Finding your own authentic voice is riskier than copying everybody else

By David McElroy · May 23, 2017

I am terrified of not being perfect — mortally afraid of being judged as unworthy.

For many years, I’ve mostly stuck to doing things I already knew how to do. That was safer. I had been writing for the public since I was in high school. I had taken photos and done graphic design — for newspapers, magazines and advertising — since I was a teen.

My work wasn’t perfect, but I was competent enough to feel like an expert. I could put my work in front of the public — expose myself in a very real way — without fear of looking too foolish.

Lately, I’ve been trying something at which I’m a beginner. I’m a rank amateur. And I am terrified.

For years, I have considered producing a podcast. Others first pushed me to explore radio more than 25 years ago. The idea intrigued me, but I mostly stuck to print. Who was I to think I had the talent to become one of those golden-tongued professionals I heard on radio? Then podcasting came along and others constantly pointed out that I could now learn the equivalent of radio with no cost or commitment.

After several false starts — always killed by fear — I finally made the commitment to produce 13 episodes of a podcast. It’s not a long-term commitment. It’s just a commitment to make 13 shows on one specific topic. Then I can re-evaluate where I want to go — whether to continue or start something new or just kill the entire thing.

And as I have stood behind a beautiful microphone, that old terror has me paralyzed again. I have three choices with this.

First, I can run away from it again. Seriously. I’m very good at that. I can find a dozen excuses between now and the end of the week about why I can’t — or shouldn’t — do this. It’s time-consuming. It’s hard to find a way to make money from it. Maybe I should just stick to what I already know how to do.

Second, I can copy what others do on radio or podcasts. I can figure out some way to mimic someone from public radio or a popular podcast or the mainstream media. I can listen to enough of someone’s performances to figure out how to emulate him — how to copy his style in some acceptable way.

Third, I can stand behind that microphone until I find my own authentic and unique voice.

Trying to copy others is mostly a path to mediocrity but it often leads to moderate success. This is a pretty safe path. If the public has shown that there’s an audience for someone who sounds like Paul Harvey or Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern, why not do whatever they do that makes people listen? There’s always a market for cut-rate imitations. It’s just not a very lucrative market — and it’s also not authentic to copy someone else.

Finding your own authentic voice is far more challenging but far more personally rewarding.

Every now and then, it can even lead to monumental success, but that’s rare. It’s far riskier and it’s far more prone to complete failure.

When I think about the artists who I love, they’re all authentic. Every one of them is creating what comes from inside himself or herself — whether it’s what the market seems to be asking for or not. Some of them end up reasonably successful. Others who I love struggle to make money from their art.

The path you take — about whether to copy someone or find your own voice — is determined by how much risk you can tolerate and how much authenticity you require of yourself. There’s no right answer for everyone, so I wouldn’t criticize those who feel compelled to copy.

I just know that if I’m going to go through the terrifying process of learning something — of exposing myself to the fear of being criticized for being lousy at something — I need to find my authentic voice.

You can listen to the first rough demo of my promo for this podcast below. It’s not very good yet. The recording isn’t perfect. The equalizer settings aren’t yet quite right. The mix isn’t good yet.

But as I stand in front of the microphone — truly scared of sounding foolish — I know I have a voice with something to say. I somehow have to find a way to get past the fear and let that unique voice out.

I don’t know when you’ll finally hear a finished product. I just know that I can’t try to be someone else. I have to be who I am. I have no idea whether anybody will want to hear my voice. I just know I have a lot to say, so I hope you’ll be patient with me as I figure out how to say it.

Share on Social Networks

It turns out that the radical far left has been training “Antifa cats” to sabotage anything important to Donald Trump. Everything he did was perfect. Honest. It was all the cats’ fault. Arrest all the cats! This is the latest of my ridiculous satirical shorts. Please go watch it. Then “like” it and subscribe. Please. I’m begging you. (Too much?) Although a couple of the previous videos have had views in the hundreds, most have still been seen by fewer than 20 people. So I seem to be having trouble letting people know that page exists.

Here’s the latest of my ridiculous parody shorts. It crossed my mind Tuesday to wonder what a slick and fast-talking car dealer might do right now to try to turn the high price of gasoline to his advantage. So I conceived of a fat and lovable character who tried to sell cars that don’t use any fuel — and then I started wondering if it would be funnier if all the characters were felines. Designing the King Cashpaw character took about four hours, but the rest took only another four hours, so this was a relatively quick piece that virtually wrote itself. I know it’s almost impossible for these parody videos to find a larger audience, but at least they amuse me — and there are 19 of them on my YouTube page now. The first few were very limited, but they’re getting more complex.

The Republican Party is dead. It still exists in name, of course, but it’s nothing but a shell. All that’s left are idiots and stooges and con men of the MAGA party. When Donald Trump is gone — which won’t be long — those populist idiots and pragmatic fools will have no one to follow. Democrats will thrive. They will take more power than ever and they will push the federal government further to the radical far left than ever. When that happens, don’t just blame Trump if you’re a conservative. Blame every person who has claimed to be a conservative and has given up on principles, character and everything else that Republicans once claimed to stand for. As someone who worked as a GOP political consultant for many years, this is disgusting and disturbing to me. Those who have enabled Trump to have almost unchecked power are going to be shocked when they see what they will unleash in the long run. It’s been plain all along what this narcissistic con man is. It’s your fault that you chose to pretend not to see what he really is.

We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

Related Posts