If I really wanted to be transparent, vulnerable, and authentic, and any of the other buzzwords bantered around the internet marketing world, I would show you a photo of me right now.
I type on my laptop, on the couch in my hotel room, with two tissues shoved up each nostril.
TMI? Yes.
There is a fine line between sharing my real self and sharing intimate details that no one needs to know (I have a cold and feel yucky and tissues in my nose feels good).
It is my experience that in our writing we rarely expose Too Much Information.
My clients err on the side of NEPI - Not Enough Personal Information.
I always tell them to let loose, and if they go overboard we will clean it up in editing.
(Sorry, no self-editing on myself today.
You get the tissue up the nose story.
) The heart of the matter is that we want to connect.
To do that, you have to share your ups and downs, your humanness.
The marketing folks all proclaim TVA is the key and I agree we do need to be Transparent, Vulnerable, and Authentic.
We simply need to be ourselves.
Instead of buzzwords, go back to basics and Get Real.
Don't try to prove yourself, just be yourself.
Riddle me this: Why do you read? To get information.
To get information.
To connect.
We all long to connect with others, with ideas, with the world, with ourselves.
Writing cannot serve as the connector if there is no personal engagement.
Every where I go, every conference, every conversation, I hear about the power of story.
We relate to each other through story.
Yes, you have good stuff to share - really great content! - and the way your reader will digest that information is because of the story that supports your point.
You've got stories.
You get new fodder every day.
Big stuff and small stuff (usually the small stuff is golden) is how to relate to another human being.
If you had tea with the Pope and Oprah on a mountain top in Maui, yes, please tell me that story.
Don't hide your light if you have big stories.
We are inspired by big stories.
Also, don't think you don't have any light at all.
Most of us think our stories are not exciting or "important" or worth sharing.
Wrong-o.
What you say to me in this conversation we call the written word makes an impact on me.
I connect with you because you wrote about your bike you got in third grade with the banana seat and purple streamers on the handle bars.
I connect with you because you wrote about having a crush in high school on Tom and he asked your best friend to go out with him.
I connect with you because you wrote about sleeping on the couch after your divorce because you did not want to go upstairs to empty bedrooms the entire first week your kids stayed at their dad's.
Life is in the moments, and those are the moments to share in your writing.
Tell your stories.
Don't hold back.
Don't be concerned that you will reveal TMI.
You usually won't.
And if you do, most readers will forgive you.
Tissues and all.