Surely it was the best meeting room in the world?

This was the stunning view from the meeting room in Svolvaer in the Lofoten Islands ☝️

I’d taken a bus, a train and 3 flights to meet a new client and take Email Engagement to the Arctic Circle!

My Norwegian client, Svend, warned me at the start of the meeting:

‘Kim, our English is pretty good…

(Reader: it was perfect)

‘But we might come across as a bit serious as we can’t always convey our humour in a different language.’

It was such a great point.

I know when I speak my (now rusty) German and Russian I don’t always sound like myself. I’m a bit stiffer. Too polite.

But it’s not just with foreign languages that we can struggle with tone.

I get asked about tone a lot in email writing. In a masterclass just this week I was asked:

‘How do I get the balance between friendly and direct?’

‘How do I make sure it comes across the way I mean it?’

‘How do I sound like ‘me’?’

But there’s a simple answer, and it’s this.

Imagine you’re sitting across the table from that person: what would you say to them?

Write that.

The online-you should sound the same as the in-person-you.

That’s what creates connections.

So tell me, do you think you sound like you in your emails?