Be Personal, Be Human, Not An Expert
Being an expert is great, it will get you places but I think admitting you are not an expert is super valuable as well.
It’s relatable, it’s real.
Too often when people are talking about a topic, having a meeting, writing a Medium post (hello everyone) — you probably feel like you have to know plenty, or even know it all, about the topic.
I think openly admitting you don’t have the answer to a question is a sort of strength.
Sure, if you lie and get the answer correct, cool, but what’s the benefit in that?
You feel good about yourself for a moment (all the while knowing it isn’t the real you) and then eventually plummet back down the earth?
People will think you have knowledge about a topic until you get further down the track and feel embarrassed?
The work suffers because you don’t have the skills or knowledge you need to?
These don’t sound like a win for anyone involved.
Being personal is so important
It’s never the person in the room that is spilling all kinds of knowledge about a topic that I’m typically drawn to. Impressive, 100%. But I’m more likely to be drawn to you if you say something ‘normal’ about your family, cracking a joke, talking about what you did on the weekend in a quirky way, that stuff is great to me.
It’s normal, it’s easy to relate to. Those things are so key when meeting someone new for the first time especially.
Reading
I wondered why I took until the age of 30 to pick up a book and actually like it. I think one reason was the fact that the author of the first book I enjoyed was writing like they were talking to me in person.
Being a normal human.
Things like referring to themselves writing the book, questioning themselves like you would in real conversation, just being honest without acting like you have all the answers. That’s enjoyable reading.
“Do this”, “do that”, “this is the best way to go about things” — to an extent all bits of writing includes elements of this (including this one right here), but to much of it and I struggle to read a lot at once, or even listen to.
Simply being human is a real appeal to me when consuming content.
Being ‘relatable’ sells
Especially these days where content is king, people are drawn to relatable personalities, I think.
Depending on the context, I think there’s a case to be made that not being an expert is more beneficial/enjoyable to not only yourself but the people consuming your content as well.
Throwing out ideas that make yourself and the audience think, asking questions that you don’t know the answer to but want to know the answer to.
It takes the audience on a journey with you.
Some may want to read someone typing out all the answers to your questions but I think adding some personality and honest quirks is a must when it comes to the enjoyment and even the success of a piece of content.
Re-reading this actually made me think of the whole AI conversation and how we can be valuable as you know, actual humans in the future.