The most underrated skill in online business is sounding like yourself
And the five-question test that tells you whether you're doing it
This letter is Part 4 of The Foundations - a six-part series based directly on what you told me in the survey. The full set:
1. The clarity problem. Read [here]. 2. The consistency myth. Read [here]. 3. The camera question. Read [here]. 4. Sounding like yourself. The most underrated skill in online business. This post. 5. Monetisation that works. Why most online business advice fails people over 40. 6. What to do this week. The 90-day starting plan that ties it all together.
The fourth thing you told me in the survey was the one I found hardest to answer. It’s the most personal of the five problems - and probably the most common.
“Everything I write sounds fake when I read it back.” “I can’t make it sound like me.” “I write it and then immediately delete it because it just doesn’t feel right.”
The standard advice for this one is “just be yourself” - which sounds helpful and is almost completely useless. You can’t be instructed to be yourself. Usually when you’re told to be yourself you become more self-conscious, not less.
So let me try to make it practical.
New here? Welcome to Your Second Act. I’m Susanna - former scientist, and after ten years of starting an online business from nothing I now write specifically for people in their forties and beyond who suspect they have a second chapter in them. Usually two letters a week: practical ones on Wednesdays, more personal ones on Sundays. Stick around if any of that sounds like your kind of thing.
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Why content stops sounding like you
There are two reasons most online content sounds like someone performing the role of content creator rather than an actual person.
The first: you’re writing for everyone.
The moment you imagine a large, anonymous audience reading your content, you start smoothing the edges. You make it more palatable. More universal. Less specific. You remove the opinion that might be too strong, the reference not everyone will get, the detail that’s too personal. You end up with something that could have been written by anyone, about anything, for no one in particular.
The second: you’re using content vocabulary.
Read back through your last ten posts and count how many times you used words you would never actually say to another person. “Game-changing.” “Level up.” “My journey.” “Elevate.” If you’re using the vocabulary of content rather than the vocabulary of actual conversation, you’re going to sound like content rather than a person.
The people whose writing sounds most like them are almost always writing as if they’re talking to one specific person. Not their entire audience - one person. A real person they can picture.
The five-question Authenticity Audit is for paid subscribers.
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