Who Are You? A Primer On Defining What You Stand For

The Soul-Fire Series documents my experience in South America testing out the Fire of Love process in my own life and work. Tomorrow, I head to Galapagos to hunker down and prepare for the next Fire of Love program!

There's a fire in your soul, and a heart that's bursting with creative potential. One of the best ways to unleash this flow in the world is to get clear on who you are, what you stand for, and what your super powers are. Once you've got those in place it's so much easier to choose your priorities and make it rain!

Before you can get those clear, though, it really helps to work on your spiritual practice, clear and heal your energy, and awaken your essence.

So, that's what I've been doing lately -- working on energy healing and connecting with the five elements, the Earth Mother, my Spirit Animals and High-Self Guides, the Universal Energy Flow and the Great Mystery that encompasses all of existence.

I've also been relentlessly focused on getting clear on who I am, what I stand for, and how I share that with the world.

In this post I talk specifically about my ongoing process of sharpening who I am, and the steps I've taken over the last month to clarify this, update my site, and prepare myself for launching the next Fire of Love Experience.

Foundations…

One of the biggest foundation pieces of the Fire of Love Experience is deciding what you're here for, and what you really want to do with this beautiful life. Jump into your Soul Fire and let it set your life ablaze. There's a fierce strength and confidence that comes from knowing your work is guided by some kind of divine inspiration and Spirit Flow. From that place it's a lot easier to see what you're made of, and make epic sh*t happen.

But what if you're having trouble with seeing this clearly, and deciding what you're really about?

For most intuitive and creative folks there's some fundamental steps of energy clearing and grounding needed before you can see this clearly. It's so much easier to make things happen and choose your priorities When you feel really clear and alive. For help with that, read my spiritual practices archive, or get the Five Elements of Epic Flow email course.

I'm always looking at how to clarify and improve what I do, and how I'm showing up in the world. It's an ever-evolving process of defining, tweaking and refining.

Here's the process I'm currently going through, and how I've come to get really clear on sharing who I am and what I'm about online:

First off, I've been tweaking and adjusting my personal website.

I started with changing it to a responsive design so it reads better on mobile devices. Then I moved some things around, and cleaned up the sidebar (It had been feeling too cluttered for a while). I still have more work to do to bring it to the level I envision, but it's a work in progress.

Also…

I wrote a 100-word bio. I re-wrote and extended my full bio. I completely re-wrote the About Satya & Fierce Wisdom page on my site.

I'm also in the process of updating my Epic Flow email course, while I work on the new revision for the Flow book. As soon as that's done, I'm going to complete the switch from my current email provider over to MailChimp to simplify the process of publishing and managing my email community list.

Here's some insights into how I went through this, and how you can too...

Tweaking the website:

In my own process of sharpening my website design, I realized recently that my tagline was too vague. I didn't want to be lumped into the vague "personal development blogger" niche, which I've never felt myself to be a real part of. I'm more interested in self-realization for experiencing a truly awesome, self-empowered life, doing awesome creative work, and most importantly -- making the world a better place!

So, that's what I decided to put into my tagline -- a little simpler version anyway ;). I may change it down the line, but that's what feels good this moment. I've been getting a lot more search engine traffic and new visitors lately, so I want to be really clear on what it's about for them.

FYI you need a real website

If you want to be really serious about stepping out in the world, and into a stronger definition of who you are, you need a somewhat well-designed and current website to share that. It should be hosted at your own domain, and professional enough to signal that you're serious.

Luckily, with the amount of services and providers offering DIY templates for this it's easier than ever. It should be built on a content management system so you can easily update the pages, and should have a blog integrated into it, or else it will be a lot harder for you to add original content.

(If you need a professional redesign, or just a refresh on your site, that's what my design and consulting agency specializes in -- specifically for Spirit-driven entrepreneurs and conscious companies.)

Don't overlook the importance of defining what you're about and the problems you solve right off the bat on your website. That doesn't have to be in a tagline, but it should be right on the home page (along with your picture and intro, oh luminous one!)

Another approach for the right people is to go for a super mysterious and compelling minimalist approach that compels more engagement from your visitors. I think you need at least one very strong social proof indicator to pull this off, though -- such as logos for major media appearances, or a very high subscriber count (i.e. Zen Habits).

Defining Who You Are:

Not everyone in the world needs a website, but if you're an artist or creator, or a visionary who's focused on making a difference in the world, you really need your own site. If you want to bring additional money in on the side, and work on creating your own business based on what you love, than it's really not optional.

From there, one of the most essential steps is defining who you are, what you're about, and why people should listen to you (ahem, the subject of this post). For those of us who have been through this process already, there's never a bad time to review and refine that.

How to tell your story

Everyone loves a story, and a short story about your life is easy enough to put together!

You should tell a story that's down to earth and fun to share, and wraps together some of the highs and lows of your professional and personal life. It's a fun process of discovery, and it's the first step to getting really clear about who you are, and what you stand for. I'm going to guess you've done some pretty outrageous and amazing stuff in your life, that's brought you to who and where you are now. Don't hold back!

I think a nice approach for putting together your story is to focus on:

A: The things you're proud of having accomplished in your life (without banging people over the head with your ego). B: Some of the particulars of your unique approach, and the foundation of what's different about you (you want to be relatable). C: What you're really excited about doing, creating, building right now. D: What people stand to get out of engaging with your work, working with you, and/or purchasing your products. E: Random details that are interesting, unique or relatable about you and your life.

Does that feel like a lot of work, or hard to do? Just start with 1-2 sentences for each part, and you'll be amazed at what flows out. Free flow, and then you can put it together later.

If you can pepper it with your personality, and make it fun for your readers, it's going to work a lot better.

Packaging all this self-exploration and definition into bite-size yumminess

Write your 100-word Bio

This is a lot of fun…

I started about a month ago, with attempting to write a 100-word bio for my site (a must-have for media coverage purposes -- journalists and bloggers need a quick picture to pull from). I got a small workbook from Evan Carmichael, and found it useful in its simplicity (essentially -- list your unique accomplishments, hobbies, what matters to you, what's different about you and your business, then distill it into 100 words.)

I wasn't able to finalize anything from that, though, as it seemed to emphasize bragging rights -- "I created this, I started that, I'm the most amazing person in the world, etc…" I found this all really difficult, until I went back to re-write my full bio, and found the bits of humanness to pull out from there -- what really excites me and turns me on.

From getting clear on what matters to me, what really turns me on, what excites me most, and what I love, I was finally able to pull together the short 100-word bio!

Get clear on why people should listen to you

Here's the most important part of any website: The About This Site Page (not necessarily the bio). It's the first page anyone will click on after reaching home or reading your blog. This is what defines the whole nine...

One area I'd been coming up short in my own work was not clearly delineating why people should listen to me -- what core areas I can help them with.

An old acquaintance, Corbett Barr, helped with that, banging me over the head with his content explaining why this is important, and bringing it home with a video in his ThinkTraffic Toolbox.

So, I went back to the About Satya and Fierce Wisdom page and tweaked it some more! That's when I decided to redo my header and include a stronger tagline in there. So, thanks Corbett, and I hope you all like the new changes!

Conscious people want to have a sense of resonance with you, and they want to know what they're going to get from engaging with your work. Do that by generating the resonance in yourself, getting clear on what matters, and what you bring, and sharing that through your work.

So, that's what I've been doing lately, and it's just the beginning...

If you want to be super clear in your work, and what you're about, please do the work to clear your energy, and find the strength in yourself to believe in what matters to you. Then you can reach out and gather the people who will support you and stand behind your work, no matter how crazy it gets.

What one thing will you do today to get super clear on who you are and what you're about, and be able to share that more clearly with the world?

Love,

If you want to make a difference in the world, you've got to make it easy for people to understand why they should listen to you, and what you have to offer them. This is a big part of the foundation work we'll be doing in the Fire of Love Experience -- opening for pre-registration in less than a week!

Holy cow, it's happening...!

My next article will be my 100th post on Fierce Wisdom, and I've got something quietly epic planned for that. Join my Epic Flow community newsletter to get the next update, and the invite for Fire of Love pre-registration -- for the change-makers and rain makers only!)