Why You Need a Brag Sheet to Keep You at Your Best

Can you name what you've built, won, earned, sold and mentored? While many business growth experts suggest having your elevator pitch polished and ready for a chance encounter with a potential client, there may be another option. You may think your background information on your business’s website or your LinkedIn page is all you need, a brag sheet may help you be more flexible in presenting your experience to potential clients. More importantly, it can help you find potential collaborators.  

First a quick review of the various documents you might have that discuss your background. A resume is aimed at getting someone to hire you. It provides information on your educational background, work experience and specific function related skills. It usually is one to two pages long. A C.V., or curriculum vitae is similar to a resume, but lists literally everything you’ve ever done in your career (rather than just what may be relevant to a specific job you are applying for).  
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In contrast, your elevator pitch is a 30 second summary of what you offer. It’s usually thought of as pitching a product, but it should equally be used to pitch your services. Unlike a resume, an elevator pitch can be worked into a variety of situations. It’s hard to think of how to whip out your LinkedIn profile at a cocktail party, but that situation is ready made for an elevator pitch. In essence, the elevator pitch theoretically answers the “Tell me about yourself?” question but in reality the elevator pitch actually answers the  “Why should I use you/your product?” question.
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And that’s where a brag sheet can add an assist to that elevator pitch. If you’ve got your niche market identified and your leading skill lined up, you may forget about other things you’ve done that could help you win over a client. For most people, they’ve only heard of a brag sheet for those applying to college. Some people may have used a brag sheet with a life coach. While its similar to a resume in that it focuses on accomplishments, it can hit a little broader to remind you where your other skills may lay. Academic brag sheets tend to focus on “your most outstanding accomplishment” where as adult brag sheets may simply answer “what have you created?” or more broadly “what did you develop?”  
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For younger advisors, a brag sheet should be something that grows along with you. Your manager or partner won’t remember every clutch win you’ve had. That falls to you to keep track of. If you have a knack for spotting potential issues before they become nightmares, you might not be able to have that on a resume, but having a list of the 10 times you’ve caught them in the last four years, with brief details can help you nail a client interview or move on to a more interesting role in your company. A brag sheet can be used to help boost your position when asking for a raise or applying for a promotion. No one looks good when trying to drag their memory for details of a specific skill in action, though that question is often asked in interviews. Jotting a few key details down in your brag sheet, shortly after the win happens can help you remember it later on. Brag sheets also help younger workers survive harsh clients (or worse, bully bosses). Recalling that you graduated with honors from college might not help much when the bully client tells you how stupid you are for the fourth time, but recalling five recent wins might.
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For more experienced workers, having that brag sheet can help you pivot in your career if you find yourself losing the passion you once had. It can also help you find areas you once enjoyed but haven’t used lately, like mentoring or recruiting talent.
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So how do you write one? If you already use a business process tool, like Evernote, SmartSheet or something similar, start a folder to collect your snippets. You can drag and drop images like photos of a client dinner, or screen grabs of emails of compliments. Use that folder to also track any data you can, especially improvements in your data. For example, its great to talk about the client newsletter you redesigned. It’s better to talk about the open rate jumping from 10 to 30% after you redesigned the client newsletter. You can also use your brag sheet folder to identify areas where you need to find experience. If you know the job description of where you’d like to head, you can use the items in that job description to help you focus your advancement. The same holds true for more experienced advisors who are looking to pivot to a new career.

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