Have you ever really thought about this? What you do for a living and how you describe yourself?
We've all been at networking events where we are asked that very question... 'So what is it you do?' Interestingly most of us then don't actually answer the question we are asked. What we tend to do is give a stock answer of what we actually are rather than what we actually do. Answers such as 'I'm an accountant' or 'I'm a mechanic' or even worse just give the name of the company we work for, 'I work Smith and Sons'.
Lets think about this for a second. When someone asks us about ourselves and they ask the question 'What is it you do'. What they are really doing is asking 'How can you help me?' So by slightly altering our response, we can really help those we are talking to see how we can help them in their business or home lives and the answer then comes from our passion for the role we do.
So here's the question again
'What is it you do?'
Instead of 'I'm a mechanic' it could be 'I am the go to person for car maintenance for business owners, making sure they are where they want to be, when they need to be there'
or in the case of an accountant' it could be 'I make sure that all the numbers in your business add up, helping you make great business decisions by having accurate information'
Of course then after each of these you can go on to quantify your job title but what it means is that before you have give your job title, you have given them a little bit about how you can help others in your role.
So here is the question again 'What is it you do?' and I would love you to share your answers with us.
