Why being yourself will help you build an audience (a 30-Day Creator Challenge excerpt)

This is an excerpt from the 30-Day Creator Challenge—although you can apply this mindset to many domains of life (for example, to dating).

First, though: Do you have an online business, or do you want to start one? If so, you'll need an audience. And you can get an audience by creating valuable content consistently.

But creating content consistently is hard. Let me teach you how I've been doing it—how I've managed to write every single day since April 2018.

Go to https://creatorchallenge.com.

Dear reader,

When you're creating content, do you express your personality? Do you show people what you are like?

I've noticed a tendency for people to present themselves unnaturally in the materials they create for their business. I see it in blog posts, in sales videos, and even in people's one-on-one communication with customers or clients. 

The thing is:

If you put on a persona that doesn't suit you, that will come across as inauthentic. 

And coming across as inauthentic makes it very difficult to build trust with your audience.

For example, if you normally speak very informally, as I do, then using formal language in your blog posts will come off weird. People who know you, have heard you speak, have seen you on video, or have even just seen a photo of you might find your writing "voice" incongruent with the rest of your image.

Another example: If you are naturally high-energy and you like to bounce around, then appearing on a video with a stiff posture could come across as boring.

Appearing unnatural doesn't change who you are. It doesn't change the value that you can bring to your people. But it makes people less likely to trust you, which will hurt your marketing and your sales.

So, in your daily content as well as in your other business communication, be yourself as much as you can. 

Not everything has to be polished. In fact, some people resonate strongly with raw and unscripted content.

Another way to look at rawness vs. polish is that it can help to make yourself vulnerable. Let's say you're teaching your audience how to do something that you have already figured out yourself. Then talk about how you used to struggle with that same exact thing. Perhaps even say how it is still difficult for you sometimes today. By acknowledging that you are human, too, you will build a stronger connection.

(In fact, you can also apply this lesson to other domains in your life, notably to dating: know who you are, accept who you are, and share who you are. But that's a topic for another day... or for an entire book, perhaps.)

For now, take a moment and ask yourself: "How can I appear as natural as possible in what I'm creating today?"

Yours,

— Peter

P.S. How would you describe your personality? What makes you different from other people? And how can you use that to your advantage?