Happy New Year and welcome to Season 7 of the LEAD WITH YOUR BRAND!™ Podcast.
Jayzen Patria kicks off the new season with a clear and urgent message: the rules of career success have changed—and your personal brand is non-negotiable in 2026.
Economic uncertainty, rapid AI adoption, shifting corporate priorities, and nonstop disruption have created a perfect storm in today’s workplace. In this environment, companies are no longer looking for interchangeable workers. They are looking for standout talent with a clear, trusted, super-premium personal brand.
Your personal brand is no longer about self-promotion. It’s about career ownership, relevance, and long-term opportunity.
In this episode, Jayzen breaks down why your brand determines:
• Who gets a seat at the table
• Who gets trusted with new opportunities
• Who gets paid more—and why
Key Takeaways:
Are you coffee or are you Starbucks?
Commodity professionals are interchangeable. Super-premium brands are sought out, trusted, and paid more.
Great work alone isn’t enough anymore
If people don’t know your value, they can’t advocate for you, sponsor you, or amplify your impact.
Your brand earns you a seat at the table
Opportunities flow through relationships. A strong brand expands your network and builds an army of champions.
Your brand future-proofs you in an AI world
Roles will change—or disappear—but a trusted brand allows people to follow you into new, undefined opportunities.
Compensation is brand feedback
Salary, bonuses, and promotions directly reflect how valuable your brand is perceived to be.
A brand is not a logo, outfit, or tagline
Your brand is your unique DNA—the sum of experiences, behaviors, and expectations others associate with you.
Jayzen grounds it all in one core truth: Your brand is the expectations people have of you—and expectations drive opportunity.
To start the year, Jayzen is thrilled to welcome one of his personal heroes: Disney Legend and former Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr.
Originally trained as an industrial designer with a love of cars, mechanics, and motion, Bob’s career changed forever when Walt Disney invited him to help build Disneyland. What began as a small assignment quickly evolved into a defining role in theme park history.
As Bob famously says, “If it moves on wheels at Disneyland, I probably designed it.”
Bob is the creative force behind iconic attractions including Autopia, the Disneyland Monorail, Matterhorn Bobsleds, and the Haunted Mansion Doom Buggies. He completed 100+ projects directly for Walt Disney, becoming known for fearlessness, curiosity, and saying yes to challenges others avoided.
After Disney, Bob went on to design 150+ major projects worldwide. Now 94 years young, he remains an active speaker, creator, and cultural icon.
His story perfectly reinforces Jayzen’s message: competence, curiosity, persistence, and fearlessness build a brand that lasts decades—not job titles.