22/07/2021
I described in an earlier post about how I'd sought to create tapas-sized work interests in my new work life in 2020-21 as an independent business consultant after leaving 'the big company'.
But simply becoming a business consultant was a big shift for me - not least in simply having the confidence to go out and sell 'me', outside of the comfortable corporate world a lot of us have operated
within for years.
So - what was I selling precisely? How could I define 'it'? And would anyone buy 'it'?
Self-awareness is a sod - when you don't have it, you can't define what to offer clients, and when you do start to grasp it, you fear
it looks pitifully shallow!
Regardless, whatever 'it' was, that's all I had to market - so I did. I
followed the good dictum, 'when in doubt, take action'.
And the good clients slowly began to come. One by one.
I found you don't need dozens of clients to survive and prosper. Just a few good ones, that stay with you, are all you need to make headway. I learnt to ruthlessly shed the odd blood-sucking one(s) quickly.
And after all that, the feedback from my favourite clients showed me that the things they really valued and liked about working with me,
were not always the original hard, technocratic skills I thought I was selling them when I set out on day #1...
It was the softer, human-centred, judgements, behaviours, humour, off-the-wall creative stuff that I never placed nearly enough value on in those early formation days. I’ve learnt and still learning.
Like I said, self-awareness is a sod.
