I’m new to Clarity and trying to determine what part of my background I should lead with.
My work has included executive coaching and assessment, organization development, leadership and talent development, career transition, and strategic advisory—but much of it has taken place in situations that were more complex than any one of those labels suggests.
For example, I have worked with:
- start-ups and rapidly growing companies trying to build culture and management capability while the organization itself was still taking shape;
- joint ventures and multinational organizations dealing with different assumptions about leadership, decision-making, communication, and authority;
- global companies developing local leaders for larger regional or international roles;
- organizations building leadership pipelines, succession capability, and talent-development systems rather than simply providing individual training;
- senior leaders navigating role transitions, organizational change, career disruption, and difficult stakeholder situations.
Much of my career was spent in Japan, with broader Asia-Pacific experience, so I also bring fairly deep knowledge of what global talent development actually requires when leadership models developed in one country are being applied in another.
I have worked with leaders and organizations across financial services, technology, healthcare, consumer businesses, and professional services, including companies such as Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Intel, Deutsche Bank, Deloitte Tohmatsu, Red Bull Japan, and State Street Trust Bank Japan.
My challenge is deciding what Clarity clients are most likely to recognize as valuable. Should I lead with executive advisory and problem-solving? Organization development and leadership capability? Executive mentoring and career transition? Or should the Japan/Asia and global-talent dimension be more prominent because it is harder to find?
I’d be interested in hearing from experienced Clarity users about what makes a senior, multidimensional background like this understandable and compelling enough for someone to book a call.
The trap is leading with breadth. A profile that lists executive coaching, org development, leadership training and strategic advisory across four sectors reads as a menu, and someone scanning Clarity can't tell what to actually book you for. People don't buy range. They buy a fix for the specific thing that's bothering them right now.
Two things that worked when I ran this exercise on my own profile:
One problem and one buyer per expertise card, not per career. Clarity lets you hold a few areas of expertise, so treat each as a separate front door for a different person. One card can be "the founder scaling into a new region who doesn't want to repeat the usual first-year mistakes," another "the senior leader whose team keeps stalling." Write the headline as their problem in their words, not as your title.
Let the pedigree be proof, not the pitch. Morgan Stanley, Intel, Deutsche Bank and the Japan/APAC depth are what make someone trust you once they already care about the specific problem. Keep them one layer down, in the body ("I've seen this play out at that scale"), not in the first line.
The test I use: read your headline and ask whether someone could type that exact sentence into the booking note. Nobody types "senior advisor, 20 years, global." Someone does type "help me stand up my APAC leadership team without the first-year mistakes." That one's a call.
You lose nothing by narrowing the front door. The generalist-shoppers filter themselves out anyway, and the people who book the specific thing discover the rest of your range in the first ten minutes.
Talk about specific problems but the solutions should change case to case
The problem and your expertise should have a good fit.
Nitty grittties can be discussed on the further call
I m exactly in the same situation but over my 23 years career I have done this off the platform and helped through several other forums. The core is that to make some fairly generic assumtions and then ask for a little more specifics. Be conversational and build the discussion by understanding the case. I guess by the second or third response you will have the correct specifics of the case and that is a right time to have a call.
This is exactly the challenge I faced when positioning myself across real estate, coaching, speaking, and publishing. Here's what worked:
Stop leading with breadth. Start leading with outcome.
The person reading your profile isn't thinking "I need someone with a broad background." They're thinking "I have this specific problem and I need someone who has solved it before." Speak to the problem first, your background second.
For me, that meant shifting from "35-year real estate advisor, author, coach, and speaker" to "I help high performers activate purpose and build momentum when they feel stuck, burned out, or ready for their next chapter." Same background, completely different entry point.
Use each expertise listing as a separate door. Clarity lets you create multiple expertise areas. Treat each one as if it's the only thing you do. One card for the executive who needs mindset coaching. One for the aspiring author. One for the agent who wants to build a luxury real estate career. Each card speaks to one person with one problem.
Let your story do the heavy lifting. A broad background becomes credible, not generic, when it's anchored in a specific personal journey. I didn't build expertise across multiple industries by accident. I built it because each season of my life demanded it. That narrative makes breadth feel intentional, not scattered.
The test: read your headline and ask whether someone could type those exact words into a search bar. If the answer is no, rewrite it until they can.
— Debbi DiMaggio | Mindset In Motion Method™ | TEDx Speaker | #1 Bestselling Author
Don't lead with the resume. Lead with the problem you keep getting pulled into.
On Clarity (and with buyers in general) "senior advisor across a bunch of functions" reads as unfocused. Pick 2–3 situations you are unusually good in — e.g. first enterprise sale, raising with uneven metrics, standing up a founder-led GTM — and make those the headline. The rest of the background can live in the bio as proof, not as the pitch.
A simple test: if someone only reads your first two sentences, can they tell who should book you and what they walk away with? If not, it's still too general. Happy to look at a draft on a call if you want a second pair of eyes.
