An Introduction to Colin Murphy and The History of A Best Impression, Kinetic Methods, and Walk the Walk
Hi, I’m Colin Murphy, the founder of A Best Impression and the creator of the Kinetic Methods, including the resume writing product, Walk the Walk Pro. As a former marketing and sales professional-turned-job search instructor for JVS.org’s Job Search Accelerator program in San Francisco, I had the unique opportunity of teaching crucial skills and confidence boosting exercises to 25 mid-level professionals each month. I quickly noticed that my job seeking students faced similar challenges that were holding them back regardless of their industry, title, or skills. After identifying these patterns, I created logical solutions that incorporated logic, sales, marketing, and psychology and made a strong impression of the job seeker throughout the process and provided interview preparation from the start, and then iterated these solutions each month to increase the hiring rate of the job search bootcamp graduates.
Clients have:
- a new self-awareness and confidence in their ability to deliver and make an impact
- know why they and a potential employer fit each other
- have knowledge to identify where they’ll thrive and confirm if that’s true before applying
- and the confidence to walk away.
Those solutions became the basis of A Best Impression, my job search strategy consulting practice which launched in 2016. This is when I created Walk the Walk, my proprietary product, which is an advanced resume writing process that requires deep thought and reflection and time in order to truly showcase relevant skills and present them in a way that helps resumes stand out to a hiring manager among equally qualified candidates after addressing the barriers of the Applicant Tracking Sy stems. Based on its success and ease, Walk the Walk is preparing to launch as a web-based product that will allow me to scale my reach beyond my one-on-one clients. Using the success of landing interviews at target companies, I created the Kinetic Methods. These are my unique approaches to the seven parts of a job search, and they are always evolving to be better.
What makes my practice different from other coaches is the unique way the methods originated and are taught. By focusing on creating solutions that address not only the ‘what’ to do, but also the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ to do it to overcome the challenges clients are facing across industries in real-time, my methods stay up-to-date on current trends and address those needs immediately. The experience between clients is seldom the same, as each client sets a pace they are comfortable with to learn, and I’m frequently focused on improving efficiency and effectiveness through improved exercises and resources.
What do I consider the unmet needs of job seekers? Resume solutions continue to trend towards saving more time for the customer, implying that a fast application is more efficient. I disagree. Working with mid-level professionals as my clients, I work to instill pride in the materials that we place our names on, that represent us to others whose job is to evaluate us. I meet the needs of these job seekers by showing them how to produce these materials themselves, incorporating the logic, the self-marketing, and the customer journey necessary to make an impression and allowing the hiring managers to make informed decisions about them. My practice is for those that value their reputation and not shortcuts. The process does get faster the more you practice, but you still have to learn it. That’s what I do and that’s why my clients do get interviews for jobs that excite them and meet their needs. I’m fulfilled by seeing clients move from a defeated mindset to one of confidence when they receive these tools and support and the accountability they need to make these changes happen and get the desired results.
