A deep connection with your audience doesn’t come from facts and knowledge. It comes from your inner child.
“The teachings of the heart, and the revelations of the soul all assure us that no human being is ever beyond redemption. The possibility of renewal exists so long as life exists. How to support that possibility in others and in ourselves is the ultimate question.” —Gabor Maté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
Do you keep publishing value-based articles, but people don’t react? You create speeches and the audience’s reaction is lukewarm? You know your advice works, but your audience won’t engage?
It’s likely that your content is lacking an ‘emotional bridge’.
An emotional bridge is a connection between a true, honest version of you and the true, honest version of your reader.
Finding that bridge is the biggest hurdle content creators and non-fiction authors struggle with. Because that human connection is hard to pinpoint. It exists almost on another frequency. A frequency of vulnerability and emotion that we usually try to lock away.
I see it in my own articles, podcasts and social media posts. For example, I received heartfelt reactions — and booked clients — from pieces like How to Avoid December Burnout or Burnout Didn’t Happen To Me, It Happened For Me. But my problem-solving articles about how to write productively (with my best tips that work in 1–1 consults) seem go into the void.
What I learned the hard way is this:
Don’t speak directly to your reader’s analytical brain. Instead, touch the heart first, and they will listen.
Writing from emotion is important for three reasons
What I’ve learned from 20 years as a journalist, an academic, and book coach, is this:
- You will never connect deeply to your audience if you produce variations of the same intellectually derived how-to advice anyone else can publish.
- Your content creation will become a chore if you don’t ‘feel’ anything stirring inside of yourself, and the…
