One of the interesting things that I have experienced as a home – based professional is that funny feeling when you meet someone in either a personal or a professional setting and they ask you what you do for work. I am not sure whether anyone else feels weird when this happens, but I do. Not weird in a bad way, but weird in the sense that I have to pause and think for a moment before I decide how to explain what I do all day every day to the particular person that I am talking to.
I suppose that I am not obligated to stop and think before simply stating what it is that I do, that I am primarily a stay at home mom who happens to have a very small private law practice and a freelance writing business. I do think about it though, because I want to portray what I do in a positive and maybe even inspirational manner without seeming like I am bragging too much. Some people might say “who cares what other people think” and to some extent that is true. People will think of me what they will.
Still, a first conversation with someone is a chance to make that all important first impression. If I am talking to another mother of young children, the impression that I want to make is that I can identify with her whether she is a stay at home mom or a working mom because my life contains both of those things. Also, it is possible that if she is a stay at home mom, my description may inspire her to think about whether she could work from home part time. If I am talking to another lawyer, I want my description to be accurate, yet I do not want them to come away from the conversation thinking that since my practice is so small and I am fairly new at it, I don’t know what I am doing or don’t take it seriously. In those cases, I talk about my small case load as essential to being able to serve my clients in the way that I believe that they deserve to be served – with my full effort and attention. I have yet to meet another writer in person, so I have no idea what I will say when I do.
What do you say when people ask you what you do?
Photo by MindExpansi0n on morguefile.com.