Meet Don Pippin | Career Strategist | Personal Branding Expert

We had the good fortune of connecting with Don Pippin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Don, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
My career has always been centered around people. My first job out of college was working for American Honda Motor Company, and I owned the summer internship program for the department, which entailed recruiting through campus visits across the country. It was then that I realized people did not understand how to brand themselves for an interview/application. I also joined the hiring team, and was responsible for 2nd line interviewing of all new company associates for a department of ~70 people. Jump five years, and I am at Bank of America, leading the onboarding of all new hires, which included working with multiple agencies to help with sourcing candidates for a 500-person call center.

There is a disconnect between what we, as the employer, are looking for and the resumes (applicants) that are submitted for these roles. It’s a hard sell for a recruiter to get a hiring manager to review a resume if it’s not aligned closely with the role they are hiring for. Combine that with modern technology, and we were missing out on a lot of great people because their resumes simply stunk.

I decided to start a personal branding firm, where I help people tell their professional stories, across resumes and LinkedIn profiles. Helping match qualified candidates with job opportunities. Thus my company tagline: Company need humans. Humans need jobs. I bring them together.

My logo and branding is centered around the love of my life, my dog Brynston.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
area Talent is a personal branding firm, meaning we specialize in helping professionals stand out in a sea of applicants through resume building, LinkedIn profile optimizations, cover letter writing, interview coaching, career coaching, and job search strategy coaching.

What makes area Talent different is the fact that you work directly with me, or in the case of new graduates, you work directly with my partner Robin, who is a college professor, career counselor, and certified resume writer, who specializes in college students. Many resume writing services are large, inexpensive resume writing mills, where they produce multiple resumes daily written by offshore writers with no certification or limited writing experience.

At area Talent, I have certifications in each service that I offer, as well as a Master of Human Resource Management. I work one on one with the client through a variety of means, intake surveys and zoom or phone consultations. My focus is on quality, not quantity, which is why I limit the number of new clients I accept to 4 per week.

This process has proven to be incredibly successful for my clients: their average return on investment is 24X, 90% are interviewing within 2 weeks, and they are seeing an average of a 30% salary increase with their new position.

At the end of the day, my business model is not designed to turn out quick resumes at bulk, but to provide a personalized service that yields results. My client’s success is my success and without referrals, I wouldn’t have the amount of work that I do today.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m a huge foodie and pop culture fan, so the itinerary is going to revolve around food and trashy reality tv.

Breakfast/Brunch places to hit up:
Blu Jam
WeHo Bistro
Sycamore Kitchen
Toast
Poppy+Rose
The Butcher, The Baker, The Cappuccino Maker

Afternoon things:
Griffith Observatory Hike and explore the Observatory
Visit the Hollywood Bowl during the day and run the stairs – not everyone knows that it’s open to the public and it’s pretty cool to be the only people there.
A trip to the Flower Market on Wall Street (especially if we are eating at Poppy+Rose)
Shopping on Rodeo (just to give the experience)
Studio City Farmers Market
A fun quirky pop-up – there’s always something different every week here.
Home Depot – The Home Depot on Hollywood has one of the best unobstructed views of the Hollywood sign, for anyone that doesn’t want to get caught in the clutter by the sign – just head up to the roof parking!

Dinner
Catch
Bacari Silverlake
Din Tai Fung
Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong (Korean BBQ)
Sur (don’t forget my reality obsession)
Yamashiro (that view!)

Evening
Drinks at V Wine Bar in West Hollywood
Catch an Improv show at LA Connection Comedy Theatre in Burbank
See a show at the Hollywood Bowl
A show at the Pantages
Dessert at Sweet B and Boba at Pearl’s Finest

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
After launching my business, I accepted a contract assignment with a large executive resume writing firm to keep me busy while my business scaled. I was hired and managed by Ramsey Penegar, a decades-long resume-writing professional. This particular firm had a very unique way of framing client achievements, and she taught me how to implement this methodology when writing resumes for my clients. But most importantly, she explained to me the why behind it. Today, when working with clients I find it invaluable to be able to share with them the reason behind my method, whether it’s the order I put bullets in, the structure I follow when creating a resume, or the content I am looking for them to provide me when I am helping them tell their story.

Website: areatalent.com

Instagram: areatalent

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donpippin/