In his interview with Shane Parrish on the podcast, The Knowledge Project, Seth Godin said about creating authentically: “We have the luxury of saying who this is for and who it’s not for. The mistake that so many people building something make is they get hung up on the feedback of people who it’s not for.” 

Does anyone else get tied up in trying to appease the masses in their work? You want to make change, connect with as many as people as possible– so do I. But in the process we might lose the chance to connect with the audience who is most precious to us. 

I was scrolling through Instagram the other day when I noticed Kate Baer, poet and author of What Kind of Woman fight back against this. Not only did she make me laugh, I realized I felt more loyalty towards her as a reader because she prioritized the voice of women and mothers instead of trying to be more ‘universal.’ 

Here’s what she did: 

She posted an image of a DM sent to her by a freelance book reviewer on Instagram. In the message, she was told that her work was not universal or relatable. They suggested she should read some classic writers to hone her work for a more ‘universal’ audience. 

Do you know what she did? She filtered out 90% of the words from the message and created something new, something for her audience– the women she writes for. Her new creation reads, “it is unbearable the way we have allowed what is good to take the shape of men.” I encourage you to read her post. 

If we try to write or create for everyone, we will fail. Writing authentically and fighting the urge to write broadly, we can create work that speaks profoundly to the audience we hope most to reach.