It seems simple enough: someone asks you what you do, you tell them.
However, for the vast majority of heart-centered business owners, this question is the cause of a LOT of stress. Which means that each time it happens, pain and anxiety. That’s such a painful way to run a business, where anxiety comes up every time someone asks you what you do.
Recently I was talking about business skills that don’t seem to be skills, and answering this question is a perfect example of something that doesn’t seem like a business skill, and yet it is.
You wouldn’t think that just answering the question “So, what do you do?” would be so painful, or cause so much anxiety, would you? Such a simple question, one most people who aren’t business owners answer easily any time they meet someone new.
When you don’t have an effective way to answer the question, “So, what do you do?” one of four things tend to happen:
One option, maybe the least painful: You have something that kinda works okay. You get an answer, “Oh, that’s nice.” And move on to another topic. It rarely generates clients or referrals.
A second option, feels like being caught in a horror movie: You launch into an in-depth explanation of the fascinating work you do. The other person starts out maybe a little interested, but soon their eyes glaze over. They become bored. You can kinda tell, but you don’t know what to do! Depending on your personality, you may either just trail off uncertainly at this point, or you may find yourself in the grip of your own knowledge and, not knowing what else to do, continue explaining until they excuse themselves to get a drink.
You feel horrible about it! You don’t want to do that! But, it somehow happens…
A third option, which is just really awkward: someone helped you come up with a cutesy title for what you do, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Only, you feel a little artificial saying. It rarely comes out smoothly, and people respond similar to the first option, above. “Oh, huh…”
Ye olde standby, the fourth option: just stutter, and avoid the question. Sometimes the safest route.
I’ve done the first two, and the last one, myself. Somehow I avoided the third one despite being stuck working with a strange, esoteric Sufi spiritual healing modality. 😉 So I share your pain!
Of course, I’m being a bit funny about it. You may or may not experience a lot of pain like the scenarios above. But even a little bit of anxiety can really undermine your business, especially if your answers aren’t bringing clients in
If you haven’t had a heart-centered way to work through the answer to this question, then of course you’re going to struggle with it. There’s nothing broken or wrong with you, you just need a way through that honors your heart and your business.
Here’s the big question: how do you say what you do, in a concise way, that allows the right people to respond, “Oh, I need that!” or “Oh, I know someone who needs to talk to you!”
If you’re looking for the whole solution in this one email, can you see how that’s part of the same dynamic that is telling you that this isn’t a real skill, and it should be easier than it really is?
The truth is: it IS hard. This is one of the hardest things to nail down. Why? For a lot of reasons. Here are three of them:
(1) There are a lot of shoulds operating here. This One Compelling Sentence, as we call it at Heart of Business, has become burdened with WAY more expectation than it can realistically take on. Can you see how insane it is to think that one single sentence or paragraph could take someone from being a complete stranger to a paying client? No single sentence has enough magic to do that.
(2) This is way more than marketing. This gets at the heart of what your business is really about. It *should* take more introspection and thought than required at first glance. It doesn’t take months of contemplation, but some directed thoughtfulness means a lot.
(3) There are specific elements needed. It’s not a free-form, intuitively-created sentence. Just like our language has grammar that helps us understand each other, there are specific elements that make up this compelling sentence. Once you know the elements, it’s SO much easier to puzzle out the most effective way to talk about your business.
Not too much. Not too little. Just enough.
Once you nail it down, though, the rest of the business becomes SO much easier.
We’ve had people work with our One Compelling Sentence material, and then go to a party and come out with three strong potential clients and several other referrals, without even trying. (It takes a little more to turn a “potential client” into a “paying client” which I’ll be talking more about in the coming weeks.) We’ve had clients feel an authentic, natural ease in answering the question, and see people respond with interest!
In the course of working with some of our clients in a group situation, we’ve seen them go from getting less than a 10% positive response from a group, to well over 60% of people responding positively! And most of the other 40% admitted that the business being described wasn’t useful to them, so they don’t really count in the percentages, anyway.
How would you like that?
*This* is just a part of what Clients & Money is about: having a way to answer “How do you do?” so that you find many more potential clients, and referrals of potential clients, much more easily, without having to resort to strange, hinckey marketing-speak.
The rest of it? Having the right ones become paying clients.
The rest of Clients & Money helps you take those potential clients and turn them into real, honest-to-goodness paying clients, without manipulation, which means allowing the ones who aren’t a good fit to just drop off gracefully, but that the ones you can really help start paying you for that help.
This is basically me asking you to strongly, strongly consider getting heart-centered training so your business can flourish. These are skills that can be learned! Others have, and it makes a huge difference to their businesses.
Take a look at Clients & Money. [click here]
Marie is an empath, and an artist, and she took Clients & Money as a last straw after trying many other programs. Hear about her experience in the video below.
Sometimes, you’re not quite sure if your business is in the right place for Clients & Money. Sometimes you’re just not sure what you’re business needs, especially if you kinda-sorta have some pieces in place.
If so, see where your business is in the stages of development:
Take our free Readiness Assessment.
As usual, please ask any questions that arise for you.
With huge appreciation,
Mark and the team at
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love
1 Response
Thanks for sharing a nice article. Waiting for next one keep it up.
I’m currently feel on the right stage for Clients & Money. But I need “the out of the box” way to reach new potential customers. In the past, I could easily found new customers from the search engines, since I gain ranking from various keywords. But now the competitions seem more tough.