Ep 35. How to translate your real-life energy into content (without losing what makes you, you)

We all know you’re brilliant face to face.

People love chatting to you at networking events, and your clients are always raving about your energy on your calls, and you might even be the person who everyone wants to grab a coffee with so they can chat with you one-to-one.

But the second you sit down to write a post, it’s almost like you forget who you are, or worse, you sound like a completely different person. Probably a more formal version of yourself like you’re writing an email to your boss’s boss.

If you’ve ever read your own post back and thought, who the hell even wrote this? because it doesn’t sound like you at all this episode’s for you.

Today we’re gonna talk about how to transform that real life energy into your content without sounding like robot or an AI clone.

If you’re new here, hello, welcome to Quiet Confidence with myself, Anita Popat. This is the podcast for introverts who want to market their thing without changing who you are.

Let’s start with why this happens, because I guarantee you’re not the only one.

The second we open up LinkedIn, Instagram, or whatever platform you’re on, something shifts. We suddenly think we need to sound professional or polished or like we know everything.

If we’re being really honest, there’s this fear underneath it all. That fear of what if people judge me?

Or what if this isn’t good enough, and what if I sound stupid?

So the perfectionism kicks in and then you write 10 versions of the same post. You edit out anything that sounds too casual, too you, too human, and you add in words you’d never even say in real life because they sound more “businessy”.

When you do this, what happens is that you end up with content that’s technically fine, but it doesn’t sound like you at all. You sound like everyone else in your industry and that leaves you open to being forgetful or generic.

The thing is, we forget we’re talking to humans and not algorithms.

Your audience aren’t sitting there with a checklist going, Hmm, does this sound professional enough?

They’re probably scrolling, half watching Netflix, making a cuppa and looking for something real that really resonates with them, and when everything sounds the same, nothing really stands out.

 There’s a simple test I want you to try and it’s called the Coffee Shop Test.

Now if you wouldn’t say what you’ve written over a coffee to someone you’re trying to help, don’t write it in a post.

Think about how you naturally tell stories when you’re speaking to someone in real life. You probably use contractions, so you say, “I’m” not “I am”, you probably pause, you might go off on a tangent. You definitely don’t use phrases like “implementing strategic frameworks”, I mean, that’s gonna give you some eyebrow raises, right?

You just talk like a human and people lean in because it feels real and that conversational vibe, that is your voice. It’s not something to edit out. It’s the thing that’s gonna make people want to keep reading.

Let me give you a real example. Say you’re at a networking event and someone asks you how you got into what you do, you might say something like,

“Oh God, I kind of fell into it if I’m honest. I was really comfortable in a corporate role for like 13 years, and I just knew that if I didn’t leave at that point, I’d be there forever. So I pretty much handed in my notice with absolutely no backup plan. Probably not the smartest move, but hey ho.

Then I went to a business planning workshop the next week and ended up helping everyone there with their marketing as you do. And the workshop leader literally stopped me and said, this is what you need to be doing full time. And here we are six years later”.

(Yes. That story is genuinely how my business started)

That’s me talking naturally, right? Now compare that to how most people would write that same story online, so they might write something like,

“After 13 years in corporate marketing, I decided to pursue my passion for helping business owners. I attended a transformational workshop that helped me realize my true calling. I now help entrepreneurs achieve their goals through strategic marketing”.

See the difference?

The second one is fine, technically correct, but it’s boring. There’s no personality, no emotion, no you, i.e. me in it, and I also found it really hard to say out loud.

The first version is likely what people are gonna remember, and that’s the one that’s gonna make someone think, oh, I like her. She seems real.

So the way you talk is your voice. Don’t edit it out trying to sound more professional online. 

People need to see the same you online as you are offline.

Also, don’t forget your face-to-face conversations are content gold.

The thing most people don’t realise is that the conversations you’re having at networking events on client calls, even when you’re on a night out with your friends, that’s all market research and content ideas.

The questions people ask you in real life are probably the same questions that your online audience has. They’re just not asking you them in your DMs yet because they don’t know you exist or might not quite be ready to reach out.

So start paying attention to what people are always asking you about and what lights you up when you talk about it, or what do you find yourself explaining over and over again.

You can really capture those golden phrases or the light bulb moments that people had.

If I’m being honest, most of my content is based on real conversations because that’s where the best content comes from.

It means you’re not starting from a blank screen trying to think of something clever to say. You’re genuinely answering questions that people have asked.

So write down things like the questions people have asked you, the light bulb moments they have when you explain something, the way they describe their problem, so you can use their words, not what you think they think, and what are the things that made them laugh or go, “oh my god, yes, exactly” and then turn those things into posts, because if one person asks you that question, I guarantee loads of other people are wondering the same thing.

I had a client called Lorna, who’s a home stager, and when she came to me, her content was fine, technically good, but it didn’t sound like her at all. It was so safe, professional, and everyone-else-is-saying-this-too, kind of content.

Being a home stager and the topics we wanted to cover, it’s really, really easy to start sounding like the other home stagers in the area. So we worked on finding her voice and her getting comfortable in sounding like herself instead of what she thought she should sound like.

We worked together for three months inside Silent Storm and what she said after literally made my heart sing.

She said, “I was looking at all these posts I had, and I was like, wow, I’m actually saying what I do, and I’m quite proud of it. I’ve not really ever had that before. I feel like I’m showing up as me, I’m telling people what my business does in a very clear and simple fashion, and it sounds like me, and that’s what I wanted, and that’s now what I feel like I’ve got”.

So she went from writing content that she wasn’t really proud of to actually being excited to share it.

It wasn’t because she learned some fancy framework or started using bigger words. It’s because she started to sound like herself.

And the thing is, your quirks aren’t unprofessional. They’re gonna be memorable. They’re the bits that you probably want to edit out because they feel too casual or to you, but these are the exact bits that create connection. So leave them in.

You know your perfectionism is trying to protect you from judgment, but it’s also protecting you from connection, and you can’t build a business on connection if you are hiding behind polished, safe, sounding-like-everyone-else content right?

So now I’ve convinced you to sound like you, you’re probably thinking, how do I actually do this?

The easiest way to start is to read your posts out loud before you publish them and think, would I actually say this in real life? and if it feels weird coming out your mouth or you get a bit tongue tied, rewrite it as you would say it.

Another thing I do is to write to one person.

Don’t think about standing on a stage and talking to an audience full of potential clients when writing your content. Talk to one human, ideally an existing client or someone that you’ve met in real life.

How would you say what you’re trying to say over a cup of coffee?

If putting your thoughts on paper feels hard, record yourself explaining the thing first, like you’re leaving a voice note for a friend, and then you can just transcribe it and clean up the ums and ahs, so you’re not starting from scratch.

Now, let your first draft be messy. Write it conversationally like you’re talking, and then go back and fix typos and tighten it up, but don’t strip out all the personality by trying to make it “better”.

Remember what online actually is. You’re not performing or trying to impress anyone. You’re just extending the conversations you’d have in person to people who can’t be in the room with you yet.

So your dream client who’s scrolling at 3pm wondering if anyone gets what she’s dealing with, she doesn’t need you to sound impressive. She needs you to sound like someone who really understands and gets what she’s going through, and that’s what creates connection from your content.

So here’s what I want you to take away from today.

Your real life energy, the way you talk, the stories you tell, the personality that comes through when someone actually meets you. That’s not something to hide online. That’s your biggest advantage because everyone can learn the same frameworks, right? And everyone can sound professional and polished, but only you can sound like you.

In a feed full of people saying the same things in the same way, genuinely being your true self is what makes people stop scrolling and pay attention.

Now, I know as an introvert, you’ve probably spent most of your life trying to fit in and trying to be someone that you’re not because we’re so used to adapting to what we think people wanna see.

So doing this, showing up as yourself, trusting your voice. I get it can feel vulnerable to do on your own.

So if you’d like some support with this, I’d love to invite you into my signature program, Silent Storm. It’s where we uncover what your voice actually sounds like when you’re not trying to sound like someone else, and then we go deeper into how to use that voice to really connect with your dream clients, those clients that are a joy to work with.

So it’s not just about building your marketing foundations, it’s about building that inner belief that you and your way of doing things is enough.

You can apply here, if you’d like to work with me, one-to-one on that.

And this week I want you to try the Coffee Shop Test.

Pick one piece of content you need to create and write it like you’re talking to someone over a cup of coffee and see what happens. 

Until next time, keep building your quiet confidence so you can make that loud impact in the world, and I shall see you soon.