Have you ever met someone like this? They claim to be multi-talented, interested by so many things that they couldn’t possibly narrow their expertise down to just one thing. Such people tend to be intelligent and talented, but they often are working for peanuts, underemployed and frustrated.
Don’t let this happen to you. Explaining your expertise in a few words is like a map to where the treasures in your life are hidden.
For example, one of my key skills is that if you can explain something to me, I can explain it to others even better than you did. This makes me useful to entrepreneurs and other innovators, who often excel at building things but stumble at explaining how (or why) to use their inventions.
Here are a few quick but powerful tips for explaining what you do best:
- Simplify it without being simplistic. Use words that a ten-year-old can understand without underselling what you do. The developer of an AI system might say, “I build search engines that can hold conversations with you.”
- Even if you excel at six things, narrow your opening explanation down to one. 60% of my time is spent ghostwriting, 30% coaching and 10% speaking. But for more than a decade, at parties and business events, I have self-identified as a “ghostwriter”. It never fails to intrigue people and gives me plenty of momentum to start building a new relationship. Later in our relationship—perhaps weeks or months later—I might mention one of my other two roles.
- Tell the truth, but stop short of bragging. If you are the number one plumber in West Seattle, let someone else mention the number one part. Instead, simply say, “I’m proud to run a plumbing company that customers actually love to call.”
- Be interesting. Don’t tell your story from your perspective; tell it from the listener’s perspective. Instead of saying, “I have been a tax accountant for 22 years,” say, “I save my clients thousands of dollars in taxes they no longer have to pay.”
- Be relatable. Immediately after sharing a quick, clear and interesting summary of your expertise, ask the other person a question so that you open up the possibility of relating what you do best to who they are and what they do. For example, the accountant might ask, “What’s your line of business?” Upon hearing that the other person travels 50% of the time as a Sales VP, the accountant might say, “That’s interesting. You have more opportunities than most to take deductions, but the sheer volume of your travel probably makes it hard for you to keep track of your expenses. Would you like to hear a few proven best practices for professionals like you?”
You should be able to explain what you do in 20 seconds or less. (Five would be even better.) If you find this challenging, try the tips I’ve shared today.