Okay, so this is what I do. I’m sharing this post to show you what I mean by ‘brand voice development,’ which is a core feature of my latest one-to-one service, PHRASEOLOGIE LUXE.

Whenever I read online entrepreneurs’ blogs, their tweets, their site copy {if they wrote it themselves — which you shouldn’t always assume}, I start mentally dissecting what the voice is doing.

Yep, your voice does stuff to and with your readers. Did you know that? Connecting online, through written, audio, or video content, is all about building relationships. Per usual around here, we’re focusing specifically on the written parts. Although in many {but certainly not all} cases, there’s a direct and very cozy link-up between how people write and how they speak. Google ‘video’ plus the name of any person I profile below and you’ll see what I mean.

Once I get a handle on what someone’s voice is doing and how it’s doing it, I can articulate what their voice really sounds like.

And then, if I’m working as your brand voice ally and digital copywriter, I can translate your voice into words for your website.

I should note that none of the people I profile in this post are or ever have been clients of mine, nor have I worked one-on-one with any of them. {Although I did take a Laura Roeder course way back when and have purchased a product of Danielle’s, too. There are NO affiliate links in this post.} Neither do I consider myself to be any of their right people, exactly. I’ve purposely chosen ‘bigger name’ online voices to comment on because, well, you’ll have a greater chance of being familiar with their work.

I have no value judgements attached to what I articulate here. There’s no right or wrong way to show up in your own business and brand and these voices are not to be held up as models of ‘the right way’ to do it. When it comes to developing your own voice within your brand, there’s only what’s good, better, best for you, in terms of what’s most natural, feels most pure and powerful, and what’s most sustainable for you when you’re writing for your biz.

The goal of my commentary in this post is solely for your edification as someone who’s looking to understand your own voice better in the online space.

First, know this: when I speak about voice, I see it as having 4 elements —

TONE — Attitude of the writer/speaker toward his or her audience. Tone establishes the relationship the writer wants to have with his or her readers, prospects, and clients/customers.

STYLE — Vibe. Also, level of formality, grammatical features, sentence structure. ‘Style’ is often what we’re referring to when we say someone’s a ‘good writer,’ or that we wish that we could write like so-and-so. Style can refer to abstract stuff as much as to technical stuff. ‘Writing style’ is a preferential and often habitual matter of organizing ideas, musicality, and varying sentences.

PERSONALITY INFUSION — Personal anecdotes, personal journey, level of ‘authenticity’ versus showing up as a crafted persona {again — no value judgements here, just different approaches}. The level of personality infusion a writer chooses also works to establish a relationship with readers. As in, you can get this close but go no further.

WORD CHOICE — Phraseologie, signature metaphors, brand language. Examples of phraseologie in action: Danielle LaPorte’s White Hot Truth and fire metaphors, Marie Forleo’s Rich, Happy, and Hot,Tara Gentile’s You Economy and the Art of Earning, Charlie Gilkey’s ‘swallowing a frog,’ Mark Silver’s ‘resonant pricing.’ When we hear someone else in the space using this language, we know where {and who} they got it from.

More on the above 4 elements in a future post.

Below, I’ve articulated what I think is going on with the voices of 7 of online entrepreneurship’s most popular brands:

Danielle LaPorte

She’s fierce {in a less approachable-than-Tyra Banks sort of way}. Devotional. Sacrosanct. Crafted by ear — you can read her pieces aloud and many of them sound poetic.

• Substance: Humanistic business and the awakened lifestyle. With regular musings on love, faith, money, and meaning.
• Tone/Relationship to Audience: Teacher-Oracle-Artist. For many of her right people, D’s POV is its own religion.
• Style: Goddess-y. Emphasis on evolution. Highly alliterative. Concrete metaphors {note the bit about the boat in this post}. Elevates simple ideas to the level of high concept art — for the soul.
• You’ll never catch her {in other words, what is ‘off-brand’ for her}: Nurturing. Consoling. Whining. Making anything too precious. Working out her ‘stuff’ on her blog.

Marie Forleo

She’s polished, she can work a live event stage like nobody’s business, and she delivers bottom-line online marketing basics with an injection of swag. She’s polarizing — her people love her and her detractors don’t dare to stop watching her.

• Substance: Women in business {especially online business}. Marketing. Social media smarts. With a side of philanthropy.
• Tone/Relationship to Audience: Mentor-Cool Big Sister. She easily addicts her right people with bounce-y, hook-y content they can’t stop watching — or sharing.
• Style: In your face. Femme-tastic. Occasionally R-rated. Ranges from rip-roarin’ jester to spiritual guru-ini. Uses humor and pop culture references to drive her points home in signature Marie style. Highly conversational and impressively casual in writing — which is harder to pull off than it looks.
• You’ll never catch her {what is ‘off-brand’ for her}: Being anything less than positive in public {snark-free}. Being boring.

Laura Roeder

She’s the girl who gets up at the front of the class and gives the report that gets an A+ — then helps you improve your work, too. She’s often the first person you discover when you bring your business online and then realize you need to get a handle on social media to be viable — and she seems to cheerfully embrace her role as orientation leader.

• Substance: Social media marketing for businesses.
• Tone/Relationship to Audience: Trainer-Friend-Girl Next Door. She has an effective way of crossing generational lines in her marketing appeal by inviting curiosity, then practically de-mystifying everything.
• Style: Just the facts, ma’am. Keeps it simple {and preaches that it should be} and gets to the point. Unadorned language with clear, straightforward structure. Approachable with zero gush factor. {Gush factor = how much a voice coos over her right people. I loooooove you! You are so amaaaaaazing!}
• You’ll never catch her {what is ‘off-brand’ for her}: Spilling too much of her personal life. Over-complicating anything. Waxing philosophical.

Chris Guillebeau

He’s the lord of a motley but talented and dedicated kingdom of readers. He travels on foot {not really} and eats around the campfire at night with his people. Possibly while wearing Birkenstocks. Or Vibrams.

• Substance: Living, working, and traveling on your own terms.
• Tone/Relationship to Audience: Leader. Encouraging co-traveler. Wayfarer.
• Style: Writerly. Earnest. Rational. Contemplative. Storytelling, personal anecdotes, full-hearted calls to action. Measured sentences that don’t put readers on-guard. At times, slightly novelesque in feel.
• You’ll never catch him {what is ‘off-brand’ for him}: Sweating the small stuff. Being rant-y or petty or hung up on tactics.

Havi Brooks

She’s a friend to and advocate for the weird, the differently-wired, the offbeat, and the intensely creative. She is quite possibly one of the most beloved and highly referenced {and unintentionally mimicked} online voices in the entrepreneurial space.

• Substance: Entrepreneurship, creativity, personal development.
• Tone/Relationship to Audience: Cheerleader-Friend-Interpreter-Coach. She’s a genius at rallying her people and creating the kind of community she wants to have.
• Style: Constructed {metaphor upon metaphor upon metaphor}. Affable. Lovably neurotic. Self-conscious and self-referential. Winning {not in the Charlie Sheen sense}. Loopy, playful sentences. A fun read if you dig her style.
• You’ll never catch her {what is ‘off-brand’ for her}: Chiding. Dictating. Positioning herself as the all-knowing expert.

Justine Musk

She’s a darling of the incipient American internet literati. A mother of five, a novelist, and a prolific blogger. Grab a cup of coffee and settle in for a deep read.

• Substance: What it means to be a writer/author in the 21st Century. Online branding and conversation-making. Art, literature, culture, scholarship, current events.
• Tone/Relationship to Audience: Classmate. Thought provoker. Conversation starter.
• Style: Wantonly, willfully cerebral. Complex. Sophisticated posts that feel thoughtfully architected, yet seem to just intuitively happen, at the same time. Identifies sources and inspirations {with attribution!}.
• You’ll never catch her {what is ‘off-brand’ for her}: Writing badly. Glossing over nuances. Ignoring subtleties.

Charlie Gilkey

He’s a friend and advisor to business owners who want to thrive in life and business — without burning themselves out or reinventing the wheel. He’s got a high ‘know, life, and trust factor’ and appeals to readers who want a little cerebral-ness served up with their heart-and-soul.

• Substance: Sustainable business growth for people who want to do great work and maintain a sane lifestyle at the same time.
• Tone/Relationship to Audience: Business compatriot. Strategist. Compassionate but hard-nosed-when-he-needs-to-be advisor.
• Style: His mind seems {to me, from the outside} like a well-organized matrix. Thorough, measured, balanced. Mindful and detailed. Deeply considerate of his readers, their bandwidth, and their attention. His style can feel almost scholarly at times, and at other times, intensely personal narrative-driven.
• You’ll never catch him {what is ‘off-brand’ for him}: Being hasty. Promoting something or someone he doesn’t deeply believe in. Spouting off tricks and tactics.

So that’s what I do when I work with my clients as a brand voice development ally. Except, of course, we work together on cultivating their voices — and in an even more detailed and fleshed-out way than I’ve demonstrated here.

Interested in learning more? Check out PHRASEOLOGIE LUXE.

In my next post, I’m going to illuminate the 4 elements of voice, and show you why they each matter in the convo you’re having {or want to have} with your right people.

In the comments, would you be willing to . . .

Share with me what landed with you about the voice profiles in this post. What resonated with you? And did anything not feel spot-on to you, in terms of how you experience one of these online entrepreneurs’ voices? Let’s discuss it in the comments.

{ 60 comments }

Welcome to the FAQs inside my head.

{Yep, I’m both asker and answerer.}

Today I released PHRASEOLOGIE LUXE into the world. It’s a digital copywriting and brand voice development experience for indie online entrepreneurs. Specifically, those who care about voice. And those who care about specificity. {Both of which are obsessions of mine — which is probably one reason writing with voice, and great specificity, is one of my gifts.}

As I spent the past few weeks revamping my copywriting services into what is now PHRASEOLOGIE LUXE — which is the fullest expression I can manifest of my past two years of working with creative entrepreneurs on their copy, their branding and marketing approach, and their voices {oh, those elusive voices} — I caught myself asking questions: who really needs this? should I be this explicit about voice? should I launch this while my own brand is in transition? And, as it turns out, I found myself answering those questions — more easily than ever.

Here’s a peek into the FAQs inside my head . . .

Do smart, creative entrepreneurial types really need an ally to help them develop their online voices?

Uh, yes — and you know they do, since copywriting is where the bulk of your income has come from since closing your shop two years ago.

You know that every time you write someone’s copy, it’s never just about the words. It’s always also about the voice — and the voice is the entrepreneur’s invisible, indelible signature on everything she does in the marketplace.

Every tweet, every headline, every product description. When the voice works, her right people respond. When you’re using your voice in a way that is powerful, vivid, faithful to you, your people respond. Your right people get voice. It’s why they work with you instead of hiring their 16-year old niece who gets an ‘A’ in English every year to write their web copy. Or another professional copywriter, who may have a startlingly powerful voice in her own right — but not be as attuned to her clients’ voices as you are.

Yep, your readership needs and wants this.

Some of your clients are online entrepreneurs with well-developed platforms and beautifully presented visual brand identities. Others have brands in the chrysalis phase. You work well with both. Is voice a good piece to start with if people have a ‘messy’ brand? {In other words, should you be this ‘obvious’ about how you help develop voices when you write copy for people?}

Yep. You know that your own brand is going through a messy phase — a renovation.

You’re launching a new site this year that’s a clearer portrait of who you are with your clients, and what you believe in. You’re in the process of rewriting all of your site’s main pages. You’re so ready to swap out the tagline in your header for your updated one, it’s not even funny. You have an archive full of blog posts that need to be weeded out for currency and relevance, because they’re a reflection of a different time in your own entrepreneurial development. Your free e-course on nichification needs pulled, updated, and re-released as a product. You can barely stand to look at your website right now.

The good thing is — you can now relate more than ever to the phase most of your clients are in: renovation, revamping, rebranding, and giving fresh voice to what is true for them, right now, and like never before. And the best thing about all this is that voice is the through-thread that will connect everything up. Your voice is indelibly with you and it will inform every revelation.

You know this is how it works when you write for your clients, too. Trrr-ust.

Your clients and readers can really grow if you get more explicit about the voice thing. Are you going to show them? It means taking a risk.

Well, this has been a year of taking risks. Why stop now? ‘The voice thing’ is my thing. And that can only mean one thing: lead with it, unabashedly. So here we go. A friend once told me, “I like it when you talk about other people’s brands. You say things like, oh, So-and-So, here’s what I see her doing. And you say, oh, This Guy. His voice is like X, Y, and Z. And you’re right! But you don’t really do that on your blog. It would be neat if you could show people what you really do. It’s your form of genius.”

So true. I haven’t really talked about it extensively and explicitly on my blog. I shared here about how I unintentionally mimicked someone else when I first came onto the indie entrepreneurial scene. And I wrote about how to start noticing when you are sounding like yourself. I also wrote about the difference between unintentional mimicry and collective consciousness {both of which occur frequently in the entrepreneurial blogosphere}.

But there’s so much more. And I can’t think of a good enough reason to hold back any longer.

So, this year, I’m going to articulate what I see online entrepreneurs doing in the realm of voice — how they give clarion calls to their right people, why this tweet landed so well and that one didn’t, and how an indie entrepreneur can create community around her ideas by really leaning into her purest and most powerful voice — the voice that only she can claim.

And back in the day, Abby, you used to do audio — you had a podcast series, and then you stopped. You loved it. You’re bringing that back, but with a different focus. This year, you’re going to interview indie online entrepreneurs about how they use their voice to support their business and embody their brand. Entrepreneurs from all different sectors — coaches, wellness practitioners, writers, designers, retailers. Your people need to hear strong, centered, vivid voices and need to hear you articulate what the voices are doing and how — so that they can hear their own more clearly in contrast.

Today’s the day I start showing you what your voice can do for you. This is PHRASEOLOGIE LUXE — where your voice and your digital copy meet {and say hello to search engines, because they do matter a little}.

I’ve got a commitment going with another online friend that I’ll blog twice a week during March and April. Wouldn’t that be nice for my voice? If you haven’t already, subscribe to the blog here so you don’t miss a drop.

In the comments, I’d love to hear:

What do you know about your own online voice? Notice differences between it and the voice you use when you work with clients, or talk with friends or peers? How do you feel about that difference, if there is one?

{ 7 comments }

I’m not a business development coach, but I have been doing business online for 6 years: first as the creator and proprietor of an indie boutique that shipped internationally through its website, and currently as CEO of Abby Kerr Ink.

I’ve got a few things to say about how the work of a creative online business gets done. And while what I have to say only applies to me and my business, I bet the paradigm may be useful and/or interesting to you*.

*J’adore productivity hacking, but only when it’s pressed up against ample spaces of non-taskable time, time in which to root around, see what’s shiny and promising, and bring up it up into the light. I also have a dorky voyeuristic obsession with how other creatives get stuff done. For instance, this simple little post on how she rocks time entrepreneurial time management is one of my all-time faves from Danielle LaPorte.

Because if there’s one thing I know for sure about digital entrepreneurship, it’s this: no two online business owners approach staying in creation and out of busy-ness in the same way.

My well-optimized weekly schedule probably looks nothing like yours.

Over the years and across two very different business models, I’ve tried out several {mostly frustrating and short-sighted} approaches to structuring my work flow, tracking my productivity, and optimizing how stuff gets done most effectively and with actual pleasure — as opposed to with heart palpitations and knuckle-biting. {I’ve had the tooth marks to prove it.}

It being the start of a new year, my Mastermind partner and I are especially focused lately on setting up structures to make 2012 our best years in business yet.

We’ve been calendaring our goals, developing content strategy, and planning to build out our businesses the way we want to. Accountability rocks and possibilities reign.

But we know how it tends to go, and so do you: January’s all about great intentions and even better expectations.

Unless you create a structure to contain your brilliance, momentum ebbs and flows, and your $20,000 idea gets lost in the roster of client projects and sessions {which, of course, you’re very thankful for} and you end up in reaction mode instead of in creation, which is where you want to hang out most of the time.

So finally, in Year 6 of creating my own work in the world, I got wise and dared to design a workweek that meets most of my criteria for uptime and downtime, hyper focus and blessed ease, and administrative thrills and creative throes. {I say most of my criteria because while I’d like to schedule in thrice-weekly indolent lunches with friends downtown, those would only slow me down.}

While I can’t tell you what your ideal workweek looks and feels like, I highly suggest you take some time to freestyle on what feels right to you.

What you’re tracking for: the structure that feels like just the right balance of client-centered and self-indulgent, big picture thinking and every-detail-matters delivery, luxurious swaths of time and tightly focused hours to blaze through. Designing your ideal workweek — and then actually allowing yourself to practice working it, sans Twitter Interruptus and other candy-like distractions — could be the most important, rewarding, and lucrative move you’ll make all year, and it’s only January.

Here’s the workweek I’ve designed for myself this year to keep me out of busy-ness and in creation:

Three weeks in and I can report that my weekends feel longer, my skin is clearer, and my client delivery dates {I durst not use the word ‘deadlines’} all magically seem easier to meet. And for the first time in six years of business ownership, I’ve got an entire calendar year of service/product/program releases planned out and an editorial calendar to match. Now, to deliver . . .

:: MONDAYS

Focus: Abby Kerr Ink. Biz dev and planning. Make sure Google Calendar looks tight and right. Light social media planning for the week ahead {I don’t auto-Tweet, but I do frame out my focus for the week based on what’s coming up on the blog, on the creation calendar, etc.}. Write the week’s blog post{s} and e-newsletter. Heavy-ish admin {including personal admin} to set me up for a clear-minded week.

Mindset: Easing in self-indulgently. Focusing on the big picture. Letting it be easy. Re-connecting with my voice. Seeing what’s up on Twitter — taking the temp for the week.

:: TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS

Focus: Client sessions and copywriting projects. Immersion in their brand identity, voice, and right people market segments. In between and afterward, light admin related to client work: emails, preparing Mp3s, scheduling, etc.

Mindset: This is my clients’ time that they’ve invested in me: dollars for value. I make these days all about them. Have planned so that this year, I only take as many 1:1 copywriting projects as I can manage in 8 eight-hour days a month.

:: WEDNESDAYS

Focus: Abby Kerr Ink service, product, and program development. Creating content to sell. Developing income streams. Writing sales pages. Co-working on Skype with a peer.

Mindset: Deeply tuned in to my right person avatars — their needs and wants, business phases, desired results. Honing and articulating the unique value I provide.

:: FRIDAYS

Focus: Connecting with peers on Skype. Big picture strategizing with Mastermind partner. Finish early — keep it to a half day.

Mindset: Shaking out what worked this week and why. Fine-tuning approach for immediate future. Big convos: strategy, sustainability, what thrills me. Lots of love flowing.

And, a few nuances I’ve discovered work well for me:

On studio hours: Monday-Thursday, 8/9 AM – 5 PM, with 60 minutes or so of unstructured time for eating, stretch breaks, textfests with friends. Friday, 8/9 AM – Noon. No evenings, Saturdays, or Sundays, unless I’ve gotten myself off-schedule and need to make up hours for a client project in order to meet a delivery date. {Though I set my own delivery dates for my copywriting projects and am not above adjusting them as need be.} Three days a week, start the day off at a park with a friend and our dogs.

On connecting: I’m an introvert, albeit a decidedly un-shy one. I’ve learned {the hard way} that even one non-client hourlong-plus Skype session early in the day can toss me out of my flow to an unrecoverable degree. It’s not worth it. My personal rule: no more than 3 peer Skype sessions a week, including my 90-minute long Mastermind session. And never more than two hours of Skype on any one day, including client sessions.

On email: We all know how many hours a day email can eat up — if you let it. Back in the darker days of my shopkeeping career, I used to let it consume the better part of at least a couple days a week. {Upside: I’m really great at teaching/consulting/advising over email.} Not no more. Email gets processed almost immediately as it comes in, but segmented into mental folders like 2-Minute Reply Now, Reply By End of Day or Tomorrow By Noon, and Reply Within the Next Week If Possible. No free consulting over email, ever.

On working conditions: Usually at home. Occasionally at a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi, which is my preference, but on client session days, I prefer to be at home where the acoustics and the noise level are better and I can get a clean recording for them. Often in loungewear/yoga-type clothing, but better in my favorite Gap Long & Lean jeans and a top I love. And earrings.

On productivity tools: I live Monday-Friday by Google Calendar, color-coded and time-blocked to the hilt. Because my inner taskmistress is a linear thinker, I maintain my prodigious To Do list on WorkFlowy. And I like TickTockTimer for structured writing or admin bursts. All free tools. I schedule client sessions via TimeTrade [not an Affiliate link] for a very reasonable yearly fee, and it syncs with Google Calendar.

Hope this dissection of how I’m doing business lately is interesting for you.  While a nuts-and-bolts post like this is a departure from the usual convo, planning for success has been top of mind lately and I felt compared to share my personal approach.

Have you figured out your ideal workweek? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

{ 27 comments }

Tara Mohr wants you to play bigger in 2012 than ever before.

I interviewed her about it here as she opens registration for Playing Big, a women’s leadership and professional development journey.

Tara Mohr is someone I always have my eye on. I love watching how people craft their online platforms, and take considerable notice of those who manage to weave their inner journey into their brand, teaching, message, and offerings in a way that’s seamless and free of precociousness. Tara is one who does this well. {In other words, she shares her life with her audience in a way that’s not just here’s more about meeeeeeee!}

Tara Mohr — poet, Huffington Post blogger, women’s leadership development coach — is back for the second year with Playing Big, an intensive group coaching experience for women who are ready to embrace their voice in a bigger way and put it forth into the world. She has ample experience at doing this and the heart of a teacher. As a Playing Big affiliate, I endorse this program and think it’s a great fit for many of you in my reading audience who are ready not only to play bigger in the interconnected aspects of entrepreneurial life and personal development, but are ready to approach publishing your work in greater ways.

Here are 7 questions with the fantastic Tara Mohr:

1.} Tara, my readers and clients often struggle with the element of ‘voice’ in their online platform — what voice is, how to know if they’re ‘in’ their own voice when they’re creating content. What do you know about voice that you’d like to share with them?

Each of us can access a state of being where our natural voice flows forth freely and powerfully. I believe it’s worth the effort to get to that place. It is so joyful to share your true voice in the world. And it’s so effective — from a professional point of view — to express a clear, strong voice in the marketplace. For me, I always find there both incredible fulfillment and a huge audience response when I write a Huffington Post article where my voice really comes through. Those articles I write with good information but without much voice fall by the wayside in a world cluttered with so much information.

For many women it does take effort to re-access our voices, because we lost our voices along the way. I certainly did! But I found there were particular ideas and tools that helped me get my voice back — and now that’s what I teach. I am on-fire-passionate about making sure as many women as possible got these tools. That’s why I do what I do.

2.} When you are really feeling the power of your own voice, what does that look, sound, or feel like to you?

It feels like yirah. In ancient Hebrew there are two words for fear. The first word is “pachad” which means “the fear of projected or imagined things.” This is our usual fear — worries about worst-case scenarios, about embarrassing ourselves, about being challenged. Most of us feel some pachad when we start sharing our voices authentically in the world: “Will they laugh at me? Do I sound ridiculous? Am I qualified to say this?” 

The second ancient Hebrew word for fear is “yirah.” This is the word used in the Old Testament whenever people encounter something sacred. When Moses meets the burning bush, he feels “yirah.” Yirah is described as a kind of trembling awe we feel when we are in the presence of the sacred. It is also described as “the fear that comes over us when we are inhabiting a larger space than we are used to.”

When we share our authentic voices, we feel yirah, because we are in the presence of the sacred: our own authentic voices are the sacred.

For those reading, I invite you to start looking for your own moments of yirah – that fear-like feeling they feel when they inhabit a larger space in the world than they are used to, or when you touch the sacred ground of your own true voice.

3.} What led you to create Playing Big and please give us a character sketch of the woman it’s designed for.

I saw, from my own life and from my work as a coach, that so many talented women were really holding back in sharing their brilliance with the world. I wanted to change that.

I knew from my own experience that to play big, you need inner transformation and tactical skills training. I have an MBA and a lot of experience on the tactical side of playing big. But I am also a coach and a personal growth teacher who works with people on the inner side of playing big. So I created a program that brings together both. Both are really needed for women to play big: the inner work and the outer work.

The woman it’s designed for knows she wants to play bigger. That could mean a literal playing bigger – reaching more people in her work. Or it could be an inner shift – going for her real dreams, creating passions, or desires. The women in the program are in business, the social sector, and the arts. Many are entrepreneurs, but some work in larger companies. What they share, more than a demographic, is a common sensibility: they are smart, committed to enriching the world for the better, and they feel a longing to play bigger.

4.} What did you learn from last year’s Playing Big that influenced the way you changed or redesigned some aspect of this year’s program?

I am very committed to offering quality, effective programs, so I partnered with a PhD expert in program evaluation to really evaluate the impact of the program. The evaluations were overwhelmingly positive. Most of the changes we are making are logistical about how the journey can run as smoothly as possible. One of the changes I’m most excited about is that this year there will be an option for participants to also purchase on-one-on support with me or with one of my favorite coaches, Amy Kessel. This is exciting because it means women can complement all the group learning and content they will be absorbing with some focused individual support when they need it!

5.} Who’s really playing big out there, in your opinion? Whose voices do you admire and drink deeply from in the space?

Playwright and actress Anna Deveare Smith, former Global Fund for Women CEO Kavita Ramdas, and coach Martha Beck. In their own way, they are each continually taking huge risks, showing up in the world with authentic voices, and changing their industries.

6.} Clients come to me for brand editing and copywriting, and for 2012 I’m developing products to teach indie entrepreneurs how to develop their own voice in the marketplace — to hone skill sets needed to write more powerfully for their own entrepreneurial realm. Yet some women will still choose me to write their copy rather than write it themselves. Can ‘playing big’ and working with a copywriter to develop your voice go hand in hand?

Absolutely!! In fact, I think I’ve really supported my own playing big by getting professional help. I work with a publicist and a coach — both of whom invariably see things differently than I do. They get me out of my own fear-based decisions, my own self-imposed limitations, and my false stories. My business has moved forward leaps and bounds because of their contributions.

7.} Role reversal: what question would you like to ask my readers? We’ll invite them to respond in the comments. :)

I would love to know what Playing Big means for them in 2012? What does it look like?

Over to you, reader: what does Playing Big mean for you in 2012? Would love to hear from you in the comments.