Hey -
What does the single story have to do with meaningful + magnetising messaging??? Well, today’s newsletter is a walk through of how you can take the single story in your industry and use it to fuel meaningful messaging.
Let’s recap for a moment…a few weeks ago I wrote to you and shared a different way to think about the self-doubt infused wobbles you might experience in business and life. Weaved into this was the notion of a single story and how through finding, using and amplifying your voice you are telling your story. This is important for so many reasons and one of them being ‘the danger of a single story’.
In essence I explored the notion that without your contribution, we fall further into the ‘single story’. You can read that post in full here.
So let’s get straight into it... ‘What is the single story in your industry?'
Because there is one.
There’ll be a set of norms that have become unquestioningly accepted and patterns that have come to be taken as 'just what we do' or ‘just how we do things'.
All industries have a single story, mostly born out of systems of oppression and weaved into the very fabric of how it operates and then these show up in all manner of ways.
The single stories in your industry are likely to be outwardly supported by the masses, they are a mouthpiece for sustaining dominant culture and they get repeated so much they become a truth.
(N.B I’m using the term ‘single story' but inevitably this is referring to a prevailing narrative which many stories have been developed to support).
Your mission if you choose to accept it is to challenge and dismantle them and one of the ways to do this is to amplify your voice and share your story.
Ask yourself the following in getting to the single story in your industry?
What is the story that is spoken that often goes unchallenged?
What are the things that quite frankly, don't sit right with you?
What are all the things that have become habituated and therefore accepted?
Maybe you have pushed them down or ignored them, or maybe you’ve even been told it's a mindset thing when you couldn’t seem to ‘make yourself’ do the thing.
What you're doing is questioning the ideologies that are taken as a given i.e. shaking shit up.
In the tech entrepreneurial space they call it being a ‘disrupter’. Challenging the single story is a part of that, just without all the silicon valley swagger and instead a more heart-led and untraditional approach.
Disruption done not for the sake of causing controversy but with the intent of creating change. Shaking shit up that is done sensitively and responsibly and yes some people will feel triggered AF and that is ok.
The invitation is then to decide what sharing your story safely looks like to you and lean into the human to human and heart to heart of all of this by asking yourself...Who needs to hear what I have to say?
Focussing on these people will help you tune into how important it is for you to speak that message and put it out into the world.
This can go from the big stuff to the smaller stuff but turning that lens on what is the single story in your industry has multiple benefits that serve you and others.
How it serves you...
Speaking your truth is liberating and you’ve been sitting on way too much for way too long, biting your tongue for fear of rocking that boat and so stepping out is scary and as a big-hearted creative it hasn’t always come easy. The desire to keep the peace has overridden entering choppy waters and lest not forget that the structures and powers want to maintain that single story.
For black women and those from marginalised communities we have the additional layer of systemic racism which means speaking out can come with labels like angry black woman but also the learned behaviour of what is needed and required to survive in this world.
Keeping your voice in a suppressed state and not tending to your throat chakra in the way it deserves and requires is no walk in the park either. In sharing your story you are starting to shake this off and reconnect to your work in a deeper way, igniting your passion, your enthusiasm, your energy and your fire for what you're doing.
How it serves others...
In one word ‘connection'.
Challenging the single story gives other people’s stories the oxygen they require in order to breathe and exist. You are allowing them to be seen, heard and understood, validating their experiences, affirming their perspective and giving a sense of belonging.
There are so many people waiting to read, hear and experience other stories, other voices and other ways.
- Identify the single story(ies) in your industry.
- Form your perspective about them.
- Start sharing the story(ies) you believe needs to be told.
This is part of what makes meaningful and magnetising messaging.
Sending love,
