How much honesty is too much?

Marketing, messaging and representing yourself as a human

When you are talking to your audience — how honest are you comfortable being?

Personally, I draw a line of separation between my cold audience (general FB fans etc) and my warm audience (my email subscribers etc) in terms of how honest I get.

I’m not talking about lying or pretending to be happier than I am — I’m talking about mental health, business, and especially now, how I’m coping with our new normal.

You might know why that line of separation already — I’ve talked a lot about your cold and warm audiences (little catchup post here). But today I’m struggling, and I thought it made a good example… a teachable moment if you will!

The example:

This is how it all looks in reality. In my email newsletter today I spoke very honestly. As my subscribers already know and trust me, it is not only okay for me to be transparent about having a low mental health day with them— it’s also very important.

Why?

If I’d forced myself to write a happy, peppy, positive email, they would have felt the inauthentic vibes in a heartbeat.