There is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent and sincere earnestness.

Nothing substitutes for actually meaning it. Skill, technique and presentation all count, and an audience of any kind can tell when the person in front of them is going through motions, however polished the motions are. Earnestness is unfashionable, partly because it leaves you exposed if the thing fails. That exposure is precisely what makes it work when it does.

Find the place where you have been protecting yourself with irony or professional distance. Try saying what you actually think about it, plainly, to one person this week. Being slightly embarrassing is a smaller cost than being unconvincing.