Last week, I was coaching a solopreneur and father-of-three who didn't know "how to package [his] knowledge in the best way to help people and get sales." He knew he could do a lot of things... But he also knew he shouldn't do all of them.
I knew about his business beforehand, so it wasn't difficult to arrive prepared for our coaching call. In fact, He was a classic case of "labelutimitis" – obsessed with defining himself instead of what he actually sold.
It's a disease that seems to plague multi-talented folks, and my client, an experienced marketer with a knack for words and visuals, fits the bill perfectly.
Here's what I told him.
"Putting a label on you doesn't f*cking matter that much. It's the thing that you are selling that needs to be really, really clear."
Think about it.
What's my label?
I'm a dad, a son, a daily newsletter writer, a podcast host on a hiatus, a guy who knows more about positioning than most, a brother, a coach, a husband, sometimes a consultant... See the problem?
Trying to slap a label on all that is pointless.
There's no point trying to label who I am. But the offers I make? Those have to be sharp, focused, so you know exactly what you're getting.
Feel the difference?