“How can I help you?” Hopefully, you hear that question a lot.

You should definitely hear it whenever you’re walking into any retail location. But you hopefully hear it from your family, your friends, your peers, your supervisor.

Most people want to help you. They just don’t know how. It’s your job to tell them, in a clear and concise way, exactly how they can help you when it comes to your personal brand. They need to know:

• Exactly what you do
• Where you’re planning to go in your business or career
• Who you want to connect with

When asked about what they do, or who they’re needing to connect with, too many people respond with, “Oh I can do anything for anybody.” Ooooo. Sorry. Wrong answer, thanks for playing.

I meet with a number of people who believe that being a “jack-of-all-trades” helps them stand out from the crowd whether they’re looking for a new job or looking for clients for their business. They tend to forget that there’s another half to that idiom (“idiom” is a word here which means a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words). The full statement is “jack-of-all-trades, master of none.”

No one wants a “jack-of-all-trades.” They want an expert who can solve the specific problem that they’re facing.

If you know me, you know I LOVE fried chicken. And one of my favorite fried chicken joints is Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken in Memphis. They’re a master of one thing: fried chicken. And they’ve mastered it really well.

Every day, seven days a week, they only have one special: fried chicken. 

While they serve a handful of sides, Gus’s only serves fried chicken entrees. People know exactly what they serve, and when people want crispy, spicy fried chicken they know exactly where to go.

You rarely see a restaurant that doesn’t even have a menu (unless that’s the special prix fixe chef’s theme that night). If you didn’t know what they offered, would you really be willing to try it out?

What about a restaurant that hands you their menu, but it’s in a 3-ring binder (Cheesecake Factory, I’m looking at you). If you’re like me, you probably get overwhelmed and don’t even know where to start.

You may have heard me talk about “pruning it back.” Most people need their options limited so that we can feel in control of the outcome without being overwhelmed by too many choices. 

If someone has a hard time figuring out what your brand is or exactly what you offer, clients won’t hire you, hiring managers won’t hire you and your friends won’t know how to refer you to others. You HAVE to narrow your  brand down. Your goal isn’t to be relevant to everyone; your goal is clarity.

If your friends and peers aren’t clear on what you do, you can’t expect a stranger to make the connection between what you do and the problem they need solved.

You’re not missing out on an opportunity by narrowing your focus. You’re creating one.

When you narrow your brand down, friends, family and peers will think of you when someone needs help in that area. They’ll know how to refer you to others instead of saying, “Yeah, Matt? I’m not really sure what he does.”

Imagine this situation. You have a close friend who’s out to lunch catching up with her old college roommate. Your friend’s old roommate shares, “I’ve been struggling lately with the clutter around my house.Everything’s so disorganized, and I’ve gotten to where we don’t invite people over anymore.” If you recently spoke to your friend about your business where you work with homeowners to organize their homes, then she can easily say, “Oh, you’ve got to meet Kim! She is a master of organizing other people’s homes. Let me connect you with her.” 

Or imagine this. Your supervisor is talking with one of his peers in IT. She tells your supervisor, “I have a new position coming open on our team. I’m really needing someone who can help lead the communications initiatives coming from our org.” Good news. You’ve been crafting your career path with your supervisor, and he knows your desire to move into IT. AND he knows that communications is one of your top skills. He can easily say, “Oh, you’ve got to meet Sean! He’ll be perfect for this role. Let me connect you with him.”

That’s how this works. You narrow and clarify your personal brand, and the opportunities come.

If you don’t narrow your personal brand, you’re headed for big trouble. People can’t refer you to others if they don’t know what you do, where you’re trying to go and who you’re trying to reach.

And if you tell people you’re looking for anything, you end up getting nothing.