Tomorrow I will be publishing the next podcast episode of Inspiring Creative Career Change which features an interview with
. Keep an eye on your inboxes!Today’s bonus piece is a guest post written by the brilliant who I had the pleasure of meeting last Friday at Emma Gannon’s writing retreat. Ellie and I connected several weeks before the retreat to arrange a car-share to the venue and the collaboration grew from there.
The concept of the red thread appears in numerous stories in various places throughout different times in history.
Perhaps most commonly known is the red thread that Theseus uses to escape the labyrinth after slaying the minotaur, handed to him by Ariadne before he entered. But it began way before this, with an ancient Chinese iteration known as the ‘red thread of fate’: a red cord that connects you and someone else you’re destined to meet (traditionally thought of as your soulmate, but it could also be a friend or anyone else you develop a deep connection with).
Later, the red thread then morphed into the Swedish idea of “röd tråd” – thankful that Hannah didn’t ask me to do a voiceover for this, as I’d prefer not to insult an entire nation with a butchered pronunciation – which is the core theme for something, or the through line that brings it all together.
Why am I telling you this? What am I, the world’s nichest historian? Not quite, nor am I the nicest historian, as autocorrect tried to suggest: I’m a writer who uses the idea of the red thread to help her clients explain who they are, what they do, and why they’re so bloody good at it.
In a world of ever-increasing multi-hyphening (s/o to
, who both Hannah and I met last Friday, thanks to her retreat with !), portfolio career-ing, and side hustling, a lot of brilliantly creative people have found themselves doing multiple disparate things, but not knowing how to explain how it all fits together. You know it does make sense, of course, because it makes sense to you, the perfect combination of your skills and life experiences. But how do we convey that to the outside world, and create the life we deserve?I come to this from personal experience, because I used to be dreadful at this. Whenever I’d meet people and they’d ask what I do, I’d mumble, verbatim, “Oh, a bit of this and a bit of that”, and just ride out the awkward pause that followed.
Suffice to say, this wasn’t a smart tactic. Not least because I must have missed out on so many potential clients, and therefore much-needed income as a bright-eyed young ‘un in London – bearing in mind, too, that often this was at literal networking events. Perhaps even worse than this, though, is the fact that every time I failed to explain what I did, I was only subconsciously reinforcing the idea that it didn’t make sense, wasn’t going to work, and that I didn’t back myself.
But it did make sense, and it could work: I just needed to find a way to articulate what I felt inside. The key was in my red thread – or whatever you want to call it - the middle of my Venn diagram, my North Star.
That brings us neatly up to today, or, more accurately, September, when Hannah sent round this brilliant post about her discovery of a ceramophone (if this isn’t ringing any bells – musical pun intended – I’d recommend heading back to that post and reading it. I’ll wait.)
Reading Hannah encounter this object, which both perfectly encapsulated her journey so far and helped her embrace her story and everything she has to offer, reiterated just how important finding your red thread can be.
So, how do you find your red thread? Here’s just a couple of the questions I ask my clients on our days together, so that we can really dig around and start to unravel. They were designed for people with multiple business arms and strings to their bow, but I still think they’d be helpful if you’re feeling a bit disjointed in your personal life, too.
(And if unravelling sounds scary, don’t worry: it’s just a starting point so you can weave something even more beautiful with it.)
What motivates you?
What do you love about what you do?
What comes naturally to you?
How do your customers/clients/friends describe you?
Imagine you’re at your 85th birthday party. What are you proudest of in your life?
You might want to journal on these, or muse on them with a friend who “gets it”. Alternatively, you might just want to ponder them in your own time, and let them percolate. Whatever works for you!
These questions are designed to get you thinking about everything you have to offer, and hopefully encourage you to not shy away from sharing them with the world. This could be multiple businesses you run side-by-side, or an element of your story that feels too important to not include. Whatever it is: the world needs it.
Find your red thread, and use it to weave a flag you can wave with pride.
Ellie Kime writes ‘Pep Talk’ which you can check out and subscribe to below:
Thank you so much for having me, Hannah! I loved writing about this for you :)
Love this! Read whilst brushing my teeth and now I’m off to consider what my proudest moment at my 85th might be (with potentially un-brushed incisors) 🦷😬💛💛