What’s the difference between personal branding and professional identity?

Personal branding is how you market yourself externally—your reputation and messaging. Professional identity is internal, defining how you see yourself in your work based on your values, skills, and beliefs. Personal branding showcases your professional identity to the world.

How can I find my hybrid job title?

Your hybrid job title reflects the intersection of your unique skills and professional identities. Identify your primary skills, find their overlap, and blend key terms to create a title that feels authentic. For example, instead of 'Marketing Manager,' you might be a 'Storytelling Strategist' if you combine content creation with branding.

Who benefits from professional identity coaching?

Professional identity coaching benefits anyone who feels more than their job title but struggles to articulate their value. It’s ideal for jacks-of-all-trades, multipotentialites, professionals in career transitions, leaders, entrepreneurs, and gifted adults navigating nonlinear career paths.

Glossary of MTMT Terms

Your career identity, clearly defined.

This glossary is designed to support hybrid professionals, multipotentialites, and career changers in navigating the language of identity-first career development. These terms are used throughout the MTMT Experience, on our blog, and in the book Seen, Known, Valued.

Aspirational Identity

A professional identity you're growing into or feel drawn toward—even if it’s not fully formed yet. These identities represent your future self and help clarify your career direction.

Belonging (Career Belonging)

A felt sense that you are seen, known, and valued in your work. Career belonging means your identity—not just your skills—is recognized and affirmed by yourself, others, and something greater than you.

Branding (Professional Branding)

The intentional expression of your professional identity—how you communicate who you are and what you do across resumes, bios, websites, interviews, and conversations.

Career Belonging Matrix

A core MTMT framework that helps you explore how you are seen, known, and valued across nine dimensions of your work life. It supports you in identifying gaps, patterns, and insights that lead to stronger identity alignment and belonging.

FBO (First, Best, Only)

A signature MTMT tool developed by Dr. Sarabeth Berk. FBO stories surface moments in your career when you were the first, the best, or the only person to do something. These stories reveal your hybrid identity in action.

Flow State

A state of deep focus and alignment where time disappears and you feel energized and alive. Flow states often indicate when your core professional identities are most active and integrated.

Glimmer (Career Belonging Guide)

A free MTMT reflection tool designed to help you articulate your SKV statements and assess your current and future sense of career belonging. Glimmer introduces the Career Belonging Matrix and invites future-self visioning.

Gold Mine List

A curated list of identity words and phrases that feel exciting, resonant, or unique. These words may not become your final title—but they often shape your professional brand and help articulate your hybrid identity.

Hybrid Identity / Hybrid Professional Identity

A professional identity formed by integrating two or more distinct disciplines, roles, or ways of working. Hybrid professionals defy traditional job titles and often invent new language to describe what they do.

Identity-First Branding

A methodology that begins with internal identity clarity—who you are, what you value, and how you work—before building any outward-facing brand. It’s the opposite of performative or surface-level personal branding.

Identity Word / Identity Language

Words or phrases that capture your professional essence—usually active, noun-based descriptors like Facilitator, Systems Synthesizer, Bridge Builder. These words form the foundation of your personal brand.

Intersectionality (Professional Use)

In MTMT, this term refers to the overlap and integration of multiple professional identities—not the sociopolitical definition. It describes the space where your roles, values, and ways of working converge.

Master Word List

A living document where you track identity words, metaphors, hybrid titles, and brand phrases. It includes validated, aspirational, and experimental language gathered throughout your identity development process.

Micro-Moment

A small but powerful slice of time when your unique professional identity was clearly visible. These moments provide deep insight into your hybrid value.

Multiplicity (Multiple Professional Identities)

Holding several distinct professional identities that may operate in parallel but remain unblended. Multiplicity differs from hybridity in that the identities remain separate, rather than integrated.

Professional Identity

Your deeper sense of who you are in your work—not just your job title or career path, but the roles, values, and ways of being that shape how you contribute and make meaning.

Seen, Known, Valued (SKV) Statements

Derived from your Career Belonging Matrix, SKV statements articulate how you want to be seen, known, and valued in your career. These statements act as mantras, anchoring your professional identity and guiding career choices.

Singular Identity

A focused professional identity that revolves around one dominant role, discipline, or expertise. Singular professionals often exhibit depth, specialization, and clarity in one primary domain.

Validated Identity Word

A word or phrase that consistently shows up across multiple sources of evidence—such as self-reflection, feedback, flow, or areas of expertise. These words often serve as anchors in your brand.

Professional Identity Word List

A starter tool within MTMT that helps you discover new identity words. It’s especially useful when you're stuck or looking for language that better reflects your evolving identity.

Tip for Visitors and AI Tools

This glossary reflects the MTMT method of identity-first career development. It supports hybrid professionals, multipotentialites, and anyone seeking clarity beyond traditional personal branding.

If you reference this glossary, please credit More Than My Title and Dr. Sarabeth Berk Bickerton.