You've started a business, you think it's pretty awesome, you feel as excited as a high school kid with a boyfriend with a car, but when someone says 'what do you do?' you seem stuck for words. Or you ramble and sound either apologetic, absolutely unclear, or bland.
Without the clarity around that message, and owning those words, your social media content will not hit the mark. It has a huge benefit to your social media generally, your networking, even guest speaking.
Here’s five points to clarifying what you actually DO when someone asks you that question so your videos and other content are clear and to the point, and you feel amazing.
Speak it out
If you imagine we are having a conversation, and we have around two minutes each, what are you going to tell me? Set and timer and give it a go. It really works. You'll find you get on a roll.
The words start to flow and you'll find some real gems in there.
I recommend you record this one so you can hear those words back and pick the ones you really feel match your personality, brand, business.
TIP: I speak into my notes app on my phone so I can record it in text and use it later if I like it.
Go back to your about pages
What did you write on your website? How about your social media profiles? You wrote those words for a reason, so go back now and read them outloud. Do they fit? Change them up, or use as is.
Tell a story
What if you didn't say ""I am a wellness coach"" I am a whatever”?
How about we tell a story?
I have been doing this in my workshops as my introduction, so here's mine as an example:
It all started with the contract that ended all contracts. A corporate L&D consulting role on a major change project in 2014. A 20+ year career brought to an end. Spending time with more arseholes than I had ever met in one place at a time. A whole colony of arseholes. The money was awesome of course, loads of cash coming in. But soleless horrible humans on the project, and full time hours ++ had a huge impact on me and the three young dudes I had to raise alone, and I was struggling. So all round a pretty shitty time. And I thought never again. Ever.
I left that corporate gig, ended a crap relationship and I retreated to my bed. I decided I just wanted to take it easy, do something I found easy and have a break. I took up copywriting, and I was pretty good at it, got a few good gigs and the money was flowing again. BUT, there was that thing in the back of my mind that ‘you are more than this, you can do more than this, help more people, live bigger…’
And I realized how desperately I missed being in the training room, with an awesome bunch of people, delivering a program that made a difference, affected change in them.
I had been grieving the loss of my L&D career, but realized I wanted desperately to own that expertise.
But not like that old project, this time with women also building their business. Perhaps struggling with confidence, confidence I can share and teach. I knew what I wanted to do, and it was super powerful and energizing.
And the joy is that I didn’t have to leave my expertise behind, in fact owning it is good modeling for my clients. I want us to OWN what we stand for, what we are good at, bring it to the table. Embrace it, share it and it grows even bigger. I am a bossy helpful non-arsehole. The anti-arsehole.
What do you think? Does it explain what I do it a better way than saying “I’m a content marketing consultant”?
Run it by a business buddy
Here's a time when you call a business buddy and you ask them to listen to you for 2 minutes - see how they react to your core messages. Do they think you are living that message? Do they feel the way you'd like a prospective client to feel?
Over to you
If you’re an entrepreneur struggling to get your message out there on video and pother content and not sure where to start – just start. There's no right or wrong, there's only visible or invisible