The Gurus Said Not To Write “I” Stories - so I Did…

Finding your writing voice and style

Writing is supposed to be fun, wild and above all free.

When I started my new path 2 years ago, I had no idea about writing rules, algorithms, shadow-banning and impressions.

I just wanted to write. 

I was young and free (well, not that young).

Then things changed… 

The gurus started popping up on my social media feeds with warnings:

“You must have a niche.”

“Always post at the same time.”

“The algorithm doesn’t like xyz.”

“Always start stories with you.”

“Use this template to get 10X more views.”

They were successful and I was not so I figured they were doing something right and I was doing something wrong.

Heck, I was doing a ton of things wrong.

So I slowly started to change, adapt, follow rules and frameworks and comply.

My writing shrank to fit inside the mold until…I became one of them.

I sounded just like them.

My voice was an echo of their voice.

I knew all the hooks and tricks.  

My writing became successful but I didn’t feel successful. 

Or fulfilled.

Compliance was killing creativity

I was writing for algorithms and platforms. It felt fabricated, like a new type of AI: artificial intelligence powered by a human.

Something had to change but I didn’t know what…

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Then, somehow accidentally, I launched this newsletter in February 2023. It was a tactical move to support my book The Lemon Tree Mindset and I didn’t think too much of it.

However, as I started to grow my community, even if it was very slow at first, I began to feel a renewed sense of liberation and fulfilment. Whenever I pressed the “publish” button, I wasn’t thinking about algorithms or platforms:

I was thinking about people.

I was writing for humans.

That’s when it hit me: my readers were not coming to me to find the same regurgitated advice they were getting everywhere else. I was able to be me and create my own rules - only to break them a hundred times and start all over.

And once I started to remove all these anchors, I found my voice.

I focused less on a niche and more on a vision.

I ignored the copy-paste templates from 6-figure agency gurus and created my own playbook, one page at a time.

And I decided to write and share my stories, the shameful “I“ stories, instead of starting every single post with “you” as prescribed in the mass factory of writers.

The result?

Many stories got engagement.

Many went viral.

And many didn’t.

But the biggest win is that I proved myself wrong:

You don’t have to follow the masses to be successful.

You don’t have to suffocate inside a box filling pre-created templates.

So don’t.

Nothing extraordinary was ever created by following someone else’s manual.

The world of writing is bigger than rules.

Way bigger.

Be brave. Take risks.

Go against the current.

You might surprise yourself.

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Lemons & Lemonade 🍋

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