“Have the courage to be the Purple Cow”

Throughout my (ongoing) job search this has been my mantra. It comes from Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow which I would definitely advise every marketer to read. The premise of the book is that brown/black and white cows are normal, nothing special. A purple cow, however, would be remarkable. Something (or someone) remarkable is worth talking about, worth paying attention to – in my case, worth hiring. The Drake business school does a great job of churning out brown cows, but what employer wants a brown cow?

Throughout my job search I have struggled with how to market myself as the purple cow. My boss at my internship preaches to me that I need to differentiate myself from everyone else. I go to school in Iowa and I’m a twenty two year old woman, what’s remarkable about that? I figured that if I came to Drake and worked hard, recruiters would be banging down my door to hire me. Wrong. Drake sets us up as brown cows and gives us all the tools to become purple cows but only if we have the drive and desire to get there.

I found my purple cow, have you?