Eric Siu explains how to build influence in crowded markets: provide genuine utility, create content relentlessly, and be vulnerable about your journey. He points to Gary Vaynerchuk and Grant Cardone as examples of people who succeeded by honing their craft and finding their distinct voice.
In this video, I'm going to show you how you can become an influencer. My name is Eric Siu. I am the host of the weekly entrepreneurial podcast, Growth Everywhere, and the co-host of the daily marketing podcast, Marketing School, which I do with my buddy Neil Patel. And I create this content to help you individually and to help you grow your business so you can level up. I think the first question you need to ask yourself is, well, why do you want to become an influencer? Is it to become famous? Is it like the cool thing to do? What is it exactly? You want more likes on your Instagram photos? Like, what is it? When I look at things, you know, people come to me and when I'm at conferences, for example, it's like, man, you're everywhere. You know, I really look up to you, da da da. Like, you're one of the influencers out there. I really don't think much about it. I would consider myself more of kind of like a micro-influencer. My goal isn't to become an influencer. It's more to kind of impact people. So I think if your goal is to impact people, be more useful to people. Gary Vaynerchuk, for example, or Grant Cardone, they're actively producing content and some people might hate on them, but for a lot of people, they're adding a lot of utility. That's why they're following so big. It's people that are hoping to build up their own thing. You know, they wanna be inspired. That's why they follow these people in the first place. Instead of trying to become interesting, be more interested in others. What are people more interested in? What do they need exactly? What are their challenges? What are their pain points? What I did over the years with the Growth Everywhere podcast, I mean, after the first year, only 9 downloads a day. After the second year, only 30 downloads a day. But eventually we got up to, you know, 80,000 to 100,000 downloads. If you're gonna be useful to someone, you're gonna provide utility, It's going to take you time to build that base. Now, here's the problem with what you see on Instagram right now. There are tons of models out there. There's tons of food pictures out there. Everyone is a photographer. Everyone knows how to take good pictures. Everyone knows how to do great videos. How do you separate yourself from the pack? The thing that I think that makes us stand out is that we're just creating content all the time. We're being relentless. We're speaking our mind. I'm not censoring myself. I'm not slowing myself down. I slur. I talk really quickly. I'm human. I make mistakes. And you can see it over time. You can see my journey. And I think that's what, what makes, you know, us be us. Instead of trying to focus on yourself, instead of trying to become an influencer, trying to become really popular, hone in on your craft first, become useful, find your own voice, and eventually you will get there. We talk about being patient all the time on the different podcasts out there. Every single entrepreneur I've interviewed, they make mistakes all the time, but eventually they all get there. That's how you can become an influencer. It's going to take you time, but I'll tell you what, it's worth it. So leave a comment below, let us know what you think, and don't forget to hit subscribe and see you tomorrow.
