How to Build a Personal Brand Without Quitting Your Day Job

Ryan Dunlap spent years as a SWAT hostage negotiator, trained to have high-stakes conversations. When he transitioned into ministry, he discovered a painful truth: he was "dope in a crisis, but when there wasn't one, I created it." He was a courageous communicator who didn't know how to have a tactful conversation. That realization—that the problem was often inside himself, not in the people around him—became the foundation of Conflict-ish, his personal brand built on helping leaders get honest with themselves.

Kwame Christian, meanwhile, was a lawyer who never wanted to be a lawyer. He had a psychology degree and wanted to help people, but realized that as a 27-year-old with no credentials in negotiation, he faced an age bias problem. His solution was strategic: he named his venture the American Negotiation Institute ("it sounds old money"), called himself Director instead of CEO, and started a podcast to prove he knew what he was talking about. When there were zero active negotiation podcasts in 2016, he became the number one negotiation podcast in the world by default—and grew into it.

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