Week 63 - Can people feel your energy through text? ⚡

Author

Yurii Lazaruk
May 24, 2026

Hey my friend, have you ever met someone online who seemed amazing only to feel completely different in real life? Or the opposite—someone whose energy instantly matched exactly who they were online? 😲

That’s what today is about: why trust grows faster when your digital energy matches your real-life energy!

Try This Yourself

Every year, we have a tradition: before Freelance Unlocked, I start posting “21 Tips on how to get the most out of the conference.”

So one of the recent tips was about adding social proof, aka asking clients and colleagues for feedback. And one of my friends left a comment that made me smile:

It immediately reminded me of what another friend told me before:
"You know, Yurii, you have the same energy in person as on LinkedIn."

And that might be one of the best compliments I’ve ever received. Because I deeply believe trust grows faster when people meet the same human everywhere.

I call this The Mirror Principle 🤓

Your online energy should reflect your real-life energy!

Also, people I meet on LinkedIn keep saying they like my energy. Which means energy actually CAN travel through text 😄 And here is how I do it 👇

First of all, I write on LinkedIn the way I speak. For example, if I’d naturally say in real life “you know” or “kinda”, or something like that, I’m definitely using it in a message.

Next, I’m not rewriting messages. If I wrote something, I usually hit “Send”. I don’t endlessly polish messages trying to sound perfect.

Just like in real life, if you said something, you can’t take it back, which removes overthinking (not full Orwell mode 😅), and makes it sound more human.

Also, when I write something, I say it out loud as if I were answering verbally to a person.

Another thing is using emojis! Look, how often do you see people using them in the posts, comments, and even work emails? Right, some people use them a lot (hello there emoji tribe 🤘), but overall, not that many.

Plain text is emotionally incomplete. People read your words with their own emotional voice—not yours. Emojis help close that gap.

Not perfect, but better than nothing 😏

I also talked about it in detail in Week 56: what you say is NOT always what others hear.

One more trick is using phrases from songs and movies.

When I write “I tried so hard, and got so far…” or “Lose yourself in the music…” there is a huge chance you’ll have Linkin Park’s “In The End” or Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” playing in your mind immediately, and we’ll get on the same page.

Or if I say “Deadline is coming”, or “Work hard you must,” most likely your brain will imagine someone from House Stark or Master Yoda, and we’ll be on the same page immediately!

Also, when you try too hard to “sound professional,” or hide behind ChatGPT-generated perfection, people WILL feel it.

And believe me, Friendworking works only when the human behind the screen is the same human in real life 🤷‍♂️

So be yourself, and keep on practicing daily!

Tiny Friendworking experiment this week 🤓

  • Go into one text conversation.

  • Type your answer while saying it out loud when writing it.

  • Hit “Send” without re-reading it.

And tell me how it felt by answering this email 😉

tl;dr Trust grows faster when your online and offline energy match. Write as you speak, stop over-polishing, and let people meet the real you 😉

Expand Your Mindset

Now, on the personal side, here’s another thing I deeply believe 🤓

We all want to get lucky. Win a million dollars. Get to work avoiding traffic jams. Get promoted to VP. Find amazing clients. Catch a falling cookie on the fly. You name it!

And here is what I’ve recently read at Sahil Bloom’s newsletter:

“It’s hard to get lucky watching TV at home. It’s easy to get lucky when you’re creating motion, meeting people, engaging, and learning.”

Okay, maybe catching a falling cookie is real luck 😅 but for everything else, you have to work.

You won’t win a million dollars without buying a lottery ticket. You can’t pass through the traffic jam quickly unless you start earlier, or know some better routes. You can’t be promoted or find great clients without doing a great job and promoting yourself beforehand!

No one will do this for you! Sorry not sorry 🤷‍♂️

Passion, consistency, hard work, pivot (when needed)—that's what makes you lucky!

And one more thing: have fun!

Here is a quote from Richard Branson:

“Fun is at the core of the way I like to do business, and it has been key to everything I’ve done from the outset. More than any other element, fun is the secret of Virgin’s success.”

When you have fun, you can bear almost everything, and every challenge won’t kill you; it’ll make you stronger! Because when you do something you hate—something that drains or bores you—come on, you won’t get great results. You’ll always have mediocre results.

Even if people will say they’re great, you’ll feel differently inside.

But don’t trust me. Go try it yourself!

tl;dr Luck looks magical from the outside, but usually it’s just motion, consistency, and showing up long enough 😉

Friendworking question for you:

What helps YOU make digital conversations feel more human? 🤓

Hit reply, and your answer might even make it into the future Friendworking book 😉

💡 What influenced me this week 💡

Thoughts of the week:

  • ”You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” - Jeannette Rankin, The Economist’s daily quotes

  • “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." - Maya Angelou, Sahil Bloom’s newsletter

  • “If you surround yourself with people who believe you are capable of more, who encourage you to think bigger, you will rise to the level of those expectations.” - Sahil Bloom’s newsletter

  • “It’s hard to get lucky watching TV at home. It’s easy to get lucky when you’re creating motion, meeting people, engaging, and learning.” - Sahil Bloom’s newsletter

  • “Nature provides exceptions to every rule.” - Margaret Fuller, The Economist’s daily quotes

Song of the week:

Book and quotes of the week:

“One of the things that I am always trying to do with Virgin is make people reinvent themselves. I firmly believe that anything is possible.”

“Fun is at the core of the way I like to do business, and it has been key to everything I’ve done from the outset. More than any other element, fun is the secret of Virgin’s success.”

“However tight things are, you still need to have the big picture at the forefront of your mind.”

Tools that I use with referrals:

  • Descript - for anything around podcasting and video editing

  • Beehiiv - for a newsletter (that’s what you receive 😅)

  • Text Blaze - to access message templates with shortcuts (like “/ty”)

  • Exali - promo “FROMYURII” - indemnity insurance for independent experts in Europe

  • Manus - for building complex systems and projects

Daily actions:

  • tell 1 person what I’m thankful to them for

  • read a self-development book/listen to a professional podcast for 15 minutes

  • make a valuable post/comment on LinkedIn

  • tag 10 people in my connections database

  • connect with 30 interesting people on LinkedIn

Weekly actions:

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or questions, please 👇

And if you’d like to have more 👋 Friendworking in your life 👇

See you next week! 👋