Daniel DiPiazza explains two ways to stand out: go completely generic or lean into extreme quirkiness. He argues that revealing uncomfortable truths, like his own psychedelic experiences, builds genuine connection that bland content can't. Being everywhere across YouTube, Instagram, podcasts, and LinkedIn matters more than perfection.
Okay, here's the 4th and final video with Daniel DiPiazza, and we are gonna talk about how, first and foremost, how do you differentiate your brand? Because here's the thing, there's so many people out there that are doing food blogging, so many people out there that are doing motivational stuff, right? And I think that's more or less the space that you're in, yeah?
Yeah, I would say so. It's such a broad topic, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Sure, sure, sure, we'll go with it.
Let's go with that, right? So like, in your space, I mean, there's other big names out there. How do you stand out from others? How do you like be that brand, that Purple Cow? Purple Cow, Seth Godin, check it out.
That's a good one.
That stands out.
Okay, so this is a really good question. It's very important. There's 2 ways you can go about this, okay? So the first way is, counterintuitively, you could go completely vanilla. You could go completely bland and generic, and that actually does tend to work. For weird and infuriating reasons. I don't want to name-drop on here. I'll tell you when the camera's off, but there are certain people that just are so annoying to me online. They're so annoying to me because they're not doing anything creative. They're like the LaCroix water of content. It's like, it's just a hint of a hint of value. LaCroix is like they dropped a Skittle in a big tub of carbonated tap water and it's just a tiny taste of it. That's how people are, some of them are online. Like, when it comes to motivational content, how many thought leaders are out there, do you know, who are just saying the same thing?
Most of them.
Most of them, but you'll see a lot of these people have huge followings. You're like, you're not saying anything different, but you're gigantic. How is it? I think that's because partially people are attracted to the repetitive nature of content that's already proven to work, which is why all TV shows have the same Yeah, that's why most people are most people. Most people are most people. Yeah, but you don't want to be most people. So what you can do is you can think, okay, what about me is interesting and unique? And what could I— what, what don't I want people to know? There's a woman on YouTube. This is her YouTube channel. Her name on there on YouTube is Amelia Fart. Amelia Fart. Check her out.
Fart?
Amelia Fart.
Like, okay.
Yeah, Amelia Fart. Amelia Fart, Amelia Fart, marching in a row parade. Amelia Fart, she's like one in a million. She'll do these videos from her bathtub. I think she calls them bang bangs, where she's just like eating huge meals and she's just ranting. And she has all these crazy different little characters she plays, and she has like, you know, I think 300,000, 400,000 followers.
Wow.
You're like, Okay, what's her formula? What's her strategy for getting popular? Her strategy is she's just being her fucking self.
Mm.
You know, if the weirder you are, the better it works. The more you try to like analyze— there's a certain amount of analysis you can do in terms of like what works on YouTube and like how do I shoot things, how do I organize it? Like there's that aspect of it. But your personal brand, you have to let your quirks out. You have to be honest about the things that you'd be scared to tell people. Which is why creating original good content can be challenging, 'cause you're like, oh, I don't wanna talk about that, I don't wanna talk about that. I just did a video with Gerard for the Leaders Create Leaders thing, and that video I was talking about psychedelics. So we were talking about 5-MeO-DMT, LSD, all that stuff. And nobody talks about that stuff. I was scared for years to talk about these experiences, because I was afraid that the whitewashed image that entrepreneurs put out there of being perfect and having all their shit together, and—
Mm-hmm.
and not doing anything that, you know, just staying straight and narrow. I was afraid that people would tear me down for that. Even my parents were like, you're gonna put that out there? I don't even like you doing that. You're gonna put that out there? And I realized that this is something that has had such an impact on my life that it'd be lying by omission to not talk about it.
Mm.
And the whole idea is we all have things like that. We all have things that we're like, oh, well, that's off the table for talking about. And those are the things you have to talk about, 'cause everybody else is already talking about the generic shit. You can talk about generic stuff and you can get popular, But you're just gonna be popular being a vanilla piece of cardboard, and no one wants that. And also, no one at their core really respects that. When people feel like they know you through your work, that's when you're able to create something that's much bigger than just you. And so, it takes courage.
So what I'm hearing is, as you drink your single-grain cup of tea, is you gotta have some kind of content tilt, right?
Yeah, I don't think I've talked about it like that before, but that's exactly what it is. Yeah.
Cool. Final question for you is, you know, we talked a little bit about Instagram in this series, but you're not just on Instagram. We're on YouTube here too. We're on each other's channels, right? And then so you're basically— the word is omnipresent. And so I don't think enough people give this enough credit. Like, I do podcasts, you do podcasts too. We're trying to be everywhere. Why? What's the point of— like, it sounds like it's a lot of effort, right?
It is a lot of effort. It's quite a lot of effort. I mean, it's also just, it's the game. I mean, you start with one channel and then you get to a point where you realize that if you have a goal of growing, you have to be able to go both wide and deep. You know, and also it's fun too. Well, I'll be honest, 98% of my friends are from online now. 98% of my friends are people that I met on a podcast. Yeah, you're 99%. 98% of my friends are people that I met online, on a podcast, on YouTube, on Instagram. So I just, it just makes life more fun for me, you know?
Right, I think that's reality, 'cause I mean, literally what happened a couple months ago is like, I was at a conference and one guy pointed at me and he's like, oh, podcast guy, right? And then what happened was, then he saw me on like a LinkedIn post and then he ended up reaching out to us, right?
He called you podcast guy?
Yeah, he's like, oh, podcast guy. And he's like, hey Eric, my name's this, right? So I just think, you know, Neil and I on the other podcast, Marketing School, we talk about all the time the rule of 7, right? And the older I get, right, old millennial, the older I get, the more I realize like that's actually true. You got it. You kind of got to be everywhere and then you'll be top of mind all the time, right?
Yeah, it's true. And I mean, you know, you— I think some people will— you're gonna always gonna have like your diehard fans, but I think for the ones that don't know you, to bring them into your universe, you have to be Daniel, thanks so much for doing this.
And if you guys enjoyed this video, if you guys want to continue to grow your life, grow your business—
Everywhere.
Make sure— growth everywhere. Make sure you subscribe and leave a comment. Tell us what you plan to actually do with this stuff. Subscribe somewhere. See you later.
Wherever this video is playing.
