What's Your Core Message? I Found Mine With This Brilliant Question

No actual lightning required.

Welcome! In this publication, I share writing and productivity advice to help you become a better, more productive writer.

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

As a writer and/or entrepreneur, being clear on your core message is important.

It helps with

• communication,

• personal branding,

• creative expression,

• building an audience, and

• world domination (hey, I’m not judging! You just might be better equipped for that job than the current powers that be).

There’s just one problem with knowing what you stand for: we’re all complex beings.

We have trillions of cells, trillions of brain synapses…and, despite claims to the contrary, not necessarily shorter attention spans than a goldfish (phew!).

How do you narrow all that human brilliance down to a single message?

Great question! It’s a battle I’ve fought over the years, both as an entrepreneur and as a writer. I would try one message on for size, only to realize a few weeks or months later that it wasn’t quite it.

You should have seen all the iterations of my websites. There was one time when I went from “bland vanilla feel-good blabla” to “all-out revolutionary hardass” design in a way that must have given my audience digital whiplash syndrome. (Sorry! That’s not how I planned to turn heads.)

Whenever I saw someone who seemed to have their core message figured out, I felt a pang of envy that they were clear where I was feeling confused.

And I’m only slightly exaggerating when I say that I sometimes wished God (or any other deity, I’m not picky…) would start speaking to me out of a burning bush with clear instructions.

Where was the Lightning Strike of Inspiration™? The Parting of the Clouds™ that would make it all apparent? Hell, at this point I’d even settle for something prosaic such as an instruction manual.

Well, I recently got my lightning strike of inspiration. Except it wasn’t a lightning strike. All it took was a simple question—and my core message came through loud and clear. No ifs or buts. No doubts.

Ready to find your core message?

Discover your core message by putting some skin in the game

One principle in life is that we often get better results when we put some skin in the game. (Your own skin, dear reader! How many more times do I have to point out that human sacrifice is totally unacceptable?)

As Nassim Taleb puts it: “Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.”

Well, it turns out that putting skin in the game can also help you find your core message. What helped me discover my core message was an ingenious question that entrepreneur Jennifer Lee posed in the video below:

“What would you tattoo across your chest?”

Her question was based on a woman who had done just that — she had tattooed her core message across her chest!

Something about the permanency of that consideration helped me find my answer.

This is probably the part where I should point out (just in case my mom is reading this… hi Mom!) that I haven’t actually gotten a chest tattoo, nor am I planning to. I’m also not advising you to get one—this is merely a theoretical exercise.

Before I tell you my core message, I’ll give you a moment to answer that question for yourself:

If you had to tattoo a message across your chest, what would it be?

If you live in a culture where tattoos are a no-no or if your chest is already full of tattoos, what’s a phrase you would wear on your clothes for the rest of your life? (I’m assuming that you wear clothes…?!?)

My core message

Alright, here’s my answer:

“You got this!”

If I had to tattoo a message across my chest, that would be it.

Here’s why that's my core message:

I believe in personal power for collective change. I believe that people such as yourself have all these wonderful gifts, talents, and skills inside that can benefit the world at large.

However, unless you believe you can do “this” (whatever this is), you’re probably not going to try — which would deprive the world and all the people you could help of your uniqueness.

In contrast, if you believe you can do something, it makes your success that much more likely.

That’s why it’s so important for me to let people know that they got this.

What your core message means for you

Funnily enough, as I checked my planner for the year, I found something rather surprising.

At the beginning of 2020, the planner had “asked” me to write down words of encouragement for myself during hard times. (A very prescient planner, given, you know…2020!)

Want to guess which words I came up with at the start of the year?

“You got this!”

(Yes, you guessed correctly. 10 points to Gryffindor or whatever your Hogwarts house team is!)

Interesting, isn’t it? That a message I had written to myself mirrored the core message that I wanted everyone to know.

This has me thinking that your core message isn’t just for the people around you… it’s also your message to yourself.

What's your core message? If you like, share it in the comment section of this article!

Warmly,
Louise