This is Lesson Four in a series of six posts that preview just some of the content we’ll be working on in the Put the Mojo in Your Message training starting February 14th (this is a new group at a new day and time). You can read the earlier posts here: http://soundbiteshaman.com/category/impact-and-income.

Every single business owner needs to be able to use written words to tell the story of what they offer and why it’s important. It doesn’t even matter so much that story is being told on a flier, on a webpage, or in a promotional email. Regardless of where those written words are showing up, telling a compelling story (not your personal rags-to-riches story, but a clear flow of ideas) is key to promoting and selling your programs, products, and services.

In fact, the biggest underlying reason I see business owners struggle with copy is that they haven’t actually worked out yet what they are trying to say. That’s why I encourage all my clients to take the time to write that basic story about what they offer, before worrying about what the program or product is, or what the details of the offer are, or where the words are going to appear.

And, once you invest the time in writing your basic story, then most of your copy is already written, you just need to add:
• Headlines and sub-heads
• Bullet points
• Offer details
• And a strong call to action

Here’s the thing, all marketing pieces, have an underlying structure. And what is really cool is that if you understand that structure, then writing your story becomes much, much easier.

So, the simple formula for creating your basic story, the formula that underlies pretty much every effective marketing piece is The Pain + The Hope + The Plan. What you have to say about these three things will be fundamentally the same for most of your offers. So when you write this “story” in a way that satisfies you, you’ll be able to write copy with more fluidity and ease.

Let’s talk a bit about each of these sections:

The Pain

So the Pain is where you write a little bit about what you see is the challenging situation that your prospective client is experiencing before they know that you exist.

The big fear here is that by writing about your audience’s pain that you’re being manipulative. The truth is that while evoking pain can be done in a manipulative manner, it can also be done in a deeply compassionate manner. It’s not supportive to see someone in pain, and then pretend that pain doesn’t exist. Is it?

It only becomes manipulative if you’re trying to whip people in to a pain that they never had before you started talking. Or you’re exaggerating the scenario to accentuate the fear.

And truthfully, the only way your audience will know that you can help them with the very real challenges that they are facing, is if you can talk about those challenges in a way that convinces them that you have some understanding and intimacy of who they are and what they’re up against.

What I want you to consider is that the Pain section is actually where you’re creating connection with your audience!

The beginning of any marketing piece, you need to “get people in the door” and give them a reason to keep reading. And the best way to do that is to show them that you know who they are and what they are experiencing.

The Hope

This is where you want to paint a vivid and compelling picture of how great life can be when someone takes the leap of faith and experiences the transformation you have to offer.

A very simple way to think about this is the Pain is the before, and the Hope is the after. The Hope is the relieving of the Pain.

So the Hope section will be a blend of the outcomes, solutions, and experiences your audience knows they’re looking for (even before they know you exist) with the concepts and ideas that you hold most dear. When you blend them together, it really makes your story very compelling.

If I were writing the story for my business, using this principle, I might write about practical outcomes that result from working with me, like having a successful business, getting more clients, making more money, but I would also write about the things that are meaningful to me, like connecting with the deepest message you’re here to share, and the satisfaction of knowing that you’re fulfilling what you were called here to do. I would write about both of those.

Within this section, you can go back and forth between the practical outcomes and the deeper meaning. If you had to put it in order, I often recommend you talk about the practical benefits first and then unfold in to the deeper meaning.

So, if use an example about a woman going through a divorce; it would sound like: “When you connect with and recognize your own beauty, then this is what becomes possible. You move out in to the world with more confidence. You engage in relationships from a different place. You have more courage and confidence to create new friendships or even new romantic relationships.”

The most touching, moving writing has a well-developed Hope section. Copy that feels more flat or superficial, or hype-y, tends to not have a well-developed Hope section.

The other thing that will happen is this section will go flat if you’re only focusing on the concrete, tangible outcomes, and you’re not including your deeper meaning. And then it’ll sound more like, “Oh, are you having trouble finding words and communicating what you do? Well, I can help you get more clients and make more money and it’s going to be great.”

It actually will feel disconnected. It will feel like, well, wait, we were just talking about one struggle, and now you’re talking about a solution. But there is nothing in between to help your reader shift from one to the other.

The Plan

The final part in our formula is the Plan.

In finished copy, the plan can be as simple as the next step your reader needs to take to move towards a solution of their challenge, or as complex as you walking them through your process. It’s either “here’s what you need to do next,” the call to action, or a longer description: “Let me walk you through how I help you to go from the before to the after.”

So what that will sound like is something like, “So what I do is teach you the five steps of shifting your beliefs so that you can earn more money.” Or, “What I do is guide you through the four phases of loving your life as a single woman.” Or, “What I do is take you through four steps to aligning with our deeper message and bringing that out in your business communication.”

To have credibility, you want to give it structure. I recommend you have a defined number of ingredients or elements or components. And you want to craft that phrase that says, “So what I do is…” and then you have some kind of verb. It can be “Teach you,” or “Guide you through,” or “Support you with,” and then you want the number of things, and then that last piece is about the outcome.

“What I do is teach you the five steps of shifting your beliefs on a deep level so you can earn more money. ”

So if you’re writing a longer written piece, like a web sales page, after you say that first line, like “The five steps of shifting your belief,” you would actually want to list what the five steps were, and you might actually write a paragraph or have a bullet list under each of those five steps. That would be the long version.

In a free report, you might say, “I like to guide you through the four phases of loving your life as a single woman.” In that report, you might write about each of those four phases.

In a promotional email, again, if you said “I have five steps to better business results,” you might bullet list the five steps and then have the call to action. Or you might say: “I want to teach you my five steps to better business results,” and then you might have a link to a register for a free teleclass where you actually then give all five steps and talk a little bit about each.

The great thing that you’re demonstrating is that when you know your basic story, and you’ve written it, you can use it in a longer piece, you can use it in a shorter piece, you can use parts of it. It gives you so much flexibility.

Clients just have told me over and over that once they’ve written this basic story, they are so much more clear and confident about the value that they have to offer. They are finally focused on the story they’re here to tell. They’re not trying to tell ten different stories.

My clients use this basic story as a reference piece in their library so that whenever they have to write a new marketing piece, they go back to this and they pull from it. They spend much less time writing than they did before when they had to write everything from scratch.

Our original Mojo group sold out before the early bird pricing ended, so we’ve added a second section slated to start on Tuesday, February 14th. You can get all the details and instructions on applying here: http://soundbiteshaman.com/mojo-home.

Go to http://soundbiteshaman.com/mojo-home and request your full, detailed information packet. Hop on over and do it today as extended early bird pricing ends on Friday, February 3rd !

This is Lesson Three in a series of six posts that preview just some of the content we’ll be working on in the Put the Mojo in Your Message training starting February 8th. You can read the previous posts here: http://soundbiteshaman.com/category/impact-and-income

In our previous lesson, we talked about getting someone’s attention using the “hey you” principle. But it’s equally important to know what to say after you’ve gotten someone’s attention to move them from being interested to actually saying yes to working with you.

A lot of people have been told by well meaning marketing people “No one cares about your process.” But it’s not really true. It’s not that people don’t care about your process, it’s that you need to know when they are ready to hear about it.

And a prospect is ready to hear about your process once they feel they want what you offer and as they begin to make a decision about working with you. Once somebody knows that they want what you offer – their next question, whether it’s spoken out loud or it’s unconscious, is “can I trust you to deliver on that promise? Is it safe for me to go ahead and invest time and money with you?”

And how you answer that question, “Well, how do you do that?” “How do you produce that outcome?” either establishes you as being really credible, or raises fears and doubts that you’re promising more than you can deliver.

And that’s where this idea of Signature System comes in.

The structure that a Signature System provides makes what you do, which may be very experiential and intangible, feel real.

People spend money on things that feel real to them.

The problem is that the way Signature System often gets taught, it can feel simplistic or shallow. You may feel pressured to make your process linear, when it’s not. Or to simplify what is a complex process to the point that it lacks real depth and substance.

You may be thinking “I don’t want to say I have a three-step formula for outrageous success.”

So sure, if you say you have a three-step-wham-bang-never-fails-absolutely-guaranteed-100%-chance-of-making-a-million-dollars-in-30-days signature system, and you and I both know that there is no three-step-no-fail-absolutely-guaranteed formula, then it would not only be superficial, it would be dishonest to present that.

But you could in good conscience say, “This is my three-step formula for opening to a greater flow of income and abundance in your business.”

Giving your work structure is not about giving people quick fixes or easy answers. It’s a way to give some shape and form to the journey that you’re going to invite people to take with you, because the more they can see the shape and form, the more confident and secure they can feel about stepping forward with you.

So, that description of the journey you go on together is what’s called your Signature System. You can also call it your logic, your process, or your methodology. What I like to call it is your True Wisdom.

If I’m your prospect, your Signature System shows me how you think. It shows me how you think about the problem or challenge that I’m facing, and it helps me know if the way you think about it is illuminating for me, or if it feels like you’re covering territory I already understand.

Don’t cop out by saying that your process is non-linear, or intuitive, or different for every person.

After nearly 10 years doing this work with people, I’ve found there is always a beautiful way to paint a picture of what you do with people, one that can is both accurate and flexible. If you’re not so linear, you might not have steps. You might use much looser structures like having “ingredients” or “components” or “principles.”

So if you say, “I help you build richer more fulfilling personal relationships,” you might see that there are five principles to a really healthy, happy relationship. When you work with people, it might not matter which one you start with, you might customize that for each client, or spend a different amount of time on each principle depending on who you are working with. But if you can at least describe what the five basic ingredients are, people will have a better sense of what they’ll get if they sign up to work with you.

And when you come up with a clear structure for describing how you work with people, it’s going to help you immeasurably if you want to create information product, write a book, or create programs because you’re going to need that structure to do all of those things.

First, Brain Dump

The first step to figuring out your Signature System is to do a brain dump in answer to the question “what is it I know about helping people experience the outcome I promise in my Core Message?”

You may want to do mind map by hand, or use mind mapping software. Meeting and facilitation types will have fun using post-its to capture their ideas. Keep following every line of thought and just writing each of those ideas down on a post-it or as one little piece of my mind map. Keep asking yourself, “Great, is there more?”

Or, if you are someone who has been trained in lots of techniques and processes, simply make a map of every tool, technique, and exercise you do with your clients.

Now, Create Clusters

Once you’ve gotten all the pieces out onto the table, you start to cluster. So you go, “Oh, all of these are about really discovering who you really are at your core.” And you put all the tools and exercises that go there.

You take another batch of little bits and pieces and you say, “All of these are about creating a safe space environment at work,” and as you pull the pieces together, you start to see that there are three or five or seven main themes.

As you cluster, you start to get the big hairy mass of stuff down in to a more manageable grouping.

As you are starting to group things together, you can start to play with names. Just try to find a name that helps you bring into focus why this piece of work matters.

Keep clustering until you have no more than seven chunks or pieces. Don’t worry if it takes you two or three passes to get it down.

Believe that there is a simpler structure there even if you don’t see it.

And that’s how you begin to create your Signature System, the one you love, and that invites people to work with you.

Would you like to have a sounding board as you create a signature system you love, that gives shape and definition to what it is that you offer? Join me starting February 8th in my Put the Mojo in Your Message training and let me help.

I’ll lay out a clear, tested step-by-step path to get the underlying structure of your work to fall into place, and I’ll give you the direct, detailed feedback that lets you know if you got it, or if there’s something even better that can come out of you. I will poke and prod until I am satisfied that you have the strongest words you’re capable of creating.

Before I worked with Isabel, I kept hearing ‘Fergus, I would never have done business with you if I had not met you. When I read your website there was just no soul, it just didn’t connect with me the way you do in person.’

With the skills I learned from Isabel, I can now use the written word to connect with others and describe in words they understand what the sound of their voice can do for them. How it can help them create trust and confidence to share their message or sell their services. Isabel challenged me to move beyond saying ‘what I do is different for different people …it depends’ to sitting down and uncovering the methodology, the process I actually follow.

Now I’m getting approached by clients who already know what they want and why just from having read by website. Word is spreading so fast I’m being approached by people who want to become Vocaltrademark Certified Trainers. The skills I gained have proved invaluable in developing my recently launched Vocaltrademark Accredited Trainer Program.

Thank you Isabel!

Fergus McClelland, www.vocaltrademark.com

To get more info go to http://soundbiteshaman.com/mojo-home and request your full, detailed information packet. Hop on over and do it today as early bird pricing ends on January 31!

This is Lesson Two in a series of six posts that preview just some of the content we’ll be working on in the Put the Mojo in Your Message training starting February 8th. You can read the first post here: http://soundbiteshaman.com/category/impact-and-income

There’s no way around it. If you don’t know who you’re here to serve, who you’re talking to when you write your copy and craft your elevator speech, it’s hard to come up with any language that’s compelling.

And transformational types often suffer mightily with this question because their work can truly be of benefit to so many different types of people.

You see, one of the most powerful forces in marketing is what I call the “hey you” principle.

I explain the “hey you” principle this way.

Sometimes, my husband Peter is in another room in the house and he starts talking to me. But I don’t usually listen and I don’t actually hear or take in what he’s saying.

Why? Because I don’t know if he’s talking to me.

He might be on the phone, he might be talking to himself, he might be talking to the dog.

He’s learned over our 15 years or more together that if he wants my attention, he has to start by saying “Hey, Isabel”.

That gets my attention, and then I can hear the rest of what he has to say.

If your marketing doesn’t in some fashion say “hey you” to your perfect people, the risk is high they simply won’t pause long enough to really listen to what you have to say.

And you can’t say “hey you” if you don’t know who you are talking to.

So when somebody comes to me and they tell me that they’re having a hard time putting together their elevator speech, what I find is it’s almost always that they either haven’t decided who their audience is, or they aren’t really sure what their audience wants and needs, and will actually pay money for.

Getting across what is deep and powerful about what you do isn’t the key part of writing a simple but soulful introduction, the hard part is deciding who you want to be talking to.

And to pick your audience, you first need to navigate all of the feelings and emotions that come up around making that choice.

So let’s look at the three common fears that I find come up for people when they’re asked to pick who their audience is.

Fear One: I’ll Pick the Wrong Audience

So the first fear sounds like: “I will pick the wrong audience and doom myself to financial failure because I picked the wrong audience.” We worry deeply about getting this right.

But here’s the thing; if you pick an audience and take some steps to actually test out if your hunch is right, one of two things is going to happen; either the feedback you get is going to confirm this really is a good audience or help you see clearly that they are not. Which leaves you leaves you much further ahead than before you started.

Fear Two: I’ll Turn Off or Turn Away Someone Who Might Work with Me

The second fear is “If I’m too specific about my audience, I will turn off or turn away someone who might otherwise have hired me.”

One of the things I like to teach in my trainings is that you never have to turn someone away who you know that you can serve and who wants your services that you would like to work with. So if you say “I work with women executives,” and someone comes to you who is not a woman or an executive and says, “I really like what you’re talking about, would you work with me?”, you can say “yes.”

It’s simply that you are not going to expend the time and the energy and the money to try to speak to everyone that you could potentially serve. It’s just too exhausting and inefficient, particularly, for a solo business owner to try to speak to every potential subgroup of all of the people who could potentially benefit from what you do. You will wear yourself out.

Fear Three: There Aren’t Enough of My Ideal Audience to Support Me

So the third fear is that if you name a very specific audience, you won’t be able to find enough of them to actually have a viable business. More fear that you are dooming yourself to failure.

But out of that fear, we try to speak to and serve everybody at the same time and we end up not serving anyone terribly well.

If you pick that more narrow audience, and do some smart things to put yourself in front of that audience, the odds are very good that you’re going to find enough of that one type of client to have a successful business.

So let’s get started today with a few questions to get you going deeper with naming your audience, or what I like to call your “Sweet Spot” audience.

The “Sweet Spot Audience” is the narrow slice of all the people you could work with who are going to appreciate what you do the most, who are going to pay you for it, and who are going to get the value that you’re offering the most easily.

Clients sometimes say to me, “I’m trying to solve this question of who could I serve.” But that isn’t really the right question. A much better question is “Of all the different types of people I could serve, who would it be smart for me to focus on?”

Here’s three tips to help you do that:

Tip One: Consider the Audience You Would Be Most Delirious and Delighted to Serve

The truth is that most of us have a sense, deep down, who we would love to work with.

It’s just that we decide in some part of our brain that it won’t work, that they won’t like us, or it’s not a typical audience, or that there’s some other obstacle, so we cross them off our list and then wonder why we can’t name an audience that we’d love to serve.

Ask yourself: “what kind of people do I love? what kind of people am I excited about spending time with?” Connect with your love and passion for these people. That’s who you want to talk to.

Tip Two: Define Situations that Create the Need for Your Work

Another way to get more concrete and more specific about who you can help is to name the kinds of real-life situations that people are in that create a heightened need or appreciation for what you do.

So, for example, women who have been recently divorced might have a heightened need to take charge of their finances.

People who are new in business might have a heightened need to connect with their inner wisdom so that they can really make the many, many ,many decisions that are part of starting and growing a business.

Sometimes, spiritually oriented business owners are guilty of just wanting to talk about what they do and hope the right people will be drawn to them. The piece that’s missing is reaching out beyond themselves to say, “But how does someone end up in the place where they know that they need me?”

The truth is people will say “yes” to you more quickly, and pay you more money when you have the courage to be more specific.

Tip Three: Ask for Help

I want to give you this third very simple, and definitely woo-woo tip.

Because we really are so much wiser than we give ourselves credit for, take a moment right now, throw your hands in the air, and say out loud “I call in clarity around who it is that I am here to serve!” If you’re really struggling, say it every day for the next five days.

You’ll be surprised at the signs that appear to point you in the right direction.

Want someone to hold your feet to the fire while you navigate this question and get even clearer who it is you’re here to serve? Join me starting February 8th in my Put the Mojo in Your Message training and I’ll challenge you to keep asking for guidance and doing the exploring so you can name an audience you’d be excited to reach out to. I’ll give you the direct, detailed feedback that lets you know if you got it, or if I think you can do better. I will poke and prod until I am satisfied that you have the greatest degree of clarity you can hold.

I seem to be attracting more connections and clients without having actually changed my marketing materials per se. I feel more inspired by what I am offering and clearer in my own mind about what that is. I am encouraged by the reception of others to what I have produced for classes and more confident about the idea of sharing this with others as well.

Karen Shue http://www.theun-dissertation.com/about-dr-karen-shue/

For the first time I feel hopeful about pulling together the voluminous knowledge and skills I possess and present in a series of classes that will benefit me and my students tremendously.

Lynn Bieber http://lynnbieber.com/

To get more info go to http://soundbiteshaman.com/mojo-home and request your full, detailed information packet. Hop on over and do it today as early bird pricing ends on January 31!

This is Lesson One in a series of six posts that preview just some of the content we’ll be working on in the Put the Mojo in Your Message training starting February 8th.

You know how it is.

It’s Monday morning and you’re staring at the wall thinking:

Well, what should I be doing today?
What should I be offering?
Who should I be offering it to?
What can I write on my blog that will get me more clients?
What program can I offer that will be easy to sell?

And even if you do buckle down to get some work done, then the voices say:

Is this the right offer?
Am I marketing it the right way?
Shouldn’t this be easier? When is this going to get easier?

And if you’re smart and complicated, then you probably have even more questions.

The problem is that many business owners, maybe you, are not yet crystal clear why they are here. They kinda, sorta, maybe know why they are here.

But they aren’t sure.

They struggle to commit, in writing, to what they stand for.

And really, when you think about it, why shouldn’t they? It isn’t a simple or obvious skill to look at the richness and complexity of your life and find the simple, clear common thread that ties all the pieces together.

And from that lack of clarity spins many more kinds of confusion, until the uncertainty is almost overwhelming and you can’t sit down and write or pick up the phone because the chances are just too great that you might be off track.

Without that unshakeable knowing of what is meant to come through you, you don’t have a way to dramatically narrow down the options so it’s much more obvious what you need to be doing to do your work and make your money.

Sure, there are some folks in the world who don’t need that kind of clarity at the center of their business. Who can pick an audience and figure out what to offer them, and then make the big bucks offering it.

But if you’re reading this, you’re probably not one of them.

To be energized and motivated, you need to know that you’re doing your right work. That you’re on purpose and on message. You need to feel like you’re bringing something original to the table, something of real value.

So, where do you start?

You start by getting really clear what the message is that is meant to come through you. Not what “a” message is that you could share, but the message that is yours to share.

Because when you know that, all the other pieces of what you need to do start to fall into place:
• All your bits and pieces, your training, your knowledge, your skills, your passions start to come together in a way that makes sense.
• You start to find simple words to tell others what you can do for them.
• You see the outline of the basic story you need to tell whenever you have a platform to share what you do.
• The programs or products or services that makes sense for you to offer flow naturally out of your understanding.

Doesn’t that feel better?

When these basics have been answered, you have buckets more energy to handle the details and move your projects forward. While knowing why you’re here doesn’t answer every single question about what to do in your business, it does make it a lot quieter in there.

Putting that core message together, creating that clarity at the center of your business by sorting through your life stories is what we spend the first three weeks of the Mojo training doing. And when we do it, it sticks. I regularly have clients coming back to me five, six, seven years after we did this process to tell me the True Spirit we created still rings true.

But today, before you get to work finding that message, I want you to do something else first, which is to forgive yourself for having struggled to figure this out up until now.

What I’ve found in talking to people all over the world, people in all kinds of businesses, is that so many of them tell me how frustrated they are, how confused they are, and how angry they are with themselves that they have not been able to find just the right words to communicate their value with the world.

What I know is that when we are unkind to ourselves, or when we are totally caught up in that frustration about how to communicate, it actually slows down the process of finding the words that we need to bring in to the world.

You may be taking marketing classes and learning that traditional way to communicate what you offer in business. And then when it doesn’t work for you and it doesn’t work for your particular business, you may be feeling like something is wrong with you. Or you may even be saying to yourself “Maybe the universe doesn’t want me to bring this work forward,” because then it wouldn’t be so hard. Or “Maybe if I can’t communicate this, I’m really not meant to do this work.”

And to help you forgive yourself, I want to offer a little prayer based on the Ho O Pono Pono Prayer practice. It’s a prayer to the part of yourself that struggles with message.

If you want to join in with me, put your hands on your heart, and say the following out loud:

I send the energy of love to the part of me that struggles to give voice to my message.
I send the energy of love to the part of me that tosses and turns in the night wondering if I have anything to offer the world; to the part of me that is afraid that even if I feel that there is so much richness and vastness and beauty inside of myself that wonders, and that worries, if anyone else will ever see it, or ever recognize it.
I send the energy of love to the part of myself that struggles and stumbles, and falters, and fumbles on the path to finding words to try to describe what it is I’m here to do.
I send the energy of love to the part of myself that just cringes in horror when I say something to a prospective client and they look like a deer in the headlights. And I just know I haven’t connected.
I send the energy of love to all the memories past, present, and future of all the times I’ve struggled to find words; of all the times I’ve used words that didn’t reflect my deepest message; of all the times that I used words that sounded like somebody else, but didn’t really reflect who I was.
And I send the energy of love to all the parts of myself that have felt sorrow, have felt pain, have felt shame, and have felt doubt in this process.
I’m so sorry; I’m so sorry for any way I have blamed you, or found fault in you for not doing this at some level beyond what I already knew how to do.
I am so sorry for any way I added to the pain through self criticism and self judgment.
Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention for healing and transformation.

Maybe you can breathe a little easier now.

Be kind, and it will be easier to remember why you’re really here.

Figuring out your core message, the clarity at the center of your business is hard work. Join me starting February 8th in my Put the Mojo in Your Message training and let me help. I’ll lay out a clear, tested step-by-step path to get your words to fall into place, and I’ll give you the direct, detailed feedback that lets you know if you got it, or if there’s something even better that can come out of you. I will poke and prod until I am satisfied that you have the strongest message you’re capable of creating.

What did I get from this training? I have the words on the tip of my tongue. They weren’t there before! My energy is stronger and more grounded. I feel more confident in my ability to communicate what I do. The combination of having the words to use, having had the time to practice using them in the safety of the class, and simply feeling much more prepared to present myself has made a big difference in my confidence level. I recently attended a class on the “Power of Referrals” and was amazed by the response I received simply by explaining with confidence what I do. My energy was completely different from what it had been. The process of clearing out the old beliefs and stuck energy that I discovered while crafting my message has been transformative and profound.
Ann Hill

To get more info go to http://soundbiteshaman.com/mojo-home and request your full, detailed information packet. Hop on over and do it today as early bird pricing ends on January 31!

On December 16th, I led a group of nearly 80 people through my out-of-the-box annual planning process.

What’s cool is that instead of just asking you for your goals, I have people “call in” what they want to experience in the coming year by creating a multi-sensory, right-brain vision of the coming year.

This vision starts to define the qualities you are yearning for. And out of those qualities come the themes for your year.

One of our participants, Jude Spacks said: “Speaking as a lifelong plan-phobe, it was a treat and a half. My fave: unpacking the meaning of burlap as the texture of the year.”

So, to put a cap on our work together, I want to invite everyone who joined us to use this space to share your words, your qualities, or your themes for the year.

Mine?

My main theme for the year is: Creating Supportive Systems to Deepen Value and Lighten My Heart

My sub-themes are:

♥ Become a Devotee of Fun and Pleasure
♥ Carve Space for my Life
♥ Find My Voice in the Right Community
♥ Practice Financial Integrity as a Form of Self-Love
♥ Shower my Peeps with Love and Affection

Won’t it be fun to look back next year and see what’s transpired?

What’s coming down the pike for you?

(If you want help tracking your progress throughout the year, join our Annual Planning Quarterly Review Program.)

This is an excerpt from some of the writing I did on retreat this summer in response to the question “what did I learn by writing my story?”

I learned that we give up reaching for the work we want in small degrees.

By quietly closing doors to paths we had imagined wandering down.

By choosing protection of our tender hearts over risking disappointment.

By pursuing other projects that carry less risk.

By interpreting a lack of response as a challenge to the very premise of what we offer.

By taking the normal pushback and friction of life in the world as a resounding “NO!” to our desires.

By muddying the clear channel of our divine guidance with the advice, recommendations, and game plans created by others.

By stopping talking and writing about what we most love and cutting off any hope of sparking a response and interest in our audience.

You do not earn the right to do your real work in the world.

You do your work, and in doing so it becomes your real work.

Reaching for your real work isn’t for sissies. It takes volumes of strength and soul courage. Plus it takes showing up, day after day, to put your message out into the world and make offers.

And so does showing up daily, reviewing if your actions are aligned with your most critical goals, and being part of a friendly group that cheers you on. Our next Action Circle session starts on Monday, January 2nd! Ongoing members receive the Quarterly Planning Program as a bonus. http://soundbiteshaman.com/ppac.

What I learned this year is that nothing is sweeter than coming home to yourself.

My sweetest moment this year was reawakening this summer to my love of helping people name the True Spirit of their Work. Of finding the words to help them own and express the profound insights that are capable of coming through them.

What I loved in that moment was recognizing that this is what I have to do. This is the part of me that can no longer be pushed aside in favor of what I think is more marketable.

In a funny way, there’s a tremendous comfort in being done with trying to figure out the right path and knowing that come hell or high water, this is the path that I am on.

What was also sweet was living through the deep fear that it wouldn’t work. That I would reach out to claim my real work and be denied, only to see I was met with joy and enthusiasm and cries of “welcome home!”

What was also sweet was feeling day in and day out in my body and my bones that I was doing my right work with every client who came to me for the True Spirit, and for the work that follows that.

What I also learned this year is that we are never more compelling, never more recognized, never more appreciated than when we own and offer what we can bring to the world that no one else can.

The journey back to yourself, to bring your original voice out into the world takes time. One of my coaches said to me that people are happy when they know what they want, when they see they are moving in the right direction and at a pace they are comfortable with.

Our next session starts on Monday, January 2nd so join us today and know you’ll be getting off on the right foot come the New Year! http://soundbiteshaman.com/ppac.

What I learned this year is that the big, deep, challenging changes that we desire happen over time, bit by bit, like a big ship turning.

I learned it’s easy to lose faith in the process, or to discount my progress. To judge myself that I still, still, still struggle to make time in my life for play, or that I let the days slip by without stepping into the spotlight. That I still am trying to lose weight and have better money habits.

Healing the parts of myself that are sad, broken, or wounded takes not only time but lots of love.

This time last year I wrote about wanting to move my body more and listen to what she wants and needs. I wrote about sinking into spending regular time on my money habits like tracking my income and expenses.

This year, I’m in the middle of learning a new way to eat, hoping to bring my body back into balance, trying to drop some weight. And I’m writing about embracing financial integrity and stability even more deeply, as a form of self-love.

When I re-read my words from last year, and saw how eerily similar they are to my desires for this year, it took me aback.

Am I just straining each year to reach the same goals? Am I treading water? Striving towards some impossible standard I’ll never reach?

Can I find peace with both my wanting and the struggles I experience in reaching for what I want?

My friend Patricia use a phrase “your charnel ground” – meaning in this case the area of your life of greatest struggle, of greatest wounding. Hers has been around body and weight. Mine seems to be insecurity, fear, and judgment of myself around money.

(A concept from Buddhist practice, the charnel ground is literally the place where corpses were brought to be cremated or, more often, left to rot and be consumed by wild animals. The value of the charnel ground, from a spiritual perspective, is that it strips you of illusion. “In a charnel ground, you could practice . . . like your life depended on it. . . It wasn’t a place that supported pretense or facade or hollow philosophizing.” From www.ratnapeaceinitiative.org Prison as Charnel Ground.)

From my conversations with Patricia, what I understand is that at some point we accept that yes, this is my charnel ground, this isn’t something I’ll solve with a simple three-step process, or a six-week program. This is an issue so deeply wound into my DNA that it is a struggle that may be with me for a lifetime.

And in accepting that, to neither resign myself to defeat nor hold out hope for a quick and easy fix. And instead, to learn to embrace the deep, often slow, inner work, and to celebrate the triumph of every small and unsteady step towards more wholeness and more love and compassion for myself.

To be able to say to myself “this is the thing I do. I agonize about not making enough money no matter how much money I make.” Or for someone else to say “I suffer daily about the size and shape of my body.” or “I live in fear that everything I have will be taken away from me.”

When I let go of trying to solve or eliminate my struggles, a wonderful space opens up where I can move, where I can breathe, where I actually have a greater capacity to consider a new way of operating, one that I might actually be able to sustain.

My struggle becomes that familiar visitor who, while not always welcome, is well-known.

I soften with compassion for myself for the pain I feel. I ease into the healing practices of my inner work. I allow myself to live and breathe through the discomfort.

And maybe, just some days, I feel grateful for the invitation to transform this pain into more life for myself.

There is something I find very beautiful about the process of naming your desires and then being held throughout the year to track how fully you are honoring those desires.