If you’ve never read Chalmers Brothers’ wonderful book Language and the Pursuit of Happiness, I recommend you do. (Check out my interview with Chalmers on Sales for Nerds.) Tell me if it doesn’t change the way you think, and if it does, please tell me how.
As Brothers notes, we see with our eyes, but observe with our distinctions, and different people make different distinctions.
We also often mix up assertions (falsifiable facts like, “I have no formal sales training”), assessments (opinions, like “sales is icky”), and declarations (“I am bad at sales”).
(Imagine a different assessment: “The way some people sell is icky.” And a different declaration: “I won’t ‘sell’ anyone, but I will be there for my people, and make it easy for them to buy, when appropriate.”)
What assertions, assessments, and declarations are you making? In your head? When networking? On your website and LinkedIn?
What distinctions do you help people draw that even experts in your general field will miss, and therefore not be able to help your people the way you can? (And check out the video of the new Mission & Positioning Screen in Mimiran for help refining how you talk about yourself in person, online, and how you empower your referral partners to talk about you.)