Dear Tracker ~
Words matter. What we name shapes how we frame, and how we frame shapes the reality we perceive that we live and work in.
For reasons I can’t quite pin down, the word “customer” has rubbed me the wrong way since long before I launched my first business. Customer service. The customer is always right. It all felt too transactional. Not meaningful.
I work with leaders, entrepreneurs, and accomplished professionals who talk about “customers,” creatives who talk about “audiences,” and academics who talk about “students.” Different names. Different frames.
Lately I’ve been wondering again: how do we name and frame the people we engage through our endeavors? The people we captivate and elevate?
Because how we name and frame them inevitably shapes how we design for them, relate to them, and create with them.
Call them “dregs” and you’ll get one kind of outcome. Call them “champions” and you’ll get another. Call them “muggles”…well, you get the picture.
In this Shot of Wonder, I share what I’ve been discovering through my work. It’s an emerging cycle I’ve seen work for leaders, business owners, and service providers who want to foster a whole different dynamic.
Psst…The first Shot of Wonder was free (as/ always will be the Sunday Wonder Dispatch). If you’d like more Shots of Wonder—and a say in shaping what comes next—consider upping your wonder ratio.
More good things ahead. Thanks for being here.
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Quick Tracking Wonder Exercise:
List the words you currently use to describe the people you serve.
For each word, jot down what feelings, assumptions, or frames come with it.
Brainstorm alternative names that better reflect how you want to relate.
If you started calling them [new name], how might that change:
The way you design your offerings?
The way you show up in conversations?
The way they might feel in return?
What’s one small experiment you can try this week to use your new framing (in an email, a meeting, or a conversation)?
Your Turn to Wonder:
»> How do you name and frame the people you engage and elevate through your endeavors?
»> What does this Shot of Wonder stir up in you?
Be well, and thanks for running with me,
