This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
I own:
- a carry on
- a Chromebook
- a laptop
- shorts, t-shirts, sweats, socks and 2 pairs of sneakers; about 1 week before I need to do laundry
- a phone
Read my blog. Watch one of my videos. Read one of my eBooks. What you see is what you get. I do not act. Nor do I create a carefully crafted online persona. I do my best to be 100% authentic in all I do. I do not try to impress people; I have virtually no physical possessions save my clothes, carry on and minimal business equipment investments. No house. No car.
I am who I am.
Reach the next level of blogging.
Being genuine to the absolute core has helped me reach the next level of blogging. I feel grateful to have been featured on Fox News, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Virgin and Positively Positive but each feature merely reflected back my commitment to blogging and more importantly, my clarity in being as genuine as humanly possible.
Even established pros have a tough time being fully genuine because most try to convey a specific brand image non-resonant with who they are as a human being. Although this dissonance is OK, you can never reach the highest level of any venture unless you are virtually 100% clear on what you do. Being 100% genuine is the only way to be 100% clear on what you do.
I have met enough bloggers in person who profess that I am exactly offline how I am online. In the next breath, pros often explain how they have experienced a few awkward encounters where offline human beings behaved quite differently than carefully crafted, online blogger personas. I experienced this once or twice at offline events with a few well-known bloggers but my dear blogging buddies online always proved to be genuine when I meet them offline.
Stop Acting; Stop Trying
Some bloggers put on an act quite unlike their true personality. Other bloggers try to be a specific blogger quite unlike their true nature. People sense this split and largely stay away in most cases. In rare cases, online personas attract huge followings as a budding celebrity but every single one of these personas crashes and burns over the long haul.
Simply observe a high percentage of YouTube personalities; these actors make serious bank and generate clout but slam into a litany of problems because no happy, clear human operates primarily from an inauthentic stance.
Stop acting. Stop trying to be a blogger different than your genuine, true nature.
Be you. Blog you.
The world accepts bloggers who accept themselves. The world loves bloggers who love themselves. Note how loving and accepting yourself is different than being in love with yourself. Being in love with yourself sprouts from low self esteem and a blanket rejection of self. Only broken individuals who secretly hate themselves pump themselves up with some contrived online persona arrogantly full of braggadocio.
Loving and accepting yourself means hugging yourself as you truly are. My wardrobe consists of t-shirts, shorts and sweats because my true nature knows clothes, status and other ego-driven things are completely worthless, useless wastes of time and energy as far as using these things to impress human beings. I am not completely void of vanity but care little of impressing people because I accept myself.
Taking this general self-accepting attitude helped me reach the next level of blogging success because my self-acceptance, honest nature and authentic approach allows me to shine a bit more brightly than other pros who appear to be faking it a little bit, focusing a too much on trying too hard to be someone else while I am at peace with being me, blogging who I really am and allowing my authentic nature to permeate every aspect of my blogging campaign.
Be you.
Allow your true nature to bleed through your blog, brand and online business.
Reach the next level of blogging success.
