S3 E29: Winter Storytelling Series Part 4 - Be Yourself, Everybody Else is Taken!

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to part four of this six-part snack-sized winter storytelling series whilst we take a break between seasons three and four. So this episode I chose to steal a line and I actually think it's an Oscar Wilde quote as well. I'm not quite sure about that. I probably should have googled it before I started recording.

But There was a, or is, a country music singer called Melinda Schneider, and she has a song, and the key point is be yourself, everybody else is taken. And I thought that is such a good anchor point, because often when I'm working with clients, they are trying to, and I'm using air quotes here, find the right words.

And by definition in your brain, if you are doing that to yourself, if you're trying to find the right words, what you most often mean is that you're trying to take what is your natural way of communicating and what is actually going through your beautiful heart, mind and soul, what is being called to express, and you're kind of running it through this filter.

Because you think that you need to be a bit more polished or a bit more palatable or a bit more professional, like, fill in the blanks here. Maybe, excuse me, maybe your belief system, blah, sorry, belief system is more about, I'm, I'm too boring, I need to be more interesting, or I'm too, Loud, I need to, you know, stop being so opinionated or I'm like, one of mine used to be, I swear too much.

I've got to stop that. And then I really consciously called this website, something website podcast that has a swear word in it because I was like, you know what? I naturally swear like a trucker. It is not something that I am proud of, but despite my best efforts, I have not. Found a way of polishing that little bit of rough diamond out of me.

And you know what? I actually think that being myself has been, I in fact not think, I know that the exponential growth of my business in the last 12 months has been exactly in line with how comfortable I am being seen as exactly myself. And I mean, flawed. I mean you know, potentially inconsistent impacted by, you know, a chronic illness thing going on in the background, which means sometimes I can't work because I'm in too much pain.

And I used to make myself wrong for all sorts of things that I thought that I couldn't be in a business. And it turns out every single one of them is bullshit because as I have excavated the things that I think I need to fix to be a successful business owner, my business has Exploded with perfect fit clients and perfect fit clients that actually find me.

I don't even know, like I, I probably shouldn't say this out loud, but as a copywriter, I don't actually have an active marketing strategy at the moment. The only way that people can find me is through this podcast. Yeah, my website, I guess that they could Google copywriter. I don't know. I don't even call myself a copywriter.

So probably not, but storytelling. But I don't have, At the time of recording any active funnels to move people through my ecosystem. I don't have any digital products. I have very little of the. In air quotes, things you're supposed to have to have a successful business. And I actually really strongly believe that the exponential growth of people finding me as if by magic is because I am finding the pockets in myself that I feel like I need to be either ashamed of or guilty about or polish up or make otherwise.

And actually consciously choosing to just either talk about them. to share them, to be honest about them. So I don't know if you've been around for a little while in my business, and this is the second time I've been in business. So if you've been around since the original, original business I'd be interested to know, actually, if you do notice big points of difference.

I think I have always been someone who Naturally shares what's going on for them, but the deeper things like feeling like my energy is very inconsistent and that I can be really disorganized at times. And I swear, like a trucker and what else have I been working on showing more of? Do you know what a big thing?

I was taught as a kid not to shine too bright, like don't make people feel bad about themselves because I've always been someone with very big energy, very enthusiastic and passionate, and I was taught through school and also parenting that it was not okay to show that big light. And actually that again is one of the main magnetic things that I choose to share now because I will not be, I think when we're afraid of showing our true selves, we are trying to be someone different.

It is exhausting, but it also is just like, well, who are you trying to be? You are yourself. If you have big energy. That is either on or off in my case. And that I now know that that's actually part of my human design that I've got this massive energy and I'm either on and it's like full throttle or I'm off and I'm in bed.

And yeah, that's just the way I am as a human being. And I don't think that showing that about myself makes you feel. Yeah. Well, I know for the clients that I've worked for in the last 12 months or within the last 12 months what I hear from them consistently is thank God I found someone who I can relate to.

And guess what? If I was pretending to be someone else. That would not be their experience. They would be seeing something that was polished up. So my question to you in this episode is, are you being yourself in the marketplace? And if you're not being yourself, what stories are driving your thought that you need to be somehow different?

And then the invitation is how could you make peace with that part of yourself? Now there's lots of different ways to do that. One of the things that I would actually suggest, I'm, I've been fangirling. Oh my God. So big a fangirl over Samantha Garcia, who wrote regenerative business. If you haven't checked out that book, you absolutely must.

If you're a business owner and you want to do it. from a contribution and natural ecosystem approach. And I've also been fangirling over Simone's soul, who a lot of people will also know. I just completed Simone's copywriting course, which this is a hilarious book. example of just being yourself.

One of the key things that I, that I walked away with from that course. And the reason I chose to do it is that I really admire Simone's ability to just be herself. Like she doesn't make any apologies for being, you know, like in her coaching calls, like she will say, Oh, my brain is just not working today.

And it's not. Like no one thinks anything worse of her because we all have human moments where like our brain is just misfired or whatever. Well, if you don't, hats off to you. But anyway, where I was going with that is in Sam's book she has a whole heap of resources. And one of the things that I've started doing since I read that book a little while ago is hypnotherapy app called Grace, Grace Hypnotherapy.

It's by Grace Smith. If you Google Grace Smith, you will find her YouTube channel. She's got a whole heap of free content. I've upgraded to the paid version, but I have found that hypnotherapy has been quite amazing at transforming the pockets of me that feel like they're still there. Not able to be shown to people.

And that has made a massive difference in my business mindset as well. So if this feels like a kind of tricky part of the business journey, maybe check that out. Like it may not be the tool for you, but certainly has been something for me. So thank you for listening. I will be back next week with part five.

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