Welcome to Issue 81 of Clearly YOU! Every second Wednesday, I share fresh ideas to help you rise above the noise and communicate clearly, confidently, and with your real personality leading the way. Not a subscriber? Sign up now!

Quirky Kim Thing: In real life, I say folks more than people.

I use COUNTLESS expressions that make my children cringe, like easy peasy, hoopla, and gobbledegook.

And when something is deeply absurd, I say SERIOUSLY?!? With exactly that punctuation. And a dramatic pause.

These aren’t “brand” words. I didn’t brainstorm them during a marketing retreat or absorb them from a celebrity podcast. They’re just the words that come out of my mouth on any given day.

And somewhere along the way, I realized they deserved a spot on my website pages. My blog posts. Even my emails. Sometimes.

Because when I sound like ME, I feel clear, confident, and real. And that’s the magic trifecta.

Folks (see what I did there? 😉) want to connect with other folks, so those dollops of human-ness are a huge plus.

That said…

Not every professional message should be decorated with personal whimsy. Sometimes you have to dial down the you-speak. Just a pinch.

So let’s talk about how to let your real-life vocabulary into your work-life voice, without letting it take over the whole house, steal your keys, and start answering your client emails.

Cool Quote

"Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn."
Gore Vidal, writer and essayist

(And yet… we give a little damn. Because professionalism.)

Try This → Make Your Real-Life Word List

Jot down 5–10 words or phrases you say out loud all the time. If nothing comes to mind, ask someone who knows you in real life. Trust me - they’ll have opinions.

Now do a quick scan of your work world. How often do those words show up? Check everywhere, like you’re on an Easter egg hunt:

🔎 Your website, if you have one
🔎 Social profiles and posts
🔎 Articles
🔎 Emails

Next, ask yourself:

Where should these words be showing up more?
Where do they feel better left out?

I’ll bet the bank you find places where sprinkling in more of your real-life vocabulary adds both sparkle and authenticity to your professional voice!

Keep your list somewhere visible - just a little reminder to be you.

(Except maybe in business proposals. From a personality and pizzazz perspective, those are generally best left bone dry.)

Stuff Worth Sharing

The Enchanted Marketing website (by Henneke, who is brilliant) has SO MANY fabulous blog posts about how to find the right words and use them to your best advantage.

Here's a beautiful gem that matches the topic of today's newsletter: Word Choice: How to Play With Words (and Find Your Voice)

I guarantee you will click on a few more articles once you get hooked on her insights.

Shameless self-promotion: If this issue has you thinking about how to get more YOU into your professional voice, I've got a free course that can help.

Claim Your Voice is short and sweet. No logins. No silly videos. Just one polite and helpful email delivered to your inbox each morning for 7 days.

Give it a try. What’s the harm?

Inbox-Worthy

This week’s pick is Hold That Thought. I always find something thought-provoking when I get one of Kim Witten's Thursday emails.

⚠️ Beware. You may fall into a rabbit hole and start thinking of BIG PICTURE stuff in the middle of trying to finish your day-to-day foolishness. But maybe that's okay!

Hold That Thought

from Kim Witten, PhD

3 useful things every Thursday to help thinkers of all kinds gain clarity, get unstuck, and make great progress on what matters most.

For the Word Nerds

Idiolect (noun): Your personal language fingerprint.

It’s the unique mix of words, phrases, and rhythms that sound like YOU. It’s why one person signs off with "Warmly” and someone else goes with “Cheers.” Why folks feels right to me - but people might feel better to you.

Everyone has an idiolect, even if they’ve been trained to tone it down. Even if it’s buried under business-speak and jargon. Even if ChatGPT keeps replacing your deliciously-you words with bland everyone-says-it-like-this words.

Your idiolect doesn’t need a spotlight every time you write. But it does deserve to show up. Because your word fingerprint is what makes your voice unmistakably yours.

And that? 🦄 That’s the magic.