121. Find Your Writing Voice – Conversation With An Expert Copywriter

Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar and this is episode number 121. And today you are going to get awesome writing tips from an expert copywriter and an online business strategist. Hey, everyone.

Thank you so much for joining.

Today we have a great conversation about writing. So I don't talk a lot about writing. I love writing. I love copywriting, but it's not my thing. I don't teach it. And even though I love it, it's not something that comes to me as naturally as speaking. For example, I would rather speak than write an email. But for some people, writing is the only way to communicate, and especially when it's in English, when it's not in your first language. And there are sometimes these rul around being formal or informal. And can I say this in an email or that? I mean, sometimes we don't know, especially when we write emails in a professional context, when we apply for a job or when we need something from someone. And also, I think that writing is a phenomenal way to improve your fluency and thought flow and to start thinking in English more if you journal in English, for example. And we are going going to discuss all of that and more today with Lisa Morelli. Lisa is an expert copywriter and an online business strategist, and she's a dear friend and I wanted to bring her here because she has so many juicy, hot tips for speakers of English as a second language and for business owners who need to write copy for their business. So she is definitely going to share with you things today that will help you improve your wr and your fluency. Let's listen.

Hi, Alicia.

Hi, Hadar.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm so excited to have you here. How are you doing today?

You know, I'm good. I feel like I have a new shot of energy. Like today I'm like, this is giving me life. I feel so excited. So I was like, really dragging at the beginning of the week, but now I'm like, okay, I'm ready for this. I've got it.

I have to tell you that I felt the same way today. You know, we spoke yesterday and I was like, my energy was low. And this morning I woke up and was like, I'm ready. I think I was excited about today too. Lisia, you also have a YouTube channel. So you're a content creator as well. It's not just like that. You are a copywriter. Your Instagram and YouTube channel are awesome resources. So would you like to just like, tell us A little bit about you and what you do and your channel and what you do there.

Yes. So I'm an online copywriter. So I write for business owners who run their businesses online. And what I help them with is writing copy. So communicating with their right audience and their ideal customers and clients and I allow their voice to shine through. So they talk to me about their services and products and I translate what they're telling me into the copy that will then create sales and business growth for them. And then on my Instagram and on my YouTube channel, I teach all about writing copy and scaling online businesses. So I've been in the online business game for about 15 years. 15 years. Got my start writing jokes on Twitter. I mean, it was not prestigious at all. I didn't get paid. However, that's how I started copywriting. And it also started helping me get practice like making headlines and subject lines. And then over the last 15 years, I've been creating copy for online business owners and brick and mortar who also have online business owners presence. So my whole goal when working with clients and customers is to help them shine, help them translate what lives inside of them so that their personality shines through as they're talking about their products or services. And I help them communicate effectively so that the sales process is seamless for their market once they're able to, you know, get their message out there and understand who they're talking to. Part of today too, like, who are we talking to? That's such a huge piece. So that's what I do day in and day out.

I think that we can learn so much from the work that you do as, you know, communicators in general, like as humans that communicate because we talk a lot about finding our voice. Right. Or being able to speak with our authentic voice in English. It's kind of like we're translating ourselves. It's not just that we're translating our thoughts into a new language, we also translating our personality. And sometimes, sometimes it's good because sometimes we can like acquire a new Persona and people like it, but sometimes it feels not authentic. And you talk about it a lot. Like when you talk about writing and finding your voice, how do you write in a way that sounds like yourself? And I think that even for us, even if writing is not your main focus, learning the work that you do with helping people find their voice can definitely help us English learners to find our voice in a new language. So I think it's so cool.

Yeah.

I mean, and then you think about to go back to what you were saying about different personalities in different languages. You know, the people that I know that speak multiple languages always laugh, like, well, in Spanish, I'm like this. In English, I'm like this. And it really does create these opportunities to bring out different parts of ourselves. And then the same thing goes with writing as it does with this sort of learning multiple languages. And the reason is this, who I am as a writer. People can get to know me. They can get to know my personality. They can see what shines through. But that's not my whole self. Right. I have other things to offer. So we get to really refine when we're writing how we want to communicate with our audience, what kind of tone we want to use, what. What do we want to focus on versus, like, let go of, you know? And I think for a long time, people in their writing voice, they struggle with that. What do I focus on? What do I not focus on? What works, what doesn't work. How am I understood versus how am I, like, overwhelming? You know, I think things that can happen.

Yeah. And it's not just. It's understood and overwhelming. And it's definitely like, how can I help people connect to me? And, you know, we use the physical voice. Right. Because voices, vibrations, and, like, it gets to people, and people feel it, and they have. Or the tone of voice. But there is also tone of voice in writing. I talk about it when I teach intonation and the melody and the tone of the. You know, if it's sarcastic or, you know, friendly, angry. So before we go into your plan, how do you define tone of voice in writing, and how do you help your clients understand what it is and dive into that?

Yeah. So I define tone in a way that's like, if I'm talking to you, what does it feel like when I'm talking to you? You know, Pedar, when I talk to you, it's always so joyful. It's upbeat. You can tell you're moving, the thoughts are going. Right. Like, there's a tempo to it. And so for tone, I would want to make sure that if I'm writing, it feels joyful, even if the words I'm using aren't joyful. If I'm just writing a regular sentence, I think to myself, what would the tone be? How can I make this sound like hadar? Because I want to make sure the pace works. So that could be length of sentence. Could also be just, like, word choice. You know, you might use slang occasionally, but tone really, for me, is, what is the personality of the person's baseline, you know, like kind of like a musical note. What is their baseline musical note? And how can we make sure that shines through in anything we're writing? And I think identifying that first and foremost, because some people are serious, some people are joyful, some people are super funny, some people are like middle of the road. They're just like, I am here to give you the information and that is it. Right. It's like a flat line.

Yeah.

We have to determine that and then show that. And that's how I think about tone.

Oh, that's so great. You know, for the people who are new to this term, even copywriting. Would you like to explain what that is?

Yeah. So copywriting is pretty much anything you are writing in the written word anywhere online or in your life. So copywriting, even though in my term it's used for business writing, like I'm writing, you know, sales emails or sales pages, or I'm writing social media, or I'm writing emails for clients, that's all business related. But if we think about copywriting as something that we're doing day in and day out, even in our personal lives, we can think about that in our text messages, in our personal emails, anytime we have to write something for work. Anything that we are writing down, that is a communication tool for somebody else to receive and get a message. That's copywriting. And sure, yes, it applies to marketing and sales, but. But I would argue it applies to everything else too.

Yeah. So why is it important to think about the style of what we write rather than the plain message?

So I think we want people to connect. I mean, more and more we live in a digital age. Whether we like it or not, everything is done. Like, who calls anybody anymore? Like, I get a phone call and I'm like, I don't like nobody else. Or they text first and say, can I call you? You know, Yeah. I am a child of the 70s. I'm used to the telephone. But we are moving beyond that. So why it's important is no matter what we're doing, tone and qualities of voice are so important, even in a plain text message. We want to grab our readers attention. Look, our friends, our family, the people in the world, they're busy. Like, we have so many more distractions than ever before. So anything we're doing, we want to grab the attention of our audience. And that audience could be personal or professional. So why I think it's important to practice and really sort of put all of it in, in your text messages or your Emails or wherever is so that you can also practice, no matter what you're communicating, how to come across and get people's attention more and more. Because of this digital age, people just want to feel seen, heard, and understood. We just want to have this connection. And in order to have that, we need to communicate effectively. Well, if communication is now limited to sort of like electronics, we need to find ways to communicate that as well.

Yeah.

And it's so easy to be misunderstood when you're writing a text message, you know? And you had a great post the other day about adding emojis.

Right.

Because I think that that definitely helps with understanding the tone if you don't have time to style it or to add more sentences or words or you can't find the words, which is something that doesn't happen when you leave a voice memo because then they can hear if you're making a joke or you're serious. But if you're not, then it's really, really important to remember that tone does not come across easily. Like, you have to be conscious about it. Right?

Yeah. Okay. I will always. If I even think that there's a chance somebody's gonna misunderstand what I'm saying, I add an exclamation point and an emoji every time. And the reason is, is because make sure that they know what I'm trying to convey. And an easy way to do that is, you know, like I said, that exclamation point and the smiley emoji. Or like, if you're worried, you could be like that emoji, like, whatever that emoji is, but you want to convey the emotion. And the other thing I always tell people is, like, send the message. And if you're unsure, just add a just kidding or LOL or whatever it is to help the reader identify what that message is trying to convey. There's nothing worse than getting a text message and not knowing if the person's mad at you, happy with you, joking with you. And then it like, totally spins us all out. Right. We're around spun out because we don't know what somebody meant, but it's so easy to fix. And yes, it's very casual to add an emoji or an exclamation point or an lol. But honestly, nine times out of ten, even on a professional basis, I will do that because I just make sure that they know where I'm coming from. Coming from. Yeah.

Plus, casual is the new formal. So. Okay, so let's go into sharing with us some of your Tips on how to find your voice or how to come across as yourself in your writing. So all the things that you've listed.

Here above, okay, the number one thing that I tell people is if you want to find your voice in your writing, the fastest, most effective way to do this is to record yourself, like on voice memo or on zoom, and then transcribe what you're hearing on that recording. And yes. Is it a little bit labor intensive? Sure. But it's totally worth it because I can honestly tell you, Hadar, I think your audience will think this is funny. I will have so many times. Well, I have listened to a copywriting client talk about something. I will have written the copy based on the exact words that they said with their mouth. And then I will get feedback that says, this doesn't sound like me. And I'm like, it's hilarious. Because I go back and I'm like, well, this is what I took it from. And I mean, it happens with everyone. Just because we don't listen to ourselves talk. I mean, we're not, we're not listening to ourselves after we leave the voice text. We're not re listening to it. Right. We just don't realize, like, what's happening. So what I always tell people is the quickest way is to record yourself and transcribe it. Then the added layer to that is once you've transcribed it, you can kind of edit it to be more how you want your written voice to sound. So you're not going to verbatim leave the transcript as it is. You're going to look at those sentences and you're going to make them shorter. Number one, that's a quick way to make those sentences shorter because then they'll be more easily understood and you'll identify like, oh, I have like something I say all the time. Like for me on my Instagram, I'm always like, today I'm talking about. And then another thing I always say is, who doesn't want that I have these things that I say? But I wouldn't have realized that if I didn't do this practice. But it now starts to add tonal qualities, it starts to add rhythm, starts to add things that people identify with me in my written voice. And so with this practice, especially for people who are learning English and trying out new things, this is a quick way to identify like, oh, okay, so here's how it sounds out loud now. I get to edit and I get to make it what I need it to be on the page and super fun thing you can do is practice this with your text messages and emails to your friends. So you have something like, let's say you're inviting somebody. It's Covid. We can't invite anybody anywhere. Let's say you're inviting somebody to a Zoom call. We're really excited about it. And you're throwing a birthday party, so you want to make sure that the information comes across as fun and jovial and people know you're excited even though it's a birthday party on Zoom. Okay, well, what you can do is this practice. You can voice text or voice memo yourself talking. Then you're like, okay, who, what, when, where, why? You talk about it. Then you write that all out. And then you see, okay, how can I refine this so it sounds more like a text message or it sounds more like an email? And that's going to start to get you really aware of your writing voice. And I think, like I was saying, most of us aren't aware of our writing voice, and that becomes problematic because then we take on, and I am guilty of this all day long. We take on voice of other people even when we're writing to ourselves. So what we're trying to convey is a misdirect from who we are in the world as a speaker to who we are on paper. You know, I once wrote an email to it, and it happens to everyone, English learners, you know, native English speakers. Like, I wrote an email to a boss of mine, and he was like, why is this so serious? I guess I should have maybe read that out loud because. Yeah, read what you finalized out loud.

Out loud.

This was a game changer for me. Like, when I started doing that, I was like, oh, wait, it doesn't make sense or. It does make sense. I think what you're doing here for most of us who are not copywriters, is that you're putting the spotlight on the fact that writing is a thing. It's not just, you know, it's not like a function. It's a thing that exists in and of itself. And, like, we need to pay attention to what's happening. Like, what you're saying is pay attention to how your. What is your writing voice? I wouldn't think about that. I mean, I. I do think about tone, and I'm writing my content and I'm writing a lot. But before I started my business, I think it was just, I need to send an email, and that's it. I didn't put all this thought. And I think it definitely does serve us better when we. We know that it really is like working on intonation, because intonation is. I say that intonation a lot of times is like the punctuation, like punctuation of the voice and of course, the tone. It's not that using a different intonation is bad. It's just that if we want to get what we want, then it's better if we use certain, you know, common patterns that people resonate with or associate something with. So I think it's very much the same with writing, which is. I think that this is something new for. For many of us. One little addition is that I think that this is such a great exercise. And for those of you who are practicing your pronunciation, you can even use voice to text instead of transcribing. So you're just speaking. And then you can do it on your notes app or on Google Docs. And then you can also see what it detects and what it doesn't. And it's good to record yourself anyway. But I think it's a great exercise to add to that.

Yeah. And a lot of times, too. Hadar. What I will do because I get super lazy because I am writing all day, is that if I have to respond to a message or an email, I will put the microphone on and just talk into my phone, the answer, and then go back and edit because also, like, great to be able to do that too. So I think for people, as they're working on tone as well and checking that, like, it is super convenient to write a text message via your mouth.

So much easier. I know. I hate typing. I. I hate it. I. Okay, so next thing is, and this is big for many of us, especially because of the cultural differences, how do you manage your writing between formal writing and informal writing? Like, what is the difference? What makes the difference in the writing? And when do you use which.

Yeah, so informal writing, of course, is when we're writing to our friends or our family or a coworker who we know we have a great relationship with. And it's maybe over a slack message or an email. So it's not like you're not sharing information with your entire company. Right. You're thinking about informal, like the way that we talk to each other. That's informal language. You know, we're just having a conversation. It's casual. You use contractions again, short sentences. Right. Like, you're really looking at it from the perspective of a relaxed feeling and not being so buttoned up. Right. Something that I recommend to people is if you don't Have Grammarly, the Grammarly app on your computer. It's really helpful because it does show you how you sound. Do you sound. Do you sound informal? Are you connecting? Are you. You? What's your attitude about it? Right? So that's really helpful. But when we're talking about informal writing, it's essentially anytime you're communicating in a relaxed way with a familiar audience, somebody you know, somebody you've met and you have a relationship with, a formal way of communicating is more serious. It's usually done at work. It's usually done when you don't know somebody very well. So you want to introduce yourself, but you don't want to be too casual. And it's. I like to call it like the fancy words. Like, we're going to start using the fancy words and the fancy sentences. And it doesn't necessarily mean you're writing, like, terms of agreement, but like, on a website, if you go to their terms of agreement page, that's formal writing. It's a little bit like lawyer speak. It's like contractual. You know, you're really trying to be very serious about this. And you might use that, you know, when you're sending an email to somebody to reach out to. Like, for instance, you might be wanting to be on a podcast, or you might want to reach out to somebody to, you know, practice English with them, but you don't know them. Right. You'd be a little more formal in that email. You wouldn't want to be too formal, but you'd want to be serious enough to show, like, this is my interest. This is why I'm interested. And you wouldn't be so casual until you got to know them better. So really, in these two events of formal or informal, it's knowing your audience. So this is. This is how we also practice, you know, learning another language as well as writing another language is, who am I talking to and how do I need to talk to them? Right. Are they somebody that I can be casual with, or they would expect a more casual tone, or are they somebody who's like, I don't know you, and you are acting like we're best friends. But I feel like when we determine our audience, we can then determine formal or informal writing. Or really, that's really the basis for it.

And what is the difference in the actual writing? What tips would you give us for, you know, formal in particular? So informal is like the way we speak. So the exercise that you gave us for just recording your answer and then tweaking it, that's great. That would be informal. Right, because we don't speak informal language.

Yes, using the voice memo, but also using contractions. So if you, if you write something and you say I will go to the store, you could change I will to ow, I apostrophe ll. Yeah. And so that immediately makes it informal. Also, you know, using the emojis, that makes it somewhat informal as well. And people kind of expect emojis because apparently we're back to hieroglyphics in our age. So I love it. So people expect an emoji or two. So that's going to be informal as well. And then for formal, you want to think about the greeting. You're not going to probably say, hey there, hadar. In a formal message, you're going to say dear hadar or just hadar comma, right? You're going to take off any casual speech. Then your sentences are gonna probably be a little longer in formal messages. So they're less staccato or choppy and more longer. I think of this as like a fiction novel type of sentence. Like formal is gonna be that kind of sentence length rather than, you know, I think of informal as like poetry. It's very short. It's to the point. Right? So if you want to think about it in those terms, anytime you're reading a fiction novel, think of how long some of those sentences are. That's more formal language. So when you're writing an email or you're writing a letter or something like that, what you're going to do is you're going to say, who is my audience? Okay. It needs to be formal. This means that my sentences need to be clear and concise, but also, you know, a little more robust. I need to explain, explain things a little bit more. And I also need to take out any casual language or slang that might come up. So no contractions, no slang, nothing that's going to. To indicate a friendly tone. It's just very like even, I guess that that's the quality of a formal.

What would you say about the structure? Let's say if it's a formal email you're writing to apply for a job.

Let'S say this is a great question, Hadar, because it's very different. So a formal email is going to follow the five sentence paragraph and you're going to have a greet. So the way I would set up a formal email is your greeting. So the first name or dear first name. Then you would set up your first paragraph and that would be between four and five sentences in length. Then you would make a new paragraph and that could be two to three sentences and then your sign off sincerely or very sincerely and then your name. Whereas an informal email is going to read more like you've just like flown it off on the keyboard. Every sentence is a separate sentence, you know, so what you're gonna, you know, hey there hadar. And then the first sentence. And this is what I always tell people. Like you can really practice tone in the first sentence because you're really trying to grab your readers attention. Like, I have a friend who I'll text message and it'll take her days to get back to me, but if I give her a really good opening, like I have news, right? Like it's like, oh, this is more interesting. So in an informal message you're, you know, hey there hadar. And then you have the first line and then you might have two short sentences together and then a single sentence and then another two sentences. So it's very broken up, it's very spacious. And that way the reader can see, scan it and read it easily.

Which is like, I think you have a great newsletter and they're a lot of fun. I love your newsletters. So I would say that is informal, the way you write your newsletters.

Yeah. Yes. Like today I stuck a picture of my dog in my newsletter. Like anytime you're adding a giphy or you're adding pictures, that's going to informalize no matter what your what you're writing about. And I think the key component is think about are you writing to a friend or are you writing to your boss? And immediately it's going to set the tone and the way you want to write formal or informal in identifying that audience.

What would you tell people who are afraid of making mistakes when writing a formal email or even informal. But formal is more scary, I guess.

Yeah. So here's something that I love is when somebody names that they are an English learner or they name this because I think of it as a superpower. I'm like, wow, you know, this person is running their business in English. They speak this other language as their native language. Like that's, that's a lot. So a lot of times I will get formal emails that one or two sentences in. They'll say, I run my business in English, but I am a native Spanish speaker. And I'm like, oh, amazing. And then that immediately as a reader, there's like a huge pass for any grammatic. Not that I wouldn't give people a pass for grammar mistakes anyway, but it's different when you know that somebody is writing in a second language. There's just a more spacious experience of, like, this person has named that they are working in multiple languages throughout their life, and they're writing in a language that is. I mean, I know how hard it is. I know very little Italian, and it's almost impossible for me to write in Italian. And I. So it's like, so much more spaciousness. So what I tell people is name that people. I'm always surprised and delighted. I guess that's a permission slip for people. Like, I am surprised and delighted when somebody lets me know that they run their business in English, but they speak a different language as their original language. And that, I think, can help you move through any fears you might have in a formal email, because you can say that in a formal way. You can say it both informally and formally. But if you're writing like a business email and you want to name that, you can say that in a formal way. And the reader, the recipient is going to think, wow, you know, nine times out of ten, they're going to be like, this is amazing. And what I always love to tell people is, your English is always better than you think it is. Right. Anytime I get 100%, this is better written than I write. I make huge grammatical mistakes. And so I feel like I just want to give people that permission slip, too. Of, like, really own this about yourself. There's nothing more fun than to know a special thing about somebody. And I really believe that people who are trilingual bilingual, like, it's an incredible superpower you have. So own it. Yeah.

I love that you're saying that because the judgment that people have is sometimes insane and so crippling and hearing that feedback constantly of, you know, it is a superpower. We admire you. We don't judge you. It's not like, you know, I think that's. That's reassuring for many people here. So it's important to remember that and focus on that and remember that most people feel that and not. I mean, of course, there are people who would criticize and have something to say, but these are usually not the people that we want to talk to anyway.

Exactly. Like, if you find out somebody has something to say about it, do you really want to be doing business with them? I wouldn't like if I found that out. I'm like, no. Like, this is not a good match. Yeah. I want to remind everyone it's their own insecurities. And so we have to remember that as well. And I think the other thing I would tell people is, let's say you've named it. It's something that you've claimed. And then, you know, I've had people write to me and say, like, you know, as they're signing off, if you've misunderstood anything I've said, please let me know. I would love to clarify because that also gives permission for the conversation to continue. And it's not a criticism. It's just like, oh, did you mean this or did you mean. Especially when you're first practicing? And again, I think Hadara. The one thing I would say is it just creates a deeper connection. So if you didn't know this person before, they're gonna feel like you were really conscientious and really thinking through. Like, I wanna communicate with this person. Well, as I write to them, what's the most effective way I can do that? And how can I keep the conversation open so that I am sure that I am understood? And I think that because there's nothing more crippling to feel than you can't communicate what you want to communicate. And I think this is just ways to do that. One example, like, besides languages is think about for the listeners. Like, if somebody comes to you and says, oh, I've never done X before. I've never baked cupcakes before. And you're an expert baker. You're not going to be like.

Exactly right, Cupcakes.

Like, remind yourself, what are you expert at? And if somebody who is new to that came to you, I'm not. I'm not totally sure about this. You wouldn't judge them. You would be like, welcome. Come, let's try this.

And I love this approach. A lot of times people apologize, right? Like, they apologize for their English. I'm sorry. For my. So what you're offering here is not. No, don't apologize. But it's always great to add at the end if something was unclear or if, you know, or if I was misunderstood, I'd be happy to clarify. It opens up the conversation right. For the next conversation. So I think it's great.

Great.

And also leaves room for. For positive feedback. So, like, I didn't really understand this part or that part.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, how many times have we, you know, met somebody and. And they've apologized for. It's like, no, no, you're fine. I totally understand.

Yeah, no need. Yeah, no need. Don't undermine yourself at the beginning of the conversation. There is no need for that. Okay. And also, I wanted to mention that you have created on your YouTube channel, a video specifically for English learners that want, like, with some great tools to help them improve their writing. Right. Okay, so the last thing for today, share with us. Like, if people want to improve their writing in general or, you know, kind of, like, get better at it, what would you recommend for them to do?

So, an exercise that I love, and it also gives us permission not to be perfect. What I like to tell people to do, and this is for any kind of writing, creative writing, you know, personal writing, whatever, it just gives you practice without judgment. So what I tell people is each morning or evening, like, whenever you really feel fresh, some people are better writers. At night, I am not. I have to get up at 5am but whenever you're fresh and whenever you're ready, just sit down at a desk or, you know, take out your journal and set a timer for 10 minutes. And so what you're going to do is you are going to write all the thoughts in your head onto the page. So it doesn't matter. You might start off by being like, it's spring, there's flowers, it's sunny, it's cold. I can't believe I have to do the laundry again. Oh, the dog is barking. Like, whatever is coming up in your mind, you're going to write down. And the reason why this is super helpful is, number one, it gets you kind of over that fear of a blank page. Because when you're done, there's nothing blank about that page. It's a bunch of messy sentences that make no sense tied together, right? So you're going to set the timer for 10 minutes and you're going to write this. But what you're going to do is you're going to do it for 10 days. And the reason why you're going to do it for 10 days is because you're going to start to see how quickly you can get started after day one, day two, day three, day four, and so on. And then at the end of the 10 days, I want you to take a highlighter and highlight things that came up and out as you were writing that you really feel are notable. Because the reason why you feel like they're notable is they might need to be explored more. And then those are prompts for you to explain, explore ongoing in your writing. So you have this whole set. Number one, by the end of the 10 days, you're more confident because you're used to doing it. You'll actually feel after 10 days, like, oh, I don't know if I can not do this now. Like, I have to keep going. But you'll also have continuous writing prompts to help you continue practice your writing. And you'll also pick up tone and your voice because you'll start to see the thoughts that live in your head on the page. And that's going to really show you, like, oh, this is how I think to myself. So this is probably how I should write as well.

Yeah, this is great. I've never heard of this. And. And I think there is something really special about understanding that every thought that we think. Not every thought, definitely not every thought, but like there are these hidden thoughts that maybe there is a treasure right behind it, like underneath it, and definitely worth exploring. So would you say that 10 minutes for 10 days just to write out all your thoughts and then after that would you continue with 10 minutes a day or to take those prompts and then to write whenever, like, what is the structure?

Yeah, so I think that the structure you can do the 10 minutes ongoing I1 because it's just a good practice. It's like a meditation after a while. So somebody like me who doesn't sort of love sitting cross legged and like noticing my breath, then this is a great meditation and the 10 minutes is totally doable and it becomes a habit. That said, if you want to dive into the nuggets, you can then apply the 10 minutes to the nuggets. So you might get 10 things that stand out from you. And then you can do 10 days writing about those 10 things. And the reason why you might want to do that is because it starts to really dial into what you want to be talking about more and more. And it starts to give you like a topic to practice rather than a lot of thoughts. It's one thought. And so you have to think of the words and sentences that build that one thought out. And so if you're timing yourself, it's more of a brainstorm. So you don't feel like, oh, I have to be really formal about this, it's really casual. But then you can refine if you need to.

It's really good. And I think that's a great exercise to improve your vocabulary, or not even to improve, but to kind of like bring a lot of the words that you know onto the surface. Because so many times we have this vast knowledge of words in English, but we use just a fragment of it. So these writings, I think, because it's probably on different topics and on things that you usually don't explore at work or with your family. So it would be such a great Exploration for understanding how you talk about or how you explain or how you find the words. And once you write them, of course, say them out loud. But if you like, oh yeah, that word, I haven't used it in a while. Of course, that would be really great to read it out loud anyway, then I think that this is something that you bring it back to your conscious mind. And that's a great exercise.

Yes, yes. And another tool that you can use is one look Dot com. So One look is a thesaurus where you can find related words in English. So if you've said the word spicy 16 different times and you're like, I feel like there has to be another word for this, you can then go. You can also see where you're repeating words and where you can expand vocabulary by going to One look and getting related words and determining like, oh, do these feel like a fit? And then you're adding to that vocabulary as well.

Nice. This is so good. This is so good. Anything else that you'd like to share?

Yeah. So I think just from the emotional standpoint, I want to reassure people that regardless of the language we're speaking or writing in, we all stumble over how to take the idea that we have living inside of our head and putting it out into the world. I think this is something that I just, I love to reiterate to people like, you're not alone. Half the time as a writer, I stare out the window because I am having trouble putting down in a sentence the picture of what it is that I want to convey. And I, and I do this too when I'm speaking. And I know that it can be so frustrating when you're like, I know how to say this one way, but I don't know how to say it in English. And it takes like a long time or you're like still thinking about it and the conversation has moved on to other things. Just know that you are not alone. We all experience this and I want to encourage you as you're practicing. And again, the idea might come through that big idea, that 10 day challenge that I was talking about. But as you're starting to get these ideas, you can keep these stories. Once you've formulated them in your mind and in English, you can kind of keep them as your go to stories like, like, need a story? Oh, I got this one. You know, it helps to practice those because you'll also build the confidence you have of like taking that idea and putting it into story form. And then you can build on that ongoing. So that's just like, it's something I think about a lot.

Yeah. And I think that like, that idea that we're all in this together, it's not just about like a lot of people blame their English for it. No, it's just the human nature and how we, you know, we have this like, even words written or spoken, it's so limited compared to all the emotions that we have and the thoughts and, and all of that. So I think that it makes sense that it takes a little bit of time and it's not immediate right away. And also, you know, our surroundings and the people around us really affect us, you know, whom we're speaking to. So I think, I think that's great to hear that that's like a validation.

Yeah.

You had a question. How do you organize your thoughts so beautifully?

I'll be honest, I have to write them down. So this is the thing, right? You permission to write stuff down. If you have an important conversation coming up or you have an email you need to write or you need to make a social media post, like make literally note everywhere, like it's okay to write it down in a short, like note taking form and then formulate the sentence. I also find it grounds us right. When we kind of like think out our thoughts and then write it out or then speak it out, it grounds us and we have more confidence. It's a little bit like studying for a test. You're extra prepared for the conversation you're about to have. So before I sat down to talk with you, Hadar, I made my notes. I thought through what we were going to talk about. Some days the notes go out the window, but it's a foundational.

Yeah.

Confidence that then comes through. And I think that's really helpful.

I so agree with you. And I. I think that sometimes people kind of like, underestimate the importance of preparation and they don't understand that this is really what can make the difference between, you know, feeling confident and successful to feeling overwhelmed and like, you're stuck and you can't get through your sentences or you're all over the place. Right. And I love that you show that because, you know, again, people think that, oh, this is perfect. I can never be that. And I was like, no, do it and practice and, and prepare. You know, you can do that. And you know, in my community we work a lot with videos and you can definitely see that the people who have been posting videos consistently, they are better at organizing their thoughts and delivering them. It's just the more you do it, the More you do it, the better you get at it.

It's so true. It's so true. And there's nothing better than feeling prepared, even if whatever you prepared didn't end up panning out. But I think that for me, you know, if I'm thinking about something new or I'm trying something new, the notes really do help. And there's no. There's no shame in preparation.

No, not at all. Not at all. I mean, I used to work with people in the high tech industry, and they'd be like, no, you know, I. I don't need to prepare or I don't have time and all of that. I was like, do you want to see results? Do you want to feel better? Prepare?

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So Lucy asks, where are you from?

I am from Camden, Maine, in the United States. So that's where I live. And we moved here about 10 years ago now. So it's been. Yeah, I live right up in the north of North America.

Okay, Lycia, so first of all, go subscribe to her YouTube channel to get a lot of valuable tips on writing and copywriting. And again, I think that even if writing is not your main focus, you can learn a lot about it from the conversation about tone of voice and finding your voice and all of that, even if it's in writing and also an Instagram. And of course, in the description, you'll find the link for the video with the tools to help you improve your writing in English, if English is your second language. Lycia, thank you so, so much. It was amazing.

Thank you, Dara. I feel so lit up, like this has totally filled my cup today. I'm so grateful to be here and so thankful for your audience to join.

Okay, you guys, thank you so, so much for being here and for participating and for showing all this love. Put into practice what you've learned. Okay? So think about your tone of voice when writing, and you can try the speech to text and then edit it as an exercise. Think about formal versus informal. I think there was a lot of great stuff here. And finally, the ten day challenge. Sounds amazing. Okay, Lycia, thank you so much. Thank you, everyone, and I hope you all have a beautiful, beautiful day.

Thank you.