It is difficult to explain what I do for work. That is rooted in the lack of a single concrete definition of the situations clients face. Essentially I am a curator of applied information. It requires the same processes we all need to solve the problems and challenges in this world. Greg Mckeown describes the process like this: getting to the essence (of whatever) takes a deep understanding of the topic (this sometimes means you have to work long and hard to gain this understanding), and it's context (this often requires your physical presence) and it's fit into the bigger picture and how it relates to bigger fields of study or knowledge. This is different client to client and therein lies the difficulty of explaining it in simple concrete terms.
As you apply these practices to the operational or developmental challenges, you (hopefully) can see the patterns and the obstacles that prevent progress or success. This in a nutshell is what I do for my clients day in and day out. It is immensely satisfying to see someone leap the hurdles preventing them from having powerful success!