And What Do You Do?

I'm not a great lover of typologies, labels and pidgeonholes as a rule. So for most of my adult life I have struggled with trying to answer the question "What do you do?"
This has been a challenging question for me as I am aware of the amount of projection and assumption that can be loaded on to any answer I give in response. Particularly as, in my youth, I spent some time dressing ladies hair.

Though I have 'done' many other things to earn a living in my life time from working in a Tax office to cooking and selling cheese burgers on Eastbourne's seafront, graphic designing, singing, acting, writing, and even a spell performing a hypnotic, mind reading act. But I have rarely if ever identified with any of those things in a way that made me feel confident that a description of what I do would be representative of me.

As a result when people ask me what I do I often end up sounding confused and evasive. I then get embarrassed and lose the ability to speak in coherent sentences for about two minutes. You could say i have developed a phobic response to that question. In fact it could be even worse today as the work I do now transcends and includes elements of everything I have ever done before.

Yes, I know there's a miriad of stock techniques to use. Define your brand...blah di blah...and what it is you do...blah blah... then work out how your customer or client benefits and gets value as a result of your product or service and start with that.

For example: If you sell 'alarm clock tea makers' your answer to the question "And what do you do?" could be: "I ensure that people get to enjoy their first hot drink of the day whenever, wherever and however they like it"....sort of thing. Done well, this technique is a great conversation starter.

But still, I have always been reluctant to define myself by what I do. I'd rather tell someone who I am.

And that can take some time.

But I recently had an encounter that may offer a cure for my phobic response to the 'What do you do?" question.

I was attending an event and was introduced to someone who almost immediately asked me the dreaded question... So I stumbled a bit, made a couple of funnies as I'm prone to do to hide by discomfort and then delivered something similar to the monologue above. They then said: "Okay, so who are you then?"

And that's when the trouble started.

Fortunately for me this person was intelligent, articulate and kind and was able to deftly move me towards a conversation about work, life and the universe.

After about 20 minutes of chat they'd had enough and we exchanged cards. Just as the person turned to leave they said " By the way, I think you might be a Cultural Creative....Look it up."

So I did.

If you've clicked on the link above you'll know most of what you need to know by now but I'll post the following just for completeness.

Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson seem to have originated the term and created the following questionnaire to identify people who might fit the category. Apparently if you agree with more than 10 of the statements below, you could be described as a cultural creative.

Love of nature and deep caring about its preservation, and its natural balance.

Strong awareness of the planet-wide issues (i.e. climate change, poverty, overpopulation, etc.) and a desire to see more action taken on them.

Willingness to pay higher taxes or spend more money for goods if that money went to improving the environment.

Heavy emphasis on the importance of developing and maintaining relationships

Heavy emphasis on the importance of helping others and developing their unique gifts.

Volunteer with one or more good causes.

Intense interest in spiritual and psychological development.

See spirituality as an important aspect of life, but concerned about religious fundamentalism.

Desire equity for women/men in business, life and politics.

Concern and support of the wellbeing (oa. freedom) of all women and children.

Want politics and government to spend more money on education, community programs and the support of a more ecologically sustainable future.

Are unhappy with the left and right in politics.

Optimism towards the future.

Want to be involved in creating a new and better way of life.

Are concerned with big business and the means they use to generate profits, including destroying the environment and exploiting poorer countries.

Unlikely to overspend or be in heavy debt.

Dislike the emphasis of modern cultures on "making it" and "success", on consuming and making money.

Like people, places and things that are different or exotic.

Value authenticity, actions must be consistent with words and beliefs.

Value whole process learning; seeing the world as interwoven and connected.

Value Globalism and ecology.

Value self-actualization, and spirituality.

While I don't identify with all the statements above I did score more than 10, so I guess that puts me in a pidgeonhole- should I choose to stay in it.

However, the more I think about the term, I'm not sure I can actually bring myself to say to someone " Oh yes, I'm a Cultural Creative." But the term does seem to both describe some of what I do and some of who I am.

Let's just say I'm road testing it for now!

Tom