How Do You Answer the Question… “What Do You Do?”

**Matthew Gottesman** (0:02)
Welcome to The Niche Is You. My name is Matt Gottesman, at Matt Gottesman on Instagram, and this is my daily podcast where I create short, quick hitting episodes to help you uncomplicate life, creativity, and the pursuit of your highest self. There's only main character energy here. Now, let's get into it.
Welcome to episode 813 How do you answer the question, what do you do? Like when somebody comes up to you, what do you do? What do you do? You know, whether you're at a networking event, and I gotta tell you, I was watching this video online, and his name is Bennett Luper. I think that, I believe that's his name. I'm gonna play the audio here momentarily. It was so good because it's so true. And, you know, he was just talking about, there's like all these nuances, and you're not trying to get put into a category or a label, because what happens is most people go like, oh, what do you do? Oh, well, I'm an accountant. Oh, okay, got it. Boom. I don't know where to put you in a box. I know what that must mean for you, and how well you're doing, or what you're focused on, whatever it might be.
And this guy, Bennett, he was, in this video that he created, he was talking about like all these different things, where he's like, well, you know, well, actually, I'm gonna play the audio. I'm gonna play the audio right now. I want you to hear it. And then I want to tell you kind of how I felt when I was listening to it, because I could really relate to it.

**Bennett Luper** (1:21)
I hate the question, what do you do?
And I'm in this weird phase of business where I really don't know how to respond.
For the longest time, I said, I'm a filmmaker. And that's what I did. And it pretty much summed up everything about me.
But now it's different.
Am I a content creator? Yeah, but I feel like that does injustice to the quality at which I create. Am I an influencer? Well, I know I have influence, but I feel like that term has the worst connotation these days. Am I an entrepreneur? Yes, I am building something, but it's far from finished. I think it's the same as when you start training for your first marathon, and you don't really want to call yourself a runner. You are running, but at what point do you become the thing you're trying to be? You see, I know I am all of those things, but I feel as if they barely scratch the surface of what I'm about. So I've kind of given up answering that question the way people expect. People want a single word answer. I'm an accountant, I'm a nurse, I'm a construction worker. They want to put you into a box immediately. I'm a creator, I'm a speaker, I'm a builder, I influence, I encourage, I inspire. I help people find what they love and take charge of their lives by creating in a way that fulfills them. How do you sum that up into a single word? So when I'm asked this question, what do I do? I kind of ask people to pull up a seat, because to me, that question is a hell of a lot deeper than they realize. And you're going to get a lot more than you bargained for. Because I do a lot of things, and I'm pretty damn passionate about every single one.

**Matthew Gottesman** (3:00)
I mean, I couldn't relate more. I got chills when I was listening to it, because I feel the same way.
It's probably one of the hardest questions I get asked, because it's like, I don't want to say I'm just a writer.
I don't want to say I'm just an author. I don't want to say I don't like the word influencer. I've never liked the word influencer, because I think it got a little bit misused. I think influence is leading by example, and it's a big responsibility to be the embodiment of the things that you want to see more of in the world, not telling the world necessarily how they should behave and what they should do. And I get him about the entrepreneur. I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. But when he said it's far from finished, it's interesting because, I'll tell you this, when I say an entrepreneur, like, oh, okay, what's your company? Have you sold anything? Have you sold the company? Well, first of all, who says I even want to sell what I've been building? Like, I want to continue to keep building what I'm building and leave it to family and leave it to the world. Like, why does it have to go into that box of like, oh, have you exited? Have you exited a company? It's like, oh my god, we're going to have that conversation. Okay. You know, would you build? Prove it. Now, do I think society means to do that? Not really. I just think that it's just that's how it's been for so long. And I hear him about when he said training for a marathon. For me, it was like, I've been heavy lifting for like the last four or five years with a personal trainer and good friend of mine and doing all the protocols.