Authenticity is an amazing tool that you should use in all your communication. Being you.
Now, you have may have been told; “Hey, be yourself”, and you may have thought: ‘I don’t really want people to know what I’m actually like, why would I be authentic?’
But here’s the thing: it makes all your communication, this is pitches, meetings, emails, phone-calls, it makes all these things way more interesting for your audience if you are actually authentically you, and you show all the things that make you tick. So first of all, it’s a great objective in that respect. It’s just better, it’s more interesting.
But the second thing, just as important: it liberates you from the pressure of having to be somebody that you’re not. You can just be you, you can relax and part of that is showing your flaws. It’s showing that yes, you get things wrong and you know what, you’re a human being and it’s fine to get things wrong.
Also, we want to see your passions, what are the things you’re into? What are the things that maybe people didn’t know about you which you could kind of reveal, which would be more interesting? They might not appear to be relevant to the subject, in fact, they may not be relevant at all but they’re part of you, they’re part of what you’re about. I’m obsessed with super-heroes, that’s why I have lots of comic books and things behind me, and why I like wearing this shirt.
Maybe that’s not very professional, but I think being authentically you is the secret sauce to making your communication as incredibly effective as possible.