The Best Way to Write Online Is to Join the Conversation

It’s not about being an expert, it’s about being a curious participant.

The more I see people trying to build personal brands, the more I see people positioning themselves as experts in a certain field. I don’t believe this is a good way to establish yourself as an authority.

In my experience, expertise is generic. Anyone can be an expert because anyone can Google the right answer within a matter of seconds. ChatGPT has only made expertise more generic.

What’s valuable is insight.

However, there is a prerequisite to insight, which is experience. You can’t establish insight into a subject matter unless you have experience to cross reference it against. Insight is only ever as valuable as the experience of which it is referenced.

If you want to create awareness around yourself, your only way to set yourself apart is through insight. And the only way for your insight to be discovered is for you to inject it into the conversation.

The Problem with Being an Expert

When you establish yourself as an expert, what happens is that you end up being like everyone else. Experts become clones of themselves. Experts know “the right answer”, and there is only one right answer to any problem. (Yes, I know this isn’t always the case but work with me here.)

So the experts can only be one way. They look the same, sound the same, and say the same things. This is why you see the same short form social media videos recycled.

They all have the same editing, the same stupid yellow subtitle font, and the same attention-grabbing animations the pop up from the bottom of your phone. You know exactly the video I’m talking about.

P.S. - I literally Googled “expert short form video editing” and this video showed up. lol.

Expertise can be replicated.

The Value of Having Insight

There will only ever be one version of you. Your lived experience mixed with your own personal interest and your specific way of communicating with the world is what makes you stand apart against the backdrop of cloned experts.

Insight is what makes you unique and what sets you apart.

Now, it’s important to understand that you aren’t shying away from communicating your expertise on a particular subject matter. You have spent your life becoming an authority in a particular space, so don’t be shy about what you know and what you want to contribute.

Please share your expertise. Please stand tall with your shoulders back and let the world know how smart and capable you are.

However, also understand that what people want from you isn’t your knowledge, it’s your viewpoint. No matter how much A.I. infiltrates our world, it will never be able to change the circuitry in your brain. At our core, we are story telling machines. Everything we do is built around the stories and the meaning that we assign to the world around us.

The A.I. overlords can’t make you unhuman. The parts of you that make you unique are the parts of you that everyone wants to learn about.

A.I. creates experts, but your human-ness creates a story. And stories are what move the world.

The Conversation Is Where Insight Is Best Discovered

Seth Godin taught me that “it doesn’t count unless you publish it.”

This makes me think of all the beautiful paintings that are hidden in people’s closets, or the majestic poems that have never been released from the scribbles of a notebook.

Your art must be shared, and the only way to share art is to put it against the reference of public discourse.

If you want to be an online writer, you need to mix your experience and unique perspective to create insight. And for your message to be heard, you need to share your insight into the conversations of society.

In short: Tell stories at the intersection your experience with the happenings of the world.

Stop trying to sound smart. Stop trying to be professional and definitely stop trying to create something that has no mistakes.

Simply join the conversation. If you do that long enough, you will be discovered and hopefully, your insights will be shared.

Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tim

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