You know what helps you stand out among the noise and mess on LinkedIn? You, your voice, and what you do with it. Fen Druadìn, Book Midwife, talks about the important processes of finding and designing a voice that is truly reflective of who you are, what you do, and the audience you want on LinkedIn.
Notes from the Show
Fen Druadìn is a Book Midwife who works with clients to get their book started, write the manuscript, and lay all the foundation. A big part of that and something we connected with is finding your voice, in this case on LinkedIn.
So how does it work? 5 posts a week, and you get an automatic following? Not quite. What Fen does is help people uncover this spark of genius that the world has covered up under what they ‘should’ be doing. It’s not just what you do and not just understanding the customer; it's who you are and how you communicate these ideas in an honest way that reflects your true self.
In a world of AI, people really want to hear from humans. Unique voices they can connect to. So while there is no formula, Fen says, there certainly is a process like deciding your tone—whether it be luscious and rich, direct and challenging, or maybe you’re snarky but not mean, world building, or whimsical. The possibilities of what fits your true self will be different, but there is an audience for all of it.
The alchemy is this perfect blend of your authentic voice and your connected audience. If you build that audience and that following with true, curated content that reflects yourself, people will come no matter what, AND it can never be replicated.
What's Inside:
How to find and design your voice on LinkedIn.
Why your voice matters in a world inundated with AI.
How to step into fearlessness by being yourself on LinkedIn.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Transcribed by AI Susan Tatum 0:38
Hi, everybody, welcome back to stop the noise today. My guest is Fen Druadin. Did I get that right?
Fen Druadìn 0:45
You did very good.
Susan Tatum 0:47
So great to have you here. We have known each other 10 years, 12 years long time,
Fen Druadin 0:52
a long time. Yeah.
Susan Tatum 0:54
And I'm so excited listener for listeners to have fun here, because we're gonna talk about how you find your place on LinkedIn. So like with all of this noise, and Fen you and I, with our mutual clients have seen LinkedIn go through a gigantic change after change after change.
Fen Druadin 1:12
Yes, yeah.
Susan Tatum 1:15
Here with all of this crap going on in on LinkedIn. And how can an expert in you know somebody that's selling expertise and has a professional persona? How do they get through all of that nonsense out there?
Fen Druadin 1:29
Right.
Susan Tatum 1:30
Before we do that, though? Give us the 30 60 minute to thing that what you do?
Fen Druadìn 1:37
Absolutely. So I'm Fen. I am a book midwife. So what I do is I help people write their books. And there's a lot that's involved in that, from coaching to manuscript reviews, to just, you know, helping them set the foundation outlines all of that. And, you know, my background, as Susan, as you said, we've worked together for a long time, I have helped people write on LinkedIn, I have written for people as part of my part of my background, and all of it comes back to you know, claiming your space with your voice with the way that you with your presence and how you are online. So was that what you wanted me to share?
Susan Tatum 2:14
Yeah, well, yeah, it was. So when we first started working together, you are my go to person for clients that didn't have any content at all. And you just did this beautiful job of helping them be I think you were writing the blog articles for them, frankly, but all for any kind of topic, business related topic you were, and then you had the nerve to stop doing that. And I had no one to send folks to. But yeah, a question that I get a lot from clients, and then just consultants that I'm talking to is what how is it supposed to work and how, and somebody out there's a lot of people out there are telling folks that all you have to do is post five days a week on LinkedIn, and prospects are just going to flock to your door that I think drives a lot of seeing more and more generic that an AI? that doesn't do anything to help your brand.
Fen Druadìn 3:08
Yeah, absolutely.
Susan Tatum 3:09
And anybody that's not watching this video should have seen Fen's face when I mentioned AI. But we'll get to that, we'll get to that. All right. So let's let me talk for just a second about this mutual client that we have. And, and my work with these folks is helping them to build their pipelines and to get the right kinds of clients and conversations with the right kinds of clients. And a being able to have a good presence on LinkedIn is an important part of at least from my perspective, what's gonna happen when somebody hears from you, they don't know you, they're gonna go look at your profile. They're gonna look at what you're posting on LinkedIn. And so we I have this client, who is absolutely brilliant executive coach has so many great ideas and he's on a mission. And when you talk to him, it's you just feel it coming through. And he couldn't, couldn't get himself to post on LinkedIn. And it was that due to a fear of saying the wrong thing, or or people coming back at him. He does didn't mind that at all. But then Fen started working with him to help him write a book and all of a sudden, he's posting on LinkedIn. And it's this a great start. It's him posting on LinkedIn, what did you do?
Fen Druadìn 4:24
Yes, thank you. I'm so glad you brought that that mutual client because it's it's a really fun story for me to tell. And a really amazing and wonderful example of what can happen when and you'll hear me use this phrase claiming your voice that is also claim your voice as the title of my of a new upcoming book that is in process from me. And the see you'll hear me talk about that a lot because that's really what it is. And when I talk about voice, it's that that sort of inner gosh, you know, I start to sound mystical when I talk about it because it's what makes you you and that is what we uncovered with this client. He came to me As you you refer him to me because of yours and my work in the past, and you knew that I understood how to write for LinkedIn. And even though that wasn't what I was doing at the time, you know, you thought I might be able to help him. And he also wanted to write a book. So it was a good fit. And what we, what we ended up doing was starting with the book, really dive into, you know, and if you're if you're in marketing, you'll kind of understand this as sort of the the foundation of marketing as well. But But digging into what he was trying to accomplish, what was his big why, what was the point of all of it, digging into who he wanted to connect with? And what were the ways he wanted to help them whether what were they like, right, what is their not just their demographic, but their psychographic? And not just that, but what motivates them? What drives them? What are their deep seated needs, what are their problems and challenges, right, and then out of that, we crafted essentially the, what we what I call a foundational statement, but then out of that the outline for the book, and this client is still in process, writing the book, but in the course of writing the book, and in the course of doing this foundational work is discovering that he does have really powerful things to say to his clients, but or to his market, right. But now it's in the context of this bigger view of things. And then the other piece of that that is one of the one of the reasons I call myself a book midwife. And not just a book coach or not just a developmental editor, though those are very powerful and important parts of what I do is that I could hear through that, what makes this client's again voice so unique and powerful. And I won't get into AI because I know we're going to talk about that in a minute. But I will say that the problem, the biggest problem right now with getting your voice heard is if you sound like everybody else, if you sound like all the AI generated content, if you sound like everybody else, just talking about your topic, you are not going to break through. And what was so beautiful about this client was he had, he has a voice, he just didn't know which pieces of it to claim. Right? He has this this sort of snarky, but not condescending way of communicating. That's funny. And that gets you to kind of have these aha moments. And, and he does that almost naturally. But it was sort of buried under a lot of ideas about what he should be saying or what he should be talking about,
Susan Tatum 7:14
exactly yeah, he felt that he felt that that wasn't the right thing to say he had to do things in some prescribed way.
Fen Druadìn 7:23
Yes, yes. So a lot of my work is helping people uncover this spark of genius, that these are their IID, or that the world has burried under what they should be talking about what they should be saying what they should be doing. Right. And so that's really what happened. And then at some point, as you know, one of his pieces went viral. So it's not just that he's being consistent, people are actually connecting with it, because they're connecting with him. And again, not to get too mystical, but I am a mystical person. They're connecting with the soul of what he his, of what he's here for his purpose and meaning in life. And, and when you can connect with that, even if the topic is something, you know, mundane. If it's content marketing, or its technology, or its, you know, infrastructure and logistics, it doesn't matter, the way you connect with people is by connecting your soul to theirs. And the way you do that is by really claiming what makes your point of view different makes your voice different. So it's not just what he's saying, although we did a lot of work around that around helping define what are those chunks of information that he wants to share? Right. It's not just that he understands the customer, though we did a lot of work around that as well. It is also around who he is as a person and how he communicates when he's really in his full strength in his full self hood.
Susan Tatum 8:41
Yeah. So two things that comes to my mind on on that one Fenn is one is that it? Is it everyone that I talked to when I'm having conversations with them? There's they're not just in the consulting business to make money. They're there especially the ones that the clients that I that I support most now are the ones that have built these these careers. They're accomplished former corporate executives, and they know what they're doing. And they and they have seen a lot of things that they believe are being done wrong. They've got an opinion. And somehow that gets squished when they cut when it comes to like writing on LinkedIn.
Fen Druadìn 9:24
Yes, yes, there's so much pressure to not rock the boat, right? There's so much. We just we feel like we have to stay inside these professional boxes and, you know, tow the party line or the company line or whatever, you know, socially acceptable line we're supposed to toe and you're absolutely right. The people that I love to work with and most often work with are, as you said, very often late career, they've seen a lot. They've done a lot. they've accomplished a lot. They have a unique point of view, but they also have the experience of in order to get where they've gotten, they've had to play by the rules. Right?
Susan Tatum 10:07
Good point. Yeah.
Fen Druadìn 10:08
And I think that at, you know, being able and this is one of the things that you just talked about this, I get excited, because it's one of the things it's exciting about my work is helping them on Earth and dig up those parts of themselves that they kind of squashed down in order to accomplish what they've accomplished, but that they're ready for now. Because they have the experience, they have the background, they have the point of view, they have the expertise, they have things that they want to communicate to the world. And very often they're ready to change the world very often, they're at a point in their life, where they've seen everything that can go wrong in the world, they've seen everything that is going wrong in the world, and they want to make it better, you know, whether it's helping, you know, a CEO of a hospital, who wants to help people live a healthier, happier life, whether it's, you know, an attorney who has turned to stage performance to reach people in new ways, right, whatever their, their place, or their goal, or whatever it is that they care about, they want to make a difference. And, and what's exciting is helping them connect those parts of themselves that have gone unheard and unseen. And really bring those to the foreground to accomplish what they want to accomplish. And what's also exciting is that each one of them is different from the other. So we talked about this one client, right, I have another client, we just did a brief where we sort of defined her voice and, you know, some of the attitudes we came up with were luscious, right? Because she just she has a lush way of expressing herself. We have another, you know, another one that I've worked with is very, very direct and matter of fact, another one is, like very challenging. And she she has a way of just like pushing the reader to question themselves. And in all of these, you know, these elements, they can get buried under words and apologies. And, you know, trying not to rock the boat. So it's exciting to see them come to the front. And that's when because we're talking about LinkedIn. Right? When you can bring that to the front. That's what people connect with. On LinkedIn. It's what people respond to you.
Susan Tatum 12:10
So somehow, people are seeing something that that you say, and it's grabbing them? And they know, they know, they just know it's real. Yeah, yeah. So, so this is gonna seem like a dumb question. But is there a formula for that?
Fen Druadìn 12:29
No, that's a great question. That's a fantastic question, Susan. And the answer is a there's a yes or no to that, right. So there is a formula in the sense that there is a process that I walk through with my clients that lead to this outcome, right. So when I do a slide, you know, I'll put together the slide deck for one of the workshops that I do with the authors that work with me, there'll be an agenda at the beginning. And it's, we're going to do this, and we're going to do this and we're gonna do this. And then there's a slide that just says magic, because there's a moment when you need somebody who can look at you from the outside, who can take everything that you've said, and everything that you've communicated everything that matters to you and everything you know, and, and help you see what you can't see. It's like, it's like looking in the mirror. Like, if you you know, you get dressed in the morning, you know what clothes you've put on, you know what jewelry you've put on, you know, you've brushed your hair, but until you look in the mirror, you don't know how it's all coming together. Right? And so there's definitely this process part and part of that process. Again, if you're in marketing, or if you've, you know, interact with marketing, some of that will look familiar. Some of it is knowing why you're doing what you're doing, knowing who you're doing it for,
Susan Tatum 13:40
right. I mean, that's yeah, that would be basic for having a business. Yeah. And yeah,
Fen Druadìn 13:44
so a lot of those things still apply. And a lot of people have never really gone through the process for their own personal, what do I want to do it and be in the world, right, they've done for a business, maybe if they're running a business, they've done it for a department at somebody else's business, if they worked in marketing, they've had it done for them if their CEO or whatever, and they've hired a marketing firm, but it's not very common that somebody has sat down and really done that foundational work for themselves. And that's where it comes from, is getting that foundational work in place. So I asked, I asked questions like, you know, what, if money time, responsibilities, obligations, were not an issue, if they could all just be taken care of, and you were confident all of that was taken care of, for the next year? What would you do? I asked questions like if you're if you were writing a book, and the book was complete, and it was out there in the world, and it was doing everything you could possibly dream or imagine that it might do, how would the world be different think big, right? And so we get these, like, we open up this space for people to really think about what matters to them and what they what they want to see changed in the world what they want to see changed in their lives and out of that, you start to see what matters to you in a new light and a new way. Right? So that's a piece of it. And that, you know, we so we follow that, you know, all of those steps. And then we figure out who do you want to communicate with? Like, you know, is it really important to you? Or do you feel like your ideal audience? Is women above 50? Who are reinventing themselves late in life? Is your audience, young people who are sort of charting their course and maybe don't know what to do in this uncertain world? Like, who do you? Who are you going to connect with? Who do you want to connect with? And, and so that's another piece of sort of refining how you're communicating, right? So again, these are pretty foundational things that a lot of people have done in a lot of contexts. But that was
Susan Tatum 15:45
So what I'm thinking of the process that you describe, is that if so, okay, I'm struggling with how does this relate to LinkedIn where you are there for a business reason? So some something in that foundation that you are having them helping them build?mis maybe giving giving? Isn't that sort of the breakthrough that then gives them the confidence to speak and write or do videos or whatever, in a bit of a different way?
Fen Druadìn 16:18
Yes, that is definitely. So like, that is the foundation, right? There's, there's more that that can be done. But absolutely. So even if you're on LinkedIn, well, most people who are on LinkedIn are there for a business purpose, right? You're on LinkedIn for business purpose, even if you're there for a company that you don't own. Or maybe you own it, but you know, it's not, you've got lots of employees, you're speaking on behalf of a company, people still want to hear from humans, they want to hear from you, as a human. So even if you are CEO, speaking on behalf of your company, even if you are a marketing executive speaking on behalf of somebody else's company, when that you work for, right, what people want to hear from you on your LinkedIn profile in your LinkedIn communications, is you as a human. So there
Susan Tatum 17:04
I'm gonna jump in here, Fen, because I think that's even more important. If you are if you are like, say an independent consultant. And you are an I hate they are selling, but basically, you're selling yourself, people, your clients invest in you. And so yeah, you gotta be either you are the expert, you but the expert, you as a human?
Fen Druadìn 17:25
Yes, absolutely. And especially especially, especially in that case, because if you are, for instance, the CEO of Apple, or Autodesk, or you know, some guy or Google, whatever, you have a platform, you don't have to fight to win your platform, right? It's there, it already exists. And if your content is boring, people are still going to read it. But if you're an independent consultant, trying to break through that noise, you're in a different position, right? So you have to find a way to connect with your audience that they're not getting from Google or Salesforce, or whatever massive gargantuan competitor, there may be out in your space. Right.
Susan Tatum 18:05
Yeah, that that makes sense. I have so many questions that I want to ask you. But before we leave this, specifically, I think you you made some mention of I wrote down that this is part of your differentiation as well. This is what makes you different from all of the other leadership or organizational development or engineering consultants out there that to the buyer appear to be offering the same thing. And the only thing that can't be copied is you.
Fen Druadìn 18:35
Yes, that is exactly it. That is exactly it. And I and I actually I talk about that a lot. I've had instance in situations and I and other people have had situations where you know, if you're a content creator of any sort, whether it's on LinkedIn or elsewhere, people and if you reach a certain level of popularity, or sprint or exposure, or just you strike a nerve, people are gonna steal your stuff. You know, like, I know somebody who has a very unique name. And there's a very popular story in the sales world, that about this little girl who went through some things and then whatever it is, has some sales message to it. Well, almost every sales organization retells the story as though it's their own and they still use her name, even though it's a unique name. It's just like, it's like it's so transparent, but it happens, But what they cannot reproduce is you right? So if you you're still you that one story may be out there under 1000 different names, but nobody else can reproduce the you that produced the story. So the stories that are coming out of you now or in the future are that's that's you that's what you are capable of creating, of generating. And so ultimately, as annoying as it is as frustrating as it is as costly as it can be. People can steal your stories, but they cannot steal you.
Susan Tatum 19:55
Yes, Yeah.
Fen Druadìn 19:56
And that's why it's so important to claim that until like really own that because in the end, somebody may be spreading your story and smacking their name on it, but people are gonna know, right? They're gonna come across your stuff. And they're gonna be like, Oh, this is the voice I was looking for this other copycat just had the one story, but you've got the whole, you've got the whole deal. You're it. Right.
Susan Tatum 20:20
So, so Fen, can you tell us? Let's pretend? Well, let's just say that we're tech, we're talking about text posts on LinkedIn. And I know that there's the first I don't know, three or five, depending upon what you're looking at lines that are all just going to show up when it's going through somebody's newsfeed. So do we find ourselves in the position where that's gotta grab them? That's got to stop them from scrolling. Right. So now we're back into a little bit of copywriting. But then, and it's gonna lead us into AI a bit, because if everybody's saying the same thing in those three to five lines, we don't stop. We keep scrolling.
Fen Druadìn 20:56
Yes. And this has been a problem, right? For a long time. We've had, do you remember when inbound marketing and content marketing was still fairly new, and there were all these headline generators and headline, and all of our headlines ended up looking the same, right? It's five ways to XYZ, here's the shocking story, whatever, right? And they all end up looking the same, and people are sick of them. And now nobody clicks on them, because they all say the same thing. So that's absolutely a problem. And absolutely, you know, where having that voice makes you stand out. So here's what I mean by that to two things. Actually, one thing is the people who know you know you, so I have a I post a lot on Facebook, more, more personal and spiritual type things. And I have a following there. And when people tell me that they see my name, and they stop scrolling, even though it's going to be, you know, a 5000 word essay, they stop scrolling, and they start to read it because they know my voice. And they know it's going to be something that they are glad that they read. And so that is what happens. But that's a long, you know, that's more of a long tail thing that happens over time, as you develop your voice as you develop your following as people start to know and trust who you are. And when you reach that point, your headline doesn't matter nearly as much. It still can be helpful don't get me wrong but but people will people will suffer through boring paragraphs to get to the magic when they know the magic is going to be there. Right,
Susan Tatum 22:32
which you've got to build to, you got to get rid of the boring paragraphs, you're able to build the following.
Fen Druadìn 22:37
Yes, yes. Yes. So that's a piece of it. And then the other piece of it is, you know, let's just imagine that, you know, you've discovered that a part of your authentic voice is being a little bit snarky without being mean. Now imagine instead of starting your, your LinkedIn posts with the same statistic that everybody's starting with, because it's a startling statistic. And we know that statistics are a great way to start a post, right? Imagine you start with some snarky, snarky, startling comment of your own. That's just you something that just makes people kind of laugh or like, go, oh, my gosh, they didn't just say that. What? Right, and now they're in their hooked, right? Or let's say that your voice is this sort of luscious, rich, world building voice right? Now, instead of starting with, I'm going to show you five ways that you can X Y Z, which starts with we can start with the world building, start with a sentence that lays this gorgeous environment, this gorgeous picture for your readers, which is what they're coming to you specifically for. Not everybody can do that. Because not everybody's audiences there for that. But if that's what your audience is there for, if that is your authentic voice, there will be an audience for it. Because there's an audience for everything. And that's how you do it. Really, that's how you win it from a voice perspective. That's how you make those first three to four lines catch, it's not a formula in the sense that if you just you know, list the top five things or start with a statistic or start with a story, a story might not be the way to start for you. If that's not authentic to your voice.
Susan Tatum 24:18
So I think what I hear you saying is, it's a combination of who you are, and who your reader who it is that you're trying to get to read it
Fen Druadìn 24:27
and you were asking me earlier about what I call the the book writing process that I that I use with my clients. It's called Book Alchemy. That is the alchemy. That is the alchemy right there. It's you and your authentic self, and it's your audience and what they authentically connect with who they are, who you are and who they are. And that's where that alchemy that magic happens.
Susan Tatum 24:47
And how do you suggest or how do they get to that level of understanding about their potential clients or their audience?
Fen Druadìn 24:56
Yeah, that's a really good question and You know, there are pieces that so we talked about laying that foundation. And that's very important. Then we also when I work with my clients we go into, you know, we do a deep dive with the people that they want to connect with not just, you know, surface level, what are the problems that they're facing? But why does it matter to them? How does it impact them? You know, and what do they want to read? What do they you know, if we're talking about a book, we talk about everything from, you know, what do they want to feel? What do they what are the what should be inside the pages? Should they be silky smooth? Should they be shiny, like, what do they want? What's going to feel right to them? And if it's a LinkedIn post, it's similar. It's, you know, are they what are they like? What are they going to dig their teeth into and be, like, just really feel satisfied by? And then when those two things, you know, we start the process at first is rough drafts, right? So anybody who's been taking a writing class probably knows about zero drafts and rough drafts and it can I use sharp language? If you know Anne Lamott, she refers to a a shitty first draft, right? It's just getting it out there. It's just like why, right? Just get it and get the words out. Right. So there's that piece of the process. And then there's going back, and really discovering what what's shining and what's connecting. And to go back to the first part of the process that just like spitting it out, a part of that is letting yourself go to explore what you would say and how you would say it, if you weren't worried about the consequences. So I once had a business coach back when I lacked a lot of confidence. I was very timid. And I was having a problem with the clients. And she was asking me questions about it. And I was saying, Well, I just, you know, it would just be nice if and she said, then just sit back for a second and say, and just I mean, it's different at work. She said, forget about it, just take a crack at it and say what's on your mind, I just like spilled out, I was ticked off up against, but I was afraid to express that. And that's part of this process of the rough draft is because you can take anything out, you don't have to people are often worried about well, you know, I'm afraid of what my family will think I'm afraid of what clients will think I'm afraid of what this one particular person who stalks me will think right, like, and that's and some of those are legitimate fears, we do sometimes have to be careful what we say publicly, because things can have ramifications in business, sometimes their IP ramifications. There's all kinds of reasons why you might not say everything that's up here. But in that rough draft version, you can say it all you say, forget it. I'm just freaking saying it. Right? If you do that, that is to go back to that client we were talking about earlier, that was one of the things that happened was he started being snarky in the rough draft. And when I brought it to his attention, he was like, Oh, I'm just like, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Or, you know, and it's like, no, this is like, this is you like, rarely say, you know, and then it's honing that right. So you still don't necessarily want to say everything. There are things that I don't say, all that let you know. But you can modulate it. So then you go from okay, we know that snarky is a part of your voice. But we also know that you're not a condescending or mean person. Right. So then you modulate like the snarkiness with kindness. Yeah. And so you just, and one of the things that I do with with the authors that I work with in the in the clients that I work with is we put together a document that kind of lays out this is my voice and we we pick adjectives so you know, sometimes they're things like I'm authoritative, I'm an expert, right? Everybody is that. But then we also get into, you know, I'm snarky, but not unkind. I'm direct, but not mean, I'm warm, I'm funny, right humor, by the way, if you can pull it off, is a huge way to connect with your audience
Susan Tatum 29:03
Hard to do isn't it
Fen Druadìn 29:04
it's different too right, my son, talking about a book that he recommended to me and it's written by a British author and has this very dry British humor. That's almost you almost can't even tell they're trying to be funny. Right? My sense of humor tends to be a little bit more like I just noticed the absurdities in life. And then I say the opposite of what I mean. And everybody knows that's the honest I
Susan Tatum 29:25
sarcasm isn't it?
Fen Druadìn 29:29
Yeah, I guess that's sarcasm, right? But also my sarcasm is also not mean I share this with our client. I like to be sarcastic, but I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Some people don't worry about hurting feelings, right? There's some really popular content creators out there who are really pretty mean and it's not my style, and I don't connect with it, but it connects. Some people like it, right. Some people like to, you know, like to be, I don't know, hit over the head, virtually. Right.
Susan Tatum 29:57
So I just noticed the time and we're we're running out here, even though I still have like, I just functions and notes. But what is there? What tips or advice? Or suggestions might you give the listeners that they can maybe just start down this path on their own? Like, whichever they'd be paying attention to?
Fen Druadìn 30:20
Yeah, that's a good question. Gosh, and it's so hard to, you know, to just give one or two tips, I would say, you know, there, there are some really great books out there that can get you started on sort of a self like journaling exercise. And I think that journaling can be a big part of this, especially if you're doing this on your own. Because journaling gives you that place to just say what, like I was saying, you know, forget what anybody just say it just say it all,
Susan Tatum 30:50
just get it out
Fen Druadìn 30:51
I learned it later, so I would say like, start there. And then if you can find somebody that you trust to kind of look at your work and reflect it back to you and say, You know what, you're actually really funny, you know, what you're actually like, like, I love the way you use a lot of words. Or I love the way that you don't use what I have, you know, I have authors on both ends of that I have an author who one of the things that she does incredibly well is very sharp, pointed, short statements that get right to the point and right. And I have authors I work with who are much more, they use a lot more words, and they have their place, they have a different but so I would say like start with some journaling where you know, and you may find that in your journaling, you end up writing things that you later use, and then see if you can find somebody to help reflect back to you, what they see what's working for you. And that would be a place to start and of course, that foundational work the Who are you and the Who are you trying to reach work that is going to be that's going to be key,
Susan Tatum 31:56
that's that you got to have that I think the the point of just giving yourself the freedom to write or or record speak, if that's better at that, just be yourself and and say write what you think and let it just let it go. I think yes, I like that.
Fen Druadìn 32:16
Yeah. And then I would say, you know, the next or the next level is when you've sort of defined what you think your voice is, you know, it's funny and warm and authoritative and you know, whatever adjectives you come up with a whole page of adjectives if you want, then see if you can trim away the things that don't fit that, right. So now go back to your work and say, okay, you know, this is just like, lengthy explanation of something, and it's not really who I am, or it doesn't really fit. You know, my, my voice because that taking things out is just as much a part of the creation process as what you put in.
Susan Tatum 32:53
Right, right. Alright, so that that's, that's really good. And i Tuna to bring it back to somebody saying, Well, this sounds like this sounds like a lot of work. And it is, and why am I doing this? And I in the answer to my answer to that would be because this is how you're going to break through the noise and be different. And
Fen Druadìn 33:12
and you know, the other piece of this is when you so the foundational work is a lot of work. But it's just like anything else where you slow down and you go back and you lay that foundation, everything's gonna go easier once the foundation is in place. So again, you go back to the client we started with, when he came to us, he was having trouble producing content at all. And now it's constant, right? It's almost not even effort for him, because we tapped into what matters to him, why he's doing it. And we tapped into what is authentic to him. When you're expressing authentically from that deep part of yourself, and you're not trying to fit some kind of a mold, you're not trying to make yourself sound like everybody else, then it actually becomes easier to communicate, then it's more like talking to a friend. Right?
Susan Tatum 33:57
Well, you know that exactly. It's it but I think maybe with especially in the digital world, or you start writing for some unknown people, and you think you have to fit into some mold, when the thing that's made you successful in real life is the way you are as a person.
Fen Druadìn 34:14
Yes. And you know what, Susan, that's such a great point. And I think that just brought up for me a technique that maybe your listeners would like to use. Very simple. Really. Yeah. Just imagine to yourself that one person, imagine somebody that is in your target audience, somebody if you're, for instance, a consultant and you're wanting to speak to people in your target market, somebody you have loved working with you would love to work with more people like that, right? Your ideal client profile if you want to put it in those words, but imagine that individual person and they're in a car with you and you're driving somewhere you have nothing to do except talk, right? How do you talk to them? Yeah, and not like in a stiff like how do you stay professional while you're in the car, but you're just chilling on your way to an event or something?
Susan Tatum 34:57
Are you going in there for hours and You're tired of being professional, you're gonna be yourself.
Fen Druadìn 35:02
Yes, exactly. Exactly. And just see what comes up when you do that.
Susan Tatum 35:08
So Fen in your work? Can people can people come to you for help on LinkedIn? Does it have to be connected with writing a book? Maybe they're not ready for that yet?
Fen Druadìn 35:17
Yeah, no, they can absolutely come to me for that. If you go to my website, it is not listed on my services. But absolutely, yes, the foundational tasks and processes are the same both ways. So if you're not going to write a book, you don't have to write a book. You can still work with me and we will still, you know, then instead of focusing on creating, you know, one big manuscript we'll focus on reading the framework for you to be speaking on LinkedIn on the areas that are your expertise and that your audience wants to hear from you on
Susan Tatum 35:50
Cool so how do we go about getting in touch with you?
Fen Druadìn 35:53
Great question. So my website is fendruadin.com, which I don't know if you will want to put the spelling somewhere but it is yeah. It is F like Frank E D d like delta R U A D again, like delta I N like november.com fendruadin.com. And you can also reach me by email, which is my first name again Fen at that long website address I just said then we'll put that com to make it simple.
Susan Tatum 36:27
We'll put that in the show notes too so people can can get to you. And thank you so much for being here. This is very helpful for me and I hope it was helpful for other folks too
Fen Druadìn 36:38
Thank you Susan, thank you so much. I have enjoyed knowing you and staying connected with you over the years we have seen so much and done so much and I admire you so much. This has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you.
Susan Tatum 36:53
Oh, I enjoyed it too. Thanks Fen. Take care.
Fen Druadìn 36:56
You too.
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