Creating A Vision Everyone Can Rally Behind

It’s not just about what you can achieve and reach for, it’s about inviting others to feel a part of it too.

A vision shouldn’t all be about what you want, it’s reminding people of what we’re trying to build as a team and why it matters. 

Being open about a vision represents painting a picture for a better future, where you say, ‘Let’s all dive in.’

In this article let’s look at two sides and bring them together, a vision for you, a vision for your audience and the overall glue that binds it all.

In its simplest terms, a vision means imagining a future that doesn’t quite exist yet. It’s a place you want to get to.

The vision becomes your driver, you might not have the full map that connects from one place to the other, but you have an idea of where you want to go.

You do it because you believe in it and over time, if your vision is shared by others, they will stand shoulder to shoulder with you. It builds, and it gets stronger.

For many people and businesses though, a vision is something that gets to put to the side. Particularly in a down economy, the ultimate goal is to survive. 

However, if the economy is proving tough, it’s the vision that guides you when the seas are rough.

When economic tides are uncertain, and the waves of challenges threaten to capsize our sense of direction, a vision becomes the North Star—it’s a fixed point that helps us navigate through the storm. 

By recognising where I was going wrong helped me get things back on track in 2023.

In 2022 I was coasting. There was project work and client work was in abundance. This was becoming the focus.

The work I loved, cherished and believed in, that was associated with progressing You Are The Media was not finding the momentum I wanted. Time was becoming a hurdle and client demand took precedence. 

In 2023 that changed. The plentiful project work took a turn. Companies were feeling the pinch and my comfort blanket was taken away with the client work.

What I realised was that I was so focused on what I was doing, in the moment, that it took my eye off the direction I wanted with YATM. 

2023 was the year I recovered YATM. I recognised that clarity on a vision made it easier for others to understand and the role that it plays. I understand now that you have to live through the difficult choices, know who your work is for (and isn’t for) and be clear on what you will (and won’t) do.

When I say that 2023 was ‘the year I recovered YATM’ let me explain. It was about being clear on the role it serves people and what you can take from it. I wanted actions to happen and have that drive where there was clarity in how it all connected.

This is what you do:

✅ Be clear on what your overall vision is

✅ From your vision share what you want from it

✅ For your vision share what you want people to take from it 

Let me explain

💥 The overall vision for YATM is for people and businesses to be self-sufficient in promoting themselves and their work, intertwined with the value of feeling a part of a community of support.

When your work is lifted as part of a team, you sidestep the middle man and go direct to your audience. 

The vision is built around the values of creativity, independence, experimentation, co-learning and community.

💥 My vision is to deliver an annual, in-person event for 500 people and maintain an online membership space with 150 engaged and driven people.

Surrounding this will be live events in different UK locations that help to foster self-sufficiency and confidence in the work we create.  

💥 Whilst this provides me with targets to reach for, it has to be of relevance to others too. People step up when they know why the vision is important to them and what they want.

The vision for others is to know they belong and feel part of a team with other people supporting them. When there is support and acknowledgment, it provides the confidence to create, try out new ideas and to keep going. This, in turn, helps people to grow in their endeavours.

For an approach to work, you have to keep working at it and shaping it into a space that beckons others to join in. When you persist with your vision, the skeptics who doubted you can see you’re going to eventually get there, by any means necessary, so they join in too.

Your vision is the approach that connects everyone. It’s how you articulate it that makes it easier for others to understand and join you.

Here is how it can shape your thinking.

Your vision links to your values 

If your vision is just doing and you jump from one idea to another, it means nothing. It comes down to why should people care?

You create demand for an audience who are willing to return and remain loyal. You create something that defines you, rather than merge into something that already exists. Have a read of this article that supports this and can help, it’s here to help define your values.

Your vision gives you a platform to stand for something.

When you can see where you want to go, it’s what you stand for and are prepared to fight for. This isn’t shaped by someone else’s idea, it’s your experiences.

Your origin story is what gives you that grounding. Facts alone, never helped anyone carve a space where people wanted to join in.

If you need help with shaping your origin story, read your origin story brings people together. Having a start enables you to make an impact in the future and conduct yourself in a way that you want to.

Your vision gives clarity and belief.

A vision is important when sharing stories and people coming around your campfire. It helps people to make that association and how it is relatable. It’s not about what you deliver, it’s also about where you are going and why you are doing it. The vision makes your content worthy. 

Your vision helps others to get behind you. 

An encouraging future inspires people to walk with you. Continuous effort is so important. Your vision comes from a place that is shaped so people feel compelled to join. It also presents them with a future of what could be.

Your vision is embedded in positive risk. 

Nothing was meant to be easy, it might feel uncomfortable but the most rewarding future is outside of your comfort zone.

If you stayed in the zone, you’d be doing what many other people are doing. Pus it is better to have the freedom to dream and imagine what is possible, rather than following a route that has been done many times before. 

You can’t move forward unless you know which direction you’d like to head. 

To stop yourself from getting in a tangle, it doesn’t have to be about drawing up a SWOT analysis or a highly structured framework, you just need to answer, ‘What’s my aim?’

It falls into place when you figure out and focus on what you want. For instance, my aim was never to tell people how to do their marketing, but to give people the confidence to become self-sufficient and feel supported by being around others.

Write down what’s your aim and what others can aim for too. Have clarity on how it all accumulates and why you are doing it. 

It is also important to remember that courage plays such an important role from where you were to the vision for the future.

For instance, a couple of years ago, everything from YATM was messy but that was the charm to bring people together. It still needs to feed into that but have a reason for people to say they belong to a space that is theirs. 

Recognising that it is a vision that keeps you on a path, you can’t just be doing, there has to be a reason. There were times at the start of last year that I forgot the big reason why I started YATM.

Where we are today every piece of work created (such as this) is to help someone do something or think about where they were not capable before. It’s there to guide you, it’s there to guide me. We can both benefit from being self-sufficient to have control where we don’t have to always rely on a middleman to get through to someone else.

That’s where my vision lies and I hope that’s something you believe in too. Something for you, something for me.

Having a vision isn’t just about personal aspirations, it can be a collective approach. 

It’s a guiding light propelling us forward and aligning a community to a common purpose.

So, paint that picture of a better future, articulate your vision, and show how it can all look.

After all, a vision that everyone can get behind is not just a destination; it’s a transformative and worthwhile journey beyond our current horizons. Let’s embrace it together.