You can read the first and second steps here:

https://isabelparlett.com/your-second-step-to-making-your-passionate-expression-succinct-and-clear/

https://isabelparlett.com/the-first-step-in-making-your-passionate-expression-succinct-and-clear/

I promised to tell you a third way that smart people derail their passionate expression, and that is through a lack of structure.

If someone asks you HOW you do what you do, and you don’t have structure to your answer, the answer you give will be more likely to confuse your audience rather than enlighten them.

What is structure? In this case, structure means being able to say “I work with people on four elements,” or “I move people through three phases” or “There are four steps to accomplishing this outcome.”

Some folks reject this as being overly simplistic, but the truth is the structure we assign to our work helps our audience hold onto our best ideas and more clearly see the path they’ll go on when they choose to hire us.

(Structure can also show up in knowing what information to share when as you tell your story, but for this post, let’s focus on this first kind of structure.)

Helen is a gifted hand and fingerprint analyst, and when she took the training it was clear she needed to develop a story to tell that was bigger than just explaining what hand analysis is.

Her first step was to develop a True Spirit statement that, in essence, stated that her work was about helping spiritually emerging entrepreneurs step out into the world in their unfettered glory.

And that’s where structure came in. Helen had actually never defined the full range of support she could offer clients above and beyond hand analysis.

Our next step was to figure out just what she knew about helping people step out into the world in a new way. And what emerged from lots of exploration and story-telling was this: Helen knew that there were four key things that help someone step into the light.

First, they have to have a clear vision of what they want. The hand analysis helps bring this into focus.

Second, they need to really care for and honor their vehicle in this lifetime, their body.

Third, they need to create an environment that supports their best work.

And finally, they need to build strong, healthy relationships.

Simple, but when you think about it, very powerful.

Helen told us on the call how having this structure made a huge difference in both her confidence and her communication. Internally, she started to see how much more she could do for her clients after she had read their hands.

And that confidence, combined with her new ability to describe these four elements to potential clients, and what working on these would do for them let her gradually increase her rates six-fold (!), quadruple her income over several years, and develop half-day and full-day programs she could charge good money for.

So that, my friends, is how structure can turn your passionate expression into compelling communication that connects with your audience.

If you want my help creating the organic, not necessarily linear, structure for the content you deliver in your business, you’ll want to register for my Words on Fire training.