How to explain what you do so that people immediately want to work with you
Are you a networker?
I was at a networking event this summer and, although I used to be very good at regular networking (hard-fought skill as an introvert), this was the first one I’ve been to in bloody ages. Like, years. And I totally forgot how to do it.
I didn’t really know anyone, I was severely sleep-deprived, and I felt like I was running on one brain cell thanks to being right in the middle of an immobilising heatwave that left me swearing and muttering through my days while surgically attached to my £1 paper fan.
In short, like many Brits, I was not My Best Self.
Answering the “What do you do” question a little bit differently every time.
The first few people I met asked the inevitable "so what do you do?" while we inhaled sparkling waters, and I answered with: "I'm a messaging strategist and copywriter," or something vaguely similar, changing my answer slightly every time. They would nod, and some would ask a follow-up about who I worked with. More often, we’d just move straight on to other things while I internally kicked myself for being useless at networking.
Because, BORING. Come on, Emma. Get it together. Leading with my job title was about as interesting as showing people the contents of my recycling bin.
Then, one iced latte down, and feeling some caffeine coursing through my lifeless veins, I remembered to practice what I preach. Messaging-Strategist-brain engaged, I walked over to a new group of four women chatting and asked if I could join. This time when one of them asked me what I did, I said:
“I work with experts who don’t always know how to talk about the complexity of their work in a way that lands, and I find the unifying hook that sells people on what they do without underselling their expertise”.
Suddenly, EVERYONE in that circle was leaning in. Phones were out, wanting to connect on social media. One woman tapped me on the arm and said, quietly, “I think I need you!” then slid into my DMs later that day asking about my packages.
What a shift from my previous introductions. The only thing that changed was how I described what I do, and now I was fielding multiple questions about my work rather than watching the glassy-eyed panic of people not knowing where to go with our conversation from there.
Introducing yourself so that people want to work with you because they actually get what you do is a real skill
And it takes practice and more than a little strategy!
If we were to break down how to introduce yourself into a replicable formula, based on my own one-liner, it would look something like this:
Who you work with
Specific identifier to make people lean in
Solution/result you offer
Benefit of result
Why don’t you try it on with your own business and see what comes out?
All this is such a great reminder of why nailing your core messaging is SO important. I’d forgotten to walk my talk about this earlier in the day, but as soon as I practised what I preach, everything changed. My intro went from closing a conversation to opening one. And it made me realise that a great hook works like an open-ended question, inviting more conversation, instead of inviting a polite nod and a change of subject.
If you can relate to that panicky feeling of defaulting to just your job title when asked what you do (even though and especially if you've been doing this shit for YEARS), it's worth asking where else that might be happening. Because it's rarely just your networking intro that’s shifting everytime and never feels quite right.
It might be the Services page nobody finishes reading, because it's peppered with deliverables instead of specific statements that make the impact of working with you crystal clear. Perhaps it's the speaking pitch you laboured over that gets a "sounds great, I'll think about it" or, more likely, no response at all.
If your job title is doing all the talking instead of the outcome you create, you're probably missing out on a lot of "I think I need you" moments without realising it.
Let’s talk about how to find that missing piece in your messaging, and build you a Hook Strategy that fills you with confidence and gets people leaning in whenever you talk about your work from now on.