Talking about what you do when you’re an entrepreneur is hard. You do so many things! And sometimes the people around us aren’t as familiar with the field we work in – sometimes they don’t even know it’s “a thing” so we have to be even more choose-y with our words. Lots of times, we end up just rambling. We sputter off a bunch of words because we feel like their lack of understanding will translate to them thinking we aren’t doing much or that what we are doing isn’t going to amount to much and we feel ashamed by that… so we meet them there.
We meet them at their thoughts of “yeah that’s not real” or “well that won’t go too far” or “there’s no market for that” and we start saying what we do but say it in the most self deprecating way. It’s like we are afraid of being judged by them, so we just go ahead and make it clear we are all on the same page here: what I do is just some little thing and it’s no big deal. This is something we need to stop doing immediately. More for ourselves than for anyone else, but getting clear talking points here will make our interactions with other people happier and more successful!
In this episode:
- Words you need to stop using when talking about what you do.
- Why you need an elevator pitch.
- Steps for crafting one.
Need help crafting yours? Join my Facebook group for handmade business owners, a community of people who get it and can help you flesh this elevator pitch out!
More from my site
Episode 004: The Big Biz Discounting Tactic you Should NOT Use
Episode 007: 1 Easy Way to Avoid Bad Feedback in your Handmade Shop- Episode 011: Why Etsy Still Matters + How to Change Your Approach to it
Episode 019: Debunking Your Inventory Management Excuse- Episode 015: The Important Thing that Square Space Doesn’t Do
- Episode 002: Rethinking Blogging for Product Sellers
I went to a family reunion recently and and this totally happened to me! I stammered out something, not even sure what right now what, but I was completely dismissed and the people who asked just moved on to someone more interesting or important in their eyes. UGH! I have the worse time talking about my work! I’m such a introvert and it takes me so long to warm up to people that anyone interested has long taken off.
I am super passionate about what I do but found it hard explaining to people who are doctors and lawyers and educators and others with really school educated jobs is hard. While artists do run in my family they don’t seem to be valued that much. So I ended up feeling kind of like a loser buy the end of the time.
I know I’m not but at the dentist the other day I was trying to explain what I do and I just couldn’t get anyone to understand. So it’s either me or them or both. I don’t know, but it’s something I really need to work on! Being able to talk confidently about my work is something I really want to do.