{"id":1393,"date":"2017-05-31T09:14:59","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T08:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/?p=1393"},"modified":"2017-05-31T09:49:34","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T08:49:34","slug":"a-party-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/a-party-question\/","title":{"rendered":"A party question"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do you do?<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, I know…you\u2019re a lawyer. Or a training professional. Maybe a partner in a law firm.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not what I meant. My question wasn’t about getting a\u00a0short version of your organisational function or your professional title. I asked what it is you actually do. What is your work about? Who do you help? Why? How? Why not others? Or differently? Where\u2019s the focus?<\/span><\/p>\n

Try to answer in one sentence. If that doesn\u2019t work (it sure didn’t for me), try it in three first and then pare it down to one.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then say that sentence out lout (maybe at home; or when the door is closed; or under the shower).\u00a0Does it „work“? Or does it feel\u00a0weird? Even\u00a0embarassing? And ultimately – do you want to do what you say you do? If yes, congratulations! If no \u2013 try it again. Reformulate. Use different words. Look closer at what you do. Make it sound interesting. Give it a tone, ring and sound that you would be actually willing to say it to someone at a party who is asking you \u201csoooo….what do you do?\u201c And I’m talking about someone, who’s not in the same line of business.<\/span><\/p>\n

You might be surprised at what this little experiment\u00a0can do for your ability to communicate and market\u00a0what you do, both internally and externally, what it\u00a0can do for the fun and energy you put into your work, the clarity and decisiveness with which you act…let alone the reaction of the people you meet at parties!<\/span><\/p>\n

I first came across the basic\u00a0exercise of formulating „what one does“ in Michael Port\u2019s „Book Yourself Solid“<\/a><\/span>, where it is introduced as part of his<\/em>\u00a0marketing system for service professionals (worth a read). I have the impression it can go so much further than that. But then…maybe Michael meant it that way.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you do? Yeah, I know…you\u2019re a lawyer. Or a training professional. Maybe a partner in a law firm. But that\u2019s not what I meant. My question wasn’t about getting a\u00a0short version of your organisational function or your professional title. I asked what it is you actually do. What is your work about? Who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malteholthaus.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}