I spent the last couple of weeks planning, thinking about, and preparing for the workshop I held this past weekend. The focus of the workshop was building a business on purpose, creating a brand with a mission.
I’ve been preaching passionately about this concept for a long time now, so the prep work was a lot of fun – and didn’t feel like work. (The hardest part was narrowing down to less than two hours’ worth of content!)
I know why I do what I do, and I am adamant about making sure that my WHY comes through loud and clear. Always. It’s plastered all over this site, in my email signature, my business cards…and I spout it several times a day. Minimum.
To unleash love, passion and authenticity in others, so that their stories might inspire the world.
I’m a storyteller. For as far back as I can remember, I’ve been captivated by the stories I see around me. I can’t get enough of them. They fill my heart, they light my soul. So naturally, my purpose has to involve helping people tell their stories, right?
Wrong.
When I first wrote my WHY, I did a lot of digging. I wrestled with the words for weeks…MONTHS, even. I knew that the stories had to be the focus of it, so I fought and wriggled and coerced the words to fit around that idea. My problem – I thought – was that I did SO MANY things. Photography, film making, design, branding, coaching, writing. The central theme had to tie it all together…so really, I was just helping people discover, refine, and tell their stories. I thought.
Turns out what I do actually goes much deeper than that.
The stories are just one of the methods to my madness. They aren’t my WHY. They’re a HOW.
Halfway through my workshop, as I found myself caught up in the passion I have for this whole concept of building a business on purpose, with purpose…it hit me. I stumbled over my words, I lost my place in the presentation. It may have only taken me a second to recover, but the impact of the realization made it feel like much longer. As I was overcome by the sheer magnitude of this aha! moment, my voice began to shake. I wanted to burst into laughter and shout it to my workshop attendees. Instead, I tucked it away for later.
Here I was, repeating my own WHY over and over again, throughout this presentation. Even my slide headings were trying to clue me in. Be on Purpose. Staying on Purpose. Drawing out your Purpose. The language I was using as I shared this concept…it was practically screaming at me. HERE I AM, it said. LOOK AT ME. SEE ME.
I’m not out here looking for stories. I’m looking for purpose. My purpose IS purpose. It’s helping people live on purpose. Create a living on purpose.
My why? To unleash love, passion + authenticity in others so they can live on purpose. With purpose.
See, that’s the beauty of this path we’re on. It’s constantly evolving. Ever-changing.
The further we explore and the deeper we dig and the more we experience, the more the path evolves and grows and blossoms before us. Just when we think we’ve got this on lock, a new surprise is waiting just around the next bend. And as we make the next discovery, our entire world opens up again – and we get a whole new perspective to go with it.
I don’t know about you, but these game-changing discoveries are what make my travels worthwhile. I don’t ever wish to arrive…for it’s in the journey that we find joy.
xo
Brianna