“I’m always trying to turn things upside down and see if they look any better.”
—Tibor Kalman
A lot of very smart, capable people with something to say and holding back. Why?
Because they don’t feel like they are smart enough.
But what if I told you that being an Authority is about something else?
Sure, you’ve got to be able to inform people. But that’s the easy part. You also need to present material — that they already know and that they do not know — in ways that are interesting. Talk about it in ways that makes them think differently.
How you do that is to put something of yourself into it. Put your own spin on it.
What do you have to say and teach? Turn it upside down and see if it looks any better.
Go find eloquent people in other fields and reverse engineer how they spin it. (Once again, it’s an Authority Archetype at work. If you don’t know yours, you’re missing out on the best insights of history. Go to EducatedAuthority.com and take the quiz today.)
People want to be informed, but they also want novelty. They want new ways of looking at old things.
In fact, you’ll score as many points with your audience with your new spin on old information as you will with new information.
If you don’t know enough, that’s easy to fix. Go out and get the info.
Your real job is one of packaging. Rearrange the information, flip it around, look at it from another angle. Use your own terms. Use your own examples.
It’s not about being unique for the sake of being unique. It’s about being appealing, relatable, and understandable.
Your audience wants and needs a new perspective.