It can be a beginning, or an end, or a myriad of things in between.
As I uttered those words this morning, a smile played on my lips.
I could hear the pure dark timbre of my voice reverberating in my chest.
The voice of my heart.
Infinite…
Unconditional…
Unequivocal love.
Who or what was the object of my affection doesn’t matter.
What matters was the surrender.
It was pure, joyful, radiant.
I don’t share this to make you go all doe-eyed or to elicit an obligatory “aww…”
I share this because there was a time when I paid no attention to my spoken voice, and even less attention to my beliefs about creativity.
Back then, my heart lay sunken and heavy in the base of my chest. When I did use it, the cracks were evident. Its brittle, breathless timbre told the tale of a creative writer who’d lost her light.
I was afraid.
I thought I had nothing valuable to offer – except maybe my emotion. But too much emotion makes people uncomfortable, apparently.
These days, it’s hard for anyone to shut me up. But it took time and a willingness to sit with myself in the shadow for that to change.
So this is my challenge to you, budding creator.
Next time you shy away from sharing your story, instead give your voice a stage. Talk out loud. More importantly, listen to the sound. This principle applies to every area of your written communication, but especially on social media, where the opportunity to convey your true intent and win your audience’s heart is fleeting.
I encourage you to find a way to love your voice, and live the creative beliefs that serve you. Sing, read out loud, record videos, make up silly voices. The more you do this, the more you’ll notice when something is a little ‘off’. It will give you the opportunity to nip it in the bud before Godzilla eats the city… and you’ll have fun doing it, I promise!
Trust me on this. But more importantly, trust yourself. Because creating from your heart will serve you in business, and in life.
More thoughts about living an authentic creative life here
One of the most powerful and most untapped benefits of LinkedIn for business owners and professionals is this: you really CAN talk about anything. No topic is too ✨’woo-woo‘✨ or inappropriate (what is an ‘appropriate’ topic anyway?) as long as you keep one thing top of mind. Judgement. More specifically, self-judgement. Because self-judgement is the tsunami that sinks a thousand ships. In this case, your social currency ship.
As a LinkedIn educator, you’d expect me to say that cultivating the right audience is the number one thing to keep top of mind. You’re right. That will always be important. A scatter-gun or hope based strategy wastes your time and that of your audience. But…
As a creator, creating without self-judgement is my true north. It’s the one thing I keep top of mind when I’m writing, above all else.
Why? Because everything else is a technicality. I can give you the latest tools, a sea of tips and lots of pretty, optimised templates, but…
You have to lean in, love yourself and most of all, leave self-judgement out of it. Yes, it’s easier said than done, but guess what? I have your back, and so does your audience. Your audience appreciates authenticity and humility. They’ll ask for more. They’ll even tell others. And after all, isn’t that what social media is MEANT to be about? 😉
Want to explore more ideas about creating from the heart? You might like this article
Looking for templates that will help you create LinkedIn posts about any topic quickly and easily, without sounding like a robot? We can help. Just drop us a line here.
Never underestimate the power of your own UNIQUE ENERGY. Whether you OWN IT OR NOT, it shines through in your presence on, and offline – making it a key part of your LinkedIn identity and your content.
The energy of your content is one of the first measures your reader has to gauge your personality, your knowledge and most importantly, what it would be like to work with you.
Your content conveys a myriad of things, like your assertiveness, your attention to detail, how you see yourself in relation to others, and so on.
So if you get a creative block or just don’t feel ‘in the mood’ to create content, there’s a lot at stake. It’s essential to find a way to push through, otherwise your peers and competitors will quickly fill the gap and claim your readers’ attention.
What’s the solution?
The solution is to embrace the wave, and accept that there will be highs and lows. Ups and downs. We have to keep on creating, especially if it’s our livelihood. But how?
One of the best methods I know is to harness the raw power of my present emotion. Be willing to sit with it for a moment, as I would a good friend. Most importantly, I give it a name.
🔴 Love 🟠 Anger 🟡 Frustration 🟢 Jealousy 🔵 Joy 🟣 Excitement
It is what it is, so don’t demonise it, and don’t wait to be ‘in the mood.’
Here’s a quick, simple activity you can try right now.
First, name the emotion you’re feeling.
Then, if it’s positive, go on a rampage of APPRECIATION and brainstorm other words you could use to describe it. (synonyms)
On the other hand, if it’s negative, name its OPPOSITE, then follow the steps above.
I love to work with my emotions. Sometimes I sink into them and LUXURIATE, snuggling down as if I’m under a doona, soft and FLUFFY. Other times, the emotion makes me feel like I’m like a toddler stomping in MUDDY PUDDLES, a wet, glorious, filthy MESS. If you’ve ever watched Peppa Pig, you know what I mean!
I’m a professional writer, but even I get caught.
Sometimes, my emotions sneak up on me, like they did this morning. As the bedside alarm clock rang out, its melodic sound gently unravelled a tight, tense nightmare which seemed to threaten everything I love. I lay in its grip, the charred scent lingering long after I awoke, and an acrid taste on my tongue. All I could recognise was that I felt STONE COLD FEAR.
What was the solution, you ask? Well, I pulled a silly face, said to my cat Lady Gaga and to myself, “not today, fear!”, and then I laughed in the cheesiest, pantomime villain voice I could muster. What a performance.
What do you think the effect of that was? More importantly, how did it make YOU feel?
Sometimes, the most powerful lessons come from unlikely places.
Thank you, Judith.
In 2008, my grandma’s best friend and neighbour Judith died. She was found in the living room of her small villa unit, a cup of milky tea and her tabby cat Mildred at her side.
Her living room was sparse and dim. Heavy lace curtains muted the sunlight which barely reached her favourite recliner, and the air was always thick with the cloying scent of lilac. She said it suited her, because the soft light made it ‘relaxing’ and the floral aroma reminded her of her mother, who had long since passed.
Most people never saw beyond the living room. They only saw what she wanted them to see: independence. Not the decades of stories that lay beyond those four walls.
She ventured out every day. At 5’10” her tall yet stooped figure, always in pastel colours, would be seen shuffling to the community hall to play bingo or gin rummy. Then she’d shuffle home in time for her daily dinner of lamb chops and boiled vegetables. Always at 4.30pm, and always with the day’s newspaper tucked under her arm.
Judith bought a newspaper every day, because it was what she’d always done. My grandma said she didn’t even read it most days, but every day she went through the motions. Every day, people saw her doing her thing. She’d return to her living room, her milky tea and Mildred and chalk up another day of what she called “dodging the obits.” (obituaries)
Judith’s measure of success
The newspaper ritual was a measure of success. Judith always believed in keeping up appearances. Her family had given up challenging her habits, so no one spoke about it.
It was my grandma who found her. She already knew about the newspapers, and she knew to leave well alone, but for everyone else who walked through the door after Judith died, the floor to ceiling piles were all they could talk about.
They discovered a history of newsprint spanning not just days, weeks or months, but decades, all carefully closeted behind French bi-fold doors that separated her living room from the rest of the home.
No one understood why. No one except my grandma. Only she saw the yellow-edged envelope that had been laying in Judith’s lap when she died, my grandma’s name scrawled in shaky cursive on the front. When the commotion of questions and busyness subsided, and she and Mildred were finally alone, my grandma opened it.
“Jean my wonderful friend, thank you. For making me laugh, for sharing a sherry or three, and for never asking why. Love, Judith xo
PS. You’ll probably be asked about the newspapers, to which I say let ’em ask! I never did care for reading the damned things. But it felt nice to have a reason to go out each day, apart from gambling my pension on bingo… ha ha!”
The moral of the story
Judith’s tale is no different to many of us on LinkedIn.
Business owners, leaders, marketers all pumping out multiple posts a day, and accepting connections from every Johan, Yiannis and Yolanda. All to create a perception of success and keep up online appearances. But bright shiny posts and 6-figure followings often have little more than a sparkly string of vanity metrics holding them up. No commercial drivers, no revenue.
If commerciality is not your thing, that’s ok. But if you’re frustrated by lack of ROI, or by trying to keep up appearances, I’d say you’re out of alignment.
Every aspect of your LinkedIn presence needs to align with your broader marketing, content and social media strategies. If it doesn’t, you might as well be playing bingo with your time, and your customers.
Are you making LinkedIn headlines for the right reasons?
Get more tips for building your LinkedIn presence here.
That teeth-grinding, fingernails-scraping-the-blackboard, shiver-down-your-spine, kind of sound?
That’s our global business community.
Slowly. But surely. Decelerating.
Until we hit an all-mighty halt.
>>>THUMP<<<
But as business owners and leaders, we can’t actually stop, can we?
It’s up to us to find a way. Make a way. Be creative.
So what now?
Where are we going to find creativity and produce amazing content when we can’t even get a cup of coffee from our favourite cafe? (Well maybe we can – for now – as long as we aren’t intending to sit down…)
I’ll tell you what we can do.
We can go inward.
Yes, I do mean in a spiritual sense. It’s never been more important to reconnect with our inner selves, our own wisdom, our hearts. And with our source – whatever that means for you.
Some things will always be best coming from within.
But sometimes you also have to level up.
Toss on your cape. Unsheathe your sword. Slip on your bullet-deflecting Amazonian Bracelets of Submission.
Ok. Maybe that’s just me. Or Wonder Woman.
But the bottom line is, coronavirus has sunk its claws into life as we know it and it sure ain’t letting go any time soon…
It’s time to cast our creative net a whole lot wider.
So I’ve given myself permission to indulge in some fantasy… Will you join me?
It’s not a path for those who prefer to tread a stoic’s trail, paved by bricks of unwavering certainty and mortar steeped in suffering.
But it’s also not a vista of verdant hills, where fluffy bunnies scamper about and you don your fairy wings to flutter among the wispy white clouds… while the world below, your business, your livelihood, your relationships, go to rack and ruin.
Instead, it’s a path that uplifts and empowers. One that gives us permission to revisit the things that bring us unbridled joy.
Heck. In times like this, I’d even settle for something that elicits a Mona Lisa smile.
I’m not talking about throwing caution to the wind. Or going AWOL.
But sometimes we need to find contrast.
Do the opposite of what’s appropriate and ‘business like’.
Revisit those things we relegated to the far corners of our minds… if you look carefully, you can still catch a glimpse of them… the sparkles that now lie dormant in the fairy dust of a childhood past, along with our comic books and costumes and colouring books.
Past. But not forgotten.
Those things never went away.
The silly movies you watched a million times, the ones that made your belly ache with laughter. The ridiculous games you invented, that held together with nothing but paper clips and imagination. The fantastical storybooks that took you on mystical, magical journeys past, present and future, and had you dreaming of becoming a superhero when you ‘grew up’.
Just because something doesn’t appear to have a direct and obvious commercial purpose, does not mean it is without value.
Especially now.
So…
Break out some retro MUSIC. Show your kids how to do Stayin’ Alive like John Travolta. (Did you know the dance has had a revival, thanks to the video game Fortnite?)
John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Break out some vintage MOVIES. After all… there is only one Bond, James Bond.
Bond’s famous gun barrel opening credits.
Break out the classic NOVELS. Curl up under the covers and journey with Frodo on his epic quest in Lord of the Rings.
Frodo leads a quest to destroy the ring.
My point is this:
Sometimes the best way to reignite our creativity is something far, far away from reality.
Because it’s often in moments of escapism, adventure and nonsense that we find our greatest inspiration.
You can’t be creative when you’re stressed out, anxious, confused. At least not without a whole lot of unnecessary angst, errors and effort.
Yes, it’s been proven by science, no surprises there. Most of us have learned something about the concept of fight or flight response.
But do you know what’s far more important, not just to me, and to you… but to your customers?
The ones who are also struggling right now?
None of them wants to engage in content that was created from a place of fear and dread.
So join me, and give yourself permission to escape reality, just for a moment.
Each of us has our own unique way of finding focus at work. That perfect setting for achieving maximum productivity and creativity.
For some, it’s total silence. Others are inspired by background chatter and the whir of the espresso machine at their favourite cafe. But music is also a powerful tool for helping you get in flow.
It’s not just a feeling… numerous research studies have proven the ability of sound to influence our thought patterns, brain waves and mood. Binaural beats in particular have receive heightened attention recently for their ability to shift thought speed and intensity, though you’ll only reap the full benefit wearing headphones, which isn’t always practical.
So what do people listen to when they want to tune out the world and get things done, or when they find themselves in a funk and need to inject some energy?
I put the question out to my LinkedIn network recently, and these were the 14 songs that received most votes.
What’s your favourite song for regaining energy, or finding focus? Share it in the comments!
These days, content creation is a cornerstone of marketing communications. We know our customers want information – and lots of it – before many of them will even consider doing business with us.
Thankfully, we’ve come a long way from the days when advertising ruled the marketing roost and messaging followed the Henry Ford philosophy: “You can have any colour as long as it’s black.” But it’s not just a case of checking off a set number of ‘touches’ between you and your audience before they’ll be motivated to act.Read more…
Whether you grew up with Jane Austen or Marvel Comics, there’s no doubt our reading habits have a huge impact on how we view the world, and who we become. What motivates us to read is different for everyone: for some it’s one of life’s simple pleasures, others see it as a chore. For some, it’s a quest for knowledge.
We’re not all destined to become novelists or poets. But in an age where content is king, almost everyone in the business world is now compelled to write. For some this can be terrifying, especially if they’ve convinced themselves, ‘I’m not a writer’.Read more…
Whether your content marketing strategy is designed to sell houses or haircuts, the principles are the same. So why do we over-complicate things?
Whenever I feel tempted to leverage everything marketing and social media technology has to offer, I’m reminded of a valuable lesson taught me by an eight year old boy, who once asked me what I did for a living.Read more…
LinkedIn is a great platform to grow your professional network. No longer regarded as just a repository for resumes, LinkedIn’s 610 million strong membership means you can connect with people in any role, any industry, any location.
But doing it incorrectly can damage your business, and your personal brand.
To connect effectively, it’s vital to do things like:
Today visual content, especially video, is everywhere. And there’s no denying the influence of great imagery on our emotion and memory: Research shows our ability to recall information jumps from 10% to 65% when it includes a relevant image.
But never underestimate the power of the right language. Not just clever words, but ones that spark emotion. Think back to the novels you read as a child. A well-crafted story would carry you away, ignite your imagination, make you feel.Read more…
When LinkedIn launched in 2003, its goal was to be the social networking site for professionals. However it soon became known as the social network for job seekers, a place to publish your ‘online resume’.
This wasn’t a bad thing in its own right. But it created a reputation which still lingers for many LinkedIn members. And so, the wide range of benefits and features LinkedIn offers go largely unused by millions of members. Which translates to millions of business owners and professionals missing out on opportunities to connect, collaborate and achieve their goals.Read more…
We all know that person who talks about nothing but themselves. Annoying, right? Well, your customers feel the same way when your content talks about nothing but your products or services!
As business owners and professionals, we do it to stay front of mind. But there are more effective ways to do this… and they have nothing to do with your business.
Your customers are looking for information, not self-promotion. So give them greater value and show your breadth of knowledge by sharing other people’s content.Read more…
Did you know that according to research, our attention span is now shorter than a goldfish?
In today’s crowded digital space, we see hundreds of messages every day. When we visit a website for more information, we expect to find what we’re looking for quickly and easily, without having to dig.
The average customer will give you around 8 seconds to convince them to stick around before they click away – so your web content must be precise, concise and most of all, show how you can help them solve their problem.Read more…
With an audience of more than 640 million professionals, LinkedIn is one of the best places for you to get noticed, build your reputation and grow your business.
But like any social network, there are some rules of the game you must know if you want to look professional and take advantage of all the benefits LinkedIn has to offer.Read more…
We’re living in an age of information abundance. With the click of a button, Google can give us answers to every conceivable question. So it’s not surprising business owners and marketers are increasingly using content as a lead generation tool.
This can be a highly effective strategy, provided your content is customer-centric. Unfortunately this is where a lot of businesses fall short – not through lack of knowledge or expertise, but simply because the content doesn’t resonate with their target audience.Read more…
No matter how far we’ve come with technology and communications, the written word still holds great power. The words we choose to use – or not use – can completely alter our message. Have you considered the impact your words are having on your customers?
Whether it’s the home page of your website, a blog or a Facebook post, your content must be solution orientated. This not only shows that you clearly understand your business and your audience, it makes customers want to know more, and therefore more likely to act.Read more…
Communication is evolving at lightning speed. We see millions of written messages every day, many beamed directly to our emails and phones. So how can you make yours stand out and grab your clients’ attention? You guessed it – professional, persuasive copywriting.
Copywriting can help you create effective content that not only engages your clients, but compels them to take action and buy from you.
In business, great writing is vital. Your clients decide to click-through or delete in a heartbeat, so your writing must clearly and efficiently convey the solutions and benefits you provide.Read more…
Buying and selling property rates amongst one of life’s biggest decisions. So it’s not surprising many people research the market and shop around – often long before requesting a market appraisal or attending an open for inspection.
Faced with greater competition and client expectations, many real estate and property professionals struggle to differentiate themselves with advertising alone. Instead, what’s needed to engage new clients is unique content showing the benefits of your expertise and industry knowledge.Read more…
Recruitment professionals have enormous influence. Whether it’s a company looking for the best talent, or a candidate seeking their dream job, they rely on the advice of a recruiter to help them make good choices.
Today, clients and candidates demand much more from recruiters. It’s not enough to have a great track record or access to exciting career opportunities. They expect personalised guidance, expert knowledge and commitment to matching the right job-seeker and employer.
Professional copywriting is a powerful way to show your clients and candidates you’re the best recruiter for the job. Rather than competing on job listings alone, a copywriter can help you build content that speaks directly to their wants, needs and challenges.Read more…
