I’ve run businesses, managed projects, solved complicated problems, and spoken publicly.
I’ve even had professional pitch training.
So you’d think I could answer one simple question:
“Why should we hire you?”
Apparently not.
🤣
Recently, I needed to record a short video explaining what value I’d bring to an organisation.
I could happily spend time explaining how I’d solve a business problem.
I knew my experience. I knew what I was good at.
But the moment I tried to explain my value to a company in my own words?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
😂
And it made me realise something.
Being good at your job and being good at explaining why you’re good at your job are two completely different skills.
We’re expected to present our professional value in interviews, applications, and sometimes sixty-second videos.
But it’s a skill many of us have never been taught.
And apparently, even having professional pitch training doesn’t guarantee you can pitch yourself!
Here’s what makes this particularly ridiculous.
Years ago, I ran a bookkeeping business.
I helped clients improve their accounts receivable, reduced the corrections their accountants needed to make, and made sure their employees were paid correctly.
More importantly, I built relationships with people who trusted me to solve their problems.
When I eventually closed the business, almost all my clients hugged me goodbye. Some even called afterwards hoping I’d reconsider.
At the time, I just felt sad about leaving people I’d built lovely relationships with.
It never occurred to me to file that experience under Evidence of Professional Value.
🤣
And yet, years later, there I was, staring at a camera, struggling to explain why someone might want to work with me.
So I recruited help.
My brain. My partner. YouTube. ChatGPT. Claude.
Apparently, explaining one human requires an entire project team.
🤣
There were hours of conversations, drafts, and perfectly respectable sentences about stakeholder engagement and delivering outcomes.
But nothing felt quite right.
Until finally…
THE LIGHT BULB WENT ON.
I read two sentences and smiled.
Not because they sounded impressive.
Because they sounded like me.
I’m a systems translator. I help companies get their software working the way their business actually runs, without burying their team in more admin. I’m passionate about implementing systems people actually use. Because there’s nothing better than watching them have that light bulb moment when it finally clicks.
And after all that effort to explain why I love helping other people have their light-bulb moments…
I finally had one of my own.
💡 ❤️