I had the pleasure of taking to the microphone to scream, swear, and rant at a particular group of people last week.
I had gotten an email from a product creator wanting me to promote his product on my blog. I went on over to his site, and his sales page immediately screamed, “Scam!”
Having been a victim of bad advice and scams before, I did not take this lightly and made the product creator well aware of the effect this has on people. Of course, he didn’t care.
Warning: contains profanity. If profanity bugs you, don’t watch or continue reading this article.
Afterwards I got another email from the guy stating that he was glad he didn’t “do business with me” because I was “very unprofessional.”
Really, a scammer telling me about professionalism? LOL. 🙂
However, this experience taught me a very important lesson: You will not click with everybody, so do not try to. Just be yourself, and attract the people that like you.
You are unique.
You aren’t the special snowflake your family and friends said you were, but you are unique.
You have faults. Imperfections. But there are traits hardwired into you that can prove invaluable if you utilize them effectively.
Before we go further, it’s important to really understand this: no matter how great you think you are, there will be people that will not like you.
Likewise, no matter how bad you think you are, there will be people that connect with you.
Your goal as a marketer is to get in front of the people that will connect with you and do not waste your time trying to impress the people that will not.
The Solution To All Of Your Problems
The answer is to just be yourself. The people that don’t connect with you will leave on their own, and the people that like you will stay. It is literally the easiest thing you can do to attract a favorable audience.
…Certainly easier than upholding any predefined ‘image’ you’ve created for yourself.
You can not forever pretend to be someone that you are not. You will eventually slip through, and shatter whatever image of yourself that you’ve created. It is inevitable.
It’s hard. I know it is, because we are psychologically driven to mimic those who inspire us, those who are successful, even if it’s just on a subconscious level.
But you are not those people. You are you.
Become In Touch With Yourself
You know that you’re supposed to be ‘be yourself’, but it’s hard to be yourself when you do not know who you really are.
As the world becomes more and more absorbed by media, the internet, and technology, we lose touch with our inner selves. We become shaped and molded by the content we view into someone different. We let people tell us who we are and what we believe in. Yet most of us don’t realize it.
I am very in touch with myself because I make a conscious effort not to let others influence me more than I believe they should. I reflect and learn about myself through meditation every day.
Why not find out who you are? Assess yourself. Ask yourself honestly, who are you? What is your personality like? What are your core values? What are your positive and negative traits? How can you take advantage of your positive traits, and make the best of your negative ones?
Knowing yourself comes with huge advantages.
Brand Yourself
When you discover who you are, you award yourself an incredible branding opportunity.
If you took the time to read over this silly debate about worthless college degrees (which ended up being like 50 comments long), you’ll notice that I am a realist.
I deliver the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I do not tell people what they want to hear, I tell them what is factual.
This makes certain people angry, because people love being told what they want to hear. Most people care more for immediate gratification than consequence, whether they realize it or not. So I’m seen as rude because our goals do not align.
However, another group of people (other realists) fall completely in love with me because I’m not afraid to hurt your feelings. I have received numerous praises for being real and honest, and the people that stick with me become incredibly devoted.
I get angry. I swear. I’ll hurt your feelings, and I am one of very few bloggers that do so. Again, I am just being myself, and if you don’t like it you can leave.
This is how I brand myself, and it’s incredibly effective, and incredibly easy. I am just me.
Ask yourself, what makes you unique, and how can you bring this out to your readers? How can you brand yourself just by being you? Figure it out, and do it. Do not change for anyone.
Which brings me to another important point…
Quit Sucking Up
When I see bloggers or marketers sucking up to someone else, I cringe.
I understand that you want to make friends in high places, but it’s not worth doing if it comes with the expense of changing yourself to please someone else.
If you act differently and suck up to please somebody, they have not become friends with you. They’ve become friends with the image of you that you’ve portrayed to them, and that’s not cool.
If you want to suck up, get a corporate job where your value isn’t determined by how great you are, but how obedient you can be to your employer.
Hell, most of us avoid the corporate world so we can free ourselves and avoid that kind of mind-numbing stupidity. So why take it with you to the marketing world?
Utilize the traits you already have to make yourself likable. Don’t try to change who you are to please someone else. You simply can’t do it.
Conclusion
Be yourself and brand yourself. You’ll grant yourself an incredible amount of freedom and end up making more money as a result.
So let me ask you, who are you and how are you branding yourself? If you’ve got any tips you’d like to share, leave a comment and help us all out!
Leave a Reply