Air Quotes

Sometimes all you need is someone to tell you not to use air quotes when describing yourself and your profession.  Air Quotes: The quirky little gesture we do with two fingers to frame something we are saying when we don’t really believe the message we are giving.  Sometimes a stranger simply saying, “Don’t do that” is all it takes to realize that when you use air quotes to describe your profession, you are essentially minimizing yourself.  After all, if you don’t believe the message, why would your audience?  This week I met Tom Swartwood, a wonderfully animated Assistant Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurship at Drake University.  He clearly loves to encourage, challenge, and refine business owners.  And, he isn’t afraid to tell you not to use air quotes when you speak.  Thanks to my pondering about air quotes, this site was born. 

My dear friend, Stephanie Majeran, is in the early stages of creating her business, WellRun Results LLC, and when we exercise in the early morning hours, she speaks highly of Tom and the insights he continually provides her as she develops her business model.  Intrigued, I asked if I could attend crash a morning coffee with them.  Within five minutes of meeting Tom, I knew my time would not be wasted.  Early in our conversation he asked me about myself, and I answered by basically giving him a verbal rundown of my resume.  BORING!  Or, at least that is what I quickly figured out.  He took about a nanosecond to tell me that regurgitating my resume and using air quotes told him nothing about me.  WOW!  I had to quickly decide if I was going to be insulted or inspired.  I decided to be inspired by the candor of this stranger (but someone who is going to become my mentor…he just doesn’t know it yet).

Throughout our conversation, he challenged me to think about the way I define myself.  What do I really do (or what do I really want to do)?  Who is my audience?  Where is the value?  As I pondered these questions it became clear that fluffy answers weren’t going to hack it with Tom.  He cut to the chase and challenged me to be succinct about defining myself, and then owning the definition in an authentic way.

Now as I begin to develop my vision for outSIGHTin LLC, I have a better understanding of how I need to move forward.  At the very least, no more air quotes from this professional!

Changepoints:

We tend to use air quotes (both literally and figuratively) because:

• We don’t want to seem overly confident or arrogant.
• We don’t want to buck the status quo.
• We don’t truly know what we are about or where we are going.
• We don’t want to create false expectations or disappoint others.
• We don’t want to address our fears.
• Why might you be using air quotes in your life? 
• What person or action could you use to help better define yourself?

 Say good-bye to Air Quotes.
 

outSIGHTin, LLC: Creating awareness as a changepoint for improved organizational results.