When you work for a company, answering the question ‘What do you do?’ is fairly straightforward, even if you’re a rocket scientist! You give your job title, name the company and, if someone wants to know more, borrow a line or two from your job description. You probably won’t get into the weeds of a typical day, but if you do you are likely to be able to offer an answer that the person asking will understand — or at least recognise.
Until the end of August, that had been my experience for nine years. Everyone knows what a CEO is, right? Although, after nine years, I’m now not entirely sure I could tell you — but that’s another blog for another time. Once I had introduced myself including giving my job title, I could explain what Music Mark, the company I led, does. That still wouldn’t reveal what I personally did all day, of course, but I usually said that I oversaw its work ‘supporting, connecting and influencing’ the music education sector across the UK. And having said all that, the person I was talking to was likely to move on to another topic of conversation or want to explore how Music Mark could help them.
However, let’s fast-forward to a reception last month, a few weeks after I stepped down from my role. I was introduced to some people and, inevitably, they asked what I would be doing now that I’d left Music Mark. The first response was easy, ‘as I’ve not retired I’m hoping I can be useful as a consultant’. But then, for the first time in years, I didn’t have a ready answer to the inevitable next question – ‘what are you hoping you might be asked to do’. I was completely flummoxed.
Before joining Music Mark, I spent more than 20 years as a freelance consultant. Yet nine years on a payroll — nine years of being ‘a CEO’ — have changed me. I’ve learnt new skills, had many professional highlights of my 35-year career across that time, but the work I did does not divide neatly into a list of clearly defined skills. Now that I’m returning to freelance life, I find myself facing a surprisingly difficult question: how do I explain, succinctly, what I can offer?
Perhaps though that uncertainty is no bad thing as I re-establish Whyte Music Ltd. Over the coming months, I can test my thinking through conversations with peers and through the couple of, relatively small, contracts I have already been asked to undertake. In time, I’m sure I’ll distil my ‘USP’ into a few simple phrases. For now, though, if you see me at an event or we meet for coffee, do ask, ‘So, what are you doing now?’ Just don’t be surprised if the answer isn’t a polished ‘lift pitch’ — I’m still working it out.