Don't Hire Me. Hire US. - Giving Credit Where it is Due

Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. - Alan Watts

We cannot do anything without it being a part of everything. I am in deep with the woo woo shit and take time every day to recognize the connectedness of the everything and offer gratitude for my daily experience.

Collaboration - connecting and working alongside others to achieve a greater results - is one of my deeply held core values, and I am honored when my clients and friends recognize that I am a team player.

However, I recently forgot what it means to wholly collaborate.

I was struggling with my worth as a consultant and hired a business coach to help connect my core values and talents to my value in dollars and cents. Through the process of connecting with my expertise, I have reached out to clients, former clients, those who have hired me to subcontract, potential clients, and my own subcontractors.

What I learned was: I truly am awesome.

I have an above average skill - writing. I have a strategic mindset that allows me to think through multiple solutions for the same challenge - simultaneously. I have a great sense of humor. I help people feel better. I work quickly and efficiently. And people enjoy working with me, the greatest compliment of all.

But what I did not do, and have not done, is recognize that I did not come into the world “an expert,” I came out of it through effort made by mentors and friends. I have been borne of this world via my mistakes and getting fired, through serendipitous connections, and hundreds and hundreds of other people who have shaped my experience, coached me, took a chance on me, and trusted me.

So, to everyone, and I mean everyone, thank you.

Why this? Why now?

When you’re into the woo woo, you know that a huge part of finding success is believing in yourself.

To have faith in myself, I amassed “evidence” of my success through testimonials and conversations. Before I attend an event or write a blog or accept a new contract, I look at the evidence and remind myself: I can do this. I have done this before. I am capable.

I thought that clients needed to hear that I am in charge, capable, heroic, and can do it all.

But that simply isn’t true. And I have never wanted it to be true.

A proud follower.

I am not a lone wolf genius who can do it all. I am not an artist or an illustrator or a videographer or web analytics expert or a WordPress developer or a social media influencer or an advertising creative director.

I am a strategic marketing consultant. I am a talented copywriter. I am a connector of people. I am a person who values trust, hard work, empathy, and honesty.

And if you hire me to do what I do best, I will not show up without help. And the only reason you should hire me in the first place is because I have been taught by, mentored by, and given chances from some of the most talented, smart, ambitious, and successful people I know. And I’m bringing them with me to your project.

Sometimes that means a client picks me, and I get to go ask for the honor of my talented friends and collaborators to add their magic to the work together. Sometimes it means my collaborators ask me to step in with my unique abilities to create my own version of the magic.

To collaborate is to “create together,” and you can’t create anything with someone else without humility and gratitude. To be humbled by their unique contribution and grateful that they value you enough to work alongside as you make something better than any one of us could do alone.

So, to my collaborators, I value you more than I’ve probably told you in the last eight months.

I can’t do this without you. And I don’t want to.

xoxo

-hh

This blog is dedicated to Kristy W. for being true to herself and kind to me.