Bring the energy of the first time

When I was in plays and musicals, the directors would say 'You've done this over and over again, so it's boring to you. But this is the first time the audience has ever seen this show. You need to bring first-time energy.'

Our writing needs to have first-time energy too.

You might have written about this topic a million times

• Relationship managers spend half their lives writing proposals about the same products or services

• Finance people write hundreds of update reports

• Admin people write eye-watering numbers of meeting invitations, agendas, and minutes
   

You might have written about this topic – to this audience – a million times!

• Team leaders might tell their team about a process change 7 or 8 times before everyone changes their process

• Senior leaders might feel like they never stop writing about the why behind their organisation's strategy 

But the minute your writing takes on the feel of 'How can you not have got this by now??!!' you lose your readers.

Just like at a half-baked play, your audience disengages.

So make it feel like the first time

Bring your personality, your fresh voice, a new perspective to the same old message.

Be interesting enough that people love to pay attention to your messages.

Make it feel like the first time!