When the two of us set out on our freelance endeavor six years ago, and created The Splendid Word, not in our wildest dreams did we dare to imagine that this venture might evolve into something bigger than ourselves.
From the get-go, it was our intention to create a sustainable business that would fit in around our obligations and responsibilities to our young families – and feed our passion for words. Not the other way around.
Giving up the security of our day jobs, and devoting our hearts wholly and solely to freelancing was a risk, but one that we had to take for the sake of our own growth (and sanity), and our families’ wellbeing.
Becoming full-time freelancers, whilst not without its own set of challenges, has enabled us to continue living our passion for storytelling, but in a way that allows us to prioritise time to also value the gift of our families.
In the years since making the switch from hard news journalism and politics to what we do today, there is one glaring difference. And it’s the reason we so deeply love what we do now.
These days we get to tell the good news stories.
For as long as we could remember, we’d been writing about the stuff that grabs headlines. And more often than not, that was bad news, sad news, or negative news.
And that stuff just wasn’t resonating with who we were on the inside, the kind of contribution we wanted to make to the world, or the kind of role models we wanted to be for our kids.
We wanted to use our words for good.
And so these days, that’s what we do. We get to write about the light-workers – the miracle-minded folk out there working to change the world for the better. We’ve built a business based entirely on that ethos and it’s a good fit for us. It feels right.
Through The Splendid Word, we’re working to promote positive communication and the power of kind language across our regional communities. We’re doing our bit to stand up against the endless stream of bad news and negativity spewing out of mainstream and social media, to change the conversation, and to spread more of the good stuff in our own backyard.
And how do we do that? We do it through leading by example. And by empowering people to take greater care of the impact their words, actions and intentions have inside their own heads, and on the lives of all those they encounter.
It’s a big crusade – and one that has seen our workload grow quickly in recent times – primarily because our message is resonating deeply with people looking for a better way to share their story and to connect with clients on a more authentic level.
And up until recently, it’s a crusade we’ve managed entirely on our own.
But we knew that if we wanted to continue spreading the good stuff even further – and in a way that was sustainable and would allow us to continue to take care of ourselves and our families – we needed to rally more troops.
And so over the past 12 months or so, we’ve been quietly expanding, and we’ve welcomed three talented new team members into The Splendid Word fold.
It’s been a positive move in so many ways. These creative, big-hearted individuals bring a whole new range of skills, insights and learnings to our team – and most importantly of all – they ‘get’ what it is that our business stands for. They’re vibrant, positive, genuine, clever humans who want to make a lasting difference in the world, and who we know will help take our message even further.
Stay tuned over the coming weeks as we introduce the new faces in our splendid word team.
Xx Lee & Christy
#spreadingthegoodstuff
#wordsforgood
