5 Ways to Turn "I Sort of Help With…" Into an Offer You Can Say Out Loud

For women with real expertise who have trouble describing what they do without apologizing, here are five practical moves to go from behind-the-scenes helpful to professionally visible.

Let’s see if this sounds right: You’re the person everyone texts when they’re stuck. Colleagues, friends of friends, that woman from the conference who “just has a quick question” — and forty minutes later you’ve solved a problem she’s been chewing on for a year.

For free.

Again.

It’s because you’re good at this. Genuinely, annoyingly, it-just-comes-naturally good at this.

And yet, when someone asks what you do, something happens to your voice. It goes up at the end. It collects qualifiers like a wet sock collects lint. “I sort of help people with, um, strategy-ish things?”

I’ve been at this writing-and-business thing for nineteen years now. And I know, and have seen over and over, how the most qualified woman in the room is often the last one willing to name her price.

It’s not because she doesn’t think her work is good…

More like because somewhere along the way she decided she needed just one more credential before she could really ask for what she wants, money-wise. Before she earns it. Before she’s good enough.

What’s Up With Women and Permission Slips?

I once interviewed Terri Trespecio, a power-entrepreneur in her own right, for Barefoot Writer magazine. I remember her telling me, “I never met a rule I didn’t like.”

And boy, can I relate!

When you’re raised to covet gold stars and plus-plus grade letters, it’s hard not to get excited about being best at being good.

Ladies, it’s a habit I’m trying to break, and I invite you to do the same.

Because chances are good you’ve been waiting to feel ready. Feeling ready is the holy grail. But since the holy grail is elusive, we convince ourselves that ready comes in the form of another certification, or a finished website, or one more course.

And oh, the courses out there! The options are endless. Many are excellent. And it’s sooooo much easier to buy than it is to ask someone to pay you for all the other pieces of readiness you’ve assembled. After all, learning feels productive. Pitching feels like cold-naked exposure.

But here’s the thing. When you reach the stage where you have skills to offer and you could be out there really making a difference, there is no permission slip. No badge, no gold star, no certificate. (I personally hate this. I’ll own it.)

And the waiting has a cost, because it compounds. You don’t put your offer out there, you don’t raise your price, and you don’t scale your income. Instead, you take on twice the work for the same money.

Then you get too tired and stretched too thin to market or pitch or hustle, which means you need every client you can get, which means you can’t raise your price. And round and round we go. It’s exhausting.

Try This Before You Buy That Next Promising Thing

Before you spend another dollar on curriculum, try the cheapest exercise I know. Write three sentences:

Who you help,

what you help them do,

and what a first engagement could look like.

Then read the list out loud. Where do you start adding “just,” “sort of,” or “a little”? Because that’s the trouble spot, when you start negotiating with yourself and leave the client in the dust. (The executive eyeing a consulting practice, the founder building a workshop, the creative pitching a new service — this exercise works no matter what you offer.)

Remember, confidence is what you gain from doing the work.

It doesn’t sit in your pocket at the starting line. You haven’t earned it yet. Think of it as the medal, the popsicle, the ice-cold drink after the sweat-laced race. You get it after you’ve been paid, not before.

Which means “screw on your courage then go” is backward and wrong.

One itty bitty caveat: acting small and specific works better than kicking off with an enormous leap. You don’t have to amp right up to cold-pitching a stranger at a conference. Start with someone who already texts you the questions. Who maybe knows you well and has been picking your brain for years. They already know, like, and trust you. Chances are good they’re ready to go even further.

5 Simple Steps To Rich Growth

Here are five moves to work through as you turn your expertise into something people can hire you for, whether you’re chasing your first client or writing your first book:

• Stake. Claim your one idea, your ideal customer, and your price. Do it out loud, before you feel entitled to any of it. But here’s the great news — this is the hardest move on the list, and once you do it, it changes everything that comes after.

• Shape. Build the smallest thing a stranger could buy by Friday. Meaning you don’t need the dream website just now. Start with the working offer.

• Speak. Ask for the business, the sale, the purchase. Do it intentionally. Scripts help, and so does saying the number and then just being quiet. (Soooooo hard! But you can do it! I know this because when I first tried it, I didn’t die, even though I was convinced I would.)

• Ship. Deliver it. Finish it. Make it. Build it. Imperfect and done beats polished and private, always.

• Stand. Ask again and again, get more sales, and then raise the price. Let your results speak for themselves. Start being the referral they keep passing around instead of a best-kept secret.

And Underneath All Of It: Take Care Of Yourself

One more thing, because it matters more than any tactic above. When you’re running on empty, with everyone else’s needs stacked in front of yours, everything you say comes out quieter. Your thinking dodges big problems. Your writing starts sounding stagnant.

That’s where the magic of self-care enters the picture. (Note: this is not about putting on your oxygen mask first. I’m not talking about just surviving. I’m talking about loving the heck out of yourself so you’re filled up enough to offer the world your gifts.)

And keep in mind: tending to yourself isn’t the reward for finishing something. It’s where you start. It’s the raw material. This is not a wellness slogan; it’s just how the work gets created. You can’t get seen and heard when you speak in a voice you’ve cut down to a whisper.

So no, you don’t need another course. You need to speak your claim out loud, in the form of one small offer a stranger can buy, and with someone in your corner who can tell you exactly which move you’re stalling on.

If that’s the corner you’re looking for, that’s where I come in — it’s what my coaching practice, Five to First, is built around. I help women become professionally visible, whether that means launching your first offer or writing your first book. (If you’d like to know more, please email me. I welcome your story!)