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This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, Editor in Chief of.

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Entrepreneur Magazine, and I'm money expert Nicole Lapin. On Tuesdays, Jason the helpline and help callers solve their work problems.

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And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.

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And it starts now.

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What do you do? It is a simple question. People ask it all the time. Oh, so what do you do? But we often botch the answer. Maybe your answer is vague or boring or long and confusing. Or maybe you just say your job title or something and hope that people understand the rest. And that is a massive missed opportunity. Every time someone asks what you do, it is a chance to build your business or advance your career by showing how valuable you are to others. So let's get it right. Let's get that answer right. You need a simple, clear way to explain what you do and the stakes are high. So here we go. We're going to talk about how to say what you do now. I am obsessed with the work of Donald Miller, author of a book called Building a Story Brand. He teaches people how to communicate their value in ways that convert. And he has a great answer to this question about how to say what you do. It's a formula that he calls the perfect one liner. It's like a shorter elevator pitch. It's deceptively simple but incredibly powerful. And I have been thinking about it a lot since I first heard him teach it. So I want to share it with you. The way that Donald Miller says it is a great one liner has three parts. Part one is the problem you solve. Part two is the product or skill that you offer. And part three is the result that people get. Problem, product, result. The key here is leading with the problem. People value things that solve problems, he says. So if you articulate the problem that you solve, other people immediately see how you're valuable. He offers an example that really stuck in my head. So imagine being at a cocktail party and meeting two chefs. They do the same work at the same price, but they explain themselves very differently. Chef one says, okay, I'm an at home chef. I come to your house and cook. In response to that, what do you do? You probably ask some questions about his favorite foods, like, oh, that's an interesting job. What do you like to cook? Now imagine that you're talking to Chef 2 and you say, what do you do? And Chef 2 says, you know how most families don't eat together anymore and when they do, they don't eat healthy? I'm an at home chef. I come to your house and cook so that your family can actually connect with each other over a meal and not have to think about cooking or cleaning up afterward. All right, now, what is going to be your response to that? My guess is you might think to yourself, wow, that is exactly the problem that I have. I could use a solution like that. Maybe I should hire this guy. As Donald explained on his podcast, which is called the Story Brand Podcast, he says, you're doing two things here. You're raising the perceived value of what you offer and you're decreasing cognitive dissonance in the mind of the person that you're talking to. In other words, like what he means by cognitive dissonance, there is. They don't have to sit and wonder. Oh, he says he's an at home chef. What does that mean? What does he do exactly? Does he cook at rich people's houses? It's just all this wondering. There's no wondering anymore. Instead, the value is crystal clear. Now let's apply it to someone else. I recently met a friend of a friend. He said that he's a photographer. Oh, what kind of photography do you do? I asked him and he said, corporate headshots. But that sounds boring. So I often just say, I'm a photographer. So much Cognitive dissonance there, right? And I thought, this guy needs Donald Miller's solution. So I told him he was missing a massive opportunity. Then I tried to apply Donald's framework to his work. I told him, you know, instead of saying, you're a photographer, what if you said this? What if your line was, you know how everyone's headshot on LinkedIn is super awkward? That's because professionals don't get the headshots they need to stand out, and that can lead to missed job opportunities. I solve this problem because I specialize in professional headshots that make anyone look confident and compelling. As I said that to him, his face lit up. He imagined walking around networking events and introducing himself. Now he would no longer be a random photographer with a boring sounding job. Instead, he would be the solution to everyone's problems. He could get work just by explaining what he does. The real insight here is that it's not about you. You know, what Donald's framework teaches us is that when we explain what we do, we are so often focusing on ourselves, but we really need to focus on the person we're talking to. When you create your one liner, which, let's be honest, is actually more than one sentence, a couple sentences, whatever, anyway, he calls it a one liner. When you create your one liner, you gain clarity on your own value. You start thinking, how am I useful to other people? What problem do they have which I am uniquely qualified to solve? And when you know the answer to those questions, everything about your work becomes easier. It's easier to pitch yourself, market yourself, and even just talk about yourself. So the next time that someone asks what you do, remember, you are leading with them, not you. That's what you do. Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason.