Worthfull Project

"When we are willing to take a read on the room every time we get into a workflow with someone else, that goes miles to help us make sure we are respecting their worth and that can be reciprocated back to us."   I've been learning a lot this year about showing up to my work in the way I want people to see me so that I attract the work I want -- which means the people I want to work with. It's relevant to me because I own my own business and choose my clients and co-workers but I think it's relevant to all of us because we all do work with other people and we want them to "get us" and our worth and respect it. I'm sharing 3 ways I've learned to work with people who get me, and no surprise, that means that I respect their worth first.

"It's a wild time for us reckoning with the effects of the media that we've created."   I am being a little tongue-in-cheek with the name of this episode because my company's name is Worthfull Media. However, it literally means media that shows someone's worth, which is my goal with all the work I do. As I've been investing in my own values-driven work and business, I've been thinking a lot about how we consume media and how it affects our worth. It's a wild web to untangle, but I think it's so worth it, and I'm sharing some of the ways I've learned to make worthfull media choices for myself. Links mentioned: Rethinking Categories of Media blog post by Seth Godin Max Fisher episode on the Rich Roll p

"It's been really positive for me to trust that my worth is behind my intuition and energy and if I paid attention to it, it would guide me to the work that I'm best built to do."   You've maybe heard about Human Design as a trending way to understand your personality and energy. It's a system for understanding yourself that's been around for a few decades, but it's really hot right now in the world of self-development. I've been slowly learning about my own design for the past year or so and it's been really interesting and helpful for me to apply to how I work, what I work in, and what to pursue in my work. I wanted to share this on the podcast during our worthfull work season because I think the idea behind human design is very closely related to owning our worth at work. Links mentioned: Human Design Blueprint Erin Claire Jones

"We work best in seasons. Our worth understands seasons."   I've been having the same conversation with friends and clients lately and it's about how we are humans, not machines, and that means we have different energy and productivity capacity in different seasons. That means seasons of the year, seasons of work, seasons of life, seasons of relationships, seasons of energy, and more. How much we produce will never change our worth, but it will change how we feel about ourselves, especially if we aren't honoring the season we are in.

"If you want to shift people's lives, do less." Alexandra Franzen   I read something in an email from writer and book coach Alexandra Franzen last week that resonated deeply. She said, "The simplest product or service is often the best. If you want to shift people's lives, do less." I was inspired to record an episode on this idea for our season of worthfull work because I think it's key to owning our worth in our work. The myth of more has never been more dominant than now, but it doesn't mean that it's true.

"When we are doing worthfull work, there's an expansion that happens and a vulnerability that goes along with it."   You know the vulnerability that comes from making something new and inviting other people to see/watch/read/listen/use it? I've been feeling that this week as I mailed out invitations to the opening party of my new studio. It reminded me that the vulnerability of expansion isn't bad, but it usually shows up when we enter new waters in our worthfull work.

"Oftentimes the fog is super valuable, even if it's super uncomfortable most of the time . . . it's valuable if we decide to find value in it."   I'm sharing some perspective that I now have from the last year -- specifically how I moved from a foggy hibernation professionally to an energetic creative period with an abundant flow of clients. I believe that foggy hibernations can be very valuable and important, however uncomfortable they may be. But I also believe that it's really helpful to have some guideposts to follow as we step by step make our way out of them. That's what I'm sharing from my own life -- I hope it serves you in some way.

"It's so much more valuable within your career, and remember career can mean anything right now, to attach yourself to missions, ideas, and causes versus people, companies, and brands."   Because I've been reading and listening to some trend reports on our current economy, society, and culture, I've been thinking about how the inevitably of bubbles bursting relates to our worthfull work. We know from history that no hot item/brand/person/industry will stay that way forever. But if we have attached our worthfull work to missions and causes versus companies or people, it's not a big deal when the bubble bursts on the specific space we've been working in. We can gracefully shift into the new space we find opening and go on contributing our worthfull work over there.

"We don't have to be pro athletes to understand that bad things happen if you go all in for too long on anything, anywhere in your life."   I've been thinking lately about how much I've been told during my professional career that if I really want to be successful, I need to go all in. That idea has never fully resonated with me and I'm just starting to unpack why. Going all in is meant for sprinting - short intense bursts of focus or output. And for most of us, those moments are few and far between. Our worth knows that and reminds us that it's good to not go all in most of the time. Links mentioned: EP 165 The Passion v. Skills Myth

"Pay attention to what you're paying attention to." - @peopleiveloved   I saw this note on the lovely artist Carissa Potter Carlson's Instagram account several months ago and haven't stopped thinking about it. It's become a tool I've used to orient myself on what kind of work my worth wants me to be focusing on. If I'm paying a lot of attention to certain topics, creative projects, or people, that's a good sign I'll do good work around that. And the opposite is true too. I hope this tool serves you as well, in whatever way you need it to right now. Links mentioned: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle Category Pirates

"And I think that's one of the biggest perks of doing worthfull work -- when we've aligned our work, whatever it is, whatever you consider your day's work, with our worth, it starts to remind us of all the other things that are aligned with our worth."   Here's what I'm discovering as I've been paring back my use of media, tech devices, and being plugged into work: I've gotten rusty at being curious, creative, and bored. I'm re-learning how to let myself get lost in hobbies, pursue things I'm curious about, and learn offline. This is the result of worthfull work -- we remember all the other ways our worth lights up our creativity.

“Our worth has had a chance to be heard during this really disruptive past couple of years and we're realizing, 'If I'm not doing creative work, what that means to me and my gifts and talent, then I'm not doing it.'"   I am in the middle of a creative evolution with my work. And probably my life. You probably are too, amirite? I'm thinking a lot about creative work and how that's connected to worthfull work, and specifically what this new studio I am opening is all about. It's telling me that it's going to be something so cool that I don't even know what that is yet. I'm sharing a few ways I've learned that all worthfull work is creative work and why that might help you evolve in your own space. Links mentioned: Chase Jarvis

“That's what can lead us back to trusting our worth, trusting our energy, pursuing the work and the ideas that don't make sense yet but are absolutely calling to us -- that is where worth will lead us home."   I've been paying a lot of attention to my energy and how it fuels my work in the past year. I've been in the slow slog of feeling depleted and uninspired and I've recently come through that chapter and found my way to clarity, excitement, and creativity again. Of course, the chapter I'm entering now is much more pleasant. But I know the value of going through the dark nights of the soul as well and that's what I'm sharing with you in this episode. We are all uniquely designed for specific types of work, and when we align what we do with our design, that is when our worth can do its best work. Links mentioned: Human Design Blueprint on Instagram Erin Claire Jones

“What got me here wasn't just chance. It was that I had consciously started -- before these clients showed up and before these projects had started to come in -- I had already decided that I was ready for an energetic shift."   I'm wrapping this little mini series on money and worth and work with one of the big lessons I have learned this year so far about energy and why it's important to trust it. Money can be considered a form of energy, and it definitely tends to follow our energy and where we are investing it. This is what I've experienced as I've been preparing to shift my role within my own work and thus started attracting new kinds of clients that I'm excited to work with.

“What if I started thinking about making really great work because I was curious, because I was passionate, because I just wanted to experiment and try and learn and take it a step further - I wonder what kind of abundance would come to me for that?"   This episode is about abundance and its relationship to money, work, and creativity. I think about this every day. You probably do too. As I'm expanding my company and taking on more team members, a studio, and overhead, I'm also seeing the potential of new areas of service and how an abundance mindset can work in very practical ways in business and the rest of life.

“Money in no way is the sum definition of our worth. But if we don't connect the dots for ourselves first between our worth and money, it's very challenging for someone else to."     I want to talk about the relationship between our self-worth, our work, and money for a few episodes. Obviously, this is a super impactful relationship in all of our lives. I've been learning a lot about this relationship for the past several years, especially as a professional who sets her own prices for her work. I don't have all the answers, but I have found some helpful questions to ask ourselves as we explore the current state of affairs inside our own minds when it comes to how we value our worth, work, and money. Links mentioned: The Eyes of Tammy Faye

“Just like our brain is never going to stop forcefully telling us to stay in our comfort zone, our worth is never going to stop gently prodding us to leave it."     I really enjoyed International Women's Day this year and took it to heart. I remembered the ways women do incredible work every day and the ways I do great work every day. It prompted me to record an episode about the lie our brain likes to tell us that when we are struggling in our work, we are the only ones. Not true. We are not the only ones; in fact, we are in great company when we are pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones and letting our worth direct us to new horizons. Links mentioned: Lilly Singh Sounds Profitable women in podcasting feature

“It's easy for us to forget, in times like this, that we actually do have the power to do good with our platforms."     It's been a rough week in the world, specifically because Russia invaded Ukraine and brought a lot of of suffering to innocent people. But these are the times we live in and they require us to decide how we use our platforms and our spheres of influence to do good when lots of bad is happening around us. I think about this a lot because I work in media production, but I think this choice is relevant to all of us, regardless of what we do for work. I'm sharing what I'm learning about the power of letting our worth guide our choices in our work and our content when the world is in chaos and why that matters, no matter how big or small our sphere of influence is.

“I think we're ending a 10 year cycle of a certain kind of messaging and marketing about this idea that you can monetize your passion if you just use the right tools and buy the right program and hire the right coach."     I'm unpacking the super popular idea that if you learn how to monetize your passion, your worth will be fully owned in your work and the money you've dreamed of making will be yours. I do in fact know people who have done this. But I also know many others who do great work in a field that isn't their true passion and they are also fully owning their worth in their work. Since this is such a sell-able idea, and can be a source of comparisonitis for many, I wanted to suggest some ways I've been navigating these ideas.