My toes curled as I read a coach-who-should-know-better drop a line on a FB post over the weekend.
In fact curling toes were the mildest symptoms of my unease.
She advised some random lost soul to not worry about positioning, branding or copywriting, and instead…wait for it…
“Just Be Yourself”
After my toes curled as far back as they’d go, my neck hair stood on end, my tummy twirled and my teeth started to itch. That’s how I react to useless advice these days, especially when it might be misinterpreted as wisdom by some of my community.
Look, “being yourself” is all you can ever be, and also the least anyone expects you to be. Everybody on earth is pretty good at being themselves. It’s probably the ultimate empty, meaningless platitude in all of marketing.
Here are some better ideas:
- Be someone who strives for continuous improvement, every day
- Be persistent and resistant to criticism and setbacks
- Be useful to the people who need you most
- Be obsessed with your business
- Be happy. Have fun
And if any of those things coincide and overlap with who you are anyway, all the better.
But try a little bit harder than just being yourself, please.
Love you lots
Jonny
PS: As we’re still buzzing about the never-to-be-repeated milestone of my 2,500 Daily Brain Tattoos last Tuesday, I’m releasing a copy of my latest eBook “The 2025 Coaching And Consulting Success Blueprint” – [Five Things you Must Be Doing To Survive And Thrive This Year] – just for you.
Just reply with “2,500 – that’s amazing!” and I’ll make sure you get a copy by return.
If I can write two-and-a-half-thousand of these bloody things, it’s the least you can do.