While I adore my work, I don’t always love trying to explain it to people who aren’t in my field. My least favorite question for the past decade has been the seemingly innocuous, “so, what do you do?” Though cocktail party-appropriate and non-applicable during quarantine times, for me and many in holistic professions, the answer can be a little complicated. After quite a few awkward conversations, my opening go-to response has become, “I’m self-employed.” Sometimes this is enough of an answer to carry the conversation onward in a different direction. Sometimes people want to know more. “Oh, so what kind of business are you in?” Trying to remain in vague terrain, I will say, “I have a healing arts practice.” Again, for some, this is enough information and the conversation happily veers toward children or pets. (People can talk about dogs for days, myself included.) Every now and then, though, someone will ask for more with, “What is that?” or more favorably to me, “What kind of practices do you offer?” The latter question means I’m in safe waters to talk about what I really do which is use my intuition and connection with Spirit, energetic healing practices and training in education, coaching, mentoring, and healing modalities to help people feel better and more connected with themselves. And since that is a mouthful, I might say that I’m an intuitive, spirit medium, Reiki master, and teacher. Like I said, it’s a little complicated. I actually love to talk about what I do, but in conversation with the disbelieving (though I both get and appreciate healthy skepticism), it can feel disheartening to talk about a job that is my passion. Not everyone is comfortable with what I do, so I prefer for people to get to know me as a person before sharing my full work identity. If they know me and then decide, “She’s nutters,” somehow I’m okay with that. It’s their business. I think of myself as a grounded and average human with highly refined sensitivity and empathy that allow me to tap into spiritual energy. And I’ve received enough feedback from the people that I’ve worked with over the years to know that my sensitivity and empathy allow me to tap into something very real… invisible and unquantifiable, but real. If they know me and decide I’m not normal, well, they are right. I’m not. But in a good way. 😊
If you have a job that feels a little different, here is something I created to help you think through how you might talk about it…
COCKTAIL PARTY CONVERSATION
1. So, what do you do? Come up with a short answer. The initial purpose of this question is to make conversation. Try out a few different options.
2. Tell me more about that…. Come up with a mid-length answer, one or two sentences. Here the purpose of their question is to continue the conversation and/or they genuinely want to know more. Keep in mind, this could be someone who could benefit from learning about what you do; maybe they didn’t know it was a thing and/or maybe it could help them or someone they love.
3. Wow, that’s really interesting. How did you get into that work? Come up with a longer answer, three or four sentences. Here the purpose of their question is to understand what you do in more depth. You might talk about what types of people you work with and how your work can be helpful.
Wishing you many meaningful and heartfelt conversations about your work,
Tricia