Louder than Words
Harness the Power of Your Authentic Voice
Todd Henry tells us that history’s most impactful humans all had a unique, powerful, authentic voice. This book is all about helping us harness the power of OUR authentic voice. Three keys: Identity + Vision + Mastery. And, we’ve gotta learn how to own the Big U as we run our own race, have fun in monk mode and practice action + patience.
Big Ideas
- The Voice EngineIdentity + Vision + Mastery.
- Making it thru the UAll hero’s journeys have it.
- You + Your Mentor WorksWho are your mentors?
- Run Your own race#highfives at your finish line!
- Monk Mode / Hermit mode / Fill-in-the-blank Mode/hermit mode/fill-in-the-blank mode.
- Action + PatienceDiligently, patiently, persistently.
“If you examine the most contributive, impactful, and ultimately influential people throughout history, the one thing that clearly sets them apart is their unique voice. They had developed a personal expression that distanced them from their peers and put them in a field of their own. Their body of work speaks loudly about who they are and what they value. Louder, even, than their words.
Whether you are a writer, a consultant, an entrepreneur, an engineer, a manager, or a artist, developing your authentic voice should be a top priority if you are serious about crafting a body of work that will stand the test of time. Work, then, becomes about more than checking off tasks and pushing through projects. Instead, it is a means to carve a place in the world and create value that lasts. It becomes a means of genuine expression and a standing testament to your efforts.”
~ Todd Henry from Louder than Words
I loved Todd Henry’s Die Empty so when a member told me about this new book, I was excited to check it out.
As the sub-title suggests, this one is all about harnessing the power of our authentic voice.
Todd helps us create a resonant, authentic voice by focusing on three key things:
- Articulating our Identity of who we are.
- Creating a Vision of where we’re headed.
- Mapping out our path of Mastery on how we’ll get there.
As we discussed in the Note on Die Empty, Todd is the founder of Accidental Creative, a leading consulting firm that helps people and organizations generate (and execute!) brilliant ideas. He has a knack for creating structural models that help us get a handle on often slippery ideas and then, most importantly, apply them to our lives.
The book is packed with Big Ideas on how to make all that happen. (Get a copy here.) I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!
Download MP3
Download PDFHere’s a question worth pondering: While your work speaks about you, does it really speak *for* you? Does it represent you well? Does it reflect the authentic you?
Get the Book
Listen to the PodcastThe Voice Engine
“To develop your authentic voice, you must cultivate three things: a strong sense of identity, which means doing work that is rooted in something substantive and personally meaningful; a consonant vision for your work, meaning a sense of the ultimate impact you want to have; and mastery of your skills and platform…
So your answers to these three questions, ‘Who are you?’ ‘Where are you going?’ and ‘How will you get there?’ give you a map for developing your authentic voice. Your sense of identity leads you to a compelling vision, which then illuminates the skills and platform you need to master in order to succeed.”
Todd tells us we need to engage what he calls “The Voice Engine.”
The Voice Engine has three key components: Identity + Vision + Mastery.
And, three questions: Who are you? Where are you going? How will you get there?
Let’s pause and reflect on this a moment longer.
Who are you?
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Where are you going?
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How will you get there?
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P.S. You do these little micro exercises, right?
*fingers crossed* + *kick in the butt* because that’s one of the most powerful ways to drill this wisdom in deeper and deeper. It’s these little repetitions of self-analysis that, when done consistently and compounded over an extended period of time lead to EXTRAORDINARY gains.
What change do you want to see in the world through your work? What value do you want to create? How will you know when you are successful?
Making it thru the U
“Every creative project—writing a book, starting a business, or building a blog—follows this same U shape. If you rely solely on your emotions to guide you, it’s likely you’ll give up just as you’re on the uptick again. Instead, you must be guided by a larger vision for your work, and keep the end goal in sight, even when it’s obscured by complication and frustration.
The process of developing your voice is the process of navigating a series of U shapes. There will be peaks upon which everything seems so clear and your work is so on target that you want to share it with everyone you meet, and there will be valleys in which you question why you’re even trying. It’s all part of the process, and it’s never ending. However, the key is to remain focused on your vision and embrace the journey. As famed sculptor Auguste Rodin remarked, ‘Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.’ The peaks, the valleys, and the struggles in between are all useful in pointing you toward the brilliance that’s being called out of you. Nothing is wasted.”
Peaks. Valleys. U shapes.
If we’re committed to growth and creating a body of work we’re proud of (and/or a LIFE we’re proud of), we better get used to them.
Simply recognizing the fact that ALL great (hero’s) journeys involve a series of the Big U’s is a huge part of moving through them with more grace and power.
So, if you’re beating yourself up about losing motivation and feeling overwhelmed at times, stop doing that. (Laughing.)
Instead, step back, survey the whole landscape, KNOW that you’ll start any + every journey (again, whether that’s a relationship or a business or a piece of art or…) with a ton of inspiration and then, as you actually get going and walk into the forest, you’ll wonder what the heck you were thinking just days/weeks/whatever before.
Now, in the valley, you’re feeling the self-doubt and wondering why in the world you ever thought this idea/project/relationship/piece of art/whatever was awesome.
THAT’S PART OF THE PROCESS.
The master knows this.
When they hit a rough patch he/she smiles.
Then picks up their (LEGO) lunch pail and gets back to work.
Again and again and again.
How’s your U?
P.S. Remember the root of the word “mediocre” that Todd shared with us in Die Empty? → “Mediocrity doesn’t always mean underperforming—it’s a sliding scale and a state of mind. It means settling in and succumbing to stasis. Mediocrity comes from the Latin words medius, meaning middle, and ocris, meaning a rugged mountain. Literally it means to settle halfway to the summit of a difficult mountain. It’s a compromise of abilities and potential; a negotiation between the drive to excel and the biological urge to settle for the most comfortable option.”
→ Let’s not get stuck in the middle of our rugged mountain. Time to summit Mt. Awesome!!!
Commit to the pursuit of brilliant work, even when immediate results are not guaranteed... We need you to be brave, and to be yourself. We need you to develop your authentic voice, and to put in the mix.
There isn’t a single successful person I’ve encountered, including internationally esteemed business leaders, politicians, artists, and entrepreneurs, who hasn’t at some point felt inadequate to the task. The key to making a contribution, and ultimately finding your voice, is often the simple willingness to act in the face of fear and uncertainty.
You + Your Mentor Works
“Take a few minutes to do the following exercise:
Identify five important works that have shaped your thinking. Again, they can be in any form, but the important consideration is that they have inspired you in significant ways in your work. Which five works, experiences, or literal mentors have shaped how you approach your own work?
As you examine each of these mentor works, consider what it is about them that inspires you. Is it the ideas within them? Which ideas specifically? Is it the tone? If so, how? Is it the structure or the arc of the work? Try to get specific as you consider what most stands out about them.
Next, consider how these works have influenced your own work. What are the commonalities between your mentor works and your own work? Can you distill it down to a handful of qualities? Where do you see echoes of your mentors in your work? How so?
Finally, consider the differences between the mentor works and your own. Where have you diverged from your heroes and forged your own path? In what ways have you successfully pushed out onto your own branch and differentiated yourself from your mentors? Identifying the differences can be helpful in revealing some of the ways in which your perspective is different from that of those you admire, and some of the unique qualities that you bring to the marketplace of ideas.”
Todd is an exercise-generating MACHINE.
I shared a couple great ones in our last Note. Check out the book for a ton more. (Plus this +1 on Today’s the Day!)
I had fun doing this exercise—tracing my journey back up my spiritual family tree and appreciating the influence of my mentors over the years, including:
(humble, inspiring, practical integration of East + West without a lot of glitz and marketing hustle)
Paulo Coelho (pure inspiration and simple, lyrical, captivating prose with global impact)
Tony Robbins (pure passion, ambition, business hustle)
John Mackey (conscious capitalism and the idea that business can (and should!) be built on and powered by a foundation of love)
The Stoics (grounded, practical, emotion-less wisdom that’s endured for millennia)
The Positive Psychologists (← my favorite: scientifically proving the ancient wisdom and modern self-help in practical, grounded, inspiring ways without the hype and hustle but focused on pure replicable data)
It’s powerful to see what mentors and what “mentor works” have inspired us on our journey—the elements we admire and have integrated into our work AND the elements that may not have resonated as much that we’ve let go.
Back to YOU.
What’s your spiritual family tree look like and what mentor works have inspired YOU the most?
We need to overcome this fear of insignificance and replace it with a mind-set of contribution.
As you look back on your life and the ultimate shaping of your authentic voice, you will find that it was the small risks that eventually led to big results. Where is your intuition telling you to place small bets?
Run Your own race
“The lesson that I’ve embraced over the past decade of life and work is a simple one: because of unique passions, skills, experiences, and opportunities, each of us has a unique race to run. It’s ours alone, and cannot be compared to the race being run by others. When we allow the stigma of judgment, comparison, or envy to tempt us off course, we violate the fullness of the contribution of which we are capable. We exhaust ourselves chasing ‘ghost runners’ and ‘phantom success.’ We lose sight of the end goal, and in turn we lose sight of ourselves.
Pursue uniqueness with your voice. Run your race. Execute your plan. Do your work, not someone else’s. Don’t allow envy, spite, ego, or greed to derail you or cause you to chase a phantom ideal that was never meant for you. You have a valuable contribution to make in the arena of influence you’ve been given, and a unique voice to offer the world, but if you are not diligent you may wind up gaining quick ground in the short term, only to watch the pack pass you a few miles down the road.”
Whose race are you running?
Yours or some phantom version of what you think you should be doing?
(← Important question.)
I’m typing this after interviewing Cal Newport this morning. Cal wrote the brilliant book So Good They Can’t Ignore You (see Notes). Just had this thought: If we want to get so good they can’t ignore us, WE need to ignore everyone else and just do our work. Period.
Sonja Lyubomirsky comes to mind as well. In The How of Happiness (see Notes), she tells us the scientific fact is that: “You can’t be envious and happy at the same time. People who pay too much attention to social comparisons find themselves chronically vulnerable, threatened, and insecure.”
Plus: “The happier the person, the less attention she pays to how others around her are doing.”
Let’s QUIT thinking about what other people are doing and/or comparing ourselves to them, etc., etc., etc.
Remember the fact that the happiest among us think about others the LEAST—and, when they do, it’s not with envy but with joy for their successes (and compassion for their shortcomings).
Let’s run our own race. So much more fun and rewarding.
#highfives at your finish line!
(Before stepping up to the next starting line and U-shaped race, of course. :)
Remember that your best, most impactful work results not just from what you care about (Identity), but also what your audience cares about (Vision), and an ability to connect with them through a set of relevant skills (Mastery).
Monk Mode / Hermit mode / Fill-in-the-blank Mode
“Brilliant work is expensive. Anything of value that you wish to create will require a significant investment of time.
I recently came across a new phrase while reading the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown—‘monk mode.’ McKeown was reflecting upon how the process of writing a book was taking a toll on him, especially in light of his existing commitments to business, family, and friends. He determined that he was going to go into monk mode for the following several months, declining all new invitations and opportunities, until his book was completed. He dedicated five A.M. to one P.M. every day for nine months to the process of writing his book.”
Monk mode. I love it.
My version of that is what I call “hermit mode.” I LOVE my hermit mode and have been in it for the last year and I’m excited to pretty much stay in it for the next five. (Laughing.)
I’m out of my old email addresses with an autoresponder so people can connect with me via someone on our team if it’s important. With rare exceptions, I have *nothing* in my calendar other than interviews and creative time blocks and time with the family. I turn on my iPhone once a week—and only because my wife likes me to have it on when I take our son out on our weekly adventure to Whole Foods 30 minutes away. :)
And I work.
We need to know that it’s hard work to get important work done.
And sometimes we need to create really bright lines if we want to truly crush it.
Back to my chat with Cal Newport: I wrap up my interviews by asking my guest how our community can learn more about them and their work. Cal, who is a Professor at Georgetown, laughed when I asked and said, “Well, it’s hard to find me.”
He’s so focused on doing Deep Work (the title of his next book) that he never even joined Facebook or Twitter. ← That. Is. Awesome.
I laughed and said that my new favorite scientist Gabriele Oettingen doesn’t even have a Twitter account. Plus, I shared Steven Pressfield’s classic line: “Amateurs Tweet. Professionals work.”
Professor mode. Researcher mode. Monk mode. Hermit mode.
Entrepreneur mode. Artist mode. Fill-in-the-blank-mode.
Whatever it is for you, are you willing to go all in, lock the doors and rock it?
Todd continues the previous thread with this wisdom on how to go about getting your monk mode on: “You must be willing to invest large chunks of time in yourself and your work. Efficiency is great, when you can achieve it, but you cannot sacrifice long-term effectiveness on the altar of short-term efficiency.
1. Choose a particular project that’s important to you, or a skill that you want to develop, and dedicate three blocks of time (at least an hour each) this week to working on it.
2. During that time, turn off all notifications, and if possible remove yourself from potential distractions.
3. If something comes up that could interfere with your plans, then politely decline and say that you already have a commitment during that time.
If your work is important to you, then it deserves dedicated time on your calendar. It’s an investment in yourself, in your body of work, and, ultimately in shaping your authentic voice.”
Is your work important to you?
Then create dedicated TIME BLOCKS.
Unplugged. Focused. Creating a body of work that makes a difference in the world.
(Please and thank you.)
Vision animates, inspires, and transforms purpose into action.
The word decision is sourced in the word that means ‘to cut off.’ To decide is to fully embrace one option and cut off all others. This requires bravery, because each decision you make necessarily closes other doors.
Action + Patience
“In the hundreds of interviews I’ve conducted with brilliant contributors, two words come up over and over when I ask them about how they developed such a unique style: action and patience. In the mad dash to gain recognition and success, it’s easy to latch on to early victories and squeeze them for all they’re worth, but those who embrace a disciplined, long-arc pursuit of brilliance are the ones who work their way onto a path of unique and valuable contribution.”
Action and patience.
Action and patience.
Action and patience.
Reminds me of my favorite S.N. Goenka gem that I bring to mind (literally) ever day as a mantra for my approach to life: “Work diligently. Diligently. Work patiently and persistently. Patiently and persistently. And you’re bound to be successful. Bound (!) to be successful.”
Back to you: How can you bring a little more urgent diligence to your work? And how can you balance that with infinite patience?
Your authentic voice is a gift. How will you offer it to others today through your work? Answering that question is your life’s mission.
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