Talk-Back Tuesday: “What’s in a Name?” Edition
Posted in Talk-Back Tuesday on 02/23/2010 07:25 am by adminHappy Tuesday! So yesterday I had the very cool experience of appearing on Work at Home Moms Talk Radio, where I talked a bit about Good Enough is the New Perfect, but mostly about how to project professionalism through email (one of my side gigs — and passions — is teaching people how NOT to make a mess via email).
When host Tishia Lee introduced me (about 16 minutes into the hour, if you want to listen to the Podcast), she asked me to describe my job. Ha! Which one? I muddled my way through, and then she confessed that she didn’t like the title of Work-at-Home-Mom; she preferred business owner who works at home.
Which got me thinking …. How do you describe your life’s work? Do you find it difficult to fit into a sentence? Do you bristle at being categorized? Do titles still matter? Talk Back — it’s Tuesday! –Hollee
02/23/2010 at 1:05 pm
Wow, this is a touch one, I always have trouble introducing myself and describing what I do. The worst part is when introducing myself to professionals who work outside of the home, the very second I state, “I’m a stay at home mom and I…..” they seem to lose interest at the end of the word “mom”. I of course keep going because there is SOOO much more to what I do at home but my primary function IS stay at home mom, I do happen to run our photo biz and manage our rental units AND manage social media for a few companies including our own. Sometimes I wish talking in list format would be socially acceptable… you know like: wife, mom, teacher, nurse, social media maven, blogger… I would love to find a catchier way to introduce myself so that when networking I don’t lose people at “stay at home mom”
Thanks for bringing up such a great topic!
02/23/2010 at 7:18 pm
Wow – I can relate on many levels. I am just starting in this blogging/speaking/writing world and have not one clue how I would describe what I am attempting to “do” day to day!
02/26/2010 at 10:10 am
I change my answer depending on the person I am talking to. When I am talking to business contacts I usually say I work out of my home office and never mention any kids. When I am on the playground, most people are surprised to know that I am even working. I started working from a home office a couple years before I had kids so for me it wasn’t something that was a result of parenthood. That said, I never know how to fill in the bubble on a form, it just depends on the day.
03/02/2010 at 11:43 am
What I find interesting is how far society still has to come in its expectations of men and women vis-a-vis their roles in the family. I’m a stay at home dad (no home business of any kind), and I find that when I tell many people that fact (especially men) the reaction is the exact opposite of what Cara experiences: they’re eager to hear the what “other job” I have that is so flexible that I can work from home, and when they find out there is no “other job” their reaction is either that I’m unemployed (“what will you do for child care when you go back to work?”) or that I’ve pulled some sort of scam on my wife! My suggestion for Cara is that she introduce herself as an entrepreneur who runs several businesses in addition to being the primary caretaker of the family. That way the first thing that sticks in someone’s mind who might unfairly dismiss all you do is “entrepreneur” rather than “stay at home mom”.
I agree that it is a very interesting topic!