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“SO, WHAT DO YOU DO?”
This is a question I get asked a lot. And it is a really difficult question for me to answer for two main reasons:
1. I do a lot of different things
2. I really don’t like talking about myself (I’m better at writing than verbalising)
What I really want to respond with is:
‘What do you need support with? If it’s related to business, running, general wellbeing, neurodivergence or something musculoskeletal, then I’ll either be able to help you myself or point you in the direction of someone who can.’
That comes across arrogant and rude, though, when the other person is seemingly trying to make small talk with me (another thing I struggle to recognise and reciprocate).
But it’s true.
My skillset, experience and qualifications are so broad in these areas that I simply can’t answer this question with a few words (that the other person is expecting from me).
So, what is it that I do that is so hard to articulate – let me go into a bit more detail…
A SUMMARY OF THE THINGS I DO
Predominately working with runners to support their training, although they usually initially come to me with an injury. Once this is addressed, I continue to work with many of them on more of an injury rehabilitation and/or injury prevention basis.
Providing support to runners via one-to-one coaching, running courses, and training plans. Although I can work with most runners, my passion is with beginners and those returning to running after prolonged injury or illness.
Helping people to unpick what’s not working for them, identifying who they are, rather than who they think they should be. We work together to turn thoughts, feelings and ideas into actionable plans and help them move closer to their goals.
Working with smaller business owners and sole traders to manage and improve the efficiency of their business. This is initially in the form of a review of how things are currently done, implementing the necessary process and procedure changes, and then managing the day-to-day business operations.
Either following on from the business management service, or as stand alone support, I work with business owners to undertake the more day-to-day tasks within their business. This can also be ad-hoc or project work.
One of Life’s Human Signposts
This is where the ‘…I’ll either be able to help you myself or point you in the direction of someone who can.’ bit comes in.
WHY I DON’T CHOOSE A BUSINESS NICHE
There are a few reasons why focusing on just one thing doesn’t work for me, which I’ve tried to explain below:
I enjoy everything that I do
The first reason I am unable to ‘just focus on one thing’ is because I enjoy doing all of these things, and to some people I am really good at all these things.
I am not everyone’s cup of tea and quite frankly I don’t want to be – I’ve been a people pleaser in the past and it didn’t end so well for me because, as the saying goes: “You can’t be everyone’s cup of tea, otherwise you’d be a mug.”
I am selective over who I work with because it’s important for me to feel comfortable talking to all my clients about the day-to-day nature of my work, as well as the more difficult ‘reality’ conversations that are needed from time to time.
My work often overlaps
The next reason is that all of these things that I do can (and do) overlap from time to time – the lifestyle coaching in particular is relevant to so many areas of life and can easily feed into any one of the other services I provide, so I don’t want to limit the choice that people have when working with me.
I have impromptu coaching sessions with my VA clients during our catch ups, and I will share my knowledge about software settings, diet and nutrition, and general life hacks with my massage and running clients.
Maybe everyone does this, I don’t know, but what I do know is that people are quite surprised how much I know about lots of different things. I like knowing things and I wouldn’t have this level of knowledge if I only focused on one career.
The need for variety
The third reason is that I need variety in my life. And structure.
Yes, I’m complicated, but I like to call this structured variety – I know what I need to do each day work wise, but each day is different. Focusing on one business area leads to boredom and then frustration that I’m not still doing the other areas of my business.
I love learning about anything and everything that interests me (my google search history doesn’t even store a whole day of things I’ve looked up), which does sometimes lead me into very deep rabbit holes, but I retain lots of little bits of information far better than being an ‘expert’ on one topic.
Plus, whilst not meaning to insult the experts of this world, I am not the sort of person that would feel comfortable calling myself an expert in anything, regardless of how much knowledge and experience I had on a single topic.
Reducing the risk of burnout
The fourth reason is that I am prone to burnouts due to my neurodivergence – I have worked really hard over the last few years to understand what works for me and what overwhelms me, and I have reached a point of stability that I can’t ever remember having. It’s bliss!
But that is only because I need to limit my social interaction with people. So, I simply can’t have a week full of massages, or a week full of coaching otherwise I would very quickly fall back into long periods of fatigue where I can’t work at all.
Having a balance of in-person/online sessions with people (because despite popular belief, I do actually enjoy talking to people about meaningful stuff) and work where I can go all day without talking to anyone, is the perfect balance for me.
Authenticity
Why don’t I focus on the ‘behind the scenes’ services then?
This then leads me to the fifth reason – as good as I am at this work, I literally have zero idea how to market it. To me, I do it because it needs doing and I enjoy doing it. But I don’t understand the benefit of what I do because I don’t have the same pain points as my clients.
Yes, they tell me how brilliant I am and how they can’t get their head around what I do to do it themselves, but as an empath, I need to feel the same about what I’m promoting for it to come across as genuine.
Plus, it also feeds back into the need for variety.
I love helping people
The sixth reason is that I absolutely love helping people.
This brings me back to my original response to the question ‘What do you do?’ and why my response of ‘What do you need support with? I’ll either be able to help you or point you in the direction of someone who can’ (probably) makes a bit more sense and (hopefully) now comes across a little less arrogant.
Some may say that I need to work on this as it is an extension of ‘people pleasing’, but unlike my previous experience of people pleasing, I get so much satisfaction out of helping people – whether directly or by introducing them to someone I know can help them.
People don’t always know what they need
The final reason is that people often know they need some help with something, but they don’t often 1) know what they need help with, and/or 2) realise how something else could be impacting whatever they think they need help with.
I listen carefully to my (potential) clients because whatever they are saying is their reality and absolutely valid.
However, I will then apply knowledge and experience I have of life and business to process what else might be going on in this situation (a bit like the way The Good Doctor visualises his surgeries – IYKYK).
I will ask questions to help get us on the right path of whatever they really need help with. This is one of the main reasons I offer a free discovery call because it doesn’t sit right with me to blindly go along with whatever someone thinks they need if it’s not actually the right approach for them.
SUMMARY
So, here we have it – seven very valid reasons (in my opinion) why I do so many things.
Whilst I focus each area of my business to support certain demographics, I absolutely refuse (I am putting my foot down here) to niche my whole business into one service offering.
And that, in a far bigger nutshell than is socially acceptable, is why it’s really hard to answer the question ‘So, what do you do?’
DO YOU NEED SOME SUPPORT IN YOUR LIFE OR BUSINESS?
Whether you want to completely transform your life, have the business you’ve always wanted, or improve your parkrun time, I will help you get where you want to be.
The first step is to book a free discovery call. This is a Teams video chat where we’ll get to know each other, talk about where you are, what changes you’d like to make, and how I can help you.
Alternatively, if you would like to know more about how I can support you, please either send me a message or email [email protected].