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Hello Reader,

I looked at the email and gritted my teeth.

I should have known that the text I had just received was not the prelude to good news.

And it wasn't.

Nope. For the 3rd time in as many weeks, I now had to go into the post office and get them to take another set of photos.

And all because the first two times I'd gone through this process, I'd gotten a message back saying that my expression needed to be "neutral".

Of course this implied that the expression on my face when the photos were taken … which invariably turn out looking like mug shots … was not neutral.

The first time it happened, I complained to my husband and showed him the photos.

Annoyingly he laughed.

Seeing as how I had tried to put a pleasant expression on my face, when they snapped the photos, his pronouncement was somewhat disturbing.

And I secretly started questioning my ability to read expressions.

The second time my photos were rejected because they weren't "neutral", he took one look and said, "you're frowning."

Which was also a worry, because that was as "normal" of an expression I could come up with, at least one that didn't have me smiling, grinning, smirking or outright laughing at the absurdity of it all.

The 3rd time I went in, the ladies at the post office had a different opinion.

Unfortunately, that's as far as my eyes actually open.

So, since the 3rd time is supposed to be the dealbreaker, we came up with a plan about how we were going to get the "look" just right this time.

After trying various expressions, we settled on one and then the lady helping me actually wrote a note on the application form. She explained that:

• this was the 3rd time the photos were being submitted
• that this WAS my normal neutral expression, and
• that every single previous submission had actually ticked all the boxes on the organisation's electronic form and come up green.

Thank goodness this time it worked.

I have no doubt that without that little note, I'd have gotten a 4th phone call.

Bureaucracy.

It's not all it's cracked up to be.

Humans in the loop are important, but make sure your "human in the loop decisions" ALSO match the rules you've got built into your systems, whether AI or a checklist.

Which got me thinking. My "neutral" is apparently not neutral enough for a government form, but it's still mine. Nobody else has that exact scary/frowny/eyes-too-narrow combination.

Same goes for how you write, especially now. AI can flatten a hundred voices into one bland, safe average in seconds. Yours doesn't have to be one of them.

Back to Basics Reminder

Here's a small thing to try this week: pull up your About page and/or your last five pieces of content (posts, emails, captions) and read them like a stranger would.

Then ask yourself one very blunt question about each one. Is it safe (and blah), or is it true (and you)?

If you can't tell the difference anymore, that's the one to fix first.

Time-Saving + AI Tip

Here's a small thing to try this week: take the one strong opinion you wrote about above, and hand it to ChatGPT (or your AI tool of choice). Ask it to draft three different content angles from it, a post, a caption, and an email opener, using your actual wording wherever you gave it.

You're not asking it to invent the opinion. You already did the hard part. You're just asking it to help you get more mileage out of it before the week's over.

Highlight of the Week

This week's podcast episode is a good companion to the "safe (and blah) or true (and you)" question above. I talked with marketing strategist Lauren Harris about her 60/40 rule, the balance between giving your audience what they want to see and staying recognisably, unmistakably yourself.

​Ep 254: The 60/40 Rule Marketing Strategist Lauren Harris Uses With Every Client​

And that's it for this week. Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Trudy

P.S. When I showed my husband all 3 sets of photos, he tapped the one he'd previously called my "scary face" and said he could see why they had turned it down. It was because I was "smiling." So now I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, one of us has a problem reading expressions … and it might not be me!

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