It's All About You

I ran across a cool book at the Lynnwood library this week: The Message of You, by Judy Carter.

It fits rather well into my growing YOU library, right next to:

• Business Model You, by Timothy Clark and Alexander Osterwalder
• The Startup of You, by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, and
• The Economy of You, by Kimberly Palmer.

The Message of You is aimed at people who aspire to become professional speakers, but the message of this book is so much more than that. Carter's premise is that everyone has a compelling story to tell, something meaningful and inspiring, and that that could form the cornerstone of the reader's new career as a paid professional speaker.

But your story can go farther. Much farther.

Every blogger has a story to tell. Every writer. Well, everybody. So tell your story.

In this Internet Age, people seem to thrive on anonymity, on hiding in the corners of cyberspace, staying unidentified and unknown.

But we are seeing a revolution in cyberspace. The Internet is enabling a new dialogue. We are no longer the recipients of "mass marketing", of a barrage of simple messages for all.

No, we are seeing the next generation of the peer-to-peer network revolution. Everyone has a voice---a unique voice. And others out there, somewhere, want to hear it.

Don't squelch your voice. Don't hide your message. Speak out. Tell your story.