Be Yourself, Because That’s Who People Are Buying

My wife is a middle school language arts teacher. I’m biased, but you want your kid to have a teacher like her. She makes sure her kids learn how to write well. One of the ways she does this is assigning plenty of written work, essays and papers.

I get to hear about her progress as she’s going through reading and grading several classes worth of essays. I hear about the diligent student who has busted their tail to submit a first-rate paper. I also hear about the one whose work needs a check for AI usage or another who has written something incomprehensible even to her.

As she was grading papers recently, she stopped to ask me to listen to a sentence one of her students had written. If she hadn’t told me it was a sentence, I would have thought it was a paragraph. Moreover, what she read was a cascade of words that made you wonder whether this student’s thesaurus had sprung a huge leak.

“Do you understand what she’s trying to say here?” she asked.

“I have no clue," I said. "Sounds like it may be AI-generated to me.”

“No,” she replied, “it’s not that. I could tell if it was AI. She’s written a sentence that wraps around itself so many times with so many words that I can’t understand what she’s trying to say.”?

Who knows what was going through her mind as this student wrote that sentence. Was she trying to use a cascade of worlds to make it sound better or more learned in some way? Who knows? Whatever she was thinking, her written result didn’t sound like an eighth-grade advanced language arts student, and according to my wife, it certainly did sound like the student herself.

Clients are Buying You

“Be yourself, everyone else is taken.” This quote is attributed to Oscar Wilde, and it’s one that’s well worn.

For solo and small firm professional services providers, I’d modify Wilde’s quote this way: “Be yourself, because that’s who people are buying.”

Clients are buying you, without touch-ups, retakes, or AI-generated blandness. They want the real headshot, not the idealized one AI can spit out that has more nips and tucks than a hyperactive plastic surgeon.

The best-fit clients for you aren’t looking for perfection. They don’t know what version of your idealized self you want to be.

All they see is you, and that’s who they are interested in hiring.

Further, they lean in with brain neurons dancing if you’re talking and asking questions with a genuine interest in their needs, hopes, desires, and problems.

As I write in my book:

The very act of giving and serving others moves the focus away from the inadequacies you perceive in yourself to the potential you see in others. When you focus on helping others get what they want, and you regularly lift up others, the effect of these small acts accumulates. Instead of questioning whether you are good enough, you witness the positive effects your actions have on others.? . . .? you receive enough feedback from your acts of generosity to alleviate your feelings of inadequacy.” [The Generosity Mindset, p.32]

When your focus is genuinely and naturally placed on others and their concerns, they're not swayed by what you think your liabilities are. They don't care whether you're the best writer, whether you're a plus size, have a perfectly coifed social media presence, or whether you have a deep Southern accent. (And if they do care about any of these qualities, they may not be a great-fit client for you.)

So go be yourself. Not only is everyone else taken, but that's who your client is buying.

#authenticity #personalbranding #professionalservices #thegenerositymindset #pricevaluejourney

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John Ray advises solopreneurs and small professional services firms on their two most frustrating problems: pricing and business development. John is passionate about how changes in mindset, positioning, and pricing change the trajectory of a business and the lifestyle choices of a business owner. His clients are professionals who are selling their expertise, such as consultants, coaches, attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.

John is the author of the bestselling book, The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices. The book covers topics like value and adopting a mindset of value, pricing your services more effectively, proposals, and essential elements of growing your business. The book is available at all major physical and online book retailers.