A couple of weeks ago I had the utmost pleasure to chat with Paul Greenburg, the author of the acclaimed CRM at the Speed of Light book series. The conversation was excellent ranging from life to social CRM. Towards the end of the call Paul suggested that I read his post “Glass 4/5 Full: Life, Business and the Narcissism of Small Things” on his personal blog. I readily agreed and felt almost foolish for not reading it before.
I’ve always enjoyed Paul’s writing because of the conversational tone used throughout his posts and books. However, this post is more than that. It is something I could only describe as real. It is rare that (as a reader) you have the pleasure to glance past the business… past the technology… past the politics… and read something that is truth.
I may not be fully explaining myself… writing with truth is between the author and the reader. We (the reader) trust the opinion and emotion maintained by the author. This is true whether you are reading Milan Kundera or Twitter Marketing for Dummies. You subscribe to the books, blogs, and podcasts because the content speaks to you in some way. We trust that the author’s experiences, opinions, and emotions will lead us down the true “path.”
It either does or it doesn’t. Writing with truth is the the backbone of storytelling and as marketers we are all in the business of storytelling.
Paul uses his experience, opinion, and perspective to drive the reader to a specific point… to a conclusion. Whether or not the post was meant to build credibility and trust between Paul and the reader is a moot point… because it does. It does because Paul tells a story.
When I was maybe 7 years old, my Dad was talking to me in the living room of our home in East Meadow, in New York and he said to me (this is an adult paraphrased version of what he told a 7 year old),
“Paul, your mother and I brought you into this world, but you don’t owe us anything. But because you’re in this world, you owe it something.”
I’ve tried to live my entire life based on that.
We are all in the business of storytelling. This is the best advice I can give to the social and marketing entrepreneur.
How are you writing with truth? Are you using your experiences and emotions to build a personal brand that stands apart?
Katy Kelly
Kyle,
Thank you so much for sharing this. As I tweeted last week in response to your question about what we do when no one is looking, all we have is truth and that will always show in our writing!