Stepping outside your comfort zone, having new experiences, and living life to the fullest, are essential parts of growing as a person. They’re even more crucial when it comes to growing as a writer. It's only through experiencing life that you can write about it in a way that truly resonates with your readers. This holds true whether you’re writing a novel, a blog, a brochure or a website.
Think about it: would you want to read a book or an article written by someone who has never left their comfort zone or experienced anything beyond their own narrow perspective? Probably not.
Would you want to read a brochure or website written by someone who is only looking at things from a sales perspective and hasn’t stood in your shoes as a customer? Again, probably not.
The Importance of Seeking Discomfort for Personal and Professional Growth
Stepping outside the familiar can be daunting, but it's a necessary step for personal and professional growth and development. Intentionally seeking discomfort challenges you to confront your fears, try new things, and push your limits. By doing so, you can expand your horizons, build your confidence, and gain a sense of accomplishment that can translate into all areas of your life and business.
To be a great writer, you need to have a wealth of experiences to draw from, you need to take time to expand your knowledge on life, study outside of your aread of exercise and expand your vision. Have you travelled? Have you met new people? Tried new things? Have you challenged yourself to leave the protection and security of the predictable? It's through being vulnerable, embracing your emotions and getting to know yourself better that you learn how to craft stories, use words and create characters that are authentic and relatable to your readers.
Putting Yourself in Your Customer's Shoes: Experiencing the Customer Journey
In much the same way, CEOs, owners and managers need to step outside the safe confines of their own offices. Take a pause from looking out at the customer or reading a report, and instead, as the saying goes, wear their shoes. What does the customer journey really feel like? What emotions are evoked at each touchpoint? Instead of speaking to, or listening to customers, take it one step further and experience it with them. You can find out more about customer targeting, in this blog an interesting comparison with online dating.
There are so many ways to do this and so many places to start, depending on your product, service, or industry. Try to find something on your own website, call your own helpline, buy from yourself and take the path less travelled. If you can, do the same with your competitors. Where do you excel and where do you fall short? But more importantly, how do you feel along the way?
As a writer, it's crucial to understand the power of experience. Your life's journey shapes the way you see the world, and these experiences can be a valuable source of inspiration for your writing. In fact, the more diverse experiences you have, the more varied and authentic your writing will be. This is why it's essential to seek out new and challenging experiences that can help you grow as a writer.
The Importance of Experience in Writing and Communication Strategy
Understanding things through experience is not only the best way to learn where you can improve, but it also informs the optimum way to communicate your strengths to your target audience. Should you have a weekly educational blog on your website, should you post daily funny TikTok videos, should you be contributing guest articles to industry magazines, or should you be focusing all your writing capacity on tender submissions alone? From the inside, you know the resources available to you, the targets and the deadlines. But stepping outside and looking in, gives the extra dimension of what your customers really want to hear from you.
So, if you want to be a truly great writer, if you want to resonate with your reader and be remembered, don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and learn to look at life from a new perspective – the rewards are worth it. Follow your instincts, embrace new experiences and challenges and use everything you learn to craft stories and content to inspire and educate others. In short; experience first, write second.
Ready to step up your game? Contact me to tell your story at tiffany@generateleads.ie
