What is your purpose?

If you are feeling a little lost, you’re creating content just for the sake of creating content and you’re not feeling fulfilled, you might need to come back to your purpose.

I recently joined a group of amazing women in Shelagh Cummins’ accelerator program and this is what I learned about defining my process. Shelagh’s program is obviously way more robust and I’m just sharing my own key takeaways here, but if you’re struggling to figure out what the hell to do with your content, your business, or your life, this might be a helpful episode for you.

Why is purpose important for figuring out your creative path/your business

- Clarity on your path - you know exactly where you’re going and how you’re going to get there
-More focus - there’s no question that you’re working towards something specific and you have a connection to it, that helps with the distractions
-Clear messaging - people know what to expect from you and you become the “go-to” person for your content

How to figure out what your purpose is

-Create a list of everything you prioritize. Things like - prioritizing client calls over graphic design, or writing the outline of your podcast episodes over editing. 
-Note where the themes come together - are they overlapping in a particular area? For me it was storytelling. Bringing together my passion for audio & film and tv with the heart of the content - stories. How do I share other’s stories, or help them to share their stories?
-Test this out - write it in your IG bio or the next time you introduce yourself, tell the new person what you do by sharing your purpose. 

What to do now that you know

-Start updating your content to reflect what your purpose is all about! That might mean new graphics, new podcast intro/outro, new podcast altogether!
-Continue tweaking to make sure it feels right for you going forward. 
-Help others to do the same! This is tough stuff so if you’ve successfully figured it out, I’d encourage you to share!

While you’re at it, join The Ultimate Creative Podcast community on Facebook and share your purpose with the group! I’d love to learn what drives you, and how you make your purpose work for you!

Links:
-The Ultimate Creative Podcast Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tucpodcommunity/
-Shelagh Cummins’ Business Accelerator: https://www.theroadtoseven.com/the-business-accelerator-live
-The Road To Seven Podcast: https://www.theroadtoseven.com/theroadtosevenpodcast
-The Missing Pillar of Health Podcast: https://greenathome.ca/podcast
-Descript Editing App: http://descript.com/?lmref=gsTrpA

Learn how my team can help you launch and grow a podcast:
-Learn at your own pace with Podcast Rocket: https://theultimatecreative.com/podcast-rocket
-Already have a podcast? Learn how my team can help you manage your monthly production with our top notch editing and marketing packages: https://theultimatecreative.com/podcasting

Join the brand new TUC Pod Community on Facebook! Head to https://facebook.com/groups/tucpodcommunity I can't wait to meet you in there!

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of the ultimate creative podcast. I'm your host, Emily milling. And today we're talking about your purpose. If you're feeling a little bit lost, if you're creating content, just for the sake of creating content and you're not feeling fulfilled, you might need to come back to your purpose.

[00:00:52] And that is what we're going to be talking about today. So I recently joined a group of amazing women and Sheila Cummins. Sellerator program. and this is what I learned about defining my purpose Sheila's program is obviously way more robust than what I'm sharing about my own key takeaways here.

[00:01:08] But if you're struggling to figure out what the hell to do with your content and your business and your life, this might be a helpful episode for you. And I'll drop a link to the program in the show notes below as well as her podcast, the road to seven it's really, really. Great stuff. So the first thing we're going to cover is why is purpose so important for figuring out your creative path and your business?

[00:01:31] First of all, you're going to get clarity on your path. You're going to know exactly where you're going and how you're going to get there. You're going to have more focus. There's no question that you're working toward something specific and you have a connection to it. And that helps with the distractions.

[00:01:47] And there are so many distractions. And then of course, clear messaging. So people know what to expect from you and you become the go-to person for your content. So let's talk about clarity on your path. I feel like there are a lot of times in my life where  it seems like I'm going on the right path. And it seems like I understand like what I'm doing with myself and where everything's going, but all of a sudden I'm like, No, none of this makes sense anymore.

[00:02:15]Absolutely. None of this makes sense anymore. And I just have like existential crises and I have to run over and start talking to Justin about like, well, what am I really doing with my life? What's happening? This literally happened yesterday too. And it puts me into like a state of depression and anger.

[00:02:30]And I'm so frustrated that I can't figure out What am I doing next? How, and And then how am I going to get there? And I made a vision board at the start of last year. At the start of last year, I made a vision board at the start of this year, the end of last year.

[00:02:45] And that was supposed to be kind of like my path. This is what I want to do for the year 2021. I want to run a marathon. I want to make 26 sketches with my true big chick energy. I want to make $250,000 in my business and revenue and I want to buy. A property. I put a ginormous mansion on my vision board, probably not the most attainable thing, but it has a big glorious white kitchen.

[00:03:10] And I'm just like so excited to have a big kitchen that does not have cockroaches in it home. My CAD. Wouldn't that be so nice? I mean, seriously, no cockroaches and no construction outside too, would be a dream. I may have to move out of Toronto for that, but I refuse to do that. So anyway, clarity on my path.

[00:03:30]I for a little while had been doing exercise in the morning with my Peloton app. Just with my little fake bike. I mean, it's a real bike. It's a little foldaway bike that I got off Amazon. And this was in January and February when it was mega snow city here in Ontario. And I couldn't get outside to go for a run, but I, you know, I really had to keep exercising to keep my brain sharp.

[00:03:54] Basically. That's what it all comes down to. Also. It's nice to have really. Massive quads. I don't know why that's the muscle group that I seem to be focused on, but that's what I've got now. Massive quads got to work on the glutes to balance that out. So what happened was I would put my vision board up beside my iPad while I was doing my little Peloton cycling.

[00:04:18]Exercises and I'd stare at it and I'd be like, yes, this is where I'm going. This is what I'm doing. And it was working. It was working really well. And then I kind of like stopped doing that cause I started going outside again. And that pulled me away from my purpose and like what I feel like I should be doing.

[00:04:35]it also pulled me away from my other goal, which was to write three film scripts this year, I've written one draft of one and an outline of a second one. I mean, I do have like. Six months left. So that's pretty good. It's not like I'm running out of time, specifically on that goal. And like, I can crank things out really fast when I need to, But not having this vision board and this like path in front of me has made it really difficult. Now I'm realizing, as I'm talking about it, to actually work towards my purpose, which is to create awesome entertaining content and do it full time. I mean, I do do it full time, but I want to do it as well in a way that is.

[00:05:15]In film and television and music and stage performances, like all of those things, that's really what my true purpose is, is just entertaining people. and I've, I've really like, I lose track of that and it's easy to lose track of that stuff when there's so many external influences happening as well, which means, uh, not which means, which leads me to my second point, which is more focused because there is so much.

[00:05:40]Going on, not even with a pandemic, but like in your life, that's going to distract you from the goal. and when you've reached a point with your purpose that you're like, I know what I want to do, and I know how I want to do it. It's so easy to get off track because you're like, well, I should probably focus on making sure my home is actually dusted and vacuumed all day everyday, or I should focus on making sure my clients are happy or I should focus on my view counter, whatever it is, these things are super distracting and they really pull you away from like, what is the ultimate thing?

[00:06:15]That you want to be doing with your life all the time, all day, every day. Even if you are grumpy about doing it, you still love it. It's sort of like finding your true love. And you're like, yeah, we're really bored today. We have nothing to talk about, but I really like being bored with you. That's nice.

[00:06:31] It's a nice feeling. That's sort of like the same feeling you want to get with your purpose. And so when you can come back to what your purpose is and you've understood what it is, and you done a lot of work to figure it out, you can. Create more focus for yourself at the same time. And then finally, this is more on the marketing business side of things, but you will have clear messaging.

[00:06:51] So people wouldn't they'll know what to expect from you. And like I said, you'll become the go-to person for your company, whether that is paranormal stuff, whether that is film stuff, whether that is comedy, whether that is understanding your toxins in your home. Shout out to Emma Roman. And the missing pillar of health podcast, that is a great podcast.

[00:07:13] Emma has found her purpose. She knows what she's going to do and how she wants to design her content all around that. It's really awesome. and she's also a really great example of clear messaging. So if you want to see kind of like from the outside point of view of how she puts all of her content together from Instagram emails, podcasts, blogs, all of those different things.

[00:07:36] She's got really clear. Concise messaging because she understands what her purpose is. She knows what she wants to accomplish in the world, and she's putting it out there every single day. It doesn't matter what the offer is. She is creating that clear messaging. So people know she's the person to go to, to detoxify your home, to prepare for pregnancy, all those great things.

[00:07:58] So. Maybe now you're asking like, well, sounds really good if you already know what your purpose is, how the H E double hockey sticks. Am I supposed to figure that out? I've put together a little list of things that I think might help you. And so, and I've listed this also in the show notes and on the, on my website.

[00:08:16] So you can check that out as well as we are going through these items. the first thing I have here is to create a list of everything you prioritize, things like prioritizing client calls over graphic design, or writing the outline of your podcast, episodes over editing, and then start noting where the themes come together.

[00:08:34] Are they overlapping in a particular area? For me, it was storytelling, like bringing together my passion for audio and film and TV with the heart of the content. Which is stories. So how do I share other stories or help them to share their stories? Like, how do I bring all of that together? Is that. By having more calls with people and explaining things to them, or is that like with graphic design, creating carousel posts and explaining this concept to people through my graphics and my content in that way.

[00:09:06] Which thing am I prioritizing more? And how am I. How am I bringing those two things together in order to accomplish this goal, or this purpose, and then start testing this out. So write it out in your Instagram bio, or the next time you introduce yourself, tell this new person what you do by sharing your purpose.

[00:09:22]So I started testing out what my purpose is after Sheila's program, or even like halfway through, it was a two day program. So halfway through was just later that day, I started testing this out by writing, I help content creators to share their stories through podcasting and content in order to create a world that is more empathetic, which leads to a more compassionate, happy planet earth. And that's sort of like the.

[00:09:48] Big overarching thing like, and when I get distracted and when I lose focus and when I lose clarity, then I always now can come back to this and mind you, this is still pretty fresh. This is like a month and a half in of having this clarity on my purpose, but it has been so helpful in reorganizing my content, updating the podcast, intro and outro the types of designs that I put on my Instagram feed.

[00:10:14] For example, I think I just said Instagram. And you know what Instagram is, are cool cats and aside. Okay. Let's move on to the next part. So.

[00:10:26]Basically, what I'd love for you to do is just try to figure things out by process of elimination. Like if you really, really dislike doing particular things in your business or with your content, maybe there's an opportunity to outsource that to someone whose purpose. It is like it's somebody's purpose to create email funnels.

[00:10:48] There are many people who do a really good job of that Valesca Griffiths, our copy chief here at the ultimate creative. She is a great one to talk to. She's going to be doing mine. There are people who are really good at graphic design and. Love doing it. That used to be me and is no longer me. So it's about figuring out the things that I do really enjoy.

[00:11:09] I really enjoy recording the audio. I really enjoy putting together like fun edits for my podcast. but not. Necessarily listening to myself over and over and cutting out my ums and UHS. So I defer to an app called D script to help with the ums and UHS. So I can be more creative with the things. So when you have this list of everything you understand, like, okay, I'm passionate about doing this stuff.

[00:11:35] How does this lead into what my purpose is? Okay. All the common themes here for me are that I love the storytelling element of it. This means. I want to help people to share their stories. And the big picture for me is always going to be to create more empathy and compassion around planet earth so that we don't just quickly judge each other.

[00:11:58] We don't have like random toxicity and fights and all of the nastiness that goes along. With being a human sometimes on planet earth. it can feel really big, you know, it can feel really big and really heavy to think like, oh my God, how am I supposed to make my content feel like it's that important?

[00:12:19] The thing is your content. Is that important? Because when people are listening to your podcasts, especially your podcasts, they have that connection with you. They get so wrapped up in what you're talking about. They binge listen to it.

[00:12:31] See that someone has started bingeing your episodes. When you go back into your numbers and you see there's like a spike, there's like double the number of downloads in a particular week. It's because somebody has gone back and downloaded every single episode and just started listening all the way through to all of them, because they're like, oh, I figured.

[00:12:48] I found someone, I have a connection with this person. This is the kind of person I want to be learning from and engaging with. And that's super duper cool. We create connections as content creators, and when we don't have a connection to our purpose is pretty obvious. It's that whole like hashtag authenticity authenticity, There is a great power in being authentic and letting your purpose come through when you don't have that purpose totally figured out it doesn't really come true. As all. I'm trying to say, that's all I'm trying. I'm not trying to be buzzwordy. We all know that I'm not a mega fan of buzzwords, but I think it could have glocal impacts on.

[00:13:24]The hashtag trending, whatever. Okay. Moving on. So here's what you should do now that you know what your purpose is, and like you're going to have to do more work than what I'm describing here, obviously. And there are so many great resources to figure that out. But what you can do now that you figured out your purpose is start updating your content to reflect what the purpose is all about.

[00:13:46] That means maybe new graphics, new podcast, intro outro, like I did, or maybe you do a new podcast altogether. You just start from scratch. A few clients are doing rebrands. They're in the middle of a rebrand right now because. We discovered through some coaching calls that perhaps their content wasn't actually resonating with what they truly wanted to accomplish in the world.

[00:14:06] So we're doing some rebrands right now. Then you need to continue tweaking to make sure it feels right for you going forward. So after I went through this whole process, I've come back to my website, my Instagram bio, I redid my intro and outro for my podcast. A couple of times. My description for my podcast, my profiles on various social media places.

[00:14:26] Just like make sure that it feels right. Cause sometimes we start with words that like, Don't quite land in our hearts. And also it's okay if these change a little bit and then help others to do the same, because this is really tough stuff. And so if you've successfully figured it out, I encourage you to share again, back to my purpose, helping others to create content.

[00:14:50] This is basically what I'm doing. So I'm going to help you to do the same thing. Your purpose is like the thing that drives you. And if you feel like. You don't have a clue what that is. I know it can be so hard and so difficult to like sift through all the muck. It really helps to be mindful and kind of meditate on this stuff.

[00:15:12] If you are the type of person who can meditate, there are a lot of really great guided meditations out there to help you with just getting clarity and getting rid of the external influences. If something doesn't feel right in your gut is probably not part of your purpose, but as soon as you start getting goosebumps, talking about things, like every time I talk about my purpose, now I'm like, hello, it's goosebumps city.

[00:15:36] And I just get so emotional. And I'm like, oh my God, I'm changing the world. I'm changing the world. I'm doing it. I'm doing a friend. When you start getting those goosebumps, that's when you know, you've hit it. And it is so powerful and so fun. It brings so much life back into your content, into your business.

[00:15:50] It's so great. Okay. That is. It that is it for this episode while you're out there sharing your purpose. I'd love you to come over and join the ultimate creative podcast community on Facebook and share your purpose with the group. I would love to learn what drives you and how you make your purpose work for you.

[00:16:09] I will leave a link to that in the show notes. And I will talk to you next week Yeah. All right. Talk to you then, buddy.