Choose to live your authentic self

There’s a thing going around where people copy what other people are doing. They see something they like about a person and then add what they like to how they approach life.

That in and of itself is neither good nor bad, but have you ever felt like you are hiding behind something. Like there’s a shakle around you preventing you from being you.

If you can identify then you know what I’m talking about. Like you are trying to live up to a certain expectation and anything below that is not welcomed.

This is the sort of situation where life starts to get complicated. This is even worse on the job, when your boss or colleagues expects a certain thing from you. In a committed relationship this also plays out when your spouse expects you to be like them or react to stuff they way they react or even see the world as they do.

This kind of pressure also plays out when parents place unrealistic expectations on the shoulders of their children.

When you live behind that mask and pressure trying to keep up, life becomes unbearable. Do you want to live your life like that? I know I don’t.

Know is not the time to replicate what is already here. Now is the time to be you. Act weird, dress funny, talk different and even have opposing views. And that’s OK.

God made us to be different, but the idea of collaboration, community and relationships is all about making a contribution that moves things forward. Doing you in such a way that without you and how you do it life wouldn’t be the same.

That’s why it’s important to choose your authentic self everytime. Without you and the way you look at things matter.

What I’m trying to say is you matter, more than you realize. Don’t let no one else tell you different.

Never underestimate your influence

A few years ago I was traveled with my coworkers to Duncan’s Trelawny on the yearly heritage tour.

Our first stop was Duncan’s All age school. Just before the presentations started a teacher came up to me introduced herself and said she wanted to meet me.

The reason was because she listened one of the radio programs I produced at the time called Jamaicas promise. She also commented on the work that I was doing and that she listened every week.

This came as a surprise to me because feedback on the work I do is very limited if I hear anything at all. So to get that positive feedback was encouraging.

The point I’m trying to make is this never underestimate the influence you have on people even when you never hear it. People are watching you from afar, taking notes and adjusting as they go along.

If you drop the ball, or don’t even realize how much impact you have, even it’s small what you do matters to somebody.

Never underestimate the value you bring to others. Something to think about….

Ps. The picture is one of the main thing that caught my interest at Duncan’s All age.

What Romain Virgo and The Mitchell can teach you about marketing.

There are a couple of jamaican artist I find interesting online. Romain Virgo and Tami and Wayne Mitchell.

I got introduce to them through my wife. She is a fan of their content on YouTube. The interesting thing about it is that she binge watch videos and the new ones that comes out.

The Mitchell’s vlog is Tami Chin and her husband Wayne Marshall talking about interesting stuff about their day. They include all aspect of their lives. Their children and so on.

After watching a few videos I became hooked at how they were able to rapidly grow their audience on YouTube to the point they have now become sought after host for various events.

Romain Virgo is the same. He build his YouTube audience taking us behind the scenes about his life as a musician and his daily interactions with his wife. It may seem boring on the surface but watching it will get you hooked.

Here are a couple marketing lessons I learnt from both of them.

Document what you do.

None of the content they post is planned. All they do is document there day and then edit and share. Nothing over complicated. All we are getting is access to their lives.

What we can learn from this is don’t over complicate your content strategy. Make it as simple as possible to go from idea to publish content. Make it apart of your daily routine to document something you want to share.

Later you can edit it down before publishing it online. And you can select what aspect to share.

Documenting also saves you time. Because it only takes a few minutes to record a video or write something down.

Share your struggles

For my wife she is attracted to what the children do. In adidition to that how the wives handle certain challenges which is also one other reason why she watches so often.

Wayne Marshall got me hooked with his various stories. He talked about how one of his friends put Marijuana in his bag and how he got caught with it in the US and how it affected his life.

There was another story about how he ended up in a difficult encounter with the law. These are true stories.

Romain shares about his early encounter in the music business. What life is like on tour.

My wife loves his wife and how she handles herself and the children. All they do is give us access to their lives.

What they share also helps others feel they are not alone in there struggles. Which builds the connection with the audience.

Engage your audience.

Tami and Wayne receive letters, gifts from people who watch their content. They also ask persons to help them support a worthy cause.

They also talk about current events. There was one video they were watching the elections in the US. I think they did a similar one for the local elections as well.

There was various videos about the lockdown and how they are dealing with school.

I remember once Wayne was working on a project and went to the hardware store to buy tools.

Embrace partnership to grow your reach.

Both Romain and the Mitchell’s embrace this concept. They are influencers in there own right but they also have an asset they can leverage.

Private sector companies reached out to them for various things.

In Christmas the Mitchell’s did a giveaway and one of the partners was grace Kennedy. They had others but that one I remember distinctly. And was able to reach there goal.

Romain did a entire video about a video shoot that involved his children. All of that came from documenting his journey.

The ad will be placed in various media outlets and lots more people will be exposed to his brand.

Conclusion

Don’t overcomplicate things when using online platforms to market yourself. Document what you do, edit and share.

Control the distribution

There is a popular saying that content is king. But I know alot of great content creators who are still trying to get the word out about their work.

They are even some that are highly dependent on others to do the distribution for them. This puts a restriction on what gets out and how often things can go out.

An example of this was in 2020 Tye Tribbett wanted to release a song. His label has reservations. He went on a rant on the internet about the issue.

I don’t know all the details except what I saw but my concern was this was a known headlining gospel artist that had little control of how his music is put out.

Compare that with Lacrae who has his own label. Even though he was signed to a major label for awhile he controls his distribution of his music.

Another example is Jamaican artist. They create lots of music but have little to no access to an audience. They have fans but they don’t control the method to reach them.

Think about it, you write and record a song. Shoot a video or whatever and then try to get other people to send it out for you. Part of that is what is known as influencer marketing.

Some try to get interviews on various platforms. Others get someone else to get the word out entirely.

What if there is a way that you can reach your audience directly. People who know you and want to here from you? Well you can. Build an audience for yourself and talk to them directly.

Seth Godin wrote about a concept called permission marketing. Which is simply get permission to contact someone who is interested in what you are doing.

The simplest way is email. The other is social media following. But the goal is to create a method to reach your fans directly that you control.

Though you may use other methods. Make sure you build an asset that you control.

Tyler perry built his empire organically collecting emails from persons who visited his plays.

Work at building that audience and overtime you will be in a position to expand your reach.

How I stop procrastination

Lack of ideas can kill creativity. The next close thing is procrastination.

This whole idea of do it later, I have more than enough time to finish can lead to mad dash to complete critical projects.

This situation has caught me several times. I remember working on a project got the main parts done only to finish it up. What happened was I put it off for a few days and ended up have to rush to finish it.

Here are some tips that helped me tackle procrastination.

  1. Do it now: if something needs to get done dot it now. For example you need to set an appointment to speak to a client instead of putting it off make the call now.
  2. Write down your ideas: another example you have a writing project and have a few ideas write them down as you get it. Outline it as best as you can. Flesh it out as you get the ideas. When you sit down to write you already did most of the work.
  3. Keep an idea journal: if you love to read keep track of quotes that inspire you. Photographers have a look book with shots, poses and composition to draw from. Some marketers have a swipe file with ideas to help them start a project.
  4. Start before you are ready: doing things ahead of time can help youove quickly. Have a project due 2 months from now complete it ahead of time. Do things in bulk and schedule them. Write more than you need. Take more photos than needed. Put plans in place before you need them.

In all cases don’t put it off for later. Get it done now. You may never get around to doing it.

Never give up on your dreams

For many years I always had a deep desire to play piano in church. For many years I sat at the back or on the drums with an image of being able to play by ear.

I asked for help many times from other musicians but somehow I didn’t get all the information they were telling me.

I bought courses, books and watched countless YouTube videos to learn. Until I found a simple system that helped me get the basics. With practice I got better, being able to pick up songs by ear quickly.

I eventually got an opportunity to play piano occasionally in church. I wasn’t as good at first and I was nervous as hell.

I pushed past the feeling of embarrassment and feeling of failure until I got comfortable and learnt from my mistakes.

I got better, even though I may not be like other keyboard players I know. But I reached my goal. What I imagined all those years ago is now reality.

The take away is this, never give up on your dreams. Keep pushing until you figure out what will fast track your growth.

How trust get destroyed

What would you do if someone who suppose to have your best interest at heart don’t take you seriously? Here’s a true story.

A lady went to report an accident at a police station one day. The process seemed straight forward enough that it shouldn’t have taken much time.

While explaining what happened one of the police officers started to make fun of her and questioned what happened and why she had visited that particular station to make her report.

On top of that the way they treated her made her felt like she made a mistake visiting the police station. With tears in her eyes she left the police station crushed instead of feeling relieved having done the right thing.

No matter how small the situation is its important to treat everyone with respect. Trust can be very hard to earn and can be lost very quickly.

See value in what you have

When I was a teenager I never knew that my tinkering had a name much less be a carreer option.

A few years ago I got the opportunity to work at my church’s national men’s ministry conference. All I was doing was recording the various presentations so that anyone who want to relive the conference can do so.

Looking back what this and other experience has taught me is that, value what you have. No matter how insignificant you might think the skill is someone will find it valuable.

Learn all you can about it and how to exploit it because you may never know where that skill will take you.

For me from messing around in my bedroom to working with the national media team in my church. I’ve also used this same skill to work in government media, rubbing shoulders with 3 Prime Ministers and various Ministers of government.

If what I initially thought as useless is an actual career what say what you have. Imagine if you took that seriously you may never know where you’ll end up.

The lesson is this learn to value what you have.