Sugarboo Designs - Modern Art Print
So, what do you do?
I’m sure you’ve been asked that question a time or two. What’s your answer?
Do you stutter & stammer, trying to say what you really want to, – about being a creative business owner – but nothing seems to come our right or sound impressive? Do you make up excuses or revert back to, “it’s a hobby”. Do you skip the whole creative business owner part all together & just talk about your day job?
Whatever your answer or excuse has been in the past, forget it. Don’t think about it any more. Move on. Move forward. Craft yourself a new answer. Something that makes you feel good about what you’re saying. Something that oozes confidence.
It’s not hard. You can do it. You NEED to do it. It’s necessary… it’s necessary that you take yourself & what you do seriously. It’s necessary to be able to share your passion with others. It’s necessary to learn to be bold, to be authentic.
It doesn’t have to be long or insightful. Keep it simple. One to two sentences is plenty. Be straightforward.
“I’m a…”
Finish that sentence out with a few different endings. Practice saying each of them. Which one makes you feel good about yourself, about your business, about what you’ve chosen for your life.
If it doesn’t feel good, if it doesn’t motivate you or make you feel more confident, don’t say it. Try again.
You never know who you’ll meet that will ask you that question. Don’t stutter & stammer around sounding like someone who doesn’t have a clue. Let them see that spark in your eye & that smile on your face as you share your passion with them!
So, what do you do? Share with me in the comments below!
i usually say I have a shop online where I sell my knitting. Unfortunately that is a terrible answer as most people do not think of what I make when they are looking for knits. I just have to remember to add “sports themed” in there somewhere
Tracey Rediker recently posted..Dealing with Addiction
It can be difficult coming up with an “elevator pitch” or so it’s called, but with practice you can do it & it can sound good… & impressive if that’s what your going for. Who isn’t? You could say something along the lines of owning your own business where you make & sell handmade knitted golf club covers & of course add to it & embellish it where appropriate. Short & sweet! That’s all it takes. That way when you’re knitting in public & people ask you about it, you’ve got a quick thorough answer for them… & a business card if they want one!
Oh my gosh, this is totally something I struggle with. It’s taken me a year to graduate on from saying…”I’m, uh, I do some freelance writing…”
Just the other day someone asked me, and the first words out of my mouth were, “I’m an artist.” So, that was a bit of an improvement, but it still didn’t feel quite right! Right away, this person seemed to assume I meant, “I hang out at home ‘making art’ while my boyfriend pays for everything.” And that’s not true.
What I really want to say is, “I run my own creative business where I paint pet portraits.” Sounds like I should do some practicing in front of the mirror!
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LOL! I know! Most people stumble all over the place when they’re asked this question & how unprofessional does that sound. “I, um, well, you see…” I think the reason it’s hard to say what it is you do is because you’re afraid of what people will thing or maybe even that they won’t be impressed. Talk about not being impressed when you’re stumbling all over yourself trying to halfway tell them what you do!
Good for you for saying you’re an artist because you sooo are! Your work is beautiful & you should share it with others. You never know who will be asking & what connections they’ll have. Think Oprah’s assistant standing in line at Wal-Mart! Can you imagine the publicity you’d get from painting a portrait of one of Oprah’s pets? OMGoodness… out of this world! We’d never see or hear from you again, you’d be so busy! Okay, so go practice in the mirror & come up with something that will totally impress Oprah’s assistant. Be sure to come back & share it with me! I wanna hear it!
As I wrote you on Twitter, this is one of those topics I always find particularly interesting.
I think it’s something that really relates to many many people and I must admit that I’m still in that phase of “re-evaluating” my “elevator pitch” too.
I’m still not happy with my actual answer to “What do you do?”, so, I know it’s still work in progress…
Well, off to read some tips on how to create the best elevator pitch
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Good for you Irene. There are a lot of creative ways to come up with one, but the best way is to keep it short & sweet. I’d love to hear it when you figure out what you want to say!
I am definitely one who down plays what I do. My usual (in person) answer is something like “oh, I own a small bookkeeping company. I do the accounting for a hand full of clients”. But that is just the tip of the ice berg of what I do! I need to find a way to explain my website to people who aren’t in my online world…something to think about, that’s for sure!
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Thanks for sharing Holly. Maybe you could sit down & write out all the things you offer your customers & see where those things overlap or if there are similarities among them. Then you can craft your “pitch” around that.
I’d like to use words like fashion designer- but I’m thinking people will get confused with runway styles… So maybe knitwear designer? Knitting still gets a bad rap, but I think if I said it with a straight face it might work
@Tracey you are very talented and should use the words Sports Knitwear Designer!
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Yeah, I agree with what you said about using “fashion designer”. It seems like that’s more geared towards sewing & clothes. You don’t necessarily have to come up with a title per-say, but you’re looking for a way to describe what you do in 2-3 short sentences that is complete & understandable. Something that gives someone a good idea of what you do for a living… the type of business you have. Hope that makes things a bit clearer. If you think knitting isn’t a great word to use you could use something else… textile, um, maybe that’s too old & boring. I’ll think on it!
I was so surprised to read this post because to be honest – for some weird reason I thought that I am the only one struggling with this issue. And I am REALLY struggling with this. When somebody asks me most of the time I do not even mention that I do have an online-shop but just say something along the lines that I am at home with my smallest one. I have been thinking about this ALOT because I thought to myself – why am I so ashamed to admit to what I am doing and to what I plan and would like to do?
Also – “I am making buttons” just does not SOUND right. It sounds … small and insignificant and boring and … not important. But I love the process of thinking up new ideas, of trying them out with clay, of finally having prototypes and photographing them, thinking of ways to package them or thinking up completely new products … I love blogging and writing and interacting with all the other creative minds out there. Somehow “I am making and selling buttons” does not convey that. I already thought about saying something like “I am an artist” 
But here in Germany being in artist usually does not invite for many compliments either … and even if I think of myself as a creative person … calling myself an artist is still a little too much somehow …
I LOVE what I do! I love the ideas that I have for the future and can not wait to start working on them. Still – I can not bring myself to say “I design and make buttons – and sell them.” I feel that most people that ask me about what I do right now or wanna do in the future would NEVER understand why I chose to make buttons – instead of working in a job that I studied for at university!
So, yes I am stuck! Admitted! Help me!
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@Cuteilicious, I love your buttons! Why not say youre a designer? Or simply an entrepreneur. I also think there’s nothing wrong with calling yourself an artist even if there’s a stigma attached to it in Germany. You should be proud of yourself for running your own enterprise and using your creative skills.
You know the ironic bit is – when I had decided that I want to “leave” my old job the first thought was “Finally when people ask me what I do I have not to answer – I am a psychologist” (There is a BIG stigma attached to that here.)
It was only afterwards that I realized that now I did not even know what I should call myself.
I would really like to call myself “entrepreneur”. But here in Germany there is no adquate word for that. Maybe I should create one!
Cutelicious recently posted..Knopf-Geschenkanhänger sneak peak
There you go! Make your own way! Good for you!
I think the hardest people to share “what we do” with is our family or people that we know. I think we’re afraid of what they will think or say or that they’ll judge us for our lack of having a “stable” job.
I checked out your blog & your shop & your buttons are fabulous! They look so nice & you have so many different designs. You are very talented.
I understand wanting to come up with something more impressive than “I make & sell buttons”. I mean, who doesn’t want to be impressive with their business? Maybe you could play off the clay design part & work your way into buttons. Or focus on the fact that you’re growing a business around your designs. If you can present what you do in 2-3 sentences rather than one statement, you have more of a chance to explain your business better & to make it sound more impressive if that makes sense.
You know what I did this morning? I sat down and wrote out in my notebook all things I could come up with about what I am doing!
The hard thing is that many words that exist in English and sound very nice and kinda impressive in English – are not like that in German. For example creative in German is kreativ – but it does not have that impressive exciting sound to itselfs that it has in English. Same with craft. The German word for crafting is horrific! It stands for something old, dusty, boring, nerdy …
Anyway, your post really stuck with me as this topic has been bothering me for a long time. How will I be able to make my dream come true if I am not even able to TELL people what I do!? I mean that way I will never inspire others or make them think “Hey, that sounds interesting … ” So I narrowed it down for now and funnily enough I did just what you wrote in your lovely comment (which I read afterwards). I focused more on the clay part than the buttons. (Which in the end is perfectly fine as my buttons are the main thing I sell in Germany but I am doing other things as well.) So I came up with
“I design and sell handmade things out of polymer clay”
It is not the top notch explanation I would like yet -but I think I can work with it.
In the future I would like to add things to it like “crochet pattern designer” and maybe one day even “writer” or something along those lines. But I think it is okay to start with one explanations and revise it. After all – I think creative businesses rarely are static! They grow and change all the time. And that is a good thing!
Thanks so much for your lovely comment! You are completely right about the fear of being judged. I guess as a creative entrepreneur one has to get a thick skin regarding that and just move on.
There just are people that will never be impressed by something creative ever – as they just look for the safe and stable and can not even imagine what it feels like to be happy and fulfilled with what you do!
Cutelicious recently posted..Knopf-Geschenkanhänger sneak peak
Good for you! That’s a great start! One of my blogging mentors says when you’re starting you should describe what you do in 3 words, then in one sentence, then in a short paragraph {2-3 sentences}, & finally in a few short paragraphs. That way you’ve got something to everyone… depending upon how much they want to know! Thanks for sharing with me!
It’s so reassuring that I’m not the only one that has issues with this! Strangely enough I’m often fairly confident telling strangers that “I have my own creative business designing jewelry”. My problem is more often explaining what I do to family or friends who have known me my whole life. These are people who are accountants and nurses and have “traditional” jobs so don’t believe what I do is actually a job. It makes me uncomfortable so I just end up not talking about it, when really these people should be my greatest supporters, customers and referrals. I know I’m missing out on opportunities so it’s something I need to get better at talking about with them.
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You’re right Marissa. Explaining a creative business to people who think have a job is a traditional 9-5 is tough. You could always give examples of big businesses that started small & worked their way up. Everyone starts somewhere & I’ll bet more than half of the people with “traditional” jobs aren’t really happy or fulfilled in what they do. They’ve chosen that job because they think it’s what they’re supposed to do or maybe they didn’t know they had another choice. Saying what you do for the first time is always the toughest. Once people know what you do, the next time they ask will be to see how it’s going & you’ll have more opportunity to explain what you do in more detail or to let them know that it’s going well & you’re growing. Good luck!
Oh, I LOVE your idea with the examples of other businesses!!! That is GRAND! Would have never thought of it! Thank you!
Cutelicious recently posted..Knopf-Geschenkanhänger sneak peak
Oh, this hits home. 2-3 times in the past few weeks someone has asked this and I’ve stumbled. I’ve said I have an Etsy shop, or I sell vintage things, or I blog but the truth is I do more than that and part of the reason I stumble is I’m trying to find how to encompass writing, blogging, organizing, and selling vintage things. I know my focus is not narrow enough, and I trip over that. It’s weird having quit my day job to join my husband in our joint venture, but also doing my own creative things on the side and while I’m happier than I’ve ever been before professionally, I’m also kinda weirded out by the fact that I don’t have a “real” job and people don’t understand that. So I mumble something and move on.
I’m working on a good answer and narrowing my interests into one combined niche. I’ll get there!
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I think the key here is to explain that you have a business. That’s your real job. Building a business takes a lot of work & truly is a “real” job. All of the things you’re doing, your Etsy shop & blogging, are a part of your business so if you explain it that way it will make more sense. You could describe it as an online retail business that focuses on vintage items or whatever works for your particular biz.
If you do a lot of different things it is hard to focus. I have the same problem. I have tons of things I’m interested in & it’s hard to narrow it down to what I really want to do. I change my mind constantly. I think it makes my husband dizzy, but he’s getting used to it! LOL!
One thing that can help is to first decide what you’re good at. Then ask yourself what you’re passionate about. Can you see yourself doing the same thing year after year? Finally ask yourself if people will pay money for it. If you can find the one thing that fits with those three questions, that’s most likely your best bet for doing something that will fulfill you & make you some money. Good luck & thanks for sharing!