A non-personal but true story:
Late into his career escape artist Harry Houdini started cutting some corners in his stage show.
Houdini was injured and physically exhausted, and it was hard to put in the same level of shoulder-dislocating, suffocating, skin-tearing escapes he used to put on.
Sure, Houdini still did some of that, but he minimized it. Instead, he filled up the empty time on stage with some magic tricks and with talking. About himself.
One viewer was shocked and disgusted.
This viewer was the newspaper critic for the local paper in Nottingham, England. So rather than simply firing off an outraged email to Houdini to say how the show isn’t as good as it used to be and to demand to be unsubscribed, this critic wrote up the following review and published it in his paper:
“Why on earth should Houdini imagine that any audience would be entertained by hearing a long and uncalled-for account of what he has been doing during the past six years… people go to a vaudeville house to see a performance… not to hear a diatribe on the personal pronoun around ‘the story of my life, Sir.”
Truly, who would want to hear a diatribe on the personal pronoun? Certainly not the critic.
But the audience?
Turns out Houdini broke all attendance and earnings records that year. He earned the highest salaries of his career, pulling down $3,750 a week — about $60,000 a week in today’s money.
Now at this point your brain might jump ahead and conclude, That’s the power of personal stories and reveals! Almost $60k a week! Let me get on it!”
But I’ve made the point before, and I will make it again:
Nobody cares about your stories and personal reveals. Not unless you already have real authority and even fame.
When Houdini changed up his show to be more personal and story-based, he had already been performing his stage show for decades. He didn’t change the core of his show during that time, and it’s probably a good thing. It’s what the crowds wanted and expected.
But then Houdini went to Hollywood. He made a couple of hugely successful movies, rubbed shoulders with Hollywood celebrities, and became a truly international star himself, beyond just the vaudeville stage.
That’s when people wanted to hear Houdini’s stories and the details of his personal life — and that’s what he was talking about on the stage. As Houdini himself put it, “Blame it all on the fact I have been successfully in the movies.”
So tell your stories and share your vulnerabilities — after you’re known and respected and even admired. People will love it then.
Before then?
Well, before then you might be interested in my Most Valuable Email training.
Most Valuable Emails never required I have any status or authority.
These emails make it 100% clear I know what I’m talking about, even when I don’t harp on about the great results I’ve had for clients or the testimonials or endorsements I’ve gotten.
As a result, Most Valuable Emails helped me build up immediate and unquestionable authority — even when I had no standing in the industry.
And I claim Most Valuable Emails can do the same for you. In case you’d like to find out more: