Intensity > Extensity

True intensity and rhythm, in harmony with your own internal voice, can go viral and reach a wide audience. It may take a while to reach your true target-audience, but you should never cater your material to the masses. You should aim deep versus wide. Meaning, you should look for a stronger connection with your readers, rather than more readers. The readers who truly connect with your writing, will be more likely to share it with their friends who are similar. There is always a small group of people that will identify with you and your message. That is where your true power is. Those will become true fans of your material, not just “likes” on Facebook that will never take action on your recommendations.

I have a burning desire to publish a book and become a New York Times Bestselling author. I am definitely not saying, “Don’t sell a ton of books”. I think you should absolutely sell a ton of books. But ask yourself how to maintain your intensity and authenticity and still have millions of people read your material. This is a problem a lot of authors have. They have a good book and think it will sell itself. They forget that their writing is a brand. Their voice is their sales-pitch. As soon as they start aiming to widen their appeal, they start losing their authenticity. They start to sound too much like everyone else. Great marketing, especially word-of-mouth marketing, happens when you are authentic to your own true voice. When you are real. When you take your experiences, perspectives, education and apply it with all of your heart to something you are passionate about. If you ever read the articles on Linkedin, (not mine of course) they are almost all garbage. They are all watered-down, blanket-statement-advice from people who may or may not know what the hell they are talking about. I’m sorry but there are never “3 steps to success” or “6 ways to create a marketing plan”. That shit bores me to death. Most the people on Linkedin just read it because they want a break from their actual work. You can totally tell that people are paid to write a certain number of articles per month on topics that they are not necessarily interested in. The writing is dead. There is no voice. They are creating content for business-development purposes only.

It is so obvious that content production is the new sales technique for most organizations. They think they are adding value to the marketplace when they are actually just diluting the pool of good, useful information, with a bunch of garbage. They know that a certain number of article views creates a certain number of website views, which ultimately creates a certain number of sales. I understand this. It’s incredibly inauthentic. There is no passion behind anything. If there was, sales would go through the roof. If they wrote one great article every month, instead of 4 crappy ones, they would establish a much stronger brand.

Isn’t that what they are after? Long-term relationships with people who will continuously buy their products. Isn’t that what every company and individual who does business, is after?  

So what is all this inauthenticity creating? It’s creating a huge opportunity for people with a unique voice, who actually have something valuable to say. It may be harder to get your work out there now, with more than 120 million blogs (I believe) out there. But if you stay true to your voice and create quality content, people will share and recommend it. Just like in face-to-face sales, meetings do not equal dollars. Just like Facebook ‘likes’ do not equal dollars. People who buy your book, equal dollars. People that can’t get enough of your writing, equal dollars. There are a handful of authors that I will gladly pay whatever they charge me for their next book. That’s what you should aim for. If you sacrifice the realness inside of you, you will bore your audience. Even if your audience is the 9-5’ers chained to their desk looking for something to do that isn’t “work”….don’t make them read your “3 steps for writing a crappy blog”.

If you have something to say, say it. You shouldn’t worry about who likes it and who doesn’t. The people that should find your content, will. It may take hundreds of blogs and several books, but the cool thing about content creation, is that if you stay true to your voice, your content is timeless. People who like your content in 3 years, will like your original content. As long as you maintain your authenticity.  

The world needs more authenticity. Stay true to yourself and your beliefs. Don’t change something because you think it might offend a couple of people. Your voice has the power to change the lives of so many people. See the positives. Inspire people to be more and lead by example. Get your message out to the world and be proud of it.