In this article I will cover the mindset necessary to building a social media brand that withstands time: DOCUMENTING, as well as what I believe to be the #1 reason people don’t succeed in a Social Media World — FEAR OF WHAT OTHERS MIGHT THINK.
In order to succeed in social media, any brand, business or individual must be willing and able to consistently DOCUMENT everything around them. But documenting requires one to pull out their cell phones and cameras, to record the environment on a daily basis. So what is stopping brands and individuals from accomplishing this in a social media tsunami?
Let me start off by defining what I mean by DOCUMENTING:
Documenting is the action of producing content WITHOUT OBSESSIVE ATTENTION TO QUALITY: Grabbing a cell phone, or any camera around, and recording ones activities; showing the world a passion for your brand or service; recording testimonials, events, accomplishments, product development and anything else in one’s daily activities of building the brand.
It is first and foremost a MINDSET. If you simply grasp the fact that the ability to DOCUMENT every step of the way is something unique to this generation, it will become easier to take advantage of it.
Fear is something you must also overcome. The worry about what others think of you is one of the biggest issues anyone who embarks upon this journey faces. You start going off in all direction: “People are going to think I’m weird,” “I’m not meant for this,” “What would my mom say?”
I mean, it’s TRUE, even with myself! I have the most supporting wife in the universe. She’s been my #1 fan every step of the way. But… When I started getting the idea of becoming an influencer I would say: “Baby, I have so much knowledge I can help people with, I want to start doing videos and spreading it all over the world.”
Believe it or not, she would laugh! And she would say things to me like, “Calm down baby!”
She never meant any harm, but when she told me these things it created self-doubt. It’s just a weird idea for most people that today we have in our hands the power to become true influencers. And if you doubt yourself, you who are at least trying to see what you could possibly do — imagine the people around you! It happens in the best families! In the best relationships! In the best friendships! It happens to all of us.
Look at my dad. All of his kids laughed in his face when he said to us 10 years ago that he wanted to be the biggest health educator in Latin America. It was HILARIOUS to us. We couldn’t stop laughing for 20 mins, so un-supportive!
And then…
Here he is doing a seminar to 6,000 people in Mexico on Health. And not only that — becoming THE official diet of the second biggest state in Mexico, Coahuila.
Here he is last weekend on a paid seminar in Orlando:
His YouTube channel and Facebook page are currently generating 15 million views EVERY SINGLE MONTH.
So who’s laughing now? Definitely not any of his four kids. We love our dad, we think he’s amazing and an incredible person. But not even us, with all this passion and respect for him, could TRULY believe what he was capable of accomplishing in just a few short years. Sure, he’s had my help along the way, but without his hard work and without his content, I wouldn’t have been able to do much.
So as you can see, this issue is quite common. Even within our own family, the moment we start stepping outside the box, the moment we make some solid decisions about going down a specific path, we become aliens.
We become strangers because we are doing something that is quite strange to most people: Picking up our cameras, our smart phone, and talking to them; taking pictures of ourselves; shooting random videos mid day; talking to a cell phone without a communication being sent back; doing an Instagram story; posting a video on Facebook; and on and on and on — DOCUMENTING. Exposing yourself to the world!
If I, myself, have gone through this battles of self-doubt, even though I’ve been an extrovert my whole life, I can understand that this is one of the biggest battles to win in order to succeed in the social media world.
It actually boils down to this: Can you eventually put aside those feelings of insecurity, self-doubt, and worry about what your mom, aunt, dad, brother, cousin or neighbor think about you? If you can, if you can break those heavy shackles, you WILL WIN. I know, because I’ve been there and am now WINNING because I broke through.
It wasn’t easy, I’ll admit to that. But with enough persistence YOU can also break through THE FEAR OF WHAT OTHERS THINK ABOUT YOU.
But if you don’t conquer this fear, if you decide to succumb to it, you will undoubtedly fail in this social media era of opportunity.
People keep asking me… “Manuel, why do you keep talking about the opportunity?” That this question is still being asked tells you how massive the opportunities are. For anyone who’s smart, it’s easy to understand why.
Here’s a summary:
Financial systems are built on communications systems. Meaning, when you have WORLDWIDE communication systems in place, your potential for producing income has suddenly become not 10 times better, but thousands of times better. With COMMUNICATIONS systems you can capture the most important asset in the universe: ATTENTION. And with ATTENTION you can generate that thing coveted by people the most: MONEY.
Pretty obvious, right? Social media platforms like Facebook are controlling the attention of the population to a large extent. People and companies should be jumping all over that and building their dreams… But they’re not.
After doing seminars to thousands of entrepreneurs all over the world in the last few years I can honestly tell you something: Over 99% of the population of the online world is completely unaware of the potential Social Media brings with it for each and every one of us. Is it late in the game? NO! Quite the opposite, this game is just beginning.
So have fun, build your dreams, document your life, your business, your adventures. Become a superstar. You might not know it yet, but with enough persistence and dedication the potential is in there somewhere and it will come to flourish. I see it time and time again. Where do you think all these social media celebrities were at before? Not too long ago they were just normal people who decided to influence the world and overcome their fears. You CAN do the same.
So:
- Stop caring about what people think about you. Who cares? Even if they are good people! Realize what you’re trying to do has only been done by .0001% of the population, so it’s weird and people react to it! Expect reactions. Expect doubts. Even from those closest to you.
- Just start DOCUMENTING. No matter how crazy you feel. Every step of the way. Whatever comes naturally to you. Educate, Inspire, Entertain. Like Nike says: “Just do it”!
Do this enough, and you my friend, will become a star in your own right!
Good luck and please share your thoughts and any results of your application of this article.
