So I was chatting with a good friend and occasional client this past week, and we got into issues of marketing. My question was, “How do I label myself”?
When people ask me “What I do,” this is always hard, because I am not easily categorized. Musician? Impresario? Media Producer? Publisher? Cultural Pundit? Lately I have been saying “I am an author and speaker,” but that is virtually meaningless, as no one can tell from that statement what I write or speak about.
But it’s important to have a label, if for no other reason because the people in accounting need to put a code next your name when they write you a big check. And especially if you do something really different, people need to have some kind of handle or point of reference.
So he had a suggestion that, I have to say, was quite brilliant. He said I should label myself as a “Management Coach.”
I confess I have never actually seen a management coach, but it is a known and accepted category, and you know . . . you know . . . that is exactly what I do. All of my talks, books, and articles are about helping people with (granted, the emotional side of) personal and professional management issues.
So I am re-doing my “brand” as it were, and I am taking a cue from Arthur Fiedler: be in a known category, but be totally unique within it.
© Justin Locke
