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Find the words to answer “So what do you do???”

Do you panic when asked the inevitable social event question, “So what do you do?!!!”  Try keeping it simple. Your aim is to get the listener interested, not give a canned answer. I love the idea of highlighting a talent or skill and providing a success story.
My favorite networking authors,  Lynne Waymon and Anne Baber (Making Contacts Count, AMACOM)  www.ContactsCount.com offer these examples of good answers to that question. Would you be interested in continuing the conversation if you heard these? Any examples of others you can give us for starters?1. Interior decorator: “You know how kids outgrow their clothes? Well, I consult with families who’ve outgrown their houses. I just helped a couple decorate a room for their new baby.”

2. Survey Methodologist: “I design surveys and questionnaires. I wrote one for soldiers returning from Iraq and figured out a way for them to answer online. We were amazed when that boosted the response rate by about 18%.

3. Human Resources Manager: “I’m in charge of the on-boarding process for all our new hires. I just spoke about some of our newest ideas at a conference for people from Fortune 500 companies.”

 

 

-- For quick access to a few recent posts:

There is nothing quite as nerve-racking as walking up to the stage to expose your every weakness, physical and mental, before an audience who is all too familiar with the repertoire. You think you will make a mistake, then you do, and everybody knows when it happened. Continue reading the rest of this article...

“They (Introverts) just didn’t place a larger weight on social stimuli than they did on any other stimuli, of which flowers are one example,” said.

“[This] supports the claim that introverts, or their brains, might be indifferent to people — they can take them or leave them, so to speak. The introvert’s brain treats interactions with people the same way it treats encounters with other, non-human information, such as inanimate objects for example,” Inna Fishman said.
They concluded that, “The results strongly suggest that human faces, or people in general, hold more significance for extroverts, or are more meaningful for them.” Continue reading the rest of this article...

What’s mystifying to Stewart—and likely to anyone with either a shred of empathy or a tendency to clam up in public—is the looking- glass reality in which her manner, rather than eliciting sympathy or mere shrugs, has made her a figure of derision. “I think it’s funny that when I go onstage to accept an award, they think I’m nervous, uncomfortable, and awkward—and I am—but those are bad words for them,” Stewart says. Continue reading the rest of this article...

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  1. My latest answer to the “What do you do?” question is, “I remind people how wise they are.” They always want to know more. ;-)

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