Tips and Tricks that will Help Give You a Competitive Edge.

Tip 3. Don’t Try to Be Someone you are Not.

Be Yourself. What’s that mean? It means be the authentic you. For if someone else can be you then you are not being your authentic self. If someone else can give your speech and tell the same stories you are telling, then you are not showing voters the unique person you are. You are being a phony. And voters are not stupid. They can smell a phony clear across the Mississippi River.

That does not mean you should not practice your speaking skills, or try to be a better candidate than you already are. But if you are trying to be someone you are not, voters will eventually notice a disconnect.

Case in Point. During the Iowa caucuses, Newt Gingrich asserted that he had mellowed, learned to forgive those who had wronged him, let go of petty grievances and he then pronounced that he would run a campaign that was entirely positive.

And for a while it really did look that way when Gingrich was leading in the polls. When the attacks came and Gingrich began to sink in the polls, the “new” Newt became the “old” Newt. Bitter. Sarcastic. Insecure. Lashing out at anyone who dared to question his record or his conservative credentials.

There is yet another reason to be you. During moments of extreme pressure in a campaign, the real “you” is likely to show up. If the “real” you that people see when you are under pressure is the same “you” people saw when things were fine, voters will not notice a disconnect. But if during those dark days they see a new character on the stage, they are likely to conclude that you have been trying to deceive them. When that happens, your campaign is over. And rightly so.

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