Hello digital crusader.

This post is about why limits help your work, and how you can use limits to create kick-ass, if not outstanding stuff.

Here’s the truth:

When you have all the freedom in the world to create what you want, you almost never create anything, especially not now.

The more choices you have, the LESS you are going to act on them because you’re simply overwhelmed. You DON’T ACT on one choice because the next one can be better, or the next, or the next next next one after that. It’s a vicious cycle that’s holding your actions hostage, and no SWAT team in the world can help you out of that crime scene.

It’s time to limit your procrastinating ass.

Why limits make your work sooo much better

If you look at all the so-called rules of impacting & influencing your fans/clients, there seems to be a limit-mania going on:

• Have one major call to action to get major response
• Use 2-3 brand colors MAX to be visually effective
• 1-2 fonts for your products/articles and sites to attractively present your text
• Create one service/product that solves one major problem
• Create one tagline, one mission, one avatar to simply present you & your brand

How to limit yourself to create ass-kicking work

Stefan Sagmeister, one of the most iconic designers of our time, keeps his studio artificially small to focus on the most essential stuff. Although he’s so crazily high in demand he gets around 20,000$ to 80,000$ per design gig, he doesn’t expand. While others grew into a big-ass agency with hundreds of creatives, he limits his “company” to only 3-5 people.

If Mr. Sagmeister uses limitation to create kick-ass work that blows the world away, so can you. Here are 3 major tips that worked for me:

• Set a time limit. I’m totally useless without a deadline and only work well under pressure. This may be different for you, but if there’s time limit going on, you simply have to act to get shit done. No more laterz alligatorz. Tell people to hold you accountable, make a public commitment that you pay ‘em money if you don’t ship on that date. Whatever it takes. Deadline yourself.

• Embrace the magic of one.  Every single work you create solves one problem. I use this principle for my drawings as well. Some of them have many details, but there’s only one idea behind that particular drawing. Same goes for you. Every article offers one solution. Every product solves one major problem. If you want to solve another major problem, you simple create a different product. The guys from 37 Signals create a software app for every single problem. It’s effective, because you A) always know what to do (solving that one problem) and you can do it now, because your goal’s sooo clear. Being number one is how you warm up;)

• Get in the habit of creating stuff especially when your resources seem low. You know that nasty voice of procrastination that tells you:”Nah, now is not the right the moment. You don’t feel that great, you’re not well-prepared, tomorrow you’ll have better resources. FUCK THAT. Challenge that voice. The moment right now, with all of your “limited resources”, IS THE MOMENT YOUR CREATE YOUR WORK. Maybe even you best work.

Conclusion

No more whining about “I don’t have enough freedom in my work”. Freedom belongs to Harley-Davidson commercials. You go for limits.

Embrace THEM and artificially PUT MORE LIMITS on you to create faster & efficiently.

Hacking away the messy fluff and focusing on the bare essentials.

Start with a time limit. If you like this post, share it with your community now ;)

Here’s the problem: Most people don’t know how to be unique online because they think they have to be super-creative. I hear it all the time:

“It’s so hard coming up with something new. I’m just not creative enough”.

Up my ass.

Most people treat creativity like some kind of spiritual energy that’s floating around the air, possessing only the lucky bastards. That’s Bullshit with a capital B.

In fact, being creative is super-easy. Once you discover the two tactics I’m going to unveil in this post, you’ll be potentially creative forever.

Sounds good ? Then rock on.

1) Steal like a thief

I have read and experienced it myself: all the “creative” people in the world who created awesome things stole shamelessly. They were curious like a cat (by the way, curiosity never kills the cat) and mixed existing inventions to create something “new”.

The biggest inventors in the world weren’t good at being creative, they were brilliant at stealing.

• Quentin Tarantino stole insanely from Spaghetti western and Asian martial art movies. He mixed that with his style and created edgy movies that are loved all over the world.
• Jeff Bezos stole the bookshop idea and merged it with ecommerce, thus creating Amazon.
• George Lucas stole from mythology and Japanese director Kurosawa and created his legendary Star Wars brand.

So don’t bother (pretending) to come up with something new. Steal like there’s no tomorrow.

2) Combine like crazy

First you steal. Then you combine. Every remarkable invention is a combo of ideas that the innovator stole. The more interesting the places you steal from, the more remarkable your “product” becomes.

I’m a thief myself. But here’s the thing: If I steal from my market, I’m merely a copycat. But if I “steal” from areas that have NOTHING to do with my niche, it’s creative.

So if you in the online marketing field and you take your ideas from other online marketers, you’re just a copycat. But if you’re taking your ideas from – let’s say – a fashion brand, you’re going to differentiate yourself by default !

You can always steal ideas and inspiration from the most “obscure” places that have nothing to do with your work. I got a lot of design input from fashion blogs. I take branding/marketing inspiration from animation and comics. I have learned kick-ass customer care from my local Thai restaurant.

The idea is simply to combine two different things to create something that’s fresh : One thing is your market, the other one is something that has nothing to do with it.

For example: you’re an entrepreneur who’s into small business and marketing. That’s your market. Then you look at something different, let’s say your hobby, like the martial art you do in your spare time. Mix it up, and BAAAAM, you can combine your lessons from Karate with your biz. You are now both unique and interesting. Not by being creative, but simply by combining stuff.

Steve Jobs may be the best example. He didn’t invent the computer, mp3 player or phone, but he mixed those commodities with luxury and became the Mercedes-Benz of his industry.

But hey, he’s the standard over-the-top example, so let’s look at something more relatable.

Here are two small solopreneurs who steal and combine successfully:

• Tom Fishburne. Former employee in the marketing field with a burning passion for cartoons. He combined both interests and created his own career – the Marketoonist – “creating cartoons that help businesses communicate”.  He demands the fees of a brand consultant but uses cartooning as his service.

• Nerdfitness. Steve Kamb is a passionate dude who wanted to break into the crowded-like-hell fitness market. So he took his other hobby, superheroes and videogames, and combined it. This unique blend is a double-win, because he A) differentiated himself from all the other fitness sites out there, and secondly, he’s appealing to a specific part of the overall fitness market that’s into videogames and comics as well.

Both mavericks combined their field with a different passion and created their own, unique brand.

Do it yourself – become a killer COMBINATOR.

I luv that word because it’s a hybrid between “combine” and “Terminator”, meaning that you combine stuff with some serious take-no-prisoner attitude (the german accent is an optional bonus).

From now on, you don’t wait for the goddess of creativity to knock on your door. That bitch can stay on vacation.

What to do now

1) Don’t think about being creative. Think about combining stuff. You’re one badass COMBINATOR.

2) Steal like a greedy thief. Don’t even bother coming up with one original idea. Take it all from different places and mix it to create something that fits your market.

Godard was right when he said:

“It’s Not Where You Take Things From – It’s Where You Take Them To.”

Now steal & combine like crazy, my friend.

Share this idea with your community !

You weren’t meant to be boring as fuck. There’s a shiny uniqueness within you that wants to get the hell out. And it’s not just a line I read in book, it’s actually a VITAL virtue if you want to make your online presence STAND OUT. Read the following cartoon-enhanced post and remember the stuff. Damn, your digital future’s is on the line !

BTW – I’m sorry for the crappy drawings. I didn’t sleep last night (creating too much), so my creativity is below toilet level. Don’t flush me down yet – this post can still edutain you. Time to stand out.

Some people claim that we now have the attention span of a goldfish, which equals fast-forward ADD run on nitro fuel. Cry or die about it, but if you want to reach people today, you have feed your wisdom in quick, digestible bites. And that means: no more fucking fluff ! Pretend you’re  a Russian during WW2 – you have limited ammo and every shot MUST COUNT. So, use your bullets wisely.

Eliminate everything that distracts from you core message. Let the most important words speak for themselves, without compromise. Most people have to write blog tomes to get to the point. Getting straight and stylishly to the point is far more interesting.

Create contrast. Lots of it. The secret sauce that makes excitement taste triple as good. Every good image, book or movie has contrast – because we humans luv a good conflict ! Contrast is created by mixing radically different styles: Black and white. Small and big. Soft, Disney-channel language and rough, curse-like-a-drunken-sailor HBO nightlife special comedy. If I curse all the way through a post, it will lose its power. But if I use a lot of fluffy language and smuggle some F-bombs between the meal, it will certainly leave a certain OOOMPH to some of you. Fact is, opposites make (online) life interesting. So use as much contrast as you can possible summon.

Get closeR. And I don’t mean LITERALLY like the dude in the pic. Who in the hell wants to see boogers ? No, what I mean is getting closer to your community by exposing lots of the stuff you DON’T WANT TO SHARE but MAY BE VALUABLE to your fans & clients. The person who only shows success & and the sunny side causes distance, because we know nothing’s always gloriously rainbowy-like  ( I know, because I used to be one of them).  Instead, share some of the failures, like your personal FUCK-UPS and “wrong-doings”.

Bridge the gigantic online distances by showing the good, the bad and the ugly of your online journey. You will connect faster with your peeps than you can say “super galactic gorilla honey glue”.

Know when to do the opposite. I always hated the cliche “First learn all the rules, then break ‘em”. I thought:”Why the hell do I want to waste my time learning the rules if I’m going to break them anyways later on ?”. But as more experience sneaked upon me, it finally dawned on me: If you just do whatever you want to do, without knowing what’s going on in your niche, you have no clue whether your actions are different and remarkable or not . But if you know the rules of your market, like knowing what everyone else is doing and why there’re doing it, you can STRATEGICALLY do the opposite to get more attention for your brand.

So if every authorpreneur just writes about self-publishing (because authors are shy and like to hide behind their text. WTF) , maybe you should podcast like a prolific pro and stand out like a candle in the wind.

Like the ninja boy in the pic, it will be your secret stealth strike that hits your target’s nerve. You feel like Neo in the Matrix, seeing the code and knowing how to manipulate it to your own advantage. Know the rules. And then break ‘em at the right place. Muhahaha.

Punch it up. The moment you think you’ve gone over the top is the moment you HAVEN’T. In fact, when you create something that makes you want to yellow your pants, you have probably reached the right point: delivering a strong punch that your people can feel with every fibre. I personally try to take EVERYTHING to the next level – whether it’s my writing or drawing style, and I do it DAILY. As the online world gets more crowded by the minute, you have to push harder and harder to reach the same level or attention. And that means punching it up, every single time you create something new.

Invent your own language. Sort of. You don’t have to go crazy and invent a new one entirely from scratch (but it would be cool if you did ;), simply mixing your favorite (and preferably UNIQUE) word combos into the mix can make all the difference. My favorites are “with endless fire inside”, “white magic”, sweet-a-licious” and “punch/puke in my face” among many others. If you do it right, people will recognize your style by just reading a single sentence. And that is pure recognition value my friend. It’s all about owning your place in the brain of your target audience ;)

Lead the way. Like a shiny signal in the ocean. Nothing is more un-interesting than a wannabe leader that doesn’t know the way. The successful online biz builders know where they want to go, and so do their followers.  We humans need a sense of direction to survive, otherwise we’d stay in confusion & chaos, and that’s an unpleasant place to be.  That’s why it’s so damn captivating to see a go-getter pave the path. Provide it and lead ‘em to the promised land, wherever it may be.

That’s it. I’m done. For now. What important thing did I miss ?

Please share this post with your peeps if you find it interesting. 

Here’s the problem:

A lot of (online) solopreneurs read Seth GODin like he got the cure inside. They get infected with remarkablitis and think they’re now Purple Cows. They produce a lot of work and products that are merely good, while believing they’re creating OUTSTANDING work. They’re not. And this is the danger of delusion. Once you think you’re doing kick-ass work, you become complacent, and that prevents you from REALLY creating kick-ass stuff.

What those people create is just “good” work, and in rare, and I mean very rare instances, it’s “very good” work. But like GODin says – very good is the opposite of remarkable. Very good is boring.

I did the same. I got Seth Godin crazy, tweaked and changed some things and thought “shit, I’m a purple cow now, bitches”. But I was just full of myself.

If my work were as remarkable as I think it was, I would:

• get INSANE traffic
• drown in fan email
• have people buy my stuff like like it’s Cyber Monday before Christmas Eve before the world ends

But none of this is happening, because I’m not as remarkable as I think I am. And you aren’t probably either.

If we’re honest with ourselves, and we have to be, because this is our future, it looks more like this:

We’re like dust particles with faces. We talk and point at us. We work our asses off until our eyeballs bleed, but we still don’t get the attention (we think) we deserve. We think we’re shiny stardust when we’re just regular dust that nobody likes that much.

It’s bitter medicine that we have to swallow with lungs wide open.

We have to tell ourselves how much we actually SUCK. And that makes all the difference.

Once I left lazy land and stopped believing I was doing remarkable, or even epic shit, I started getting better results. I realized that I wasn’t even CLOSE to being remarkable, and got into my working gear.

Now before I create ANYTHING, I tell myself: “I’m not as good as I think I am. I actually SUCK.

Now how can I REALLY make this amazing. Not just tweaking it. Not just changing a few things. NOOO. How can I really create work that’s wayyy more awesome than my previous one ?”

This mindset of admitting how much I really suck  + being deliberate about creating better and better work helped me regain my focus. It makes me work harder and more diligently.

Look at this drawing. The left side shows how I drew a woman years ago.  Stick figures with partial, facial expressions. Yeah, I sucked that bad, but I DID own a remarkable mindset. I DID wanted to created art that blows people away. But as we know – dreams and reality are often miles apart.  Now look at the woman on the right. My drawing style has improved like cra-zey, but it’s still not as remarkable as I’d like to be. But judging from where I came from, I know with the deepest essence of my heart that I will get there. And so will you.

What to do now

If you don’t get mass attention and DON’T drown in fan mail from your audience and clients, you’re not remarkable. You’re merely good. Meh.

Tell yourself how much you actually suck but don’t stay in that sorry-state. Let that bitter truth ignite your hunger. Produce like crazy, no matter how crappy, and tell yourself that each thing you ship will get you closer to becoming remarkable.

1)  Tell yourself: “I Suck now but I’ll Succeed Soon”

2) Create a lot of work and show it publicly.

3) Between every work you deliver, ask yourself how you can make it more awesome than the last one.

Be that critical with yourself. Let that bitter truth fuel your creative ventures and you won’t fall into the trap of fake-believing of being remarkable. Because you’ll be too busy actually producing remarkable shit.

Share this message with the people you care for

1) Make your mind go empire

We all know that the world we want to build has to be first created in our minds. The moment you think something is impossible is the same moment someone else makes it possible. I challenge you to think big, and I mean really big this year. Even if you don’t achieve your crazy-ass goals this year, you’re going to get damn close. If you have unrestricted online access, you can build whatever the hell you want to build.

Remember the cute animales in the imperial image above. Sure, they’re small  & look plush-y, but the weapons they’ve built from their mind give you a hint of the epicness that dominates their thoughts.

2) Plan your crusade

Listen, I’m not the greatest planner either, but I do make a BASIC layout of what I want to achieve this year. I don’t believe in “By the 24th of December I’m going to get 1.2343,948 visitors and make 2939,399 bucks.” Life offers way to many possibilities to be that specific. But I create my basic goals like “build my ecommerce store”, “create a gallery” etc. = 8 major goals that I want to OWN this year.

Have something to work towards to and then deal with whatever comes your way.

3) Be an angel in a devil’s body.

I don’t want to get over-religious on your ass, but I thought this visual image perfectly supports my message: Be edgy with your execution, but have a soft heart that cares for your customers & clients. ’nuff said.

4) Remember your why

Simon Sinek inspired the heck out of me, and his simply message of finding your why made all the difference. No matter what you build, you have to know WHY you build it. What’s the purpose behind your doing ? And how can you formulate that purpose into a captivating mission statement that connects with your community ? DO THAT.

5) Blow away your customers

Or better: Create something so amazing that it makes his or her heart burst out like a fucking heart attack on acid. This is one of my major goals this year – I will hone my creative-visual skills to make artwork that hopefully causes you to drool like my 91 year old grandma. I know I’m still far away from that, but the intention to create remarkable stuff will eventually lead to build remarkable stuff.

Remember the empire mindset ? First comes the thought, then the action.

Promise yourself to rock your client’s world this year !

6) Crash & Burn

This sounds super-harsh, but it’s another visual image I want you to remember this year.  In order to blow away your customer’s world, you have to create some stuff that’s worth talking about. And the more uniqueness you aim for , the more you will fail & crash along the path. That’s ok, because the car crash is going be digitally & therefor harmless. Only your ego will break some bones, but that’s the price you have to pay in order to be outstanding.

I’m going to create a lot of (art)work that will not please everyone – trying out different wacky things and going all the way to the edges (thank you Seth!). By the end of the year, I will have so many valuable experiences that I’ll know what works and how far I can go.  And that knowledge will help me create stuff that will be worth opening your mouth for.

Be like the skater in the pic above. He’s crashing like crazy, but look at his attitude. It reads: Whatever. I can take it. And I’ll move on.

7) Yellow your pants

Nobody wants to pee their pants, but I’m afraid that’s what you have to endure if you want take your life & biz to the next level. In order to thrive, you have to grow, and the only way to grow is to constantly step into the unknown. And that can be a fucking scary thing. I have to admit – I did dwell in my comfort zone in the past, and it messed up my biz pretty bad.  Not anymore. I’m constantly doing scary things (scary for me at least) and expanding my zone. I challenge you to do the same.

Find ONE thing that scares your socks off A DAY, and watch how much you will grow. In a year, you can become the most epic version of yourself that you’ve always dreamed off.

8) Don’t become a snakey-sleezy-scumbag sales person

Thinking “empire”, surviving “car crashes”, “blowing away” your peeps and “peeing in your pants” all help you ROCK THIS YEAR, but remember: Don’t sacrifice your most important values. I have seen cool people turning into sneaky-sleazy sales men along the make-money-online path, and it’s breaking my heart.

Reaching your big-ass goals means nothing if you mutate into a nasty creature along the way. I don’t agree with the saying:”whatever it takes” – I’m ambitious like megalomaniac, but I certainly wouldn’t kill, harm or spam peeps along the crusade.

Follow your goals while remaining true to your ethics . This way you will both enjoy your outside and inside fortunes ;)

9) Pave your own path

If you really want to be obnoxiously ambitious, you should leave a new trail. Whatever has been done before is boring, and will not advance our world. Creating something fresh is both risky and rewarding, because you’ll march into new territories.

As for me, I want to create a unique hybrid career mix between a marketer and an artist. I luv marketing and I luv art, and I’m going to experiment like crazy to combine these two paths into a new one. After all, the best job in the world is the one you create yourself.

10) Make the little bunny proud

I agree that epic is one of the most overused buzz words ever. But what I can do ? I luv that word, and seeing a little bunny screaming it certainly fires up my heart. If you suffer from an imaginary form of Alzheimer, remember at least this war cry:

Get off your fucking ass and do some epic shit.

Let’s make this year so glorious God will pee  his pants in awe.

Who’s with me ?

Share this manifesto with your community.

Hellow my fellow digital crusader.

Here’s a short, but juicy list of the good and bad I did with building my  online brand in 2011. I hope you soak up this post like a hungry Spongebob Squarepants – there may be  some “aha” – moments and warnings you don’t want to avoid.

Achtung – strong language up ahead.

Kids, please ask your parents for moral guidance !

Let’s start with the positive:

What I did right:

Sharpening my inner voice. In the beginning of this year, my style was mellow like Mr. Marshmallow . I was avoiding going all the way to edge, hiding in a boring-ass SAFE corner and playing things semi-safe. Boo !

When I finally came to my senses in late spring, I swallowed some “What the hell” – attitude and jumped right into my ocean of epicness. My writing became more authentic and in some parts offensive, because I was fully sharing my mind without doing any CENSORING. And that meant over-the-top strange language, hefty opinions and the occasional curse word or 10. Booya.

Lesson. Safety first – this slogan doesn’t deserve to be in the online space. You’re not going to experience a harmful digital car crash so there’s no point of using your seat belts. Go full throttle and don’t worry about crashing – the worst that can happen to you is that people ignore you online. Bah. You can handle that, right ?

Caring the heck ouf of my clients. My  (brand) consulting gigs were more frequent than in the year before, because I gave my all, trying to deliver the ULTIMATE value experience. I almost always went overtime, and worked my best to help my clients as much as possible. A lot of them hired me again and recommended my services, because they were clearly awesome-fied by my efforts. Win-win baby.

Lesson: Don’t like your customers, luv them so much it makes your partner jealous like hell. Gary Vaynerchuk said the most important thing you can for your biz is giving a fuck – CARING about your customers as much as you can. I agree. Don’t blow your work, BLOW their minds.

After all, they’re your life blood.

Creating a slick web design. Yeah, it won’t win any prices, but it’s still slick and a lot of people talked about it. When you build your online biz, you have to own a beautiful storefront, in this case your site. I still see so many crappy site designs from competent people, and it makes me want to puke all over myself. They’re losing biznass, because their crappy presentation screams amateur all over.

Lesson: Please don’t be lazy. If you can’t do some cool coding yourself, consider getting a friend or web designer to do it for you. Yeah, it may cost some moolah, but come on, we’re building your brand legacy here, not some stupid sand castle on the beach.

Connecting with some awesome movers-and-shakers. I have talked to some pretty kick-ass digital crusaders this year,  both offline and in the REAL world.  In fact, I made it a deliberate effort to connect with at least 2-3 new online influences every week. I always talk about making connections, because your network is the security of your future.

A few of  the brilliant ruckus-makers include Maneesh Sethi, Natalie Sisson, Melissa Rachel Black, Caleb Wojcik, Johnny B. Truant, Corbett Barr, Farnoosh Brock and Matt Gartland.

Check ‘em out – they’re going to create grand things in the new year.

Lesson: Please don’t play Rambo and try to take the world all by yourself. You’re going to fail so hard it’s not even funny. Mingle with the mavericks. You will gain so much attention and value by connecting with like-minded creators, it will advance your (and their) online career so fast Angels will fall jealously from the cloud. Help each other and rocket-fy your influence.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the bad stuff.

What I fucked up:

Failing to launch my first premium guide. I started working on my first major digital product about a year ago, and even wrote and created a lot of content. But I never shipped the damn thing. I thought it wasn’t good enough, and kept making changes until the year was coming to an end. I wasted a lot of time and didn’t learn anything, because the failure to deliver means no feedback from your customers, which is a double-waste. Meh.

Lesson. Minimum viable product – do your eproduct as best as your current skill set allows it and then sell it . No one is going to kill you if your product isn’t the promised land, and you can always offer a generous take-it-back guarantee.  A lot of my friends successfully launched their guides, filling their pockets with green magic and helping many people along the way. I didn’t because I was letting perfectionism get in my way. Total crash.

Trying to create new brand while neglecting my current one. I have started “I luv Empire” in late spring and wanted to turn that side into a visual art blog. I did get 5,000 to 10,000 visitors in the first weeks, mainly due some viral visual posts. But getting traffic later was much harder, because creating those cartoons took a long time and the site wasn’t as link-established as this one (Marsdorian.com has pagerank 4, I luv Empire had ZERO). I was spreading my focus too thin, fighting on two fronts instead of solely dominating one. #Fail.

Lesson: Before you start a second blog/brand, make sure you first one is BIG enough. Worry about your current brand/blog, make it a big player in your market, and then, and ONLY THEN, should you consider starting a second one. Otherwise, you’re shooting yourself in both legs having double work and spreading your focus in too many directions. I will now concentrate on building the Mars Dorian brand.

Posting infrequently. I experimented a lot behind the scenes. But my failure in doing it publicly cost me a lot of attention & traffic. I even got mails from readers checking if I was still alive. Mars Dorian >>giant slap in your fucking face.

I was clearly listening to my lizard brain and didn’t ship  a lot of my (visual) work, because I thought it wasn’t good enough. Seth Godin would triple-combo-smash my pathetic self. And very rightfully so.

Lesson: You don’t have to post multiple times a week. But you have to make sure that you’re doing it once in a while, at least a couple times a month. You have to stay active in the mind of your reader & client. I lost a lot of readers thanx too my inability to post continuously. Many peeps were pissed off and left, and will probably never return.

Don’t disappear from the screen like I did. Deliver something every week and stay relevant. Consistency is key.

What 2012 will bring

The lizard brain was clearly kicking my ass in 2011 but I’m going to grill it’s green ass in 2012.

Starting with January I’m going to post more frequently. I will include a lot of cartoons and even little cartoon stories about living and working on your own terms, infusing some edgy brand/marketing visuals into the mix.

This site is going be a hybrid between stunning graphics and edgy edu-taining content. I’ll build a kick-ass online gallery and move my site one step closer to the global entertainment brand I’ve always envisioned.

I wish you a glorious christmas and shiny new start into 2012. We’re going to rock the new year so hard the titans are going to drop their yellowed pants.

Fuck fuck fuck. It’s been a long ass time since my last post, but I’m back into my groove.

I want to write about an interview that changed the way I look at my brand and career, and I think the following story can also dramatically change the way YOU handle your online presence.

A few weeks ago,  I listened to an interview on Endingthegrind.com

Steve, the owner of the site, is a family guy who’s stuck in a 9-5 and wants to get out ASAP. He interviewed famed bloggess Penelope Trunk to get some tips on living and working on one’s own terms.

The first 10 mins were standard stuff. A typical interview you have witnessed a 1000 times. But in the middle the game changed, and the shit hit the fan. In fact, the shit wasn’t hitting the fan, it was hitting a fucking Harrier Jet TURBINE.

Penelope Trunk turned the interview around – instead of HER answering the questions from the interviewer Steve, she started asking questions, and boy, were they uncomfortable. She claimed that Steve had no real vision of leaving his dead-end job – that he’d lack any specific goals. With each passing minute, she was getting down his throat, putting him in a deadlock and exposing him online.

I said to myself: Jeez, this guy is getting torn apart on his own podcast. Penelope Trunk was like a rocket launcher, piercing thin-armored and unprepared Steve with multiple rounds and hitting all of them. Bang. Bang. Baaaaannng.

I almost wanted to stop listening, but I couldn’t, because it was SOOO compelling. Unlike any other boring interview, this one evoked real DRAMATIC emotion, like a good Hollywood flick.

Steve could have just quit the interview without EVER publishing it. It felt embarrassing after all. But he didn’t. He decided to put up the podcast for the whole wide world to witness.

Stupid choice ? No. Not all. It was actually the SMARTEST thing he could have done.

Here’s why:

We human creatures CRAVE emotions. That’s why Hollywood blockbusters like Forrest Gump  reap hundred of MILLION DOLLARS – they’re like crack for our souls and we want MORE.

Goood (personal) branding is ALL about creating emotional experiences for your customers and CONNECTING with them. The more vulnerable and honest a person or product, the stronger the emotional response. When Steve got ripped apart, we got the true sense of his current situation – we saw his vulnerable side and it was compelling like crack.

Think about it – how much emotional bonding do you create when you show us your pitch-perfect, cleaner-than-slick seemingly IMPECCABLE side ?

Come on, we both know the answer.

The reason why Steve’s podcast was so COMPELLING and successful ( it attracted hundreds of comments and what’s more important, it literally changed his life & goals) is because it was DRAMATIC – it showed us the “negative” side – the imperfect side of an interview seemingly gone wrong. It was RAW and authentic.

And that’s what CONNECTS your brand with your audience – being RAW and authentic. Here’s what this means for you:

Reveal yourself (and your stats)

Some people tend to reveal their monthly income, right down TO THE LAST penny. That’s a pretty brave thing to do (especially if it’s near zero), but that openness also WOWS your audience. It takes guts and some well-grown BALLS (women, choose what ever word you find appropriate here) to SHOW THAT TO THE WORLD. In a world where it’s EASY to manipulate the numbers and hide behind avatars, it’s comforting to see someone showing us his cards.

If you don’t feel like showing us your income online, use other metrics. Show people how many sales you actually made. Show us how many people visit your site. Or even mention how many didn’t turn up for an event that you thought WOULD dominate. 

Everyone admires the brave, no one cheers for the coward.

Enjoy bathing in the crossfire of people’s opinions (or: invite the haters)

It would have been an easy (and ) understandable for Steve to NOT publish the interview, because who likes to publicly show oneself getting torn apart by his own interviewees ?

If people criticize and maybe even expose you , it’s tempting to go dictatorship style and censor anyone who disapproves of you. Well, you shouldn’t. Only showing what approves of your brand is safe and feels fake. We know there’s shadow behind your sun. Instead of denying it and waiting for your audience to find out about it (they will), be the first one to break the news. When people disagree , leave it and don’t get rid of it. Or better: Approach that opinion with arms wide open and be 100% frank about it.

You will draw people even closer to you, because you show that you are just as human (and imperfect ) as they are.

Share the yin and yang

“Look how much I succeed. Wow, my traffic TRIPLED, everything’s GOING GREAT I’M SOON GOING TO BE A BLOG MILLIONAIRE..MUAHAHAHA.”

Listen, we know you’re full of shit. Nobody CONSTANTLY hits the target with every single shot. A lot of them totally miss the target, and that’s fine. Instead of JUST showing the moments where you hit the target, show us when (and why) you missed. “Learning from failure” is not just a boring-ass saying, it’s true as well. And very captivating coming from an authentic person.

(pardon my German)

Too many people online (heck, I’m one of them…errr…I USED TO BE !) only show success, because they think that failures weaken their presence. BULLshit with capital B. Everyone fails on their way to success, and showing that PUBLICLY helps you relate with your audience.

If you fuck up, don’t hide it. Show us your fuck-up. Tell us what you learned and show us the lesson. It’s compelling.

Conclusion

Wha-at ? So much openness and vulnerability may crack your ego – it certainly cracked mine (I’m still scraping some pieces off from my floor).

Listen, in the end, YOU decide how much you want to reveal online. No one’s pulling a shotgun up your neck and ordering you to reveal everything – you are the final choice maker. But remember – showing us your pitch-perfect robotic persona  (like 99% of the online peeps out there) isn’t helping you bond with your people. They want the FULL 3 dimensional package, with all the flaws, foibles and fuckups (that’s 3 M for you !). The more you reveal, the stronger your effect on people, even, or ESPECIALLY when YOU’re the one who’s in the crossfire.

Now, how will you reveal your “vulnerable” side ?

And please share this message with the people you care about !