You have probably met this person. Perhaps you have even been this person, for a season.
Their LinkedIn headline reads: “Business Consultant | HR Specialist | Digital Marketing Expert | Project Manager | Real Estate Advisor | Motivational Speaker | Financial Planner.” Their business card has to be printed on both sides. Ask what they do, and the answer is “a bit of everything.” Ask whether they can help with your specific problem, and the answer is always “yes, of course.”
The intention is understandable. When work is hard to find, saying yes to everything feels like the safest way to stay in the game. But there is a quiet cost to it, and it is paid in the one currency a professional cannot afford to lose: credibility.
The Story of Two Business Cards
Picture two consultants who both set up shop in Accra around the same time. They are composites of several people I have seen, not real individuals, but you will probably recognise them.
Kofi’s card lists nine services. When a prospective client calls, he tells them he can handle whatever they need: strategy, recruitment, branding, training, even their social media. He wins some small jobs, but something odd keeps happening. People like him, yet they rarely refer him. When a friend asks, “Do you know someone who can help with staff retention?”, nobody thinks of Kofi, because nobody is quite sure what Kofi is actually good at.
Akosua started out the same way, but after a few years she noticed that her best work was always about one thing: helping growing companies hire and keep good people. She rewrote her card. One line. “I help growing Ghanaian businesses hire well and keep their best staff.”
She turned down some work she could technically have done. Her income dipped for a few months. Then something changed. HR managers started forwarding her name to each other. A business owner in Kumasi called after hearing about her from a friend in Tema. When someone asked, “Who do you know for staff retention?”, the answer came instantly: Akosua.
Kofi was trying to be relevant to everyone. Akosua became memorable to someone. That turned out to matter far more.
Why the Trap Is So Tempting
It helps to be honest about why so many of us fall into it.
Fear of missing out. If I say I only do one thing, I may lose the clients who need something else. This fear is real, especially early in a career or in a tight market.
A genuine range of skills. Many Ghanaian professionals really are capable across several areas. They have worked in different sectors, learned on the job, and picked up useful skills along the way. Listing all of them feels like honesty.
Pressure to have an answer. Nobody wants to say “that is outside my area” when a client, a boss, or a journalist is waiting. Saying yes feels more confident than saying no.
None of these motives is bad. The trouble is in what happens next.
What It Actually Does to Your Credibility
Here is the uncomfortable truth: audiences and decision-makers are quick to discount claims of expertise that sound too broad to be believed. When someone says they are excellent at strategy, recruitment, branding, finance, and motivational speaking all at once, the listener does not think “what a remarkable person.” The listener quietly thinks “so what are they actually good at?”
This brings three costs.
You become harder to recommend. People refer professionals they can describe in one sentence. If your friends cannot explain what you do, they cannot pass your name along.
Your real strength gets buried. If your genuine skill is in one area, and your public message covers seven, the one that matters is lost in the noise.
Overreach eventually exposes you. We have all watched a commentator on radio or television speak with equal confidence about the economy, then football, then health, then the law. Each topic earns a little less trust than the one before. Sooner or later, a listener who happens to know the subject notices the gap. Credibility built over years can be damaged by a few overconfident minutes, and it is remembered longer than the person who made the mistake expects.
Real Range Is Not the Problem
Let me be clear: this is not a call to pretend you have only one skill. Many strong professionals do hold broad capability, and that is a real asset.
The difference is in what you lead with. The professionals who build lasting authority are usually the ones who put their strongest area forward first, let their work in that area speak for itself, and allow their wider range to show up naturally once people trust them. Narrow, well-demonstrated authority in one area tends to transfer into adjacent areas far more credibly than a broad claim ever does on its own.
Think of a family doctor who is known and trusted for one thing, say, managing diabetes well. Patients later trust her on blood pressure, on diet, on general health. That trust travels outward from a recognised strength. A doctor who advertised herself as an expert in “everything from heart surgery to skin care to fertility” would be trusted on none of them.
How to Climb Out of the Trap
If you recognise yourself in this, here is a gentle way back.
Look at your best results. Which work do clients thank you for? Which project do people still talk about? The thread running through them is usually your real strength.
Ask people who know your work. Two or three trusted colleagues or clients can tell you what they would send someone to you for. Their answer is often clearer than your own.
Rewrite your headline and introduction. Lead with one clear area. You can mention other skills below it, but let the first line do real work.
Practise saying “that is outside my area.” It feels risky the first few times. In fact, it is one of the most credibility-building sentences a professional can say. Better still, add “but I know someone who can help.” Referring work to others makes people trust your judgement more, not less.
Be patient. Your income may wobble for a few months, as Akosua’s did. Clarity pays off over a longer horizon than panic does.
The Bottom Line
Trying to be everything to everyone feels like protection. In practice, it often leaves you invisible. The professionals people remember, recommend, and trust are not the ones who can do the most things. They are the ones who are clearly, reliably good at something.
You do not have to give up your range. You only have to stop leading with it.
This is one of the ideas explored in more depth in my book, From Expertise to Influence: How Professionals Become Trusted Voices in Their Fields, available now at www.asarebediakoadams.com. You can also download free worksheets there to help you work out what to lead with.