Do you do everything perfectly?

Of course not. Me neither.

No one succeeds at everything. No one gets everything right first time. No one glides through life in a series of stunning victories.

In fact pretty much every successful person has failed multiple times in their life.

Yet for some reason when we speak to clients we feel the need to keep
up this façade of perfection.

When you get regular emails from many people, it's all about their brilliant successes and how you can be just like them if you only follow their simple success formula.

I don't know about you, but I kind of get bored with that. It feels like they're not being honest with me.

I've found that if I'm honest and open in my emails and blog posts about what hasn't worked for me as well as what has, then it forms a better bond with the people reading them.

Whether that's my failure to take action when I should in “So are you going to do this?” or my struggles with 1-1 selling in “My worst sales meeting ever”.

When you share the truth about your own story people empathise more. They understand you moved beyond the struggles and you now know what you're doing and have something to teach – that's why they signed up or tuned in.

But honesty about the hurdles you had to overcome helps them connect better.

And it's more interesting too. Think of any great book, film or story. The hero always has to overcome adversity to succeed. Without danger there's no tension and no elation when victory comes.

And your audience pays more attention because you've had realistic success too. They're much more likely to feel they can do what you're recommending if you didn't get things perfect the first time yourself.

And sharing your failures and struggles also makes a more human connection. These days we like our celebrities to be more like us. We've realised that everyone has feet of clay and the “perfect in every way” icon just makes us suspicious they're hiding something.

So when you're communicating with potential clients – especially in emails and blog posts or articles where you're giving advice – don't be frightened to ‘fess up and admit to some of your failures.

It will lead to success.