If you want to build an audience of people who know you, like you, and trust you, you need to be yourself. Which should be a relief, because you have no competition for that role.

But if instead you try to sound like someone else, or like something you are not, you are sure to fail. People are astonishing in their ability to smell the inauthentic, the phony. It’s not a conscious thing; it is intuitive. You are good at it, too; you know who sounds real, who sounds like a person you might get to like, and who is trying to sell you a bill of goods.

“Authenticity is the key. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made,” is an old cynical joke. But the truth is that authenticity cannot be faked or imitated. Your readers’ BS detectors will be ringing all over the world if you try to pass off some imagined image of who you think you ought to be on them.

Don’t bother. It has no upside. Be yourself. You are not only good enough; you are wonderful! You have something powerful and unique to offer, something that nobody else has. Yes, it may take some work to find out exactly how to express it. But you know what? You can get help from your public.

Start with a blog. Communicate on a regular basis with your audience. Ask for their feedback. Give them yours, respectfully. It won’t be long at all before you find out who you are and how you appear to your market.

You can use polls to ask your readers about things, too. And all of this interaction is fuel for your book, for the powerful message you will package and deliver to your readers.

But don’t wait to construct a flawless persona; nobody has one, and if you present one, it will be immediately recognized as phony.

Be yourself.

Filed under: book writing • course writing • marketing

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