← Notebook · Session 10 · 2026-08-22

How to Sell Yourself

The decision this session forces

What you create multiplied by what you communicate is what you get paid. If the second number is zero, the answer is zero — however good the first one is.

The short version

Two ladders. Competence is the first: degrees, skills, my results will speak for themselves. Visibility is the second: clarity, story, proof, presence. Most people climb only the first and cannot work out why nothing moves.
PAR turns a duty into a claim. Problem, Action, Result. Say I, not we, and put a number in the Result — or a before and after, if there is no number.
The sixty-second pitch has four parts: hook, proof, direction, opening. It ends on a question, never a full stop.
Four lengths, four different jobs. Fifteen seconds works if they can repeat it back. Sixty seconds works if they ask a follow-up. Three minutes tells the whole story. Written works if you get any reply at all.
A recruiter's first pass over a CV averages under eight seconds. Everything that matters is in the top third: your name, one line saying what you do, and your current title.
Negotiate with value, not need. What your household costs is true and irrelevant — it is your problem, not theirs.
Four questions set a price: what it is worth to them, what it costs you, what the market pays, and what saying no costs you.
Before working for nothing, ask what you are buying with it. No clear answer, no deal.

The two ladders

A multiplication, not an addition. Excellent and silent pays exactly what average and silent pays.

Ladder one is competence. Qualifications, skills, doing the work well, and the belief that the results will speak for themselves.

Ladder two is visibility. Being clear about what you do, having a story somebody can repeat, having proof they can check, and being present where the work is decided.

The multiplication is the whole lesson: value created times value communicated. Both are numbers. If either is zero, the product is zero, and being excellent and silent pays exactly what being average and silent pays.

PAR, and why the number is not optional

A duty says what the job was. PAR turns the same fact into a claim, with a number in the result.

Problem, Action, Result. Responsible for handling accounts is a duty, and a duty is not a claim — every person who held that job could write the same line.

The same fact as a claim: invoices were running forty days late, I rebuilt the chase sequence, collection came down to twelve days. Same job, and now it belongs to you.

Two rules that do the work. Say I, not we, because we is where a claim goes to die. And put a number in the Result — if there is genuinely no number, a before and a after will do.

The pitch, in four lengths

The sixty-second pitch, in four parts. It ends on a question, never a full stop.

Hook: who you help and what changes for them. Proof: one PAR story. Direction: where you are heading. Opening: hand it back with a question rather than stopping.

Fifteen seconds is the wedding answer, and it succeeds if the person can repeat it to somebody else. Sixty seconds is the interview opener, and it succeeds if they ask a follow-up. Three minutes is the full story for a meeting. Written is a cold message, and it succeeds if you get any reply.

Three failure modes, all of them audible on a recording: apologising first, reciting the CV, and trailing off with so, yeah. Record it once and you will hear which one is yours.

The top third of a page

The first pass over a CV averages under eight seconds, and eye-tracking says it lands in the top third of the first page. That is the whole real estate you are competing for.

So: your name, one line saying what you do, your current title. Objective is dead — it describes what you want, and nobody reading is buying what you want.

Bullets start with a verb and end with a number. One page, two if the years genuinely demand it, never three.

Price and the four questions

Four numbers set every price. Beginners hug the floor. Whether you can say no quietly sets the other three.

What is it worth to them — that is the ceiling. What does it cost you — that is the floor. What does the market pay — that is the anchor, and letting the cheapest rival set it is how a rate stops moving for five years.

The fourth is the one people skip: what does saying no cost you. The power to walk away is not a mood, it is a position, and it lifts the price on its own.

On expected salary, deflect once and ask what is budgeted. If you must give a number, give a range starting above your target, anchored on what the work is worth rather than on what you were last paid.

Three things to actually do

Write the fifteen-second answer to what is it you do, said the way an uncle asks it at a wedding. Job title alone is banned. One thing you fixed, built, taught or saved, in a single breath.

Write three PAR bullets from the last two years: one thing fixed, one thing built or grown, one person made better. One sentence per letter, a number in every Result.

Then say the sixty-second version out loud, record it, and watch it back. Reading it silently will not find the three failure modes. Hearing it will.

Your note

Saved on this device as you type.

All sessions

Credit Taught in Gharebon Ka MBA · Dr. Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani. Used here with credit, not as my own. https://www.zeeshanusmani.com/career-growth-accelerator/