“Either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing.”
—Benjamin Franklin
Ever see a would-be Authority who is most decidedly NOT an authority?
There’s only one reason why: they’re not interesting. Boring. Flat.
This would-be Authority doesn’t make anyone feel anything, because they’re too busy “informing” them.
This person has, consciously or not, concluded that their expertise relationship with their (non-existent) audience is one dimensional; only that of knowledge.
That’s the same relationship you have with a set of encyclopedias. Know anyone who gets excited about a set of encyclopedias? Of course you don’t.
If you want to build and engage an audience, you have to give them a reason to stick around and actually be an audience. That’s much different than merely informing them — it’s entertaining them. Being interesting.
So tell stories. Engage their emotions. Selectively reveal things about yourself for various purposes. Keep secrets about yourself they will wish they knew.
Study storytelling and communication. Follow the great communicators and try to reverse engineer their strategies. Find people who say the most using the fewest words and those who enthrall audiences with their stories.
No matter what, don’t be boring. Don’t be uninteresting. If you haven’t made your audience feel something, you’ve not gotten through.