سنخیت

Authenticity

Your intent will be reflected in your authenticity. You will be a thousand times more successful if you wake up eager to share and create something because you believe the world will enjoy it rather than because you have calculated that this is what you need to do to become an Instagram celebrity. Authenticity is a welcome relief to consumers who live in a society where they constantly feel that they’re being taken advantage of or hearing only parts of the whole story. Don’t try to fake it. Eventually you’ll be shown for who you are. Instead, figure out how to use the modern platforms—Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and all the others we’ll cover in this book—to give away that good stuff you’ve got, whether it’s your incredible fashion sense, your hilarious brand of comedy, your innovative team-building strategies, or your stunning flower-arrangement ideas. Figure out the best platforms to showcase your true self, your craft, your joy, and your love for what you do. The more authentic you are, the more people will be willing to forgive your inevitable mistakes and stumbles.

I mentioned above that a good chunk of my audience is converts, people who thought I was just a blowhard until they realized that my message was consistent and that I kept being proven right. Even if people don’t like me, few ever doubt that I’m for real. There are three things working to my advantage in this regard: number one, I genuinely don’t give a shit what people think, which allows me complete freedom to do and say what I want; number two, I care immensely what everyone thinks and will spend an insane amount of time responding to skeptics who take the time to tweet or comment their criticism, to help them see where I’m coming from; and number three, which might be more important than numbers one or two, I always respect my audience. I believe in people’s intuition, and I believe that most are very good at sniffing out hypocrisy and opportunism. Exploiting your consumers because you think they’re dumb—for example, selling them an expensive online course that’s mostly fluff and nonsense—is, well, dumb. You may count on people’s ignorance to make a lot of money in the short term, but you will be in a mess of manure the minute your customers find out you’re taking advantage of them. That goes for corporations as well as personal brands. All it takes is a single viral video of a customer getting forcibly dragged off a plane to expose a company’s crooked policies. When you disrespect your customer, you’re one social-media post away from having your whole business tumble down around you. I have no interest in taking that kind of risk, and neither should you.