Hey, you're listening to Liberatory Business. I'm your host, Simone Seol. Thank you so much for listening.

Now, I'm bringing back some episodes from my old archived podcast that I think very much stand the test of time and are just as powerful and useful now as they were back then. This one in particular, I think you're gonna have a lot of fun with. It's about how to introduce yourself and your work in ways that break out of the formula. So listen and enjoy.

The shortest, punchiest episode

This week's episode might be the shortest and the punchiest episode of all — and when I say punchy, you might literally feel like you've been punched energetically. Just because it's gonna be a wake-up call, but it's gonna feel good, I think. Well, I really think this is gonna be useful for you. So hear me out.

I think that we should all replace our I help statements. You know those I help statements that so many people think they should have, and so many other people out there tell them they should have, right? I help blah, blah, blah do blah, blah, blah. I help moms who da, da, da, da. I help doctors who blah, blah, blah to blah, blah, blah.

So, I help statements. What I have observed over and over and over about I help statements is that, one, they give people so much angst. So much angst, so much anxiety. Everybody is forever just going over their I help statement over and over again, trying to find the perfect words, agonizing over the perfect words. Like, how can I make it clear exactly who I help and how I help? And it all feels awful. And for all of that energy expenditure, what do we have?

Why they all sound the same

I recently had an opportunity to read dozens and dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of I help statements by coaches, like all in one place. 'Cause I just opened Soul and Summer Camp, and everyone was introducing themselves, and this is a group of the most phenomenally creative, brilliant, passionate coaches and healers, energy workers, teachers that I've seen. Everyone was sharing their bios, who they are, their introductions, and there's all these I help statements. And I could not help but observe how truly similar they all were.

Because listen — no matter how truly unique and creative you are, the I help statement can only take you so far, 'cause the format itself is so limiting, right? Like, I help such and such group of people, in which you identify a specific group of people with just a few words, and you help them do blah, blah, blah, in which case you have to identify what the outcome is, again, in a few words.

And that's why I think so many life coaches find it so challenging to boil down the profound, complex, multifaceted, magical impact of their work. Like, how do we boil it down to a few words? How do we just squeeze it down to a few words of the I help sentence? And that's why, even with their best effort, a lot of the time the end effect just ends up falling flat, and they all kind of end up sounding like — everybody else's.

And that really brings me pain, because I know how truly uniquely magical each coach is, and how each person is an entire freaking universe onto their own. I'm literally in awe every time I have the opportunity to meet a new life coach and talk to them, 'cause I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this human being is so great."

I want everyone — I want you — to have something by which to introduce yourself. A way where you can talk about your work without the I help statement, without that formula. And there are so many opportunities for how you talk about yourself to come alive when you get out of that formula. So we play with this in the Simone Summer Camp, and the results have been so much fun, and I want to share it with you in the podcast as well.

If you love your I help statement, keep it

Hold on. Before I say that, I just did want to mention: if you love, love, love your I help statement and you're like, "You're not gonna pry it out of my dead hands, Simone. I love my I help statement, I'm not gonna change it" — I will say, power to you. Love it. You keep what works for you. But this episode is for, I think, probably the majority of you who don't love your I help statement.

What to try instead

So I hereby decree that if you hate your I help statement, we're gonna do this instead. We're gonna replace it with this: I give a shit that... Dot, dot, dot. What do you give a shit about? What do you care about, right? I give a shit that moms — fill in the blank, right? I give a shit that people with ADHD, et cetera. I give a shit that all sensitive, creative souls in the world do X, Y, Z. Right? What do you give a shit about? Try filling out the rest of that sentence. I give a shit that... blank.

Or try this. I profoundly fucking care that... blank. What do you profoundly fucking care about? What do you care about? Just consider this sentence: I profoundly fucking care that, fill in the blank, and try writing the sentence out a few times. I profoundly fucking care that da, da, da, da, and I also profoundly fucking care that blah, blah, blah.

Some other options you can play with. No blank is going to blank under my watch. Think about this in terms of your work. No middle-aged woman is going to X, Y, Z under my watch, right? What would that sentence be for you?

Here's another option you can play with: I refuse to sit and watch X, Y, Z. What do you refuse to sit and watch?

Here's another one. Blank blank, and I will die on this hill, right? Which hill would you die on? I believe blah, blah, blah. This should blah, blah, blah. There will be no more blah, blah, blah in the world, and I will die on this hill. This is wrong and I will die on this hill. This needs to change and I will die on this hill. These people should have more of that and I will die on this hill. We as a society must X, Y, Z, and I will die on this hill. What is that for you?

Here's the last one I wanna leave you with. It gripes my ass when blank. What gripes your ass? Blank, blank, blank gripes my ass. Fill in the blank.

Why this works better

Do you see what this gets at? How much more of your lively passion and conviction — that is very specific to you — all these statements evoke, right? I'm not offering this to you as, like, you must use these if you wanna do it right or whatever. That's not what I mean at all. I'm just offering these statements to you as something that can jog your imagination, something that can get you thinking about alternate ways you can talk about what you really care about, what you're really here for, what makes you get up in the morning, right? What lights your ass on fire? There's another sentence. What lights my ass on fire is blah, blah.

Try this next time somebody asks you, "Hey, so what do you do? You're a life coach — what's that all about?" You know? Instead of an, "Oh, well, I help blah, blah, blah, blah," you can say something like, "Well, you know, I realized one day that no blank is going to blank under my watch. I'm gonna do something about it, and that's why I'm a life coach." Somebody says, "Hey, what do you do?" You say, "Well, you know what? I care profoundly. I give a giant fuck that blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's what I do. I help people with that." It gripes my ass when blah, blah, blah happens, so the work I do is et cetera, et cetera.

So much more fun, so much more lively, so much more vivid. It conveys so much more of who you are, in my opinion, than an I help blank with blank statement.

Where to use these

Something for you to play with, something to just roll over in your mind, spend a little bit of time journaling on. And once you've written down some of this, I recommend you either visit the transcript of this episode or you can just write some things down.

After you have that, consider putting it on your social media bio, or just proclaim it, declare it on social media. I believe this, right? I give a shit that blank. I care profoundly that XYZ. Use it as your copy. Put it in your post, put it in your email. That can be a whole email just by itself. You know what, you guys? You know what, my friends? You know what, my readers? No blank is going to blank under my watch. And let that be a prompt. You can riff on that.

You can put it on your About page on your website. You can put it in your sales pages. Put that on your sales page, like, "It gripes my ass when this happens." "I refuse to sit and watch while you," blah, blah, blah. Something along these lines — these are my words, but come up with yours. Come up with your own. You can use these statements in so many places. I'm willing to bet good money that in all these places it would take you so much further than an I help statement.

Wrapping up

So, with my apologies for those who adore their I help statements — to each their own. If you love it, you love it. But for those who don't, I hope that today's episode provided you with some really refreshing alternatives.

Now I'm gonna go look forward to seeing everyone come up with way more interesting Instagram bios, TikTok bios. Is that a thing? TikTok bios? I'm not on TikTok yet. I'm trying to get on TikTok. LinkedIn bios. So gonna look forward to everybody having more interesting bios as a result of this episode.

All right, my friends, I'll talk to you next week.