wordsthatmoveme – Dana Wilson

Ep. #31 Words that Move THEM (A Birthday Special)

Words That Move Me with Dana Wilson

Ep. #31 Words that Move THEM (A Birthday Special)

00:00 / 00:28:05

If knowledge is power, I truly cannot think of a greater gift than these power nuggets of knowledge from some super special people in my life. Today we celebrate the power of the people and the weight in their words. Share it with a birthday buddy, and let this episode be the gift that keeps on giving!

Show Notes

Transcript:

Intro: This is words that move me, the podcast where movers and shakers, like you get the information and inspiration. You need to navigate your creative career with clarity and confidence. I am your host master mover, Dana Wilson. And if you’re someone that loves to learn, laugh and is looking to rewrite the starving artist story, then sit tight, but don’t stop moving because you’re in the right place.

Dana: Hello. Hello and welcome. Hi there I am. Dana. Welcome. If you’re new and you’re in for a treat, if you’re new and if you’re returning welcome back, you also are in for a treat. I am so excited about this episode because it is such a mixed bag, a grab bag. If you will, a surprise party, grab bag of words that move me truly. Okay. Last week I had a birthday. I had my birthday to be very specific. I’m celebrating that whole birthday week as my win for this week because although it held a lot of beautiful celebration, which is obviously worth celebrating it also held a few FFTs. I became familiar with that acronym, FFT, thanks to Brené Brown’s podcast, unlocking us highly, highly recommended. Um, FFT means the adult word for freaking first time. Freaking first time, anyways, not only did I take on this week’s FFTs with 34 years of wisdom and compassion, but I felt more like my future self this week than I ever have before my future self, by the way is pretty incredible. So that is my win. All right. What is yours? What’s your win? What are you celebrating? What is going well in your world?

Take your time. Okay. Congratulations and keep winning. All right. This episode is not entirely about my birthday, but it is going to start out that way. I turned 34 on July 21st, which means I am 34 old and some days, I guess by now, now birthdays have always meant different things at different times in my life. For example, when I was young, they meant presents and parties and cake in my twenties, a birthday didn’t really mean that a particular day was special. Really. It became more about the day that everyone was available to get together for dinner and drinks and exchanges of special sentiments, really, really, truly special exchanges. I have had some remarkably special birthday gatherings in my life. Um, occasionally having a birthday was really just an excuse to do nothing. It’s my birthday. I’m going to do what I want or an excuse to, um, post a shameless selfie on Instagram, definitely guilty. Um, but this year I am making 34 years old mean that I’ve been around the sun 34 times. That’s, that’s it pretty scientific, pretty sterile, but I’m deciding to be really proud of this birthday and my 34 orbits, because I think that I’ll be a better astronaut on this next trip, around the sun than I have ever been before. And that’s because I have a better view of the world now than I have ever had before. I’m jazzed about it. I think it’s very special. Um, Oh, speaking of special, let us talk about some special things that happened on the day I was born. No, thanks to Google by the way. This is thanks to my mom who may or may not have looked up all of these special things on Google. But anyways, on my birthday, July 21st, 1986, Ronald Reagan was the president of the United States. The number one movie was Aliens the sequel to Alien getting into that. Um, the number one song was Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel. Rock on and also kind of cool is that my mom was also 34 on that day. Kind of a, kind of a special, full circle thing. Um, now I do just have to share one more thing that my mom said was the most special thing about that day. And I think it’d be better to let her say it herself. Check this out.

Stefani Wilson: The most special thing about that day is that you came into it. You who like, I didn’t know to think of you as something other than a baby. I wish I had known to think of you as this human being that you are now. That’s really who was born that day. You brought so much joy and happiness to so many people. I’m proud of you. And I love you. Happy Birthday Sweetheart

Okay. People go with me here because I just had a serious moment. My mom said, I didn’t think to think of you as anything other than a baby. I wish I had known to think of you as this remarkable human being that you are today. I was just rocked by this idea because any time that I have ever met a baby, which is other people’s babies, obviously I do not have my own baby. I mostly just marvel at how small and perfect they are. I’m shocked that all of the things are in the right place. And they’re just so tiny, but I’m really wondering, does anyone think of their baby? Not as a baby, but as the person they’ll become, I know that actually isn’t possible because you, you know, that requires being able to tell the future at very very least it requires a tremendous amount of imagination to even try. But does that even happen? Like when you have a baby, do you think of that baby as an adult? Or do you think of that baby as a baby? Mind Absolutely blown. So scraping myself off the floor. What I’ve learned from this message from my mom is that, um, she thinks I’m very special. Uh, I’ve also learned that I am a person that screamed and cried for the very first, but not the last time on July 21st, 1986. My mom was also 34 when I was born and I am 34 today. Okay. What else though? Like what else does it actually mean to be 34? Well, guys, I Googled it and in my very sophisticated and very systematic research, I read that on average 34 is the happiest year of our lives. Is that nuts? This is the year when people generally start checking off the big boxes, you know, the big life boxes like, get married, have kids, find stability, make real grownup money. Okay. It is safe to say that that research was obviously not conducted during 2020. I can count almost a full hand of postponed weddings this year. I have also heard, um, funny cause it’s true type of statements about the only kids being conceived during quarantine will likely be first children to their parents because parents who already have kids are homeschooling them and they are exhausted. In other words, they are not interested in making more babies, man, what a time. And speaking of the time, Corona virus, isn’t the only buzzkill of 2020 this year, this July 21st, 2020 celebration means something different to me than it ever has before to put it very simply instead of celebrating a happy birthday this year, I celebrated a human birthday, happy and sad, heavy and hopeful all at once. I am calling it my multi birthday and wow. So multi it was, this episode is my multi birthday gift to myself. And it was carefully designed so that it could be shared and be special to all of you for my birthday this year, I asked some of my favorite movers and shakers. And by the way, those are not exclusively dancers, I want to point out, for words of encouragement or their guiding principles. A favorite quote or a lesson learned or mantra. Um, some, some golden idea that’s golden in their life and in their work because man, if knowledge is power, then I truly cannot think of a greater gift than these power nuggets of knowledge. So birthday or not come back to this episode when you’re looking for something to celebrate, come back to this episode when you’re looking for power. Oh, and if power is something that you are looking for, I highly recommend the first 38 seconds of Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel. Those seconds in and of themselves are worthy of that number one slot. So please be my guest, have that gift. Enjoy these words and enjoy a very special birthday to me followed by the specialist outro song by the one and only Jermaine Spivey enjoy everybody.

Marty Kudelka:What up y’all Marty Kudelka checking in team roast. We sizzle the most, you know how we do and the words that move me the most are “Work smarter, not harder.” And the reason why is because I found I do my best work like that. So that’s, what’s up.

Megan Lawson: I’m Megan Lawson also known as Curious Carol, if you didn’t know, and that feels like a prevalent nickname when talking about words that move me, this is Big Magic creative Bible of mine by Elizabeth Gilbert. And uh, one of the things that really resonates with me is to “live a life driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.” Copy that.

Jillian Meyers: Hello, movers makers, doers listening in my name is Jillian Myers and a phrase that is very important to me. A bit of a guiding star in a creative process is one that I procured from the sidewalk. I’ll just roll. It was written in sidewalk chalk. And because of that, I don’t know the author, but it is very important to me and simple. And it goes a little something like this “Make what makes you feel” it’s true and it’s good.

Ava Bernstine-Mitchell: Hi, I’m Ava Flav . And the words that move me are your gifts are not just meant for you. They’re meant to be given away. You are blessed to be a blessing.

Reshma: Hello?

Miles: Hello.

Reshma: If you’d like to introduce yourself,

Miles: My name is Miles Crawford

Reshma: I’m Reshma Gajjar, Miles. Do you have some wisdom to share?

I do. I’m glad you asked. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you wanna go really fast? Go alone. But if you want to go far go together.

This morsel of wisdom, I’m still trying to figure out. He literally said this to me like two days ago, because I’m still trying to go fast alone. Apparently it’s really embarrassing, but yes, if you want to go far go together. That’s what he said. Mine has been really hard for me to choose because there’s just so many, so many guiding things in my life. But I do have to say the thing that really shows up constantly is to “trust in divine timing.” I feel like we here, timing is everything. And, um, it is, and I think there’s only so much we have control over. That’s all we can do is control what we can, but to, to have faith and to actually trust and surrender and divine timing to actually do that versus intellectually know that timing is everything. That’s been a big one for me.

But on that note, as far as big ones, I got a big surprise for you. The ultimate nugget of wisdom offerings. My mom, mom.

Renuka Gajjar: Yeah, I, hi, Dana. What I learned is that I cannot be a fast. Everything I do is gonna take time, but I don’t care. I just realized that never stop learning. And I think more, I try. More I learn doesn’t matter. It takes me a long time because all I hear is nothing but time. Okay. So yeah, this is true.

Reshma: There is no such thing as time. Time doesn’t exist in calendar. Apparently just like our age. I said that somebody, somebody very wise said that to me once, if the time doesn’t exist in a calendar, we are timeless. Happy birthday. We love you so much.

Liana Blackburn: Hello, Liana Blackburn here. The words that move me are “I am completely committed yet on attached” To me, this phrase means that I can be completely committed to my relationships, my passions, my jobs, my loves, and also unattached from results, expectations or anything that I think should be offered to me in return. From that commitment, I am completely committed yet un attached.

Nicholas Palmquist: Hi, my name is Nicholas Palmquist and a word that moves me right now, I’d have to say is curiosity. Uh, I want to have this personal desire to learn more about something and to better understand it because, um, I’m literally curious about it. I just want to know. And I think the more you want to know about something, the more you’ll investigate it and that will lead it to, um, being connected to all of these other things that you also learn about. So that’s really, what’s driving me these days, curiosity.

Lisette Bustamante: Hello. My name is Lisette Bustamante And the words that move me are “When everyone seems to be swimming upstream, go ahead and flow downstream” because, uh, I’ve learned over the years that when you try to work against the current, um, it just feels like you’re struggling to move. And so I sit back, put my behind my head and I swim and flow downstream and let go, let go of trying to be in control of things.

Ryan Walker Page: Hi Dana happy birthday. I’m weighing in on the request to let you know words that have guided, supported, inspired me that maybe like still hold a lot of rank in my life. Uh, for me, what first comes up is developmental psychology sort of falls off after the age of 26. So there in lies, this sort of like moot point of like, Oh, do we stop developing? Surely that can’t be true. And so this guy Robert Keegan’s swooped in and was like, um, basically created the architecture for something called adult development. And um, he boils it down to this idea of like one’s ability to hold complexity. Um, so can you coordinate multiple perspectives? Can you walk with contradiction? Like what is your bandwidth, um, in and for life? And so he like puts it in this imagery. This is like the ODA Twilight version of it or sure. But the first stage is that you are like swimming in this water and the water is like the beliefs attitudes that you inherited that you have, like not yet questions. Then the next stage is when that water starts to drain, uh, which can be like very lonely and empowering. And actually those things know each other and you find this rock. So you’re like out of the water and onto the rock and the rock is firm and clear and bold and you have sight and ability to look at what was in relationship to maybe what you want. And so that rock represents what you want and this sort of like quest to author your own experience. The next stage, according to this guy is after you’ve like, um, positioned this rock as a lifeline and are sure about it and see where you were and can dive into that water when you want, but also sort of take a satellite view to it. You realize the rock has been a beach ball and it’s like a profound beach ball, cause it’s like the beach ball of your life. But, um, the beach ball yields and the beach ball plays and the beach ball has more of like a dancing choreography than a rock. You basically gain like a more robust emotional profile where like grief, um, can be cut with joy can be cut with loss, can be cut with humor. And these sort of like defined boundaried categories, but between things softens and it sort of like opens up the dance floor of your mind and your experience of life. And, um, I love that this imagery treats play as, as important as maybe the heavy blows of life and, um, finding a mental space that can coordinate and house and like, uh, integrate all of those things. It just feels so expansive and believable. Um, happy birthday. That’s my thing. Oh and this is Ryan Walker Page!

Kathryn Burns: Hi, it’s Kathryn Burns. And the words that move me are do unto others as you would have them do unto you the golden role Simple, Sweet, stay kind.

Dom Kelley: Okay. Hi, my name is Dominique Kelly and the words that moved me are just be better.

Chonique: Hey this is Chonique and the words that move me are “They tell me life is a marathon and I hope I brought the right shoes” And that’s because life is a marathon its not a sprint its not a destination its a journey and just having the tools that you need daily for the present moment is the only thing that’s going to get you to move to the next thing. So, that’s what I believe, that’s what I move by, and I love you Dana, Happy Birthday!

Spenser Theberge: Hi, it’s Spenser Theberge, and the words that move me are “Learning is like a feedback loop. Remember to look outside of yourself as much as you look inside.”

Nina McNeely: This is Nina McNeely. And the words that moved me are “to compare is to despair” Love you cream cheese, Danish.

Poppin’ Pete: Hey, what’s up? Dana, Poppin’ Pete here. Um, my cool mantra is “keep going, keep growing and keep it funky.” And what keeps me moving is the absolute love of the dance. The very first time I saw poppin’ or anything, um, I fell in love with it and I carried the love of the dance respecting that. And that keeps me going. That’s why I’ve been around for 42 years. Peace and love. Happy birthday, Dana. Yeah.

Chloe Arnold: Hi, this is Chloe Arnold’s. I want to wish the happiest birthday to my dear friend and sister Dana Wilson. I love you. I support you. I think you’re absolutely brilliant on and off the dance floor and words that move me. Wow. Words that move me. Well, words that move you words that move us. Uh, things that I like to think about are to remember, to imagine it, to dream it, to work hard, to achieve it and to share it and then repeat. So I hope those words move you and I love you so much, sister, friend, and I can’t wait to see you soon.

Tom Sachs: Hi, this is Tom Sachs, happy birthday. Um, it’s been four years since we’ve met your, my first internet friend. You’re the first person I met, um, through the device. And so I’ll never forget, uh, that in our times in San Francisco, learning to backslide and an operate the table saw in the maker space. Um, have a great birthday continue, please, to be brave with your desire and never ever, ever give up. You’re a leader. We all look to you for strength. So these tough times. Please stay focused. Love you.

Emma Portner: Hello. This is Emma Portner live from my bed. Some words that move me are, “if I’m not tt thank you for letting me know,” happy birthday, Dana, I love you so much. I’m the podcast biggest fan. And, uh, I’ve listened to it all over the world. And it’s always brought me a sense of, um, familiarity at the same time as challenging me, which I really, really love. Um, and that’s all I have to say right now, but happy birthday, Dayna,

Toni Basil: Happy birthday, Tony basil here. Keyed. My words don’t stop. Oh, no. Don’t stop. Or the rehearsal gods will never forgive you and you can’t get them back. You cannot get them back to

Jermaine Spivey: *Sings with the voice of an angel*

Dana: Wow I really don’t want to make a sound after that beautiful birthday salute. Thank you Jermaine Spivey. How is it possible that you sound as sweet as you move. I don’t get it! Maybe next year on my birthday I’ll do my cover of your birthday song to me. Thank you so much Jermaine, and thank you everybody for your birthday wishes. Thank you so much movers and shakers that I look to for words to move me. And thank you all of you for listening, for being here with me in celebration of my 34th trip around the sun. You know what to do now, Keep it funky.

Ep. #10 Your Social Media Store Front

Words That Move Me with Dana Wilson

Ep. #10 Your Social Media Store Front

00:00 / 00:23:31

There are certainly dark corners and terrible evils at work behind the curtains of the social media-sphere, but places like Instagram, and Youtube are also a great (and free) place to share your work and connect with a global audience. This episode digs into ONE approach to a happy and healthy relationship with social media. After all, you get to choose who you follow, you get to choose what you share, shouldn’t you also get to choose that it’s kinda FUN to build the place where the world can go to find you?

Show Notes:

Quick Links:

Join the WTMM Ears Out Contest!: https://instagram.com/wordsthatmovemepodcast?igshid=1l4tj0jgvyu8q

Transcript:

Intro: This is words that move me, the podcast where movers and shakers like you get the information and inspiration you need to navigate your creative career with clarity and confidence. I am your host, master mover, Dana Wilson, and if you’re someone that loves to learn, laugh and is looking to rewrite the starving artist story than sit tight, but don’t stop moving because you’re in the right place.

Dana: Hello. Hello. Hello. I am Dana. Welcome to the podcast. I am so glad that you are here right now. I am excited to talk to you today. Whoa, this is a big one. All right, so with the Words that Move Me Instagram contest going on right now, Oh, right now, by the way, is the last couple of days of February and heading into March. Oh my gosh. It’s almost March. I can’t really handle it. Time is flying so super fast. Anyways, it’s the last couple of days of February heading into March and until March 9th Words that Move Me has an Instagram contest happening, so make sure you go check out our Instagram page to get all of the details on how you can be involved, how you can win and what you can win.

It’s all very exciting stuff, but because of the contest, social media has been on the brain and actually to be honest, contest aside, social media has been on the brain. There’s a lot of talk around this right now. It seems kind of an unavoidable subject. It’s like this part of our lives now. It seems to be. Anyways, I’m sure that there is a small contingent, possibly very, very small. Maybe just a few of my listeners that still exist completely handle free and hats off to you. I actually would love to know what that is like. Um, I haven’t checked, but I’m very curious about how many hours a day. I know on average I spend a little over three hours a day on my phone, but out of that, I wonder how much of that is inside of Instagram, which is my preferred social media platform. I digress. I’d say that the sweeping majority of humans, probably age 16 to maybe 40, uh, have social media of some sort, whether it’s Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, YouTube or all of them. Oh, tik tok. Oh my goodness. Which I don’t have, but I hear that I quote need people tell me this like, Oh my God, you need to tik tok. And that’s very funny because I feel totally fine without one. But then again, I have never had one. It is very possible that I haven’t even lived yet because I don’t have tik tok, tik tok. Am I, am I sounding ridiculous? The tik tok? Do you use the tik tok? I’m cracking myself up anyways.

I think that social media for the most part gets a bad reputation for a lot of really good reasons. For example, it is literally designed to devour your attention. There are engineers who are paid to think of ways to keep your eyeballs on the screen longer so that they can show you more ads so that you can click more clicks so that they can make more money. And that is understandable. It is not virtuous, but I understand it. I get it. Here’s another example. Places like Instagram, especially our cesspools for comparison and competition that can really wreak havoc on you and your internal self-worth. I say that because the feed that you scroll through is full of very carefully curated and usually very heavily edited moments from lives of people that you care about, people that you chose to follow, they matter to you for some reason and you spend time looking at these carefully picked pixels from their lives and if you weren’t already comparing their life to your life, look down a little further and you see that handy dandy value system that Instagram has created to keep you clicking.

So all right. To be clear, I believe comparison and competition exist in abundance out there in the real physical world. But in my experience comparing our bodies, our work, our wins, our losses, all of that good stuff in person is like comparing apples and oranges or like apples and high heeled shoes or Panda bears. Like when you’re face to face, you see humans, you see three dimensional people that are infinitely different than you are in number of ways, but in the two dimensional world on the page, a like is a like. A heart is a heart. A follow is a follow and when she has 50,000 and I have five, it can be very hard to ignore. It can be very hard to not compare and it can be really hard to believe that I am not less. Well, here’s my angle. I believe that we are all worth exactly the same and I don’t believe that our likes and follows quantify our worth period, the end, but I’m not done.

In addition to being a time vampire in a place that can make us wildly insecure about ourselves, the social media jungle is also a place where bullying and false information run rampant. This is probably because somebody figured out that negativity and really polarized opinions, spike engagement that gets people clicking, it gets people talking. Well, engagement equals ad dollars, so you’re going to see a lot of the things that spike engagement. Also, it’s way easier to say awful things from the comfort of your own home and the other side of the screen, so that pretty much explains that. Sounds pretty grim, right?

Wrong. I actually love Instagram. It is my favorite social media platform. I mean I don’t love it like I love my husband, but I think it’s kind of great. Let me explain. Instagram and YouTube are both free and they’re a perfect place for me to put my work and get almost immediate feedback. I do it all the time. I mean not all the time, certainly not as much as I used to, but still pretty often. People argue that social media is making us reclusive and that because of it, people don’t know how to like interface with each other IRL, which is internet talk for in real life, but no matter how you slice it, social media is connective. I have met some of my heroes in person shaken their hands, actually collaborated with them because of Instagram, because that’s where we made our first contact. I also have a direct link to an audience. Well, I guess technically it’s not direct if it has to go through Instagram. In other words, if Instagram disappeared tomorrow, I would lose contact with a lot of people, which is really unfortunate. I might be putting an ask out there for some phone numbers and email addresses, surely, just be able to look out for that. Um, anyways, I have a link to people all over the world, right? I’m in the United States, I’m in California, I’m in Los Angeles. I’m talking to people in Paris, France, in, in Italy, in China, in India, in Australia. I mean, it’s actually wild to me that I can reach someone on the other side of the planet almost instantly. I’m impressed. I’m onboard to say the very least. So I call this my middle child syndrome. And by the way, I have a really bad case of it.

I can see both sides of almost any issue. In next week’s episode a very special guest and I are going go deep on some of the issues and perceived challenges of being a creative type living in a social media era. But this week I’m going to talk about how I treat my social media. I really hope you dig this approach and um, that some of these strategies are helpful in making your relationship with your social media a happy and healthy one. Now I’m sure there are a lot of people out there that are going to tell you how to post and when to post and what to post. And I’m just going to let you know right now, I’m not going to do all that. So if that is what you’re hoping for it, you can go ahead and stop listening right now. But otherwise get a pen and paper ready or at very least your imagination cause I’m going to ask you to get involved in this one.

All right. We’re talking social media very broadly, but my favorite platform is Instagram as I mentioned. And that’s where I have the most experience. It’s also very visual, heavy and very text light. And that’s why I think it speaks to most dancers. So it’s where my point of view is going to come from for now. Here we go. I like to think of my social media presence as a virtual Superstore. It is an establishment or several where people go to find all things me, my moves, my face, and occasionally my breakfast foods. I think of each platform like YouTube or Insta, Twitter as actual brick and mortar chain stores. And I imagine that I am a business, which is easy because I am a business. Um, and as such I am responsible for things like, um, deciding where I put my branches or my store locations, deciding what I put in my windows, deciding what I keep inside and what I keep in backstock and how I price things. And beyond that, what kind of experience people can expect when they come in. Okay. I teach this concept occasionally and I always start by asking what is your favorite place to go shopping, a little bit consumerist, but go with me here. Whether it’s food or clothing or school supplies or tools or anything. Just what is your favorite place to shop? I’ll get the answer and then I ask for three reasons why and after I have those I ask. Okay, so what is it like to shop there? What is the experience that you have? I’ll run through my own answers as an example. All right. My answer, embarrassingly enough, as a 33 year old woman is Urban Outfitters. I am so sorry about that. There are probably way more socially conscious, sustainable, locally sourced, organic free range, Raw, gluten free vegan places to shop. And I know urban probably has like several strikes against it that I don’t even know about and I worked there for several years so I know about it, but I still like the feeling of shopping there. And uh, here’s the why.

Number one, it’s bright as in lumens and as in colors. All of the colors of the rainbow. And I love color. Number two, it’s eclectic. There are many different styles and styles of styles in that place. You’ve got your black leather with studs and holey t-shirts, you’ve got your lace with ruffles and sophisticated blazer things and you’ve got sneakers, and stilettos and literally everything in between. And number three, they seem to have really mastered this seriously silly thing. Everytime I go in there, I see something that makes me laugh, whether it’s a graphic tee or a silly book or some novelty. It just always seems to get a chuckle. But the business is undoubtedly refined. So that I think speaks to my values. Right? I love bright, I love many different styles. I love being seriously silly and somehow refined. That’s kind of me. So in a way I think that asking yourself, what’s your favorite store to shop at can actually teach you a lot about your values.

Okay, so the followup question is what is it like to shop there? Well, again, eclectic, but overall very, very casual and that’s speaks to my values as well. I like to be personable and I feel like the staff at urban is pretty personable in their own way. Sometimes it’s like the way of your best friend who’s going to really honestly tell you how those pants look on you. And sometimes it’s in the way of the kid who’s going gonna blow spit wads at the back of your head during class and it’s going to be inconvenienced by everything that you ask them. I kind of am not mad at either of those. I love the full range. Okay, so in addition to those things, it’s light, it’s fun and it’s fast. Again, that speaks to my values. Here’s another example.

This time we’ll take the other side of the spectrum. Let’s say that Tom Ford in Beverly Hills is our absolute favorite place to shop. All right? Why? Okay. Number one, it is modern, minimal, extremely clean and uncluttered. Your eye knows exactly where to go and it goes to absolutely pristine product. Number two, it is luxury from the plush carpet to the garments themselves. And number three, it is indisputable quality made from the absolute finest and tailored to your body. Boom, Tom Ford. Okay. What is it like to shop in there? Well, there’s a doorman first of all, so there’s that, pretty exclusive. You’ve got a book by appointment and it’s expensive. That in and of itself is kind of exclusive.

But once you’re in the door, you are catered to and you feel like the million bucks that you’re about to drop, which happens quite fast, I heard from a friend, let’s, let’s go even further left. Let’s say for the sake of an example that your favorite place to shop is home Depot, which is ironic because I hate shopping at Home Depot. Literally the worst I can almost guarantee that they will not have what I’m looking for. They will have every item surrounding the items that I’m looking for and then there will be an empty hole where the medium sized boxes used to live or the very specific type of washers that I need for my shower head. It’s like almost a joke. How often they do not have the thing I need and how frustrated I get by that. But anyway, for the sake of these examples, let’s pretend that your favorite place to shop is Home Depot. Why do you like it? Other than the fact that they have what you want all the time. Um, so let’s say you love it because number one, it’s no frills, nothing extra, nothing ridiculously distracting. No bright colors or flashing neon signs with sales and crazy things like that. What you see is what you get or what you don’t get for that matter. I digress. Number two, it’s expansive. They have literally everything including the kitchen sink except the one thing that you’re looking for. Sorry, I’ll stop making stabs at Home Depot now. Okay. And I’m, let’s say number three, if I really had to dig, sorry, I’m done. I’m done. Um, number three, they really are about DIY and I have had a handful of really, really helpful people there that have told me the things I need to know or taught me the things I need to know in order to get the job done and do it myself. I really do value that. That is super cool. So what is it like to shop in home Depot? Um, sprawling, um, informative. You see things and you learn about things that you didn’t even know existed and uh, you’ll be back because undoubtedly after you leave that place, you will find out that you need something else from that place. And that’s kind of a brilliant thing I suppose. So. Okay. How does this all relate to social media? Again, uh, let’s, let’s take a look back at my urban Outfitters example and I’ll explain

When I’m looking at a video or photo and deciding whether or not to post it, I ask myself, is this one of the three things that I decided I love most about the place I like shopping most in my Urban Outfitters example? Is it bright? Is it eclectic and is it equal parts serious and silly? If I can’t answer yes to one of those questions, then I won’t share the video or photo at all. Generally, my rule for myself is that it has to meet at least two of those three criteria. And then occasionally it meets all three and I find myself legit excited to share this thing. That’s my way of deciding what gets put in my store. My guiding principle is that I want my store to represent me and my values and what I have to offer. I want it to feel a little bit like me. Bright, eclectic and seriously silly. Now you and your values will likely be different than mine. Maybe you value sleek, clean, minimal, luxury. Maybe you value specificity. A store that specializes in one thing and doing that one thing really, really, really right. Maybe your entire feed is black and white. Maybe your entire feed is landscape. Maybe your entire feed is nail art and that’s kind of the beauty of it is it gets to be whatever you make it. I had a student once as I was teaching this concept that really, really valued oranges. Like she told me her favorite place to shop was a grocery store because they have oranges and she loves them and I asked her to think of something else she liked about the grocery store and she couldn’t. Now part of me thinks she was being difficult just for the game of it, but I went with it. Cause this is kind of brilliant. Imagine you’ve got a 13 year old social media feed that looks like any other 13 year old social media feed except in this one there is an orange hidden somewhere but visible in every single post. I would follow that account. Absolutely. And there would be an element of creativity involved. I think it’s fabulous. I think it’s hysterical. I think it’s an opportunity to get really creative and also to start looking at yourself and taking responsibility for yourself as a professional entity, as a business, as a place that people go to find you. That said, it’s really important to me that my social media presence represents the real me and my real values and my real work. The storefront analogy is simply helpful in narrowing down the content and things that I share to the world because it is important to remember whether you delete it or not. It exists out there forever. Ask me how I know. Don’t ask, don’t ask. So here’s what I really like about this analogy, this storefront analogy is that I, the store owner, decide the value of the things that I put on the shelves, not somebody else’s, like not somebody else’s follow just me.

So I would love for you to take a moment, give a little brainstorm, write down to your favorite places to shop or spend time. Doesn’t even need to be a store. Technically, it could be a park, it could be Disneyland, but right, your favorite place that you like to spend time and occasionally money and get three reasons why. Then do a tiny little brain download on the experience that you have in that place and then use that as a guiding principle every time you decide what you want to share and sell to the world. Alright? This is simply my approach. I’m not saying it’s the best, but I’m saying it’s something. I would love, love, love to hear some of your social media approaches. How do you decide what to post? Do you care about when? Let’s talk about this. Leave some comments on the Instagram page or at theDanawilson.com/podcast under the comments for this episode, make sure you listen in next week as I talk to my super special guests about all sorts of social media mystery. This is, this is really the tip of the iceberg, or I guess this is like the technique of the iceberg. Next week we’re going to get into some of the muddy waters, so don’t miss that. Sounds like fun, huh? All right. Everybody have a good rest of your day. Night, week, month, and uh, you know the deal. Keep it funky. Oh man. So good. Oh, speaking of, keep it funky we got Merch coming. You didn’t hear from me.

Dana Wilson

Tag: wordsthatmoveme

Ep. #31 Words that Move THEM (A Birthday Special)

KEEP IT FUNKY