.”
John was constantly angry. He argued with customers online and in person.
When we reviewed his negative feedback, the reviews described the exact same person we saw internally.
The problem wasn’t just the reviews. The problem was the behavior creating those reviews.
The owner never changed, and eventually the business lost customers and closed.
Another example was a dental office owned by a woman who we’ll call “Jane Doe.”
The owner received negative reviews but decided to look at them differently.
Instead of getting defensive, she asked:
“Is there something here we need to improve?”
She made changes.
The customer experience improved. More positive reviews followed. And the reputation of the business changed.
The lesson is simple:
Be a Jane Doe, not a John Doe.
Your reputation is built by your actions, not your intentions.
2. Build Real Relationships, Not Just Connections
It’s easy to get caught up in the idea of networking, especially on LinkedIn.
- Add more connections.
- Send more messages.
- Try to meet more people.
But a large network doesn’t automatically create opportunity.
Trust does.
Instead of trying to collect contacts, focus on building real relationships.
Compliment someone’s work. Help someone without expecting anything in return. Be someone people enjoy working with.
Because eventually, your reputation becomes attached to those relationships.
The last two jobs I’ve gotten weren’t because I submitted the perfect application.
They happened because people already knew my work.
They knew I was reliable.
They knew I worked hard.
They knew I was someone they could trust.
That reputation existed before the opportunity appeared.
3. Be In It For The Long Haul
Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to building a strong reputation.
It can take months. Sometimes years. Especially if you’ve made mistakes along the way.
But the good news is that your reputation can change.
It’s never too late to start building something different.
A manager you helped years ago may become the person hiring you later.
A coworker you supported may remember you when a new opportunity opens.
That’s how reputation compounds.
The behavior you build today can influence opportunities years from now.
Your Reputation Is What Makes People Think Of You First
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that career growth isn’t just about what you can do.
It’s about what people believe you can do.
Your skills matter. Your experience matters.
But your reputation is what makes people think of you when an opportunity appears.
The best opportunities often don’t come from strangers.
They come from people who already know your work, your attitude, and what you’re capable of.
That’s why reputation is such a powerful career asset.
Because eventually, every hiring manager, editor, or business leader asks the same question:
“Who do I know that can solve this problem?”
Your goal is to become the first answer. But being known is only part of the equation.
Once opportunities start appearing, you still have to recognize them. Sometimes the biggest opportunities don’t look like opportunities at all. They look like setbacks, detours, or extra responsibility.
That’s exactly what I’ll explore in the next episode:
Why Successful People See Opportunity Where Others See Obstacles.
Thanks for reading,
Nick Hazleton
Watch the full video on YouTube here