[Say What You Do Better] Lesson Seven: Talk Endlessly About Why Your Work Matters

So another thing we tend to do when we write and speak about what we do, is that we try to explain what we do or how it works and we forget to actually tell people why this work matters.

We assume the work stands for itself. Or we think it’s obvious why it matters (because it’s obvious to us). Or we decide that no one else cares.

But our job is to make people care. To use our voice and our presence and our energy to call people’s caring forward. To spark a concern about something that wasn’t there before.

That’s how we change the world. That’s how we make meaningful change for the people in it.

If your primary concern was making money, you could have done a million other things to make money more easily.

But you’ve chosen to create a purposeful, meaningful business. One that lets you make change that matters.

The fun thing about writing about why your work matters is that it’s actually the perfect place to go big, go visionary, get as wild and woo-woo and out there as you want. Because in this moment you aren’t directly selling your service.

You’re telling a story about why it matters.

Why does it matter that someone cultivate inner courage?

Why does it matter that they awaken to they you really are?

Why does it matter that they have a more loving, collaborative relationship with their body?

Why does it matter that they learn to be someone that no one f*cks with?

 

What becomes possible when someone has the thing your work makes more of?

How does the world change when more folks get it?

If you can’t explain it, your audience won’t grasp it. The more you say about it, the more it will come to life for your audience. And the more people get why it matters, the more likely they’ll want to experience it.

You know your work matters. Now make sure everyone else knows too.

  1. Plan on working on this for 20-30 minutes if you can. If that’s too much, do 10 minutes.
  2. Grab a piece of paper and a pen:
    1. What’s the thing you do. The thing you make possible for people through your work. Write it for you, not the audience. (So for this, doesn’t have to be concrete or have context). If you have a True Spirit statement, use that.
    2. Why does what you do matter? What difference does it make if someone has (inner courage, a new story, more flexibility and balance)?
    3. In the grand scheme of things, why is it important that a human have this feeling or experience?
    4. What becomes possible that wasn’t possible before?
    5. What happens in a world where more people have this feeling or experience?
  3. Read what you wrote for b. to e. above. Now use the following prompt 3-5 times:
    1. What I do matters because . . .
    2. Write about one thing each time. Not all the things at once.
  4. BONUS ASSIGNMENT: Share some version of what you wrote in #3 above three times in the next week on whatever platform you have available. Make it second nature to talk about this ALL THE TIME.

 

That’s it for this challenge loves!

One Comment on “[Say What You Do Better] Lesson Seven: Talk Endlessly About Why Your Work Matters”

  1. Thank you, Isabel! I finally took the time to do your exercise and it really is helping me shape how I want to talk about the work I do in conducting land inventories so that people can learn more about the wild edibles growing on the Land they live on. What I want to do now is incorporate the text from this activity to my website because I think it will better explain why the work is important. Thanks!

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