Hi there. Julie Cross here. I just want to talk a little bit about the word professional because it comes up a lot, and I think when we say these words we should perhaps define what we mean by them. And I have touched on this before, but I wanna talk about it in the areas of presenting, or making videos. That kind of thing.
Because I think we can get too caught up on wanting it to look professional and we then loose the personality and authenticity and the uniqueness of what makes us, us. Because we put on the professional voice. It’s like when somebody puts a video up at your face. Suddenly everybody talks like this and then we have to act really professional and we suddenly wonder why we don’t sound as authentic, or as honest, or people aren’t connecting with us as well. And we do that in customer service too.
You know we employ somebody and go oh we’re very professional here. We’re a very professional team. We give very professional service to our clients. We’re known for being very professional. There’s a client go and be professional. As opposed to saying well what does professional look like? So some people are standing behind front desks you know, yes being professional. You know so you don’t define what it means so I mean I’ve looked up professional in the dictionary when I started a business because I thought what if wearing sequins isn’t professional? I’m in trouble.
Professional simply means to be of a profession and to share your knowledge of your profession. And it would be to do that in the most effective way to get your message across which would be you being most authentically you because that’s how we would connect best with each other. So you know as I was saying to someone the other day. We had a chat about you know when you ask me about doing a video. What advice would I give you?
Well of course you would have to have a general idea what you’re speaking about and I know some people heavily script their content and are very comfortable with that but as long as it still comes across as being authentically you and I can still see you in it. Because if it so scripted, and so structured, and so professional that I loose you and your personality in that. Then how does it make a difference to anybody else’s? And so how is that authentic? And how are you then standing out from the crowd?
So when I got to see a friend and sit with a friend and have a chat. I don’t script our conversation. I’m not at home scripting a conversation and saying well this what I’m going to say when I see my friend and these are the dot points of what I wanna talk about. And then I better add some funnies in there so I’ll script in a bit of laughter as well. No, I go there and we have a conversation and there might be a couple topics that we know we wanna talk about and then we have and honest and authentic conversation.
So I want my work to come across as an authentic conversation with my friends. All of you. And I want you to see me and so therefore when I sit down to do this I have a general idea of what I wanna talk about, but then I sit here and I talk and be me in it. Which means sometimes I might go um, which means sometimes you see me looking up as I think about what I wanna say next but you still see me authentically me.
And so I just think that’s really important to remember and I do the same thing when I’m speaking because I want to connect with you and I want you to see me. And we do that best when we were sitting confidently in who we are and allowing ourselves to project into the world and that’s how we stand out from the crowd. Because I see all these people wanting to stand out from the crowd and applying all these strategies to stand out from the crowd but sometimes they’re trying to be so professional in doing it that they loose themselves in the process.
There is nobody else like you in this whole world so to best stand out from the crowd you best be you. That is how you best can stand out from the crowd. To be who you are. So don’t over script life. Don’t over script who you are in every facet of what you’re doing. Don’t over professionalize everything. So you know sure we’ve gotta maintain professional standards of showing up on time and making sure our work hasn’t got lots of ums in it and moments like that. Moments where our spelling is wrong, and our grammar is wrong.
Of course but if every now and again you do that and go what the hell was I gonna say then maybe people just see who you are and it lightens the moment. The moments that we think back when people have connected with me most sometimes are the moments when I have made a big mistake. Because it shows that you’re real, and you’re honest, and authentic, and vulnerable, and you have the courage to show people who you are so don’t not do something because it’s not professional enough yet.
Just go out there and be you. And you’ll connect with people and you’ll grow along the way and they’ll grow with you. Anyway, just my thoughts for today. My rambling thoughts. Thanks. See ya.