What are you buying when you buy cookies from a Girl Scout?
Are you really buying the cookies?
Or are you buying the story you tell yourself about what the Girl Scouts mean to girls?
Or the story about why this girl — the one in front of you — needs to experience success?
It’s even possible you have no intention of buying Girl Scout cookies. Maybe you tell yourself a story about how unhealthy these cookies are for an obese society.
Or maybe you tell yourself a story about why institutions like the Girl Scouts are outdated and shouldn’t be supported.
Regardless, it’s not about the cookies.
The same is true for you and your work.
Clients don’t hire you because of what you actually do. They hire you because of a story they tell themselves…about themselves.
It’s never about you. Just like it’s never about the cookies.
It’s always about the story. Their story. And you either play a role in that story. Or you don’t.