“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.” — Shannon Alder

Hard to believe we’re beginning the last quarter of 2023. How are you doing on your goals for the year? Are you on track? Do you need to rethink some of those goals?

Last week, I was in a conversation with several folks and we were asking ourselves those questions. Most of us are business owners; most are solopreneurs. 

When many of us started out in our businesses, we signed up for marketing workshops that often had us determine who our ideal clients were — we had to develop an avatar of that ideal client. 

If you and I haved worked together, one of the exercises you may have done is outline your ideal workday. And in that exercise, you were asked how you wanted to work — collaboratively in a team, as an individual contributor, as a subject matter expert? 

Which scenario was your ideal?

But Who Wants To Work With You?

We all have our ideal situations, scenarios, and colleagues; but, whose ideal are you?

What are the characteristics or strengths that you bring to an effort that attracts people to you?

Think about the best work you’ve done in your career. What was it that you provided or offered that made this your best work?

Who was there? Who were your teammates? Who was your customer? 

What did they gain from your performance? 

Did you work with them again, or was your best work with them a one time occurance? 

Did any of them seek you out again? Why? 

This Is Your Value

When we worked together, I asked you some questions in our initial session. Questions like “What do you solve for? What are the strengths that you bring to a team, a project, an organization?” Then I’ll ask you to distill those qualities into a sentance or two that describes what you do well. 

That sentence becomes your professional tagline. It tells people who matter (bosses, hiring managers, clients, and others who will pay you for the work you do) why they should want to work with you.

It quickly captures the value you offer and how working with you adds value to their efforts. And it will form the foundation of the stories they tell about you and why they liked working with you.

What are the stories others will tell about you?

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If you’re struggling with how to achieve your career goals let’s chat about how I can help. You can use this link to my calendar to schedule the best time to talk.

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