OMG that’s magic…
Sometimes we just have a natural talent for things and sometimes we’re lucky enough to learn something new – either through the course of our work or because we’re curious and pursue additional learning. I’m not arrogant enough to claim I’m the first (although there are a few things, like organisation that I find easy and my mum’s good at it so I suppose that’s an innate talent) but the second – over the years – is very much true.
In my first roles in logistics and project management I was exposed to lots of tools that needed me to learn a more in depth knowledge, quickly as I was fresh out of uni and choc full of book knowledge but not a lot of practical skills. This included very detailed courses on Microsoft Access and Excel which built on the data manipulation and statistics theories I had studied at university and my own yen for everything to be neat, ordered and logical.
In addition to this I was on a steep learning curve in terms of project management which – more than anything – just took more organisation preferences to a whole new level. After this I moved into Marketing and this was a whole new boardgame.
I learnt a lot about briefing, print, design, marketing strategy and marketing analysis. I learnt about international and domestic markets, on and offline communication and ATL and BTL advertising. Not only that but I learnt how to utilise 3rd party suppliers and work with agencies when you don’t have the required skills sets in house. My role covered 2D and 3D collateral so it was a very holistic view of how a brand is brought to life for a customer and I was, and still am, really passionate about brands and how they build efficacy and relationships with their audience.
After starting my own business, it was again another crash course in learning new skills – despite having GCSEs, A Levels and a Degree in Business Studies nothing really prepares you for running your own business and the unique challenges that this will present. It also allowed me to use a range of skills from all of my previous roles and these days, where I’m lucky enough to be able to chose which clients I work with and which projects I take on it means that a lot of the time I’m doing things I really enjoy (like managing projects and manipulating data in spreadsheets).
Rightly or wrongly I take a lot of these skills for granted, I do things without thinking and I often offer to do tasks for clients because I know it’ll only take me a few minutes to do without really thinking about the impact this will have on them.
I’ll share an example from this week. A client was reminded (I have no idea how but something popped into his brain) that he hadn’t done the commission calculation for an account… since the start of the year. He went on to moan about how boring the task was, I (as usual) leapt in with “I’ll do it for you” and was met with “Well it’s quite complicated because X product incurs X commission, and Y incurs Y Commission and so on”. I raised an eyebrow, easy enough I thought, it’ll take me 5 minutes.
Roll forward 24 hours, it took me 5 minutes, I sent it back with a breakdown and with totals.
The client phoned immediately, they were blown away with how quickly I did it, how well I did it and so on. I’m not going to lie I really enjoyed the praise, but I’m sat there thinking, uh, it’s dead easy why are you making such a fuss.
Then I stopped to think. I asked them how they would have done it in the past – the answer was convoluted and manual (and sounded pretty painful). The only reason it’s not like that for me is because of all my knowledge and learning over the years and in that moment I realised that a lot of the time I undervalue that.
The reason I add value to my clients is because I bring skills, knowledge and experience that they don’t have, its also what makes me happy – making their lives easier – so why was I thinking that thanking me or being impressed was a lot of unnecessary fuss?
Note to self
Need to stop undervaluing self and my skill sets.
Note to others
Everything you have learned in your life, all of your experience, all of your skills, all of your knowledge and qualifications are worth a lot; especially if someone else doesn’t have those. In which case that’s where you’re onto a win-win as you can provide a service that someone needs.
Just don’t forget to value yourself for doing it… and charge accordingly!!