Perfect Stories Are Never The Goal: Focus On Connection | Ep 10

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When the internet looks flawless, it feels empty. 

We open the studio door, let the dog bark, and make a case for why your most memorable work will always be the piece where something real sneaks through. Not chaos, not carelessness, but competence with edges. We break down how a voice crack, a pause, or an awkward laugh becomes a signal of safety that audiences instinctively trust, and why that emotional signal outperforms any perfectly scripted caption or AI-polished reel.

Across the conversation, we unpack the psychology of connection: how imperfection lowers defenses, invites empathy, and turns passive viewers into active fans. We talk through the “voice crack moment” as a turning point in storytelling, the instant your feelings become visible and your message finally lands. Then we contrast that with overproduction: flawless B-roll, sterile captions, and the glossy sameness that makes posts forgettable. The takeaway is simple and bold: people don’t connect with perfection; they want realness. 

You’ll leave with practical ways to publish more human work: record once instead of twelve times, outline instead of scripting, keep micro-mistakes that don’t change meaning, and run every post through three checks—does it match what you mean, does it feel like you, and can your audience see you in it. 

If you’re ready to trade sterile polish for memorable impact, press play, keep the crack in your voice, and let people meet you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs this nudge, and leave a review to help others find the show.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
That's how we start out the episode with the dog
barking.
Here we go.
All of you, all of you, areboring as fuck.
Every single post on Instagramis overedited.
Every single word you say isover-rehearsed.
Every single story that youshare has been worked inside and
out to the point where you alllook the same.

(00:23):
None of you are memorable.
And if you want your story to bethe one they remember, you need
to do better.
And that's what we're going totalk about today in this episode
of The Story Lab.

(00:57):
Because all of this perfectionis killing your connection.
There's nothing human left aboutyou, and that's not helping
people remember you.
So today we are going to talkabout why the over-editing?
What are you doing?
Humans want to connect withother humans.
They don't want to connect withrobots, they don't want to

(01:17):
connect with this perfectversion of what you're putting
out there.
That's not real.
We don't connect with that.
We don't feel like that's aperson that we can get
comfortable with.
And the funny thing is, when youover-edit and over-rehearse and
over-produce, you're killing anyconnection you're going to have

(01:41):
with people.
People like it when you stumble.
Not because they like to watchpeople fail.
They want you to be a realhuman.
That's what they're looking for.
They want to connect with a realhuman, someone they can relate
with, someone that isn'tperfect.
So those little stumbles, thestutters, the things that don't

(02:04):
quite go right, those are thethings that connect you to
people.
You don't want to wipe yourentire content mess clean of
anything that connects you withpeople.
It makes you feel unsafe.
Because what feels safe topeople, what feels safe to
humans are flaws and quirks anduniqueness.

(02:27):
And that's what you bringnaturally to your content.
When you wipe and sanitize yourcontent of all of those fun
things that people connect with,you're not connecting.
Imperfection feels safe forpeople.
Imperfection helps you reachyour ideal people.
When you're competent, but youmake a few little flaws, a few

(02:49):
little mistakes, a few littleblurbs that you kind of screw
up, it's natural.
People connect with that.
So you know when somebody'ssharing a story and their voice
trembles or cracks a little bit,when that emotion of that story
accidentally sneaks through.

(03:10):
That's the voice crack moment.
And it's not a mistake.
Because you've been going alongfor five minutes and you've been
telling this story and youyou're telling it in a powerful
way and you're connecting withpeople you think, but it's not
until your voice cracks in thatmoment when you're really
feeling what you're what you'resaying.

(03:32):
That was fake.
But when you're really feelingwhat you're saying and the voice
cracks, and that's when youraudience connects with you.
Literally, that's when theyconnect with you because your
emotion is there.
They can see it, they understandthat you're really feeling it.

(03:54):
You're sharing from your heart,and that's what they're
connecting with.
Each and every time, that'sgonna be the moment they
connect, right in that momentwhen your voice cracks, that's
when they're gonna believe you.
But if you're taking out any ofthose emotions, if you're
completely sanitizing yourentire piece of content so that

(04:14):
there is no voice crack, so thateverything goes smoothly, so
that you feel like you look goodon camera, you sound good on
camera, and everything isperfect.
You're soulless.
Nobody cares.
It's boring.
Leave the realness in yourcontent.

(04:37):
They hear the emotion.
That's a point for them.
That's something that they cantrust you on.
Your audience wants to see thatyou have a heart.
Your audience wants to see thelittle cracks, they want to see
the things that go a little bitoff.

(04:58):
Pause.
That's fine.
You don't have to clean thatout.
Awkward laughter.
That's fine.
You don't have to wipe that out.
That's what makes you human.
That's what allows you to showup and do it and do it scared

(05:19):
and let your audience see thatyou're doing it scared.
And they're gonna feel it too.
It's not just that perfect,amazing, beautiful moment.
It's not perfect because we'renot perfect.
And I don't know if anybody'sever seen this, but I remember

(05:41):
when Brene Brown was doing a TEDTalk early on, and she stumbled,
and then she laughed at herself.
That's being vulnerable in a waythat allows your audience to
connect.
That's vulnerability that I meanis worth its weight in gold.
It's that goofy moment thatmakes you human.
So don't forget about thosethings.

(06:03):
Because I will tell you, rightnow, when you look at content on
the internet, it's alloverproduced.
And all that overproductionmakes it feel inauthentic.
That's what we're seeing rightnow is overproduction is just
making it feel not real.
It's AI polished videos, it's AIpolished pictures, it's the
perfect B-roll, it's captionsthat are written by not a human,

(06:26):
captions that don't haveemotion.
Sure, it looks great.
Sure.
But it doesn't feel great.
And that's what your audience ispicking up on.
That's why your audience isn'tresonating with it, because it
doesn't feel great.
It doesn't have emotion, it'snot imperfect.
Because all of us are perfectlyimperfect, and that's what we

(06:47):
should be showing.
Create real content.
It doesn't have to be supermessy.
It should be genuine.
It should be something thatyou're doing, something that
you're connecting with,something where the dog barks in
the background, or somethingelse funny happens.
But it's not planned, it's notscripted, it's just normal.

(07:09):
It's raw, it's unpolished,unedited, real emotion.
Everybody should be bringingthis human element into their
content.
Tell the imperfect story, sharethe moment, build connection by
being raw.
It's your excuse to mess upbecause it's not really messing

(07:33):
up.
It's being real, it's doing thethings that we normally do, it's
connecting with your audience.
So stop re-recording it 12times.
Stop trying to find the perfectcaption.
Stop going through and reworkingthe words because the words
don't sound right to you in thatmoment.
Is it does the message connectwith what message you want to

(07:55):
put out there?
See, I just loved.
Does the message connect withthe message you want to put out
there?
Does it feel real?
Is it you?
Can your audience see you inthat content?
The imperfect you.
If they can, that's the perfectcontent to put out.
Let people see you.
Let people know you.

(08:16):
Go live without a script.
Have fun.
Let the typo live there.
And guess what?
Be perfectly imperfect becausethat's what everybody wants to
see.
That's what I want to see.
And that's what can connect youwith your audience and make your
story the one they remember.

(08:36):
So until next time, I want tothank you for joining me here at
the Story Lab, where we go overstories, tips, tricks, and ways
that you can get your messageout there.
If you enjoyed this, please dome a favor, go over to wherever
you listen to your podcasts andleave a review.
Let me know what you liked, whatyou didn't like, and what you

(08:57):
want to hear more of so that Ican serve you here in the Story
Lab.
And until next time, make yourstory the one they remember.
Have a good one.
Take care.