Recently, I had to do a presentation on what I do for my son’s fourth grade class. I was so nervous I nearly canceled the whole thing. Why would fourth graders care about my job anyway? I wasnt anything that could be traditionally explained, my road from communications to recruiting and over to social media infused (yep, I’m going with infused) marketing was not likely something they’d sit still long enough to listen to anyway. So why did I do it? Why didn’t I just let me mother in law wow them with her cool nurse stories and stethescope? Two reasons:
1) The first is that children need to know these jobs exists. Heck, they weren’t even created when I was a kid. Now they are a viable, healthy part of an economy that is otherwise, not so healthy. It’s important for kids to understand that there are ways to make money that are not traditional, that they need not rely on a company, that there are educational options that have nothing to with school. I feel pretty passionate about that.
2) Having to sit down and clarify what it is I actually DO all day was huge for me. For an excercise in personal branding, go tell a bunch of elementary school kids what you do for a living. If they are confused, you are probably not very essential. If your job doesn’t in any way affect a form of commerce they can understand, have seen in action or can feel in a tactile way, you might want to find out how (or if) you actually affect the bottom line.
Good thoughts. I often get asked what I do, and I’m probably a little too vague sometimes or complex other times. I’ll have to pitch my job to my kids and see what they think.
LOVE LOVE LOVE the video Maren! (and love the music) Great job on crystalizing what you do and making it seem cool and fresh at the same time (cuz it is!).
Great thoughts – I like this. If you can explain what you do to fourth graders, you probably have a good grasp of it, and you can help your clients understand how you’re bringing them value, too. Sounds like this experience was valuable for you. Thanks for sharing.
i’ll post a link to it @family_finances.
Seriously, that video was brilliant and would work on non-fourth graders too I think.