A few nights ago, a friend issued me a challenge:
“Meditate on what you take for granted; question your assumptions.”
Turns out, this mindset is pretty much a bottomless well for self-assessment.
Because — I don’t know about you — but I’ve developed a lot of assumptions over the years … many of which are long past their expiration date for needing revisiting.
For example, at the beginning of my career, I accepted the argument that:
It is an author’s job to write to a branded experience;
if an author wants to switch audiences or ratings, a pen name is appropriate.
Since that day, I have never challenged the assumption that this was a requirement of me.
But what if I was wrong? 😲
What if I can write anything I want under my own name? 🤯
It seems like such a silly question to type on the screen in front of me because, of course, I can write whatever I want under my own name.
Duh.
In fact, I should!
So I’m going to do something different this year: I’m going to challenge my assumption that I’m supposed to create branded experiences and simply create.
Stop trying to be a brand, and simply be.
This may sound simple to some of you from the younger generations, but I’m Gen X — we were raised to find purpose in performing well in a role and got in trouble if we made things uncomfortable for anyone with seniority.
So it’s no wonder that the idea of splitting myself up into branded experiences made sense across the years. I was simply being considerate to the comfort of an audience’s experience … while coming across as completely schizophrenic in the process.
Seriously.
If you’ve been watching me these past two weeks, you’ve seen how I’ve struggled to turn myself into a predictable, branded experience.
I’ve given you 5 headers in 2 weeks as I tested different visions on people around me.
On January 1, 2022, I was the Coach of Champions:
But then I decided I needed to CREATE a character for my coaching and billed myself as the $5 Storyteller.
Then there was the $5 Bard — similar concept, but with an even-more targeted experience.
Then there was Z Bard for a few beats.
No lies, ALL of these tested horribly.
Response the concepts were universally flat. And that was because I was not understanding my own assignment.
All because I had an assumption.
This was the assumption:
I am not a model, but I have the skillsets to build models.
I have believed this for actual decades.
But what if I was wrong this whole time?
So that’s what I will be exploring in 2022 as part of the Main Character Energy journey I am sharing with you.
I’m just going to be me … even if I end up doing things that surprise you.
Because surprising you just might be my brand. And who would ever want to trade that in for a predictable experience?
So … the new header is this:
I am the model and this is my storytime.
And I’m going to follow my heart from here.