The question is what you are? Not who you are...

Written by Karl Lillrud, a committed dyslexic with the intention to enlighten, engage, and improve.

In business, we are all products.

I have known this for years and years but somehow, I neglected it when it came to when I had to look at me. I think almost all of us make this same mistake.

It might be that the entrepreneurial part of my mind pushed me in the direction of staying innovative focusing on running fast in "my" direction and don’t worry about other people's problems.

I'm admitting that I was wrong.

I did not understand the receiving person, and I have always been talking about how important it is to understand your customer.

A customer is just a synonym for a receiving person and a receiving person could be anyone, perhaps the person I’m having a coffee with or someone I work with or someone who read my book, or someone that stumble upon my profile on LinkedIn. Or perhaps its someone who was suggested by someone else to look into me.

You get the point; a receiver could be anyone.

If someone looks at you do they see who you are, do they understand you, and do they know what they can expect from you?

We tend to organize things in our mind by grouping things together, things that are similar to each other to make sure we understand them, and what and how they can be used.

For example, forks are forks no matter if they have 6 or 3 teeth (aka tines).

A glass is a glass no matter if it’s a plastic one or a glass one if it’s made for whine or water.

Let's dig into how our mind handles information for a few lines.

I will try not to overcomplicate this but I think it's worth spending a few seconds to explain this.

1874 Samuel W. Francis invented the Spork, but it did not become a success until the last few years. It’s a spoon and a fork, and all of a sudden we in our mind have to combine two products into one. We know what they are how both products should be used but we prepare a new organizing group in our mind for this new third product. But we don't put this item in that organizing group just yet, or its more of being placed in all three of the boxes, its a fork, its a spoon, and its a spork. But when we see our second spork or where we interact with a spork the second time it's now worth for our mind to activate that prepared box. We put both the previously experienced spork and this new one together and organize them in the new box, removing the need of having the spork in all three boxes and now change it so that this new box is tied in a relationship to the fork and the spoon box.

This leads me back to YOU!

You are not one thing, not one product, and to fit you into a “box” for people to understand you is not as easy as you might think.

To start with, your professional you and your personal you are two different “boxes”.

In the first chapter of my book latest boo "Hacking your Destiny", I address this from a different angle which I know will give you an incredible aha moment that will improve the way you meet with new people and what they think of you. If you’re interested you find the book on www.karllillrud.com or in your preferred online bookstore.

Depending on how you like people to view you and your background (your life) you can choose to explain it furthermore by breaking it up in separate boxes.

For me its not always been easy to say who/what the professional me are.

I have been doing so many things over the years because I enjoy working with my clients as a consultant. But I also enjoy entrepreneurial ventures, building up companies, and exploring new ideas and I enjoy working as a speaker, author, and being a mentor is such a great feeling.

I think you get my point, for most people this is just too much, they don't know which box they should put me in. Because I have chosen another path than most other people, I have chosen my path.

 Who is Karl?

To help you create an image of who I am, what I do, and why, my professional life consists of three different parts, think of them as products or boxes.

1. The office time box.

8: 00-17: 00 I work with my client to help them through challenging situations and problems and to make their dreams and goals a reality.

I do this with my 24 years of experience from helping organizations all over the world to scale up their business and run projects and teams.

2. Hobby box

In my spare time, I work as a mentor, author, and public speaker. But I also work on new and value-creating lectures and write on my books.

I do this as I love to inspire and educate people, to make sure that people don’t have to waste time and dare to believe in themselves given the right set of tools.

3. Personal development box

In the evening time, I like to do research based on ideas that come up during the day, start pilot projects, or proof of concept to ensure that I am always at the forefront and possess the knowledge that my customers might need tomorrow or next year.

This is how I stand out from the crowd and always have the best set of tools and knowledge to make sure I deliver that competitive edge.

Now as you invested your time to read or listen to this article, I would love to hear from you! Use the comment field in my original post or just tag me and tell me and the world, who am I according to you? What box did you put me in before and where do you put me now?

If you find this interesting I'm sure I can help you in many ways, reach out to me and I will give you more information about it.

Who am I?

My name is Karl Lillrud and I have a great interest in inspiring people to work with continuous improvements. To help you or your company to get more out of your current situation

Contact me and I will tell you more about how I can help you. You can reach me on LinkedIn or by:

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.karllillrud.com

Phone: +34601988244