Don’t try to sound big
When communicating with your fans and contacts, don’t try to sound bigger than you are.
Don’t use the corporate “we”. Say “I”. Fans want to connect with you as a person, not as a brand.
Don’t appear flawless. Show a charming flaw. Confidence attracts, but vulnerability endears.
Definitely don’t use corporate-speak to try to sound like you’re a big business. It comes across as fake, insecure, or spam.
Your fans are your friends. Speak to them like real people. Be weird. Prove you’re a real person. Write every post or email as if it was from you to your best friend.
People have grown deaf to the bland language of big business. It all sounds like contrived posturing. It has no personality — no voice.
This is one reason why it’s so much cooler to be small and independent instead of big and corporate.
Being able to say “I” in your communication with fans is a great competitive advantage.
sounds like my motto "dare to be rare" and also Andrew Dubber's advice to go ahead and invent a niche/genre..
Love this - I have been reading about John Nash, the genius who was the subject of "A Beautiful Mind" (film). He attributes his illness to unhappiness. My sister is schizophrenic and we have been trying to help her get treatment, medication, manage her bills, etc. She is an artist - clearly at the time she developed her illness, she was unhappy. I am thinking now, how can I help her be happy. Maybe she will recover. This is not simplistic - Nash goes on to describe how he began to manage the voices in his head and his delusions - that will have to happen, too, but the basis of the cure might just be happiness - having a real reason to recover. Art helps.
Uh, no sir, those TPS reports are NOT going to be in on thursday. Oh, and your shirt and tie don't match.
People my age will remember when editor Helen Gurly Brown was a household name. Partly for her self help book back in the days of Mad Men, (later made into a movie) but mainly for taking Cosmopolitan from just another formal magazine to a famous big circulation one.
Her big magazine gimmick was that she said "I" and she spoke directly to the reader, even calling them darling. It worked wonders. No formal expert-jargon, unless with due humour and humility. For a long time she would have plain head and shoulder photos of the staff, none of whom were airbrushed to look like corporate advertising models.
Myself, I could try to be less stiff in my learned blog essays.
Hi Derek!
Thank you for all this fantastic information in Fame you Music. I just noticed that you wrote "vunerability" instead of vulnerability in this chapter. If this isn't useful to know, please tell me, otherwise I'm happy to help.
//Max of Sweden
Thank you! Fixed! — Derek
I would relate this to the post 61-ish places above, "Ah, to own nothing!" because the less you need, the more you have freedom to be financially independent, and then more freedom to risk being yourself.
Derek is correct: In terms of cost-benefit, being authentic pays off.
I now have white hair. Today at lunch someone asked me if I'm retired. "No, but I'm working half time," I replied, meaning I could now be stubborn and ignore the market. Meaning I didn't need to falsely sound big. At some level, surely, this makes my art more authentic.
At my age, my work and art are more about pleasing me and my conscience than anyone else.
This is so right Derek and I have to say you and I seem to be having similar thoughts - I love this book so far!