I’m labouring on a client’s project. I feel stumped because it requires producing work on a subject that has caused major media headlines and continued political friction between different groups in society.

It’s useful work, that’s also stretching me. Curiously enough, it’s also exposing me to be a liberal; someone who likes to weigh up both sides of the story. No, I don’t think of it as sitting on the fence. It seems best to me to consider all parties’ viewpoints before firmly making up my mind. It also means I rarely openly express my position until I have formed my own well-informed and balanced opinions.

This particular subject affects me directly, so I do hold a firm stance. But I’ve never taken that stance publically. There’s so much history behind it and so many intellects that have done grounded work on it, it left me feeling as though I wasn’t the authority. But I am an authority because I live it. So this will be the first time I get to tell my side of the story. And like with all new challenges we face, it’s proving a little tough for me.

Notwithstanding, I have forged ahead figuring out how to articulate myself. Despite weeks of scholarly research and digesting other people’s opinions, I still cannot find language that sounds like my own. But I wanna do good, informed work. Naively, I thought that meant using the viewpoints of others. Yet, no one is saying what I can passionately get behind. No one is touching on the thoughts that I have. And alas, there is nothing that is helping me get the work done. Not that the ideas of these scholars aren’t constructive, they’re just not mine.

So with a looming deadline and still drawing a blank with where to start on this provocative subject, I took to my voice recorder and spoke. I started at the beginning, vocalising and expressing my ideas. Without being coerced by the books, research papers and newspaper articles I’d read, I freely shared personal stories and my solutions for change. I spoke passionately, truthfully, and it all came out so freely.

START BY TELLING YOUR TRUTH

I always stand on the side of the fence that says the audience is not stupid. Audiences can read behind the lines; they know when we’re faking it and won’t truly connect unless the work is authentic.

I’m a marketer and a writer, and I think whenever you engage in either, you must be an agent of change. Your reason for doing such work is contributing new and original ideas that leave the world that little bit better than when you started. But you make a change based on your principles, beliefs and world perceptions. Usually, this begins with your story. You make a change by telling your truth.

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