The WHY behind What You Do Matters.

As Rod(my husband) and I were sitting down to drink our Saturday morning coffee together, we started to get into a deep conversation about the WHY behind What You Do Matters  -- my training & development company.

He was asking me some tough questions and I'm not going to lie, I started to get defensive + annoyed. Of course I knew my why, why did we need to belabor the topic?

But on further digging, I realized that I actually hadn't SHARED my why with all of you, which probably has been a bit confusing as I've gotten more vocal about my business and started creating services + digital products to accompany it.

So let me tell you a story.... 

The reason I started What You Do Matters is because I've experienced first-hand the power of my mentality "it's not what you say, it's what you do" time and time again.

Like when I was fired from one of my first jobs and was terrified I wasn't going to be able to pay my half of the rent. On top of the obvious stressors of that situation, my family was so embarrassed by me losing my job that they made me promise I wouldn't say a word to friends/family about it. Talk about soul-crushing(spoiler alert -- we totally worked through that entire scenario!). I wallowed. I cried on my kitchen floor. I stayed up late into the night completely overwhelmed. Through all of that though, the only thing that actually changed my situation was what I DID. I alone picked myself back up. I alone chose to re-evaluate my personal brand, learn a few new skills and re-enter the job searching process, all resulting in me landing on my feet with the confidence and pride of knowing that my ACTIONS changed my situation.

Another example? When I decided I wanted to change careers and try my hand at social media. I had done a lot of thinking about growing my marketing skills but had no real social experience. I could of done a lot more thinking but until I took the ACTION to take a job trying my hand at social/pr efforts for a marketing agency, I never would have known the tangible ins & outs of actually running social media. I'd still be sitting on my apartment futon, *thinking* about what it would be like but instead that action created a ripple effect that lead me to my current 9-5 where I lead a global social media team for a mass consumer brand.

Want an example that's not career related? I've got that too.

After months and months of constantly being overwhelmed by everything on my plate personally(family commitments, keeping up friendships, being a newlywed) and professionally(leading a team, growing my skillsets, etc) and having some type of emotional outburst every single Sunday as I looked at my calendar for the week ahead, I decided I needed to DO something different. It was what I DID that finally changed things. I clearly had thought and talked about how I wanted my calendar to look differently, but unless I actually took the ACTION to change it(hello time blocking and boundary setting!) then I'd still be stuck in that place.

Long story long, my why behind What You Do Matters is that I KNOW from my own personal experience(and seeing it through my friends/family and now my clients) that it's what we DO that truly makes a difference in our lives. When we stop talking things to death and put ACTION behind our words, we see real impact. And this impact can show up in any area of our lives that we put action into. Everything from our home-life, work-life and how we show up in our communities is enhanced by the actions that we take.

So that's my mission at What You Do Matters. To train, teach and encourage you in your own action taking. I do this through coaching(Life, Career & Leadership), workshops(which are now held virtually) and online courses(like my Self-Mastery course). In the future we'll offer mentor matching and other ways amazing ways for you to take ACTION in your community. 

As much as I hate to say it, Rod was right. Revisiting my WHY and sharing it with all of you has given me even more clarity as I continue on my path of building What You Do Matters.

Do you maybe need to revisit your why too? Even if you aren't building a business, knowing and communicating your personal WHY is powerful. It gives us immense clarity into who we are and how we want to show up in this world.