Evoso Manifesto

 

I believe there is a story and a truth inside all people. The people who really need to get it out to the world have an uncanny sense of urgency, and the next chapter of my life will be dedicated to helping them.

I am a midwife for birthing ideas, a storyteller and a truth hound. I believe ideas are bigger than people. People die. They screw up. They miss opportunities. They get stuck.

But ideas are much more sustainable. They can last and help people for decades…centuries, even. That is, if they are produced, packaged and promoted in a way that connects. And when they are spoken authentically.

We need evangelists for the human experience. Sincere and vulnerable people should be at the helm, because it’s easier for others to latch on to change when it’s coming from someone REAL.

At evoso, we are not about building a platform where you spew out your ideas to the audience below. Instead, it’s about building an interdependent ecosystem, leveraging all the different ways we can speak up. The goal being to share what you know with the world, and more importantly, to start a conversation.

I believe public speaking is one of the most powerful tools we have available to us. And it’s my mission to help people use their words for maximum impact.

I also believe in channeling education into income streams, and evoso helps both ordinary and extraordinary folks be financially successful in sharing what they know with others.

But to be successful, first get away from identities. Identifying as a speaker, an author, a CEO, a founder, a do-gooder, a blogger, a businessman, a politician, an athlete, an internet phenom, a hero, a success, a failure. Anyone of any race, or gender, or tax bracket or whatever other category we like tossing people into can move an audience, and subsequently create a SHIFT.

Titles, schmitles!

Here’s the thing: We all have stories. We are all conduits for consciousness and vessels for vision. And I believe it’s our duty to share them for the greater good. I am starting evoso to make it easier for folks called to do this.

More importantly than stories, we all have truth. That’s the real magic. The stories just make our truth applicable and relatable to people who haven’t lived our life, who haven’t been in our skin, who don’t know what it’s like to be black or well-traveled or psychic or gay or an amputee or or female or rich or electable or sick or an epic disappointment to someone, at some point.

Truth is awesome, because it’s the thread that’s woven into every decision, relationship, job and adventure we take. It’s what drives us. Dare I say, it’s why we are here on this planet, at this time, in this body. Maybe it’s our mission in life – to simply share what we know to be true.

But first we need to know what our truth is, and that may be the most important aspect of evoso. Our introductory service is what I call a “Dig” where we identify your authentic message. Later, we offer other services. (Appropriately called “Plant” and “Grow”…see a theme? This is what happens with a CEO named Weed in charge.)

Identifying one’s truth is an incredibly enlightening thing. It explains a lot about why we choose the work, people and paths in our life. It explains some mysteries we have about ourselves. And on the other side of that is simplicity and RELIEF to finally be able to look ourselves in the mirror in the morning and think, “OK. I get you. I get what I’m supposed to be doing here.”

Now as cliche as it may be – and I despise cliche – I do believe all things happen for a reason, including evoso. But I didn’t always believe this.

As you may know, I got my experience in the art and business of public speaking by starting a company called Girls Fight Back at age 22. The only reason I walked this path is because my incredible sorority sister, Shannon McNamara, was murdered. For a long time people told me Shannon died for a divine reason, so that I could launch GFB and educate over a million young women about personal safety. They assured me it was all part of the Universe’s master plan, and somehow I got voted ringleader.

And guess what? I wanted to punch those people in the face. How dare they suggest my fate and hers were somehow intertwined?!?!

But after crossing a long snarly bridge from pain to peace, I believe they are right. Upon selling Girls Fight Back this past summer and officially walking away, it became clear that maybe it’s not just my fate and Shannon’s who are twisted together.

Here’s a crazy idea: What if all people are connected? If that’s true, the challenge we have – especially over the past decade or so – is how to connect. Strange, right? With all the high-tech tools to bring us together, in many cases, we find ourselves drifting further apart.

Now evoso is a blended word of “evolution society”. We need leaders to figure out how to connect and grow together. That’s how we will move consciousness forward.

This company exists to support people who are ready and willing to go public with their stories and their truths. They are brave souls, and I love them. Maybe it’s the mama bear in me, but I just want to nurture their willingness to give a part of themselves so generously.

This is important, because the journey of sharing your truth can be terrifying and rewarding and raw and mind-blowing. It can be ridiculously joyful and uncomfortable and force us to have hard conversations, and sometimes make hard decisions. It can be intoxicatingly validating, and crushingly excruciating to put ourselves out there. I know from personal experience – there are high highs and low lows. Our truth can sometimes be expensive and exhausting – humbling and historic.

But ultimately, it’s all in the name of progress.

And not just progress for ourselves. Not to get the standing ovation. But to really move people forward! It’s not just luck that we got our stories. They didn’t just happen to you. They are a gift, serving to give all of us a connection to one another.

Your story is important. To me. To you. To the world.

Many of us have a habit of thinking we are smaller than we are. And we’ve gotta cut that out.

I’m not saying that every person who works with evoso is gonna go viral and blow up YouTube with almost 5 million views (like our client Ash Beckham did). That was her path, she rocked it hard core and we were honored to help her do that. You see, I’m committed to excellence, but not attached to outcome. I have epic trust that your message will reach the exact people who need to hear it. Something bigger than me/evoso/you/us will see to that. If it’s 10 people around a table – or ten million across the globe – either way, I have faith that evoso exists not to broadcast truth to the masses, but truth to the niche need.

The people who need you, will hear you if you communicate authentically.

At evoso, my team and I are building the machine, the community, the system, the training – to help you communicate more effectively and efficiently. We want to empower people, in whatever budget or time window they can commit to, to share their stories and their truth.

We just need to transcend the HOW.

The speech. The video. The blog post. The TV appearance. The webinar. The book tour. None of these matter singularly. They are just vessels for getting your message out there.

It’s like saying your phone is awesome because someone called and gave you really good news. The freakin’ phone had nothing to do with it! It’s just the portal by which the good news passed. What keeps me awake at night is wondering how can we make this portal more open, to allow mindblowing goodness to pass through. And sometimes it’s as simple as getting out of our own way.

This is the mission of evoso. To bring ease and abundance to your truth by embracing the spoken word. This next chapter of my life is dedicated to building a successful business that supports people called to do this.

Let’s transcend sketchy motivational speakers who live in vans down by the river. Let’s be better than pretty slides in a powerpoint. Way beyond getting a standing-O at a packed house for your TED talk or making that vlog go viral. It’s bigger than winning the award and more significant than finally holding the first copy of your book in your hands and actually SMELLING it because you can’t believe it’s real.

Let’s go galactic.

Let’s change some lives with what we’ve been through, and what we know as a result of that. Let’s help people be healthier, wiser, smarter, more loving bosses, partners and parents. Let’s take a deep breath, then take a risk by putting ourselves out there. Let’s rock the crowd, not to just give up their credit card and upsell something – but instead to rock them to ACTION. To do something.

Something big, something small – who cares?! Just make it memorable. And a step forward. Because when one of us gets better, stronger, smarter, braver…we all do.

I strive to build evoso to be a tool, a resource, an agency, a badass fraternity of rebel rousers and changemakers who plug into our system to share their truth with those who need it most. With grace, grit and amusement.

Because it’s not so hard to change the world. Just speak your truth. (easy right?)

But guess what? When you do this in the right way, without tricking or swindling people – without being too crafty or polished or clever – people will get it. You don’t have to be that speaker telling craptastic opener jokes or moving your arms at just the right cadence to the talk. You don’t have to never stumble in that video you post. You don’t have to strive for some version of perfect, when you’re already perfectly YOU.

Be sincere. Give with reckless abandon. Commit to excellence. LOVE YOUR AUDIENCE. If you’re awkward, then embrace awkwardness! (like our client Banks Benitez did for Ignite Boulder) If you’re nervous, then by golly, learn to embrace your jitters as positive excitement. If you’re in the spotlight and your mind goes blank, then find the glorious interconnectivity in the moment where you can bond with the audience over the idea that sometimes we all f@&k up a little.

Then laugh. Then keep going. And rock it harder than you ever imagined possible…”thoughtful pauses” and all.

When you show up as your perfectly imperfect, yet obsessively truthful self – you make more money, and make more change. Whether you are the front person for a company or someone who feels irrelevant beyond measure – it’s not just about abundance in reach or hits or subscribers anymore. It’s about abundance in every fathomable way. Abundance of learning, thinking, feeling, realizing, being.

Anytime I go on stage, I always say a little prayer first that I learned from my mentor, Bob Martin. It goes like this:

“You don’t need to save the crowd. Just leave them a little better than you found ‘em.”

And so it is with evoso. I look forward to serving you.

 

Erin Weed