Evan Carmichael and Chris Adler argue that entrepreneurs who hide their authentic story behind polished corporate facades lose their biggest advantage. Customers choose small businesses because they connect with the founder's genuine passion and care, not because of boring websites and generic marketing.
Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is Express Yourself. Over to you, Chris Adler. I wake up every morning, express will keep me going.
The reason I continue to do it, I feel really actually very fortunate to be able to continue to do it because I've not found any other creative outlet that compares at all. And even in my relationships with friends and my wife and my daughter, there's still no comparison to that form of self-expression. So it's me getting to be me the way I want to be seen, heard, felt, all of those things. It's very personal.
I don't think people express themselves enough. I think people are too afraid to express themselves. I think people live in constant fear of judgment from others, that if I say this or if I speak my mind, then this person is going to hate on me or this person is going to judge me. And, you know, we're living the best version of our life in that we're only sharing some things about our lives that we're comfortable sharing and that is, you know, nobody's going to hate on. And we're living like a Photoshop version of our life instead of the real version of our life. And what it does is it creates a disconnect. Because you're so afraid to share something personal and go deeper and make me connect to you as a human being that then you're so vanilla and then I can't connect. It's like I'm talking to cardboard. And you look at most people who live a 9-to-5 job and hate their jobs and come home and live for the evenings and weekends, and the more you get stuck on that pattern, the more you're stuck on that rat wheel and you're doing the same thing and your expression gets shut down over and over and over and over again by yourself, by your thoughts, by your limiting beliefs, then the more it just becomes natural and normal for you, and that creativity and that spark and that expression just slowly dies within you. You think about kids and how expressive they are and how, you know, I think of Hayden, my 6-year-old son, is always drawing and singing and acting. And, you know, do we do that as adults? You know, like, as we get older, we lose our self-expression. And I think mostly because we're afraid of the judgment of other people and how they're going to think if we were to go out and do something. If you want people to connect to your business, you want people to buy from you, you got to understand that that personal connection is one of the most important things that you have. It's the, it's the most important asset that you have as an entrepreneur. The reason why I'm going to buy you instead of buying from big established company is because I like you. I like your story. I like that connection. And too many entrepreneurs hide behind trying to trying to create a professional feel, trying to look corporate, why wouldn't I go to the big brand name? You know, if price is the same, why wouldn't I go to the big brand name with all the experience and track record? It's a company that I know and they have the history. Why wouldn't I go with them instead of you, right? Unless you dropped your price, and then now you're playing the low-price game, which you don't want to play. Why would I come and pay a premium to work with you? Because I like your story, because I like your passion, because I like your commitment, because I feel like you're gonna take care of me because I think that you really have a deep understanding of this product or service that you're selling. You just care more than that big company. So you have to make me care more. Why should I care about you if you're not expressing yourself to me? And I think too many entrepreneurs don't do that, and your websites are boring, and your social media accounts are boring, and your business cards are boring, and your videos are boring. Everything is boring because you are too afraid to express yourself and be who you are because you're afraid of judgment. And I'm telling you that that is the secret ingredient. That's the magic pixie dust that if you can unleash that expression and creativity and inner fire, then that's gonna be a magnet to attract like-minded people to you, ideal customers to you, and help you start building the business that you wanna build and have the impact that you wanna have. So the question of the day today is, I wanna know, do you feel like you are expressing yourself in your business? Leave it in the comments below. I'm gonna join in the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. I wake up every morning, espresso keeps me going.
