Become known for a thing

If you want more opportunities to come your way, become known for one specific thing. It's much easier and more powerful than it sounds.

When you're known for something specific, people automatically associate you with it.

Whenever that topic comes up, they think of you.

They tag you in conversations.

If they encounter a problem that looks like your expertise, they pull you in for a job, consulting work, a conference talk, or something else valuable.

How do you become known for a thing? You talk about it. A lot.

You don't need a PhD or decades of experience to become known for something. You just have to show up and talk about it consistently. People will naturally start to associate you with that topic long before you feel ready.

I became known as "the database guy" in the Laravel community. How did I do that? I didn't (and still don't) have a formal computer science education. I had been working with databases for a long time and really loved learning about them. So I read a couple of database books and started writing articles about what I was learning. That's literally it. From there, I tweeted about databases, and people started associating me with the topic.

There's an interesting psychological principle at work here called the availability bias. If you're not familiar with it, it means we tend to overvalue, or give more weight to information that's readily available to us.

We hear about plane crashes and think flying is super dangerous. But statistically, it's about 1,000 times safer per mile than riding a motorcycle. Because plane crashes are so visible in the media, we overestimate their frequency.

The same principle applies to your personal/professional brand.

If you talk about databases all the time, people will just assume you're an expert.

It's entirely true, but it's not entirely fair.

It's the same reason you think of Matt Pocock when you hear "TypeScript," or Kent C. Dodds when you hear "React" or "Remix." They didn't invent those tools—they just talk about them all the time.

When I was a CPA at Ernst & Young, I became known as "the Excel guy," not because I was the best, but because I was the loudest about it.

It became a self-fulfilling prophecy: if someone had an Excel problem, they came to me.

Guess what? I got better at Excel.

If you become known as the database person in your space, you'll be the first choice for hiring a database expert. You'll be top of mind. This is how I've gotten most of my jobs: I put something out (an article, open source package, podcast) and someone found it and reached out.

That's the power of being known for something. You don't have to chase every opportunity. Opportunities start chasing you.

How do you implement this strategy?

Easy. You publish your work.

That's it. That's the whole strategy.

Pick your thing. Start talking about it today. Publish even if it feels small or imperfect. Momentum builds faster than you think. Don't believe me? Try it for 90 days. Post about that one thing for three months.

Once the flywheel is turning, opportunities chase you.

The bar is low. Most people don't even try.