Answering "what do you do" honestly

The vague answer is usually a confession.

"I'm in tech." "I work in healthcare." "I do consulting." Each of these is a way of avoiding specificity. The vague answer protects you from the follow-up question. It also tells the other person you're not committed enough to your work to describe it.

The specific answer is harder. It might be smaller than you wish it sounded. It might require explanation. It might invite skepticism.

It also identifies you. The specific answer attracts the right collisions. The other person either knows what you mean and engages, or doesn't and moves on. Both are useful.

Three patterns I've noticed:

The most successful operators I know give the specific answer. "I run a workforce platform for rural healthcare." "I write a weekly newsletter about decision-making for founders." The specificity is the marketing.

People who give vague answers are usually unsure of their own positioning. The vague answer is the symptom. The cure is the work.

The specific answer can shrink as your work shrinks, then grow as your work grows. That's healthy. Pretending to be bigger than you are is the worse failure mode.

If you can't say what you do in fifteen seconds, with specificity, you don't yet know what you do. That's a real piece of information. Use it.

Write the sentence down. Practice it. Update it as the work updates.

The specific answer is a magnet. The vague answer is a mute button.

Pick the magnet.