My Voice, Your Voice

My voice, Your voice.

A voice. It’s amazing how unique voices are. We are all so familiar with the fact that we have thousand-and-one friends but we can easily identify who is talking when we get a call from a not-so-familiar number no matter how long it has been since we spoke to that person. I think it’s even more amazing how a voice comes out in a person’s writing.

I attended Bar Camp Accra on Monday. It was a great event as always! (Thumbs up to Ghana Think Foundation and all the organisers). Coincidentally, the two breakout sessions I joined had a strong relationship with the uniqueness of a person’s voice. There was one on personal branding which emphasized that we need to discover who we want to be known for and present this real person inside us in the most authentic way. And then, the creative writing session strongly encouraged us to make use of our unique writer’s voice.

What am I driving at? Let me get to the point already. Apart from Bar Camp being an event to share a lot of thoughts about issues that affect us and how we would position ourselves to be change-makers, it is also a great opportunity for networking. As this networking happens, you finally get to meet the faces behind the twitter handles that you are all too familiar with. And that is what was amazing to me! The faces resonated directly with the tweets I see. I can’t say I had in mind what the people behind the handles looked like but really, when I saw them, I just said to myself, “He/She looks just like I had imagined!”

Let’s take the leaders of the two sessions I joined. The personal branding session was led by Jemila Abdulai and Sir Eric Seyram A. I was not following Eric prior to meeting him, so I cannot say much about him. But Jemila. Listening to her felt like reading one of her blog posts. The soft voice, the carefully chosen words that seemed to have been born from long periods of thinking, even her gestures was exactly like the Jemila I have all this while unconsciously imagined. And then, Kinna Likimani, the leader of the creative writing session. She too had that frank touch with every word polished with her love for reading – just like I see on twitter! These are just two examples. I can say almost everyone did not disappoint my imagination.

What has this taught me? I realise how much the true me is the true me. Just as the true you is the true you. A desire to be someone else is never going to benefit me in any way. It sure would not benefit those around me either. I am just so unique! There is absolutely no one like me! Just like there is no one like you! I know this is something that we have heard countless number of times but I just want to re-echo it.

Ending with some thoughts from Sir Eric Seyram A., take time today to discover who you are, what you do best and why you do it. The ‘why’ element is what is most important and what would make your personal brand sell to others. People like you or not because of that ‘why’ element.

Enjoy the unique you always! You are too unique not to have time for yourself so make sure you always give yourself some ‘me’ time. 🙂

-A whisper from me