After giving birth to twins and having a third daughter still in diapers, it was hard to think of myself as a professional. I had a home filled with baby bottles, overflowing laundry baskets and rarely had time to take a shower in the morning. Yet, unlike many new moms, I had a great job at a PR and advertising firm waiting for me when I was ready to come back to work. I made the transition from mom in sweat pants to an agency executive in a suit much the way an actor gets into character for her role. 

As a personal branding expert, I know how important changing your mindset and image is to building your confidence and getting the attention of your future employer. How do you reinvent your brand from a stay-at-home mom to a manager?

I’ve worked with many professionals who have had gaps or missing experience from their resumes and were afraid to look for a job in the areas that interested them. For instance, one client who had spent most of her career in retail clothing sales wanted to change careers to elder care. Despite not having worked in this field for 20 years, she packaged her elder care volunteer experience, her degrees in psychology and counseling, and her award-winning customer service to her advantage to get multiple interviews and a great job in business development for a national in-home care company. Even if you have had a large gap since working, you can be successful in getting back into the workforce.

Here are a few tips:

1. Take a class, read books and follow professional topics of interest online.  You need to be conversant in the new ideas and ways of doing business.  This will boost your confidence.  Completing a course is something you can add to your resume as evidence of your education and motivation.

2. Volunteer.  Many of the people whom I’ve helped have used volunteering as a way to show capability in such areas as leadership, marketing, event management, accounting, and program development.

3. Understand your goal and target audience.  If you are looking for a job in marketing, your target audience may be the marketing executive. You need to understand the company, the market environment and what the critical concerns of that executive. Then you need to craft your resume, cover letter and elevator pitch that speaks to their needs. 

4. “Bake the cake, then ice it.”  This is my metaphor for branding. Your cake is your rational value, for instance, your unique combination of strengths and experience. Your icing is your emotional value or how people connect with you on an emotional basis, such as your personality, image and empathy. Make sure you have both cake and icing for a strong brand.

5. Develop your ecosystem relationships. Build relationships with those who may be influential in helping you get a job—these can be past bosses, colleagues, classmates, and even experts you reach out to on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Sometimes endorsing others on LinkedIn is a good way to start.  A relationship is a two-way street. Provide value to others and they will want to help you as well.

6. Develop a brand action plan.  Figure out the gaps between your current brand and your desired brand, then put a plan in place to fill the gaps. This might include furthering your education, working with a mentor or professional coach, and buying a professional wardrobe.  At the very least your branding plan should include refreshing your LinkedIn profile, building new online profiles, commenting on influencers’ blogs (or starting your own), and joining professional groups offline and online. Make sure that search engines such as Google can find you.

Finally, be your new brand in thought, word, deed and image. Being clear and consistent is key to branding. You can redefine how you see yourself and how the world sees you. Once you identify your unique strengths and fit them to a goal, you’ll be surprised how empowering it feels. That confidence will help you get the job that you deserve. 

Karen Kang is the Founder and CEO of BrandingPays LLC, a corporate and personal branding company that offers consulting, training and coaching.The author of BrandingPays™: The Five-Step System to Reinvent Your Personal Brand (January 2013), Karen is a sought-after speaker at leading business schools and professional organizations.  Find her at www.brandingpays.com, www.facebook.com/brandingpays and on Twitter @karenkang.