Why Being Someone Else WON'T Grow Your Audience

Foreigners and content creators. I wanted to go live today because I had a really cool story that I wanted to share with you, which I think talks about the importance of building a real brand for your business. You know, we all hear fake it till you make it, you know, or you're trying to. You're trying out copy Gary Vee or Alex Hermosi or someone else that's out there that's successful, and that's cool. You know, you can build inspiration from these people. But the reason that, you know, Gary Vee has such an amazing following, an amazing brand, is because he was always true to himself. He wasn't trying to be anyone else except for Gary Vee. And I think that's something that, that's. That's very hard for a lot of new content creators because you're out here and you're looking in this sea of people, especially here on YouTube. It's like, you know, you are trying to be something in this sea of people that is different, but you're trying to be different by being someone else. So my biggest advice to you is to stop trying to do what everyone else is doing in their business. You need to let your message come out. I had a little story I'm going to tell you shortly, but why it's important to be true to who you are and your brand, because what works in my business, some of the things I do in my business, may not work for your business. It's going to depend on who the audience is, who the demographic is. All right? What we're trying to sell, I should know which buttons I can push, which ones I probably shouldn't push, all right? And while the general techniques of business are the same, the way we interact with our brands will be very different, because everyone's tribe, everyone's audience is unique. They're different. So for me, you know, on my guitar teaching channel, I have an older audience, all right? And we tend to talk about death a lot because it's a reality for them. And I understand, understand that experience because of my experience with having cancer when I was younger, okay, 16 years old, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and you're like, okay, I might not make it to 18. So you learn really young, or at least I did, that life is precious, life is valuable, and that putting things off is not always the best way to go, okay? And my audience resonates with. With that because they are an older audience. A lot of students in my course, they're in their 60s, they're in their 70s, okay? And recently, very recently, I had a. A student of mine that I met a few years ago through Covid, took the guitar course, who my community and I found out recently had passed away, unfortunately. And she was young, you know, compared to my average student age. She was 57. 57 years old. So I sent out an email.

You know, letting people know that this student had passed. And if you're on my Facebook, you probably saw Facebook posts, and, you know, we talked about it in our. Our community. And, you know, I sent out an email using that as an example, as a reminder to people that, hey, listen, nobody's guaranteed tomorrow. Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow. And I highlighted that, you know, I found out this student had passed. I went over, and I looked at their obituary, and the thing that stuck out to me is there was a line in the obituary that said, favorite pastime was playing guitar. And as a teacher who helped her on her guitar journey, that. That was very special to see that and very special to read that, because, you know, 2020-2023 is not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things, but this instrument had such a profound impact on her and her life that other people in her family recognized how important that was. And I said, you know, that's. That's a very interesting thing to highlight because it showed how important. Important learning the guitar was, how important music was in this student's life. And I said, you know, if you're. If you're someone that's on the fence, you know, you've been saying for 20 years that you want to learn guitar. You've been saying, you know, for 10 years, you want to learn guitar. 50 years, you want to learn the guitar. Nobody's guaranteed tomorrow, okay? Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow. The best time to learn an instrument was 20 years ago. The next best time is right now. So I encourage people like, hey, like, you know, essentially, or get off the pot. All right? For lack of a better word, like, let's do it. What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? I'm glad she didn't wait. Okay, what are you waiting for? And I know I can use that type of imagery and forcefulness on my audience because it's something that resonates with them. If my audience were 20, probably wouldn't use that as an example, but I used it as an example, and I. I had someone who wrote me a very angry email back, someone who is not in my. In my tribe, all right? It was someone who I think was following me because they. They admired me as A business person. And they were flabbergasted that I had used this, this student to make money in the business. And you know, you know that's not what I meant, but that's how she viewed it. And I said, yeah, understand that. That's, that's how you feel. Not a problem. We'll just take you off the emails. You won't get any more emails about death again, because I, I email about death a lot to my people. So this is something that's very real for them. I got a lot of emails back. I sent an email out actually yesterday and I got more responses to this than the previous email. We did get a lot of great responses to that email. People who knew this student sending condolences and just, you know, people being like, thank you. Like, I needed that. I needed that reminder that life is, that life is short, life is precious. So it's interesting because the person who was not in my tribe sent me back like this very angry email. But the people that are part of my brand, that my course is for, my audience responded to that in the way I expected them to respond. So it just goes to show you, just because I do something in my business doesn't mean it's going to work in your business. All right? Telling people about death might not work for you at all. But I sent out another email yesterday kind of highlighting that I had this person who had reached out to me and said, you know, hey, that she thought I was a greedy, money hungry, whatever because I was using my students death to, to profit off of. And I had the overwhelming response to the second email was insane. I haven't even gotten through. I've gotten hundreds of emails. I haven't even gone through them all. I've tried to respond to as many of them as possible. And especially what I noticed, it was the students who knew me the most and the students who also knew this student as well. And they said if anyone really knew you as a person, they would never think that about you. They would never think that because we know you are not like that. So it just goes to show you, you know, that as you build a business and as you build a brand and as you grow, there are going to be people in your audience that resonate really, really well with you. They resonate really well with your message, you, your background, your experiences, your personality, your style. And then there's going to be people who are completely opposite, like this woman who responded to the email and had this, this visceral response to this very honest email. Okay. And that was her response because she was younger and probably never experienced death or thought about death. But for a lot of my students, the emails I got back were, thank you, I needed that reminder. Thank you, thank you. I needed that slap in the face that I'm procrastinating on this. They. They actually appreciate the reminder because of who they are and because of who my brand is. Okay? So my brand is live today. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. Live today, live your dreams, Go out there, get it done, learn the guitar, stop procrastinating. Okay? But if my audience were different, if my audience were a younger audience, it wouldn't work. That messaging is not going to work. I have to use different messaging. So this is why it's so important when you are building a brand and building an audience that you are true to yourself and that you are true to your audience. Because the messaging you use, the imagery, a lot of that stuff is going to change from business to business depending on who the person is. So if you are faking it trying to be Gary V. Or you're faking it trying to be Alex Hermosi, or you're faking it trying to be, you know, the next Grant Cardone or whoever has millions and millions of followers, it's not going to work long term because people are going to see through that. They're going to be like, oh, like you're. They can tell when you're faking something, okay? So when you are building a brand and you're building an audience, you have to be 100% true to who you are. And that's very, very hard to do in the beginning because, like I said, we see all these things. You see people posting videos and getting hundreds of thousands of views or millions of views, and you're like, man, why is nobody paying attention to me? Oh, it's because I need to use this type of font on my shorts. Or I need to use this type of. You know, everyone, if you go on Instagram, everyone is using what they call the. The. The Alex Hermosi or like, the Gary Vee style text on their short or on their reels, okay? Because everyone's trying to copy what they're doing, thinking it's the font that's made him successful. It's like, it's not the font that has made, you know, Alex Hermosi or Gary V successful. It's the content. It's the content they're creating. It's their personality. They are being unapologetically themselves and they are attracting people. I Remember the first time I saw Alex Hermosi speak on stage? I didn't even know who the hell the guy was. I saw him speak on stage, and I was like, I like this guy. I like his personality. I like the fact that he's just like, no B.S. he's straight. Like, he gives it to you straight. I like that other people will be turned off by that. And that's perfect, because when you are building a brand, we are trying to attract the right people and repel the wrong people. So the woman who wrote back to me, very angry about this email I sent out was not in my audience. She is not my target demographic. Because if she knew me and she knew my demographic and she knew about these experiences, these things, thoughts, these thoughts about, oh, I might die tomorrow, you know, she's never experienced that. I have, and I know what that feels like. And it's not a good feeling. It's not a good feeling. And it kind of, boom, it snaps you into place, being like, what the hell am I waiting for? So I can relay that message, because I understand.

That message. And when I tell people that my students understand I'm being genuine, not that I'm being an asshole, okay? That I am actually being genuinely myself when I send out these messages, because they know, because of my history, and I've talked about it here, even on this YouTube channel, that my history is that life is short. And what the hell are we all waiting for? Let's do it today. All right? That imagery is constantly in my messaging. Constantly in my messaging. So when I send out an email that kind of highlights that part of my branding, it's not shocking for my audience because they've already heard it, you know, a dozen times for me already, and I send out these reminders, but it's not going to work for someone else who can't genuinely relate to that, process those thoughts, those feelings, all right? That's why. Get a piece of paper, okay? Pen and paper. Write down everything you are as a person. So if I had this piece of paper, I'd be like, cancer survivor. I'm a daughter, okay? I'm gay, okay? I have a lot of people who reach out to me all the time, even though being, you know, I don't talk a lot about being gay on my channel. If you are gay, it's probably pretty obvious, but I don't. It's not, like, the forefront of my channel, in my branding, but it is a part of who I am. And I get a lot of people who reach out to me and say, thank you so much for just being open and honest about who you are. Every once in a while, I will mention my wife, and I will do it unapologetically. And for someone, especially older adults who are gay, that's. That's refreshing, because they couldn't do that, you know, 20 years ago, 40 years ago. So. So seeing that is refreshing. And they feel like. Like I'm a kindred spirit, you know, and I'm here just out there being myself. What else? You know, anything that you have. Athlete, boxer, you know, I loved boxing. Musician. Okay. Classic cars. I. You can see my classic car back here. Okay. I love classic cars. And when people watch my YouTube channel with my branding, because my audience is older, hands down, almost everyone asks me about the car. They're like, what's that car? All right, you see my Ninja Turtles down here? I love Ninja Turtles. Superman. There's very rarely will you see me live on YouTube without some sort of superhero shirt. Whether it's Superman, whether it's Captain America, whether it's Wonder Woman. And then people yell at me that, you know, you got to pick Marvel. You're going to pick dc. Which. Which one's it going to be? I don't choose.

But this is part of who I am. This is part of who I am, and I am always going to be myself with my audience, because these things, even though they're small, the Superman, the car, the guitars, the. The Turtles, these are things that are going to resonate with an audience. And then, you know, people who follow this YouTube channel, what resonates with them? The fact that I'm a musician. I have a lot of musicians who are entrepreneurs that follow me here on YouTube because they want to see what I'm doing because I'm successfully doing something that they want to do, and they want to know what's the secret? What's the secret? And the real secret is one, it's. It's hard work. It's patience, but also it's what I'm talking about today. You have to be genuinely new. You. You can't be me, because I am the only one who is me. Love the thumbnail. Thank you. Yeah. Even the thumbnail for this video. The thumbnail for this video is me with Superman shirt. We did that at one of our photo shoots. Thank you for bringing that up. But we did. We did a photo shoot, and I was like, you know, I just want to do this photo of me doing this with the Superman shirt, getting ready to, like, take off. And, you know, I Just love Superman. You know, people always ask me, like, what is. What's the deal with the Superman thing? I have a Superman chair over there that I ordered just when I was younger. You know, my. I would hang out with my grandfather when I was younger, and we always watched Nick at night and Green Acres, but we always watched Superman. Superman was a big thing. So I used to watch the original Superman in black and white with my grandfather. So I think that's just, like, a good memory for me. And then, you know, I watched all the Christopher Reeves movies. There's just something about Superman that, like, I just liked something about Superman. He was so wholesome and clean cut, and I was just like. That resonates with me. Being a good person resonates with me. And he would save people, and that was awesome. And who doesn't love superpowers? So that's why Superman, you know, kind of resonates at me. I like Captain America as well. You know, kind of like that good, wholesome feeling, you know, superhero. You know, I'm not. I like Batman, but he's. He's just too dark for me, you know, Like, I don't want to be brought down into the darkness of Superman. But again, someone else might like Superman or. Sorry, might like Batman. And that's great. And again, that's why certain people resonate with Superman. That's why certain people resonate with Batman. That's why certain people resonate with the Arrow or Spider man or, you know, the Green Lantern or whoever. You know, we all have different reasons that we will resonate with different superheroes. So when you are building your audience, understand that there's different people who are going to resonate with you and your message. Why is someone going to follow me versus Justin, Guitar versus Marty versus Andy?

I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm a woman. I don't know. It could be. See, that's. You know, that's something else I can write down on my list. I am a woman. That's different. It's very different than what's. What's on YouTube. Because a lot of the big YouTube guitar teachers are male. You know, that is something that differentiates me from some of these other guys that are out there. But that's the thing. Why do they want to watch me versus Justin versus Marty versus someone else? It's because of who I show up as a person, okay? It's who I show up as. It's the personality I give out. It's the energy I give out. And for a lot of people, they say, you know, you just make me feel like I can do it. You give me the belief that this is possible and you don't talk down to me, and I really appreciate that. And that's just me being myself. Okay? So if there's anything you get from this video, it is be a hundred percent authentically yourself. Stop trying to be everyone else, because that's not what's going to help you grow your audience. What's going to help you grow your audience and find your tribe is just being you. Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday, and I'll see you very soon. Bye. Bye.