On the summer paradox, scheduled flow, and finding your voice

Hello summertime,

Summer’s a paradox for me.???

You have that hot rush of creativity and sunshine energy to pour into your business. For me, it usually arrives in early June.?

At exactly the same time as the craving for freedom and openness to doing ALL the things. The urge to swap your desk for an iced coffee outside the moment it hits 20?C (23 if you’re me). Evening walks. Aperol spritz. ??

Lately I’ve noticed my work practice of setting out tasks in smaller chunks of time, little and often, has left me feeling scattered and uncentred. It’s taking longer to switch focus. To work through project plans.

Which is why I loved authentic business and marketing consultant’s George Kao ’s recent post on on “scheduled flow ”.

The idea of carving out left-brain efficient, logical thinking time, with right-brained creativity and intuition. In focusing on specific tasks, George says?“I do the work for its own sake. I aim to apply mindfulness and joyfulness within the work.”

The deep work I need. Scheduled flow is my summer MO. Join me? ?

Trust me. If I can do it with Xero, anything is possible.

?Finding your voice - so that you sound like you ???

Something I get asked a lot is how to sound like yourself when you write online.

On social media, in blog posts, newsletters, press comments.

To float above the sea of jargon-powered content as your true self.

So your readers immediately recognise you. ?Your style, your particular way of thinking, who YOU are in the world.

Tricky. ?

I’ve spent my career writing for clients, I’ve tried on more house styles than white T-shirts.

My job was to make my voice disappear. And I was really good at it.

So I had to work out what MY voice is to have that compass to come back to.

Your ?voice is an alchemy of your specific experience and perspective, culture and personality. Maybe the neighbourhood you grew up in. And tried to shake off? It’s language and community. Which is why it evolves. It’s also how you connect. As who you are now.

Remember eye-rolling at your mum’s phone voice? ?

Let’s make sure your readers never do that. Here’s how: ?

Write more

The more you write, the more you write.

Write just for you. It could be journalling, ?reflective writing, Morning Pages (3 daily pages of stream of consciousness). A to-do list.

Start writing without thinking and without editing. What style emerges?

For a gold star, go back and ask yourself, “Do I publish stuff that sounds like this?”

Maybe now’s the time.

Get clear on your own style

Chatty or slow? Funny or factual? ?Quiet or loud?

Make a list of 5 adjectives that best describe your writing voice. ??

Keep those in mind to be consistently, confidently you.

Zoom in on who you’re speaking to

As you’re writing, think about who you’re writing to.

Picture your ideal reader.

Whose attention do you want to hold with your LinkedIn post or Insta comment?

Write directly to that person.

Read, read, read

I don’t mean every Insta caption in a doomscrolling fest.

Pick out thought leaders, creative entrepreneurs, other founders you respect. Sign up to their newsletter. Join their Substack.

When you come across other voices, you can appreciate if they’re funny or smart or if you’d want to be mates with them. Or if they’re too self-consciously clever and maybe, not for you.

Which is cool. We can’t all be for everyone.

By knowing what your voice isn’t, you get closer to what it is.

A guide on my favourit writing resources will follow. Soon.

Believe your own BS ?(or, write with conviction)

You have to believe your own bulls**t. I got this tip in an amazing poetry workshop with the creative powerhouse Caroline Bird .?

Write what you’re passionate about.

Write what you believe in.

I’m TOTALLY going to say it: write your truth That’s wasn’t so bad, was it? ?

You can’t not sound like yourself if you’re writing into the core of what you care about most.

That’s when your you-ness supernova’s through.

Right there – that’s your true writing voice.

I promised a Write into Summer workshop.?I didn’t manage to set it up. Join me next month?

Take care, with?love,

Antonia xo