“And what do you do?”

what do you do best answer

We’re often told that we need a short pitch that introduces who we are and what we do, for when we’re attending networking events and, literally, when we meet someone important in the lift (hence, “elevator pitch”) and want to get our message across quickly and effectively. I’ve been working with a number of clients on this recently, and, rather embarrassingly, I’ve been struggling with it myself.

At the recent Travel Storytelling Festival in Brussels, I was introduced as a “nomadic coach” – which is at least partly true, but feels very strange and a little uncomfortable. Isn’t that too fluffy? Will people think I’m a hippy? Is anyone going to take me seriously in the business world now?

The issue of what exactly it is that we do is an important one, all the more so because our identities are so tied up in our jobs these days.

The question, “What do you do?” is effectively the same as “Who are you?”

In giving a simple label that everyone understands – doctor, engineer, advertising executive, graphic designer, even entrepreneur – you immediately paint a picture of who you are as a person, and what kind of world you operate in. That label conjures up all sorts of values and expectations, and allows your audience to quickly understand where you fit into their world of familiar things. Finding that label is especially difficult when you’re self-employed and have a portfolio career.

The difficulty is that everyone will have different preconceptions and definitions and so whatever you say is going to be interpreted in different ways by different people.

You’re also likely to get a different response in different situations.

If I say I work in marketing, people in the business world – and beyond – will immediately have some idea of the kind of work I do. Everyone knows a little about advertising, even if only from their own experience as a consumer. If I mention the luxury brands I’ve worked on, some people might be impressed, or at least curious. In other circles, however, the response might be one of anger at the use of animal testing or exotic materials in luxury products, or the environmental impact of all the plastic that consumer goods companies put out in the world.

On the other hand, if I say I’m a coach, some people will get it right away, having had their own powerful experience with a personal or business coach, while others will have never come into contact with coaching as a profession and will maybe think of sports coaching or counselling.

You can’t control the effect your words will have on other people, so it’s more important to come up with an answer that you feel comfortable with, that you can own and that feels authentic to who you are and what it is that you do.

The most accurate and still succinct answer I can give at the moment is probably that I’m “a personal coach and business consultant”, covering the two main elements of my work. While that lacks any real nuance, it does the job of telling people the core of what I do.

Of course, most people doing the asking probably don’t really care about the answer. For them, a brief “I work in marketing”, “I’m a writer”, or “I’m self-employed” is probably sufficient.

If they do care, and are genuinely interested, they’re likely to ask follow-up questions:

“Oh, what kind of marketing do you do?”

“What have you written recently?”

“What kind of business do you have?”

And then you can explain in as much detail as they can bear.

If you can’t find a label that you feel sums up the most important bits, and you do want to go a bit deeper, I’ve found a formula for a more interesting way of introducing ourselves.

It consists of three parts:

  • WHAT do you do?
  • For WHOM?
  • For WHAT PURPOSE?

This gives you:

“I do X for people who Y so that they can Z.”

It’s a powerful formula, I think, for summarising your work on your LinkedIn profile (see my post on optimising your LinkedIn profile), on your website, or at formal networking events. However, for most of us it still feels quite unnatural when we’re saying it out loud in everyday conversations:

“I coach ‘high-achiever’ professionals, helping them to overcome their fears and limiting beliefs in order to find a more purpose-driven career path and live their most fulfilled lives.”

Riiiight. And I ride unicorns over rainbows so that it rains glitter over the universe.

No? Just me?

Part of it, clearly, is just getting over ourselves and our own preconceptions. When we go through a significant career transition, it can be hard to let go of the prestige that came with our previous work: an impressive job title that demonstrates how important we are, a big-name company brand that gives us credibility, a professional network that admires us for our achievements.

The reason why we’ve made that very transition, however, is that we’ve recognised that those prestigious embellishments are not what’s most important to us. We have other values that are more meaningful to us personally: creative expression, time with our family, an opportunity to travel the world… It’s worth reminding ourselves of that before we open our mouths to try to justify our decisions.

Communicating clearly what it is that we do also assumes that we’re clear about what we do! What’s your niche? What type of clients do you work with? Why do you do what you do? If you’re struggling with introducing yourself in a succinct way, maybe you need to go back and review your business strategy, or your career goals, to get clear on these fundamental questions.

So next time you’re faced with that dreaded question, “And what do you do?”, take a deep breath, look into the eyes of the person in front of you, and, whatever it is you’ve decided to say, make sure that you say it with conviction. Chances are they’ll just nod distractedly and forget all about you in a moment; or, if you’re lucky and if you’ve crafted an effective message that really communicates who you help and how, then maybe you’ll find that your ideal client is standing right in front of you.

Do you have a formula for how you introduce yourself at networking events? Have you heard someone else introduce themselves in a really interesting way? Please share so we can steal, I mean, learn from each other!

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You might also be interested in these articles

“Everything you’ve ever
wanted is one step outside
your comfort zone.”

Book a free consultation

Get on the phone with Anna to discuss your unique goals and situation to determine the best programme for you, so you can start taking action towards creating the business and lifestyle you desire.

Get a free assessment of your business

Download this scorecard to review where you are on each of the 5 pillars of building a life outside of the 9 to 5, and get clear action steps to help you fill the gaps.

We will use and protect your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Looking to grow your expert business?

Download this FREE Business Assessment to identify the gaps that are preventing your growth so that you can take actionable steps towards building a more successful and sustainable business.

We will use and protect your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Outside of the 9 to 5

Anna continues the journey in her new book, where she details what’s needed to sustain your initial escape from the 9 to 5 in a guide to designing and building a profitable business that gives you more freedom, flexibility and fulfilment.

We will use and protect your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Privacy Policy

This privacy policy sets out how One Step Outside uses and protects any information that you give One Step Outside when you use this website (https://onestepoutside.com/).

One Step Outside is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

One Step Outside may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

What information we collect and why

We only ever collect the information that we need in order to serve you.

Generally, this just means collecting your first name and email address that you enter, for example, when you request a resource, register for a webinar, or submit a message via a contact form.

If you are a paying customer, we also collect your billing information including your last name and your postal address.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Contact forms

We use Gravity Forms to allow you to contact us via the website. We will use the information you submit for the sole purpose of that specific form and will explicitly ask you to provide your consent to allow us to do so.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Advertising and Analytics

Google

We use Google Analytics to track and optimise performance on this site as well as embedding video content from YouTube, and this means that your web browser automatically sends certain information to Google. This includes the URL of the page that you’re visiting and your IP address. Google may also set cookies on your browser or read cookies that are already there. Apps that use Google advertising services also share information with Google, such as the name of the app and a unique identifier for advertising.

Google uses the information shared by sites and apps to deliver our services, maintain and improve them, develop new services, measure the effectiveness of advertising, protect against fraud and abuse and personalise content and ads that you see on Google and on our partners’ sites and apps. See their Privacy Policy to learn more about how they process data for each of these purposes, and their Advertising page for more about Google ads, how your information is used in the context of advertising and how long Google stores this information.

Facebook

We use the conversion tracking and custom audiences via the Facebook pixel on our website. This allows user behaviour to be tracked after they have been redirected to our website by clicking on a Facebook ad and enables us to measure the effectiveness of our Facebook ads. The data collected in this way is anonymous to us, i.e. we do not see the personal data of individual users. However, this data is stored and processed by Facebook, who may link this information to your Facebook account and also use it for its own promotional purposes, in accordance with Facebook’s Data Usage Policy https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/.

You can allow Facebook and its partners to place ads on and off Facebook. A cookie may also be stored on your computer for these purposes. You can revoke your permission directly on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen. For more guidance on opting out you can also consult http://www.aboutads.info/choices.

Who we share your data with

We use a number of third parties to provide us with services which are necessary to run our business or to assist us with running our business and who process your information for us on our behalf. These include a hosting and email provider (Siteground), mailing list provider (GetResponse), and a payment provider (Stripe).

Your information will be shared with these service providers only where necessary to enable us to run our business.

How long we maintain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

The main reason for collecting this information is to be able to send you resources, updates and, sometimes, information and products and services, as well as for internal record keeping.

The rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

How we protect your data

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password that lets you access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential and we ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to this website so once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. Initially created on 18th November 2016, it was last updated on 23rd May 2018 to be compliant with GDPR.

Contact information

If you have any questions or concerns related to your privacy, you can get in touch here >>