It seems in nearly every conversation I’ve had lately – whether it’s with a client, friend, or colleague – the subject of authenticity keeps coming up. So, in light of some of my recent conversations I have another installment for this series on accessing your authentic message.
While you likely know me as someone who is gentle, loving, compassionate, supportive, and understanding, I can feel my heart rate elevating with every word I write – so forgive me in advance if my message is “stronger” than usual.
The thing I want to share with you today is about the importance of not giving a damn what other people think!In a world bombarded with messages from every angle about what “success” looks like, it can be challenging to forget about everyone and everything else and truly listen to what’s emerging inside of you. I know, because I’ve been there.
As much as I thought I was marching to the beat of my own drum and doing what felt right in my own heart, it was only 20/20 hindsight that helped me see that I, too, was being influenced by what I thought I “should” be doing to be “successful” according to somebody else’s measure.
Ya know what? For as long as I tried to “succeed” based on some external measure of what that was supposed to be – the more stressed I was, the more unhappy I was, the less I nurtured myself, and the more diligently I worked to try to keep the proverbial hamster wheel going.
Yet, like any hamster in a wheel, I worked and worked and worked, but really didn’t get anywhere. All that work didn’t make me any happier.
Then after losing everything and finding tremendous JOY within myself (and a total lock of any desire to do anything to “please” anyone), the floodgates of creativity, authentic expression, service and abundance opened beyond my wildest dream.
One of the most liberating things I did after living from “I don’t care what other people think,” was to disregard the advice some of my most successful marketing friends told me. They all said I’d never have any success with a program named Transformational Author Experience. (They gave the name a big thumbs down, and rated it about 3 on scale of 1 to 10 – with 10 being the best.)
Trusting my intuition and giving voice to my authentic message which WAS the Transformational Author Experience, I launched a movement that has now served more than 20,000 authors around the world, and grossed more than $100,000 in the first 90 days it went live.
Please understand that I share these numbers with you not to boast about the success I had, but to show you what’s possible for YOU when you let the true you shine and share YOUR authentic message… without giving a damn what other people think.
Did it take a tremendous amount of work? Yes. Did I leverage nearly every relationship I had built – some for more than a decade? Yes. Did I get out of my comfort zone and take risks asking for lots of help. Yes. Did I pray every day that God would guide me and help me serve the authors who needed what I was offering? Yes. Did I work long days (and long nights) on a shoestring budget to make everything was coming together as it should? Yes.
I share this to show you that living your authentic message and birthing it in the world is not an “easy breezy” task. Living according to your heart, going against the norm, and putting yourself out there in a non-traditional way, or a way that doesn’t model the “right” marketing system is not for the faint of heart.
Though I assure you that if you’re willing to access your authentic message, not give a damn what others think, and do what your heart is calling you to do… you WILL have a thrilling ride and most likely end up somewhere far better than what you could have dreamed possible had you tried to fit into somebody else’s “box.”
Be who you are. Let your light shine. Do what feels right in your heart. Trust your intuition… and enjoy the incredible journey of accessing your authentic message; because the person to give a damn about is… YOU!
