"Oh no! What will my clients think?"

Don't let your job come in the way of your creative voice.

Author

Chris Valdheims
August 05, 2023

Listen to this episode: “Oh no! What will my clients think?”

When I meet people, I often don’t tell them I am a lawyer.

It’s not just the dumb jokes about being billed hourly for talking to me, even though those jokes are cringefest.

It’s that I can see that people immediately put me in a box based on my job.

People immediately think that because I work in law that I must like sitting around all day wearing a suit, shuffling papers, and arguing with people.

I don’t do any of those things. I don’t identify with the lawyer stereotype. I think of myself as a writer and entrepreneur, where most of my energy goes.

In some jobs (maybe yours, too), there’s often this fake professional persona that members of the trade are meant to adopt.

For me, that persona always felt uncomfortable and not something I wanted to do.

So, this week’s podcast episode is about how we often limit our creativity to fit into some “professional” mold.

We fear that if we step out of that mold, our world will come crashing down, and we will be ostracized, whether by our peers or customers.

But the mold is malleable, and we’re the ones who have the power to shape the mold to suit us.

And that, as always, involves facing our fears to find our creative voice and move beyond restrictions placed upon us by our jobs, cultures, or other social positions.

Even if you don’t have a job that feels at odds with creative expression, I encourage you to listen. I get into things like loss aversion, societal expectations, and generally, how to be abnormal in a way that allows you to serve yourself and those around you better.

Listen to this episode: “Oh no! What will my clients think?”

PS - I mean it when I say I would love to hear from you. I want to hear your questions, insights, reactions, comments, whatever. Learning how you respond helps me to understand what to talk about in the future. 🖤