Dear Reader,

My friend Carrie Flynn of Virtual Simplicity has a phrase I’ve loved since the first time I heard her use it:

Random acts of marketing.

It’s how she describes all those disconnected marketing things businesses do without a larger strategy tying them together.

And it’s perfect.

Four words. Immediately understandable. Entirely Carrie.

That’s the kind of language I listen for when I’m talking with someone about their business.

Carrie wasn’t trying to come up with a clever tagline when she started saying it. She was naming something she sees all the time in her work, in language that came naturally to her.

Listening has become a surprisingly large part of how I make my living as a writer.

My mother used to say, “There’s a reason you have two ears and one mouth.”

I heard that phrase throughout my childhood, and perhaps it sank in more deeply than I realized. Somewhere along the way, I became a very good listener; it turns out that’s one of the most valuable skills I bring to writing.

I’m listening for the phrase someone uses without thinking, the turn of phrase that could only belong to them, the few words that suddenly make everything they’ve been trying to explain much clearer.

We have a funny habit of abandoning that language when we sit down to write. We reach for something that sounds more polished or professional, when the words that sound most like us may already be sitting right there in conversation.

Sometimes finding your voice is less about figuring out what to say and more about noticing what you’re already saying.

If you’d like to explore yours, the Voice Clarity Workbook is a good place to start.

If you’d rather talk it through and have another set of ears listening for what’s distinctly you, book a Clarity Call.

Best,