Er sorry, who do you think you’re speaking to in that tone?

Scott and I are generally very easy breezy, especially with each other. We never argue, which is why when things get a bit stressy, and there is the slightest raised voice, I need to remind him who he’s talking to: 

‘Please don’t shout at me, love.’ 

There has never been an instance of shouting at each other in our entire five years, but we’re both very sensitive to even the slightest change in tone. It’s become almost a funny or an icebreaker when things are getting tense. Sometimes I accompany my request with a cushion thrown on the ground, and sometimes he’ll pick up and slam a coaster. It’s wild in our house. Truly. 

We just know each other really well, and we’re susceptible to tone. 

Do you know who else is susceptible to your tone and voice? Your ideal and potential customers. Yeah, you knew this blog was somewhat relevant to marketing and copywriting, right?!

We hear often about importance of words, but I don’t think enough attention is given to the power of tone and voice. The style of voice that you use will have a lot to do with how your readers feel about what they’re reading, which ultimately leads into how they feel about you and your brand.

If you use the right tone of voice for your ideal audience in your marketing and copy, they’ll feel connected to your brand and like they can relate to you. Use the wrong tone of voice? You’re just more noise in a world of brands shouting about their stuff. 

What tone of voice is for you? 

The tone can be severe or fun in your copy (and branding overall), cutting edge or old-fashioned. It’s important to know who your target audience is so that you speak in the right tone of voice for them. 

Do you know what vibe your business or brand is giving off with your tone of voice?  Your tone has a lot to do with people’s perception of what they’re reading. If someone feels like they are being shouted at or reprimanded, they’ll shut down and not read anything else on the page. If they read your marketing blurb and feel PUMPED, then they’re probably more likely to connect with you. 

Common tones of voice

Ultimately, the right tone of voice for your brand will get your audience all revved up and excited. The wrong tone of voice will turn them off and leave them brushing off your advances and telling you they have a headache.

Here’s just a few examples of common choices for a brand’s tone of voice:

Quirky

Light-hearted, happy and positive, I’m not sure if I would say it appeals to everyone, but this tone of voice will appeal to those who want a more positive and kinder vibe in their marketing. This type of branding goes hand-in-hand with fun photos, quirky captions and emojis. Plus, made-up words or adding on ‘-ish’. 

The best example of a brand with a fun or quirky tone of voice that comes to mind is probably Innocent Drinks.

Corporate

Straight to business, no-nonsense and very formal. If your brand has a more mature or professional target audience who wants something serious, this tone of voice will be for them. 

Some brands speak to their customers in a voice that is very instructional and functional. These brands want you to know they are your superior, so you don’t question anything. 

Knowledgeable

Want to position yourself as an expert with great information to share? Then this is the voice for you. Typically, most commonly used in an academic setting, they want people to know how knowledgeable their brand or content creators are about a topic. This tone can be kind of pretentious, but if it’s your niche, you might not care as much because this will speak to your ideal audience. 

Dreamy 

Ah, light, sweet, romantic and blissful. Dreamy works for brands selling aspirations in their marketing, such as an e-commerce site selling floral arrangements or home decor, like candles and statement pieces. 

Trendy 

Cool, sarcastic and trendy af. See what I did there? This tone might not be for everyone because we’re not all cool enough, but if you’re marketing something to a younger audience of millennials, this will probably resonate with them. This goes hand-in-hand with abbreviations like ICYMI, IRL and af. 

Apple is an excellent example of a brand using trendy tone of voice; their target audience are millennials who’ve grown up with their tech and this tone works perfectly for targeting them.

Helpful 

Light, friendly and typically educational. It kind of does what it says on the tin. This works well for service providers that are looking to share their expertise in an approachable way.  

Aggressive

Do you even lift, bro? 

I can’t think of too many brands that would want to be aggressive in their tone of voice. But I guess if you want to inspire Kitchen Nightmare USA style results or action in your audience, then maybe an aggressive Gordon Ramsey tone of voice will work for you. 

Of all the brands that probably want to be a bit aggressive in their tone of voice, it’s probably fitness brands who will want to make sure their target audience knows they’re serious about getting fit, pumping iron and taking care of themselves.

When this tone is being used, the brand might post-workout photos with motivational captions or videos of people are at a gym working out hard. They’ll use phrases like “a strong body starts with a strong mind” or something similar.

Which tone of voice is right for you? 

This will totally depend on who you’re trying to target and how they speak, respond and interact with brands. And of course, tone of voice can be a lovely little Venn diagram of overlap; maybe you want dreamy and quirky, quirky and aggressive (… sure?) or knowledgeable and helpful.

If you’re unsure about what kind of tone of voice to commit to, do some market research before you jump into your branding and copy. Maybe do some social listening and scope out where your ideal audience are hanging out to see the language, phrasing and tone they’re using. 

Most importantly, know the voice you’re using when you start building up your content so that it speaks to your audience and not at them.

Feel like you don’t even know where to start with your tone of voice or how to convey your messaging to your ideal audience? But you really want to connect with your audience and get them pumped up to hang out with you? Let’s chat! As well as writing your copy, I can help you to decide your tone and even help you create a tone of voice document that connects perfectly with your brand guidelines. Find out more about my services here.

how do you make a big four firm sound human AND save the world? work with me.

the challenge 

A Big Four Consultancy Firm have placed the climate crisis at the core of their business priorities over the next few years and have goals to not only match the Paris Agreement, but have set themselves impressive targets that go above and beyond. 

With almost half a million employees, to make real change, the company needed to get their employees from around the world onboard. Therefore, to inspire their employees to get involved, they wanted to do something totally new by creating a training program that would inspire, inform, and educate their employees. However, they were concerned that their typical corporate branding and tone of voice wasn’t going to achieve the inspirational intentions of the learning piece. 

what happened? 

Working in collaboration with We Are Tilt, my role was to use my empathetic style of writing and ability to inject personality into even the most robotic of brand voices. 

I created an emotive spoken word script that captured the urgency, unity and action needed to address the climate change crisis. This was split into four pieces to accompany the training programme. It set the tone and is the hand guiding the participants through what could’ve been another typically dry training piece. My spoken word piece/script was completed with a piece of custom music, a voice over artist and creative motion design. 

the result 

The team managing the project and We Are Tilt were blown away with the results. At the initial recording with the voice-over artist, we all got chills. It was amazing. Plus, the big four firm was delighted with the opportunity to show off a bit of their humanity and do something a bit different that was outside of their standard corporate box.

Initially, it was planned that the piece would be an internal piece of work, but they’ve fallen in love with it and are now planning multiple media campaigns around the spoken word piece globally. 

We immediately thought of Saloni for this project based on her years of poetic writing but also her empathetic style and tonality. Climate change is such a sensitive, yet vital topic and we felt that Saloni could deliver this brief exceptionally well. We weren’t looking for your usual script, we were looking for a poem that would inspire and engage its listeners to act.

Saloni was a joy to work with, her work was unique, powerful, and beautiful. It went above and beyond our expectations to create a piece that was more than we could have hoped for. Not only was the quality of her work exceptional, but she also was collaborative throughout the project, took feedback on board and delivered on time consistently. She worked with our agency team and corporate clients well. They were thoroughly impressed with the creativity of her work and her professionalism, even working varied hours to accommodate for global timezones.

I can say that I, nor the agency I work, for would hesitate in working with Saloni again. In fact, we’ve just briefed her on a new project! We wholeheartedly recommend her to anyone else in need of a talented storyteller, writer and/or poet. You won’t be disappointed.

Louise Whitfield – Senior Creative Strategist, Tilt

Some Lessons from David Ogilvy

Our parents teach us some pretty important stuff, right? 

From my parents, I have learnt some excellent life lessons: 

  • it’s vital to have an opinion (my mum is a Leo and has an opinion on everything)
  • it’s better to be overdressed than underdressed
  • Always be kind 
  • Follow your dreams, not the money because wealth comes from other places

And not explicitly a life lesson from my parents, but my experience with them: eat before you visit because they will never have snacks. 

I recently finished Ogilvy on Advertising, and since it was recently Father’s Day and Ogilvy is considered the Father of Advertising, I thought it would be fun to share some of his advice which really resonated with me.

Although he’s from a ‘different time’ (read: 1950s sexism gets my back up), there is an absolute Aladdin’s Cave of valuable information to learn from Ogilvy on copywriting and advertising. If you haven’t read Ogilvy on Advertising or Confessions of an Advertising Man, I absolutely recommend. 

Believe in the product or service

‘Good copy can’t be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You’ve got to believe in the product.’ 

David Ogilvy

Although this should be obvious, it can be pretty challenging to be creative around a product that doesn’t get you pumped, and it’ll show up in your copy. And when you are pumped about a product, that passion will shine through. 

But how do you believe in a product and sell it like your life depends on it when you lack conviction? You need to get to know your audience and feel how much this product or service means. By knowing your audience reallllly well, you learn to anticipate their wants, needs, dreams and desires. 

Who is your audience? 

By compiling information, you know about your audience, you can create an avatar and write for them. The more you know about them, the more they can come to life. 

When I worked for a travel company, we even named our avatars and spoke about them like they were friends of ours. ‘Oh yeah, the empty nesters, Steve and Pam.’ They were almost real to us. And that’s how it should be; otherwise, how will you care about what they care about?

But how do you create realistic customer avatars? You find out as much about them as possible, looking at data that gives you info such as:

  • age
  • gender
  • location
  • education level 
  • marital status
  • occupation & income

This information tells you who your audience is, and you can break it down into further segments for you to hit them with the info that they’ll care about. But their stats won’t always be what will get them pumped up and excited about your product/service. For that, you need to find out more about their ‘why’ and look at psychoanalysis. 

Breaking customer segmentation down further to dividing your audience up based on a range of personality traits, hobbies, values, personalities, habits, and attitudes. 

To find out your customers ‘why’, you’ll look at things like: 

  • personality, characteristics and traits
  • lifestyle
  • social class
  • attitudes & beliefs 
  • activities & interests 

But how do you get this information without becoming a stalker? 

There are three main ways to find out these valuable insights into your audience: 

Talk to your customers

I know, I know, talk to them, what?! Imagine! But I mean it, hardly any brands actually speak to their customers. You could hold focus groups, do a bit of market research, send out customer surveys, and hold polls on social media. 

By finding out what they care about, you’ll be able to tailor your copy to it more effectively. Plus, by learning more about their language, their pain points and how they express themselves, you’ll be able to tailor your copy more effectively. 

What are they saying online? 

By using social listening, you’ll find out more about how to talk to your customers in their language and tone of voice. Head to your social media pages and look at what your customers have to say and, most importantly, how they say it. Note the language they use, how they express themselves, the things they like, the things they don’t. This will give you a better insight into how to talk to your customers. 

What does your website analytics say? 

If you’re using web analytics (which you are, obvs), it would be super helpful for you to dive into your existing site analytics. Moz has a great guide for beginners on the importance of site analytics (including how to get set up, if you’re not already.) 

What’s a pain point? 

Basically, a pain point is something that is causing friction in your audience’s life. 

Pain points can typically be grouped into one of four categories:
Financial – spending too much money on their current provider/solution/production and they want to reduce their spend
Productivity – wasting too much time using their current solution or they just wish to use their time more efficiently 
Process – wants to improve processes such as nurturing leads or managing their schedule 
Support – wants or needs more support at critical stages

Once you’ve identified your audience’s pain points, you can show them exactly how your product/service fixes it.

Your headline does 80% of the work

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

David Ogilvy

Absolutely renown for killing it with headlines, David Ogilvy wrote headlines that instantly grabbed the audience’s attention. 

Let’s start with one of Ogilvy’s favourites, Rolls-Royce:

My favourite part of this headline is there’s nothing crazy outlandish here, it’s just information. 

But how do you create the perfect headline? 

Don’t try to be too clever and risk the message. Clarity is e v e r y t h i n g. If you only have your audience’s attention for the time it takes for them to read a headline, then they need to know what you’re talking about instantly. 

Get specific

Cast your mind back to an English Language class; remember when you’re learning how to write persuasively and how essential stats are to convincing readers of the point you’re trying to make? This is still true. Our brains just love a number to reassure us what the words are saying. According to The Content Marketing Institute, our brains are drawn to odd numbers. Apparently, they help us to digest and recall numbers more easily. 

Obviously, if you only have an even number of points, don’t drag it out and lose your audience with drawn-out copy. 

Nurture your copy

Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns. 

David Ogilvy

Unfortunately, we all know that copy is often the last ‘to do’ on the list. Mainly because:
– Brands & businesses often rely on visuals to sell for them 
– Copy is underrated, so often people think it’s easy just to throw in a few words last minute, and that’ll be good enough. 

Even for copywriters, it’s not always easy to write powerful, compelling copy off the bat. It can take a lot of time and energy, a lot of nurturing to fine-tune a single sentence. However, that nurturing and fine-tuning process will get results; after all, Ogilvy nurtured every single one of his ad campaigns, developing them into some of the best-selling campaigns in the history of advertising. 

Don’t dumb it down 

A consumer is not a moron. She’s your wife. Don’t insult her intelligence, and don’t shock her. 

David Ogilvy

Oof. Let’s ignore the casual 1950s sexist vibe here. But the basic message is: don’t speak down to your audience. Dumbing it down will only turn them off. 

Take the pain points you identified when getting to know your audience and tune into them to solve their problem. Sure, you also want to be cute, charming and sell them the dream of your brand but talk to them with respect. 

Unless you’re using Gordon Ramsey in Kitchen Nightmares USA as inspiration for branding, obvs, then weird flex, but sure, treat your customers like an idiot sandwich. 

Surround yourself with people who know more than you do

Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.

David Ogilvy

In our gig economy, I see this race to the bottom for pricing and talent so often. I know I might be a bit biased, but if you want the best people and the best talent working to make you, your product, and your business as good as it can be? Seek out and hire people who know their stuff – and then pay them for that knowledge, those skills, and talent. 

The best advertising in history is collaborative. Don’t be afraid to bring in the experts to help you when you can’t do what they can. I’m actually a big fan of delegating tasks that free me up to do the things that I enjoy, I’m good at and are worthwhile. Whether that means bringing a VA, a cleaner or a copywriter into your life to free up precious time and energy, I’m championing that for you. 

Talking about bringing in people to do what you can’t or don’t want to do, how’s your copy looking? Whether you need a hand writing compelling copy that converts or just a little finishing fairy to make your words sparkle, take a look at my services and see what I could do for you. Plus, check out nice things previous clients have said about our time together here.

How to overcome writer’s block

So, you’re sat at your desk, staring at a blank screen. Your fingers are poised, ready to type, but your mind is blank too. Whether you have a to-do list that’s longer than your arm, or you’re trying to write another chapter of your novel, writer’s block gets us all.

As well as frustrating, it can be mentally heavy, especially when your work and income revolves around you writing and being creative. 

But don’t worry, although writer’s block sucks, there are ways to overcome it! Below, I’ll take you on a reveal-all tour of how I overcome writer’s block and get the words freed up and flying again.

What’s causing the block? 

As my grandmother-in-law would say, everything feels awful when it’s chock-a-block.

So, if your mind is chock-a-block and you’re feeling well… blocked creatively, then have a little think about what’s got you feeling this way. Are you tired, hungry… hangry? Once you’ve identified what’s bugging you, try to fix it.

Move your body 

Being stubborn and sticking with something can benefit us and sometimes, it really is cutting your nose off to spite your face.

When we’re so determined to stay put and write and not move until we’ve written something amazing, and it’s just not coming, being stubborn and pushing through when you’re struggling really is just cutting off your nose. It sounds counterintuitive, but the best way I’ve found to break this is by going for a walk or even just having a tiny kitchen dance whilst you put the kettle on.

If I want to really shake things up, I might go for a walk along the seafront (perks of coastal living). Basically, get some fresh air in your lungs and try again. 

The self-care edit

Self-care isn’t just a vibe, babe. You deserve to be well and look after yourself.

If you’re struggling to access your creativity and you’re feeling blocked up regularly, it’s time to ask yourself: is this is an ongoing issue, are you taking care of yourself? Sleeping enough? Eating well? Feeling generally good? When we’re overwhelmed, burnt out or wrung out, we’re never going to do our best work. 

Self-care can be anything from making sure we’re eating and sleeping well, getting out and taking care of ourselves. Or pop on a face mask, pour a glass of wine and send everyone else to bed.

All the world’s a stage

Someone very wise once told me that all of life is inspiration. The time they spend playing games, reading, watching telly, or with friends and family inspires their creative energy and flow. 

So, if you’re struggling and the words just won’t come, why not try something new?  Pick up that book you’ve been meaning to read, pop on some Netflix or go for coffee with a friend – or alone. Sometimes, just changing your environment for an afternoon can help. So if you typically write at home, why not pop out to a coffee shop? 

Try something new

When was the last time you mixed up your writing style? Wrote a little poem, or even just practised free writing with a pen and bit of paper?

If you’re not getting the words out, why not experiment with different styles and topics to get your creative juices flowing?

Structured fun 

Some of us need to be free to create. You know, take our bras off, sink into a chair and tie our hair up. But some of us really thrive with goals and structure. If this is you, why not create you own rules and limits?

Set a time limit for writing each day. This could be for an hour or two after lunch. If you find it helpful to break up your day, make that into part of your routine every week and optimise this bit of structured fun time. In fact, research has shown that shorter blocks of work are more beneficial for creativity.

Many friends of mine swear by the Pomodoro Technique of 25-minute stints of working, followed by a short break. I naturally do this by being unable to leave my phone alone for more than 15-20 minutes at a time…

Don’t force it 

If it’s not working today, bench it. Forcing writing hardly ever works for me, and if you’re feeling creatively burnt out, then take a break to recover.

This advice isn’t even really specific to writer’s block, it’s pretty much anything that isn’t working for you. If you’ve looked at it from all angles and you just can’t get onboard, if you can, put it down and come back to it.

Writer’s block prompts

If you’re stuck for ideas, why not try writing about these prompts?

Write about your most embarrassing moment 

Write about a secret from when you were a child

Describe your favourite cooking utensil – in all its detailed glory

Imagine you’re lying on a desert island; what does it look like?

Write about your typical Monday

If writer’s block absolutely derails you, or you just hate writing full stop, why not see how we can work together? Find out more about what I do here.

How to go viral on Social Media

Are you looking to stand out? To create thumb-stopping content? To be the next social media SUPER STAR?! 👑 

Then these super easy breezy tips are here to help you set up good habits, processes and a place to start with content creation. 

Disclaimer: none of these tips will actually make you go viral but they’ll all contribute to getting you to a place of making good content that will stand out. And you know, all it takes is one relatable piece of content to go viral and whoosh, off you go. 

Quality over Quantity

What good are vanity metrics if people double tap and then scroll on by? It’s a bit like trying to find love by dressing up and hanging out in the frozen food aisle:

lots of people might pause and smile at you. But then 99% will just go on with their shopping.

Create content that makes people stop and want to find out more about you, your brand and your journey. Grab that little red heart, plus maybe, a little piece of their actual heart?

Be Consistent

Did you know that it takes on average 66 days to form a habit? It takes a bit of work at first, but creating content that stands out and actually matters is kind of the same as any skill or habit-building action.

So, it’ll require a bit of effort at first but make a plan for when you’re going to show up, be it daily, weekly or annually (do not recommend unless you’re really famous, 0/5 stars) and stick to it.

Get Chatting

Not everything is about you, Janet.

Not a joke, just a fact. It’s not all about you, it’s all about your connections. Use language that works for your audience, find a tone of voice that works for you and just start a conversation.

Top tip: add a ‘call to action’ to your posts to tell them what you want them to do next. ‘Double-tap if you feel this’, ‘Slide into my DM’s for free doughnuts’, ‘visit my website for all of my secrets’. That kind of thing.

Caption This

Captions are a fantastic place to share some personality, inspiration and a good ol’ story. It doesn’t need to be an essay, but maybe a bit more than a haiku.

Unless you’re really good at haikus.

Instagram are (obviously) very secretive about the algorithm but it seems like longer captions tend to do better. And of course they do, your audience is getting a bit more of an insight into who you are.

Go Viral

Ah, the ultimate goal: to go viral.

People are weird, poeple are fickle. Sometimes things just work and it’s because they’re relatable, funny or just really, really odd…

I can’t tell you how to become an overnight sensation, to go viral or to become the next TikTok superstar, sorry.

BUT by creating relatable, shareable content, you’re one step closer.

You’re a Winner, Baby!

There’s no secret sauce or quick fix to standing out and showing up, and ultimately going a bit viral on social media. But these cute lil’ tips should give you a solid foundation to start.

If you’re floundering, you can always slide into my DM’s and see if we can work together. No promises to make you go viral though.

How to motivate yourself & live your best life in 2021

It’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.

I love this quote, especially that final sentence. Although, did you know it’s often mis-attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald, it’s actually from the film adaptation of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. 

But I’m getting side-tracked before I’ve even got started! Kicking off a new year is exciting, there’s so many possibilities but there’s also SO MUCH that you could do, that sometimes it can all begin to flood in and starts to feel a bit like overwhelm. Whether you’re hoping to smash some new goals or just looking to level up in the new year, motivation can come in dribs and drabs. Especially with the whole global pandemic continuing to thrash around us. 

Did you know that about 80% of people don’t achieve their New Year Resolutions and give up by February? So, if you’re anything like me and the openness and possibilities of 2021 feels exhilarating but also a bit paralysing, here’s some of my top tips for motivating yourself and freeing yourself up to live your best life in 2021. 

What do you want to achieve in 2021? 

I actually don’t usually set New Year’s Resolutions, I tend to set myself goals on my birthday in October instead. And they’re less goals, but more small ways to make myself happier and open myself up to new soul joy. Like when I turned 27, I decided that I was going to be more ‘fuck it’. And when I turned 29, I wanted to be braver and say yes to more things. 

But after sitting with my feelings from 2020, I decided that I wanted to come out of 2021 as my best self, both mentally and professionally. Rather than goals for 2021, I set an intention for the year to: show up, be present and do the work. It’s all a process, I don’t think at the end of this year, I’m going to be fully developed and ready to be printed out and framed, but I want to be closer to who I want to be and where I want to be in my work. 

So, sit with your past selves and have a think about the ways you want to grow.

Why do you want to achieve this goal? 

The why is so important. The why is what will keep you going when your motivation begins to flag and as you ride the results rollercoaster. Goals will only work when the why matters to you, is this something you want to do or something you think you should do? As you move through the year, keep the why in your head and it’ll help you stay motivated. 

Choose realistic and achievable goals 

Hands up if you’ve been guilty of deciding that you’re going to completely revolutionise your life and turn over ALL the new leaves in a new year, just to quickly feel overwhelmed and giving up? Yeah. Me too. 

It’s about being realistic, and mentally, we love to tick off smaller goals and achieve results quicker. By breaking a bigger goal into smaller ones, you’re more likely to stay on track. So, if you’re wanting to be healthier in 2021, break it down into working out 2-3 times a week, hit your 5-a-day, aim for 6 glasses of water. Rather than just leaving it in your head that you MUST diet and lose 10 stone by February. It’s just not realistic, achievable – or very healthy. 

Track your progress

Whether you’re a visual person or like an app to keep you on track, keeping an eye on all of the progress you’ve made towards your goal will keep you going. Set up milestones or dates in your calendar to check in with yourself, as well as daily or weekly tasks that will help you hit your mini-milestones.

Find some accountability

We all need a sounding board and a person that’s gonna give us a bit of tough love to keep us on track. But even if you don’t have one person that’s going to buddy up with you, tell everyone you can about your goals, from friends to colleagues, because after all accountability and the shame of public failure keeps us going, right? 

After I chose my intention for this year, I shared it on my Instagram with a cute little Happy New Year animation, I then shared that post to my Facebook page for a little bit of accountability.  

Celebrate yourself

It’s SO hard to do the work and improve ourselves, especially when things are fine and comfortable. So, if you’re absolutely smashing through your goals and flying through 2021, make sure you reward yourself and take some time to sit and celebrate how absolutely amazing you are. 

A combination of just who I am as a person and a year of work being knocked over by COVID-19 has left me with a lot of imposter syndrome and in December I made the decision to confront these feelings and do the work to tackle this mindset over Christmas and in January. Working on ourselves is hard and it’s uncomfortable and it leaves us all open and vulnerable, wondering where these feelings and bits of ouch came from. So, every bit of progress you make is valid and worth, so celebrate it. I celebrated my work and progress today by buying myself a super soft pink jumper. Celebrate yourself, especially when you’re tackling hard bits.  

Switch on your internal cheerleader

If you tend to be a Negative Nancy or you’re flooded with imposter syndrome like me, it’s not enough to just think ‘I can do this’, you need to surround yourself with positivity and uplifting energy. Whether books, YouTube or podcasts are your jam, seek out content that boosts your good energy and surround yourself with positivity. 

A lot of people talk about toxic positivity, and I’m not talking about sitting in a burning house and pretending everything is fine. But I know myself, that I need to try to seek out the positivity and inspiration to keep me going, otherwise I fall into overwhelm, what’s the point and I’m a fraud anyway. Which is probably a bit more toxic. 

Stay consistent 

Every glass of water, every time you remember to take a tote bag to the supermarket and every scary pitch you send out with ‘the worst they can say is no’ mentality is progress. It’s taking you closer to your goals and these small and sweet tasks help you to stay consistent and keep on track. 

If it doesn’t work, adjust, adapt or just throw it in the trash

If something just isn’t working for you, stop. Sure, you’ve told everyone that you want to do x,y,z by a certain time but if it just isn’t bringing you happiness or helping you to grow or develop in the way that you want, you don’t have to do it anymore. 

How freeing is that? This is your life, if you’ve given it your best shot but something isn’t bringing you happiness and it’s just not working? Stop doing it. Throw it in the trash. 

Whatever you hope to achieve in 2021, I hope it brings you a huge amount of soul joy and helps you to get where it is you want to be going, and not just where you think you should be going. 

And hey, if you’re looking to level up your business in 2021 and are looking for a storyteller who can turn words into stories packed full of feeling to help you connect with your audience, why not drop me a message and see if we could work together this year?

How to be happy

Happy,
adjective:
Feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.

That thing that we’re all striving for and constantly in pursuit of, can be summed up in the Oxford English Dictionary in just six words. I think on the whole, we all need similar components in order to be happy: people that love us, good health, time to spend on things we enjoy, the freedom to be ourselves. In fact, positive psychology theorises that it takes three key components to be happy: the first is materialistic and the knowledge that our basic biological needs for food, clothing and shelter is covered. The second is social-based, that we have meaningful and loving social interactions with friends and family. Finally, the third component comprises of a stable environment, an understanding of the world and where we are in it, how we contribute to the world and society; for many, this is where faith is satisfying and creates a stable and secure outlook on the world.

So how do we collect all three keys and unlock that elusive happiness? It feels like happiness is this tangible, hold-in-your-hand, goal that you actually get to tick off your list, but of course, in reality, there’s no truer cliche: happiness lies within you. Whilst on my break this morning, I read a really interesting blog on Refinery29: Why you should stop worrying about failure and embrace quitting. Essentially, it discusses why we should quit or give up on the things that don’t make us happy as opposed to striving for perfection and refusing to give up on things, just because of the stigma or embarrassment we’re worried we might face. Basically, if it doesn’t make you happy or serve a worthwhile stepping stone on the path to being happy, fuck it. I’m paraphrasing, of course.

When I turned 27, I decided to be more ‘fuck it’; honestly, I get so caught up in being likeable or living up to this perfectionist expectation that I have of myself that I get stuck and trapped in a little cycle of sad and gloomy, so I decided to spend a year being a little braver and being just a bit like fuck it. I’m still a people pleaser, but you know, I like to think that I’ve made progress and we all have our flaws. But maybe 25 year old me was on to something, maybe caring a little less about the things that don’t serve our happiness, that don’t help us to collect the three gold coins so that we can be ‘happy’, then what use are they serving to us? Why are you still going to that job that you hate or trying to eat kale?

As a frequent sufferer of poor mental health, I am fully aware of how able-ist it sounds to be like, ‘oh you hate your job? Quit!’ ‘You live in a tiny studio in Catford where you pay roughly eight million pounds a month in rent? Find somewhere new!’ ‘Your friends aren’t very nice? Buh-bye.’ I understand that life isn’t that simple and black and white. So maybe we need to start looking for things that serve our path to happiness and quit on the things that don’t, so stick at that shitty job whilst you find a new one, decide whether living a bit further out brings you some joy and maybe make some new friends, because your friends should be nice to you.

Maybe happiness is just as much about striving for the things we think will make us happy, as well as cutting down and out the things that make us unhappy. Maybe happiness is about being brave and choosing to be happy, choosing the things that make us happy over the things that don’t, even when the things that don’t are comfortable and familiar?

Maybe by simply choosing proactively to be on a path to happiness and contentment, that’s how we manage to be happy.