Book Club Series: Discover Your Message (Intro + Ch. 1)

Welcome to this special Book Club Series! Over the next several episodes, you'll be able to go "behind-the-scenes" with Jonathan Milligan as he teaches through his latest book, Discover Your Message!

Think of it as your own special audio course to go with the book!

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Transcript

0:40

Hello, and welcome to the market. Your message show. I'm your host, Jonathan Milligan, author of the book, your message matters in the recent book. Discover your message. A 14 day guide to uncover your calling and find your niche as a writer, coach, or speaker. And I've got an exciting announcement today. I am going to be starting up another series of book club. So if you're a writer, speaker, coach, and you want to learn how to grow your business online. And you want help around messaging? I think you're really going to love the next several episodes. What I'm going to be doing is going to be teaching through my new book. You can actually go grab a copy by going to platform growth books.com. Platform growth books.com. Click on the discover your message book. And it'll show you everywhere. It's available. It's available as a Kindle, paperback, hardcover, even audio book. And it's also available in bookstores libraries. Scribd everywhere that you might be consuming a book. But what I want to do during this series. Is what I did back several episodes ago when I taught through him that your message matters book. And so this book, the new book. His book one in a series called your message matters series. And I'm going to be tackling the seven big parts, the seven steps, the seven frameworks that I teach people that are in my high level coaching mastermind. And so we're going to be diving into book. Number one, discovering your message. This is so foundational. So key, and this is where a lot of people get stuck. Is to figure out your purpose, your passion, the people you're trying to serve. And how do you distill that down into a single sentence, some excited about the journey that you're about to go on. And I hope you are too. So in this book club, What I love about doing this is because I wish. Some of my favorite books that I had this experience with the author as well. And that is to hear a little bit behind the scenes. A little bit of ad-libs some teaching. I'm certainly not just going to be reading it because there's the audio book that's already available. I already read all of the book. You can go listen to the audio book. But I'm going to be skipping around and giving you. What my wife often calls the John notes. She calls it the John notes because I'm always reading a book and she's always asked me, take. Tell me about your book. Give me the John notes. That means cliff notes. That means. The short summary, the applications. That's what we'll be doing here. So I might read a story or a portion of the book, but I want to share with you. The big pieces. So here's the goodness. You can go pick up a copy of the book, read it, and then treat this like a book club. Where you come and you spend a little bit of time. With the author learning a little bit more. As you read it. All right. So I want to start by actually reading the introduction because I believe it's really powerful and I want you to get the essence of where we're going. So here it is. There are no extras. You have a specific starring role to play? Inside the pages of this book, you uncover your unique calling and purpose. As Richard Stearns president of world vision says, God created you intentionally to play a very specific role in his unfolding story. God didn't create any extras meant to just stand on the sidelines and watch the story unfold. He created players meant to be on center stage. And you will feel fully complete. Only when you discover the role you were born to play. Now side note, I love this quote. I've referenced this quote so many times and I believe it to be true. You are not an extra. You have a very specific role to play. In the bigger unfolding story of what's going on. And what we need you to do as we go through and I teach you through the book. Just to believe that there is a role for you. You may not know what it is right now. You may feel a lot lost. That's okay. All right back to the book. Cause I want to finish this introduction. It's a short one. You're about to discover a powerful 14 day self-discovery journey. Can your life change in just two short weeks? Yes, it can. Once you uncover your powerful purpose, the sky is the limit. Have you ever felt like something was missing in your life? Like you were meant for something more, but couldn't quite put your finger on it. And what if I said you could uncover it in just 14 days. Inside these pages, you'll embark on a powerful journey of self-discovery. Let this book be your guide to uncovering your gifts and finding your audience in 14 days or less. Following Richard Stearns you're crafted for center stage, not merely to speculate from the sidelines. It's time to take center stage and discover the role you were born to play. Are you ready for this life changing journey? Now right now, you may feel lost unfulfilled and uncertain about your decision in life. In your direction. You may have a nagging feeling that there's something more you were meant to do. But you need to figure out what that is. And how to find it. You may feel stuck in your writing or your coaching or your speaking career and not creating the impact. You can, you may be experiencing frustration, anxiety, and even despair. As you search for your place in the world. But there is hope. This book will guide you through a 14 day journey of self discovery. That will help you uncover your unique gifts and calling. By the end of this journey, you will clearly understand your purpose and how to share it with the world. Through personal stories, valuable exercises and expert advice. You can spot and conquer your obstacles. You will no longer feel stuck or uncertain about your path in life. Instead this book will empower you to take action and confidently pursue your dreams. So if you're tired of feeling unfulfilled and unsure of your place in the world, this book is for you. It's time to take control of your life and discover the unique role you were born to play. By the end of this 14 day journey, you will experience a powerful transformation. Here are some benefits you can expect to gain. Discover your unique gifts and talents and how to use them to impact the world. Gain clarity on your purpose in calling and how to align your life with it. Learn how to communicate your message to your audience effectively. Develop a clear plan of action to achieve your goals and make your dreams a reality. Build confidence in yourself and your writing coach or speaker abilities. Overcome the obstacles holding you back and step into your full potential. Join a welcome community of individuals who share your interest in self discovery and offer support along the way. Experience a renewed sense of purpose, fulfillment, and joy. In your life and work. Don't settle for a mediocre life. You, my friend were created for greatness. And it's time to step into your full potential. Now I go into it a little bit more, but those are the essence of where we're heading. Hopefully that inspires you. Hopefully you feel right now like Jonathan? Yes. This is what I need. Now what we have in the book, because I know you may or may not have it in front of you. R after the introduction, there are 14 short chapters. Each chapter's called a day. The whole framework or premise of the book. Is that in 14 days, you can walk through some exercises with me. Too. Really hone in on what your message is. You'll know your strengths. You will know. The people you want to serve. And you're going to know your message. I want to actually talk about day one. And then we'll leave. Day two and three and four and all that to the next episode. All right. So day one is the ignite your message. Framework. Now, if you've heard or read in the, your message matters book, this part will be a little bit familiar to you, but I think you'll also find some interesting additions as you go through because there's stuff in this book that I've not talked about anywhere else. So the ignite your message framework is really about three foundational pillars. In other words, you have three parts that you need to have working together. In order to have a powerful message. Just there are three things you need to start a fire. Did you know that. You need heat. You need oxygen and you need fuel. Now you can use different elements, but you got to have all three of those present. In order to start a fire. In order to ignite your message. You need three things. Purpose. People. And passion. Now we're going to unpack this in the upcoming chapters. But this is an important thing to remember. So let's talk about each of these real quick. Number one, identify your purpose. I start about, I start talking about this on page two. So you want to start by examining your unique gifts, your talents, your abilities, and these natural strengths can provide insights into how you best serve others. And here's the lesson. And if you've listened to this podcast for anyone at the time, you've heard me say this. One of my aha moments in my journey. Was when I finally realized that my purpose was not out there somewhere. It was not in a thing. It was not in a title. It was not in a company. It wasn't in any of those things. My purpose was actually. Already inside of me. It is what is unique about you? It is how you best show up for others. You see this whole intricate dance that happens every day. As people wake up, they go to work. And they provide. Products and services for people. Literally, if you think about it and you break it down to its simplest parts. Everyday people wake up and they go serve others and they do it through their talents, their gifts and their abilities. So what we need to do is uncover what is amazing about you. Because you do have a unique gift. So that's part one that we're going to walk through together is really unpacking your unique purpose. Number two. You got to connect with your people. So people is important because you need to have an audience that you're directing. You're serving too. We can't just help everyone. In fact it's really difficult. But when we focus in on niche down, We get clarity about who we're actually serving. Then everything begins to have momentum. Tim Ferriss has often been known to say niche down until it hurts. And boy, this is hard for people because they feel like, and I get it. It's counterintuitive. We feel like the more we niche down. The harder it's going to be to reach our audience. And the truth is. That's not true. It actually gets easier because the people, when they find you. They immediately say, this is for me. And I've used this illustration again and again, but I think it's important here as we're just starting to unpack this because I want to give you examples along the way. When I first started my very first blog in 2009. I started as a general career and life coach. Even though I had seven years of experience as an executive recruiter for accountants and CPAs. I thought if I put myself out there as a career coach, Um, That I needed to be very broad so that I would have plenty of prospects. The problem was it didn't work. It just didn't make an impact. It was watered down. It was only until a few months later I had a mentor. Tell me why aren't you just becoming the CPA career coach? And that's what I did. And I can promise you within 30 to 60 days, everything changed. And it makes sense if you really think about it. If an accountant wants help with a resume, if an accountant or a CPA wants to take the next step in their career. Who do they want to work with? John, the general coach. Or do they want to work with John who is a CPA career coach? He understands the accounting careers. Makes sense. Doesn't it. That's just one example. We'll get into a lot more in the days ahead. All right. So we've talked about purpose. We've talked about people. Finally, the last component to ignite your message. Is to fuel your passion. Now. Passion is an often misunderstood word. And again, it's a lot of like purpose. People put so much pressure. Like I got to go find my life's passion. But can I be honest, what I've learned over the years? Is that passions change? And there's nothing wrong with you. If your passions change, you're not a wondering child or somebody who just can't make up their mind or somebody who just needs to grow up and get a real job. The truth is. Almost all of us are going to have anywhere from five to 10 passions in life. And it's okay. If you feel like it's changed for you over the years. Take my own journey. For example. I started my online journey. As a CPA career coach, I did that for a couple of years. Until it wasn't so much my passion anymore. Yes. I had successfully built a business online that was making full-time income for me. But people started asking me about blogging. Jonathan, how did you build this audience? Just from writing articles and publishing on your blog? And so in 2011, I started blogging your passion.com. And it explored a whole new level of passion for me. But then over time. This whole area that we're talking about. The messenger writer, speaker, coach, teacher blogger, podcaster. Really began to develop around me. And I started this podcast about that time. And then a couple of years later started the YouTube channel and then a few years later started doing more live streaming. And like this whole messenger movement has exploded around me. And so in when I was working on the book, your message matters. In to 2019 moving into 2020. I decided I was going to rebrand. And I ended up actually just starting a new site because blogging your passion.com is still there. Still alive and thriving and I still blog on it. But it's primarily about blogging. But I wanted to talk about all these other things, because my passions had changed. I want to talk more about podcasting and I want to talk about. Courses and membership sites and all that too. So I started market your message.com. Just before I debuted the book, your message matters. And hopefully just telling a little bit of my story is starting to make sense. You see how my passions changed. But here's the cool thing. But my purpose remained. When you uncover what's unique about you and how you best show up for others. That doesn't change. For me, it's being a resourceful teacher. So when I was a CPA career coach, How did I act like a resourceful teacher? I created courses. I wrote blog posts. What I started teaching blogging your passion. How did I act? How did I help others? Created courses started a membership site, wrote some books. Blogged right. And I'm doing the same thing today. My. Purpose how I show up best. We'll remain the same. Once you really unpack and you find what it is you do best. That thing can be changeless. In other words, I want to help find what's changed less about you. It'll settle. You it'll bring you confidence. You'll know how you can best show up for others. And you'll feel like you have something to give. And then encouraging. I hope you're encouraged by this. And I hope you like this style. So let's pack this up, put a bow on it. The ignite your ma your. Your message framework. We can look at it this way. Purpose. Is how you help. People. Is who you help. And passions is what you help with. So the way that I like to define passions. Is that what problem? For the next two to five years. Are you passionate about solving? Let me say it again. What problem. For the next two to five years. Are you passionate about solving? Now it doesn't, I just feel lighter. Doesn't that feel like? Yeah. I could figure that out. wHo do I want to serve? And what's their problems that they need help with. And what's a specific problem that I could be passionate about helping them for the next two to five years. Now you may end up. You may end up having 10, 15, 20, 30 years solving that problem because it's just what lights you up and your passion never changes. That's okay. But right now, we're going to focus on the next two to five years. All right. Let me give you an action step. And a few key takeaways. In the book at the end of each short chapter. I have an exercise. And then the key takeaways. That's the teacher in me. I have to do it. You can see the resourceful teachers coming out of me. So day one's exercise is to reflect on what I talked about, the purpose people and passion. I want you to spend five or 10 minutes journaling about. Your unique strengths. I think my strengths might be this, or it could be that I think this is people have told me, this is my talent, or my abilities are to do this other thing. And then I want you to think about. What are some potential audiences that you could serve? From things that you have done in your life or that you can see yourself really serving those people. And then think about what are some of the audience's needs. That you might be able to help with. Again, this is just the beginning stages. We're going to use what you write down later to really hone in on. The unique thing that you can do. So here's our takeaways. There's three things. One. Embrace your unique gifts to enhance your impact and better serve others. Two. Define your audience, understanding their needs and desires to foster deep connections. Three. Discover and nurture your passion. Driving you to help others solve their pressing problems. All right, that's it for this episode, I hope that was a helpful introduction. And the next episode, we're going to talk about finding your inner drive in chapter two. And we're going to get into day three as well. In chapter three, the influencer voice assessment. Excited about covering that with you. If you don't have a copy of the book, go to platform growth, books.com, platform growth books.com. The link is also in the description of this podcast all right until next time never forget your message matters