after living in an airbnb in australia for most of 2021 nat and i have made our way back to the
us it feels really good to start to get back into a routine again even if it's not perfect
we've been spending a lot of time with family i've been getting back to the gym and i've been eating
somewhat healthy the year is making a last-minute turnaround because it hasn't all been that great
so back in 2018 this was right when my youtube channel first started to take off and gain some
traction i got an email the subject line was coffee no strings i opened it up and there was
nothing but an audio message here's the deal i own a coffee roasting company i want to send
you coffee you enjoy coffee i want to send you some not in a shitty i hope you feature it on
your youtube channel or talk about it on the podcast kind of way but just in the friendly
wake up in the morning enjoy it for yourself and be happy kind of way the reason that i bring this
up isn't to talk about his coffee which is great it's because i got a really important takeaway
from that message that chris sent years ago now if you want to find success today it really requires
you to build your network and gain connections there are a few takeaways that i got from chris's
message that have stuck with me to this day one add value so many times we message people and
we're trying to get something from them we're all thinking about it from the perspective of
what can i get out of this instead of what chris did which is what can i give and then
to be original to to not just send a long-winded email but to record a high-quality audio clip keep
it really short and simple uh that originality made it stand out from the other messages that
i was getting at the time and the third and probably most difficult to be authentic he was
truly authentic in that message you could just tell how unscripted and off the cuff he was since
receiving that message years ago i've gotten to know chris and his company more i haven't visited
their headquarters in santa cruz to get a tour of their facilities he's been on my youtube channel
and i've been on his podcast and all that happened because that first message he sent me that's how
an email turned into a friendship and that's how i ended up with this coffee in my hands right now
this actually has a lot to do with the big idea i want to talk about in this video but first
hey so just a quick heads up the enrollment for my youtube course is going to be closing on november
18th that is about 24 hours from the time that i upload this video i made master youtube because
i wanted to teach you everything that i've learned about how to grow a youtube channel
how to build an audience for yourself and how to make really great videos and so if
you're just getting started out or if you feel like you're stuck with your growth or if you're
just looking for your creative edge head over to slowgrowth.com master youtube to enroll today and
so i can teach you all the steps to how to build a successful youtube channel with integrity if
you want to invest in your youtube journey now is the time to do it because the course is not going
to be open for enrollment for until probably the middle of next year so truly appreciate
you considering and if you want to check it out just check the link down in the description below
so when i think about the three things that chris baca brought to that message that he sent me
adding value making it original being authentic the first two they're not easy but they're
somewhat straightforward the third one is where things get a little bit murky authenticity is
something that is so difficult and so rare today when you look around at social media today it's
clear that we're facing a crisis of authenticity and there are a few reasons why first people are
trying to be somebody that they aren't they use instagram as a kind of public resume to show
everybody how great their life is it's why people virtue signal it's why they spend hours trying to
come up with a quippy caption it's why they try to find the best angle possible for that photo
and it's why people pretend to know everything when they actually don't we're desperately trying
to prove to people and sometimes to ourselves that we are worthy and that we are successful in so
many ways we are playing the same games we played in high school it's just a popularity contest
and then there's another reason why authenticity is really hard to nail online and it comes from
a really a more practical place it's the fact that authenticity is so difficult to bring into
a square block on instagram or a 10 minute video on youtube how do you sum up who you are all of
your flaws everything that you've done right and wrong in life your weird idiosyncrasies how do you
bring that into content and i notice this with my own work i i see the way that some people respond
to my work and i realize that i am not who a lot of people think that i am some people think that
i'm this productivity master that i am a self-help guru and i am actually that's actually those
things are all true no they're not you if you know me if you've been watching my videos for a while
you know that i try to bring as many of my flaws all of my doubts and insecurities to the surface i
try to actually be myself and present uh the most accurate version of myself to you so you don't
feel like there's this weird disconnect between your life and mine because i go through a lot of
the same problems and a lot of the same struggles just not every single one of them makes their way
into a youtube video over the past year alone i've gone through a lot that i haven't haven't
talked about on this channel i've struggled to build consistent routines completely fell off my
workout schedule for months i have eaten obscene amounts of ice cream and sweets and snacks i
purchased some things that i never use i've had some really difficult conversations with people
that i care about and i have more than on a few occasions put things off to the last minute like
making this youtube video the day before it goes live i'm not perfect i have my problems i have my
flaws at times i procrastinate i struggle to stay motivated i second guess myself all the time and
i cannot shake this feeling that i am behind i have had this feeling i think my whole life
it's the reason why i started my company slow growth it was more as a reminder to me
to slow down and embrace the journey and to not be so freaking hard on myself but i cannot shake this
feeling that i am behind and i am always trying to catch up and i fear that i will always feel
that i think we often take that advice to fake it until you make it to heart and it makes sense
and it comes from a really good place because so many of us are struggling with imposter syndrome
we feel like we're not worthy and so we say okay i'm just gonna fake it until like i actually am
successful but sometimes we do this to a fault and sometimes it actually holds us back from
a lot of growth from connecting with people in a truly authentic way i found personally that
sharing some of my most vulnerable moments sharing the times when i've been at my lowest
have helped in so many ways one i know through conversations with with people that i simply
meet on the street that my videos about anxiety me opening up and talking about those really
difficult challenges i've had have helped other people it's related to them it's something that
they were going through maybe they didn't know they were going through it these videos were not
viral they didn't get the most attention but they actually helped a lot of people
um because i was able to you know just be up front and share exactly how i was a feeling instead of
pretending like i had my [ __ ] together which i definitely didn't and the second thing is that
it helped me because i didn't have to hold on to that weight myself i could give it to friends and
family and even my audience to help me carry that that was hugely helpful and i started to
get messages from people people telling me about different things that worked for them telling me
about books they've read books that i have now read and have made an impact and an effect on my
life i'll be the first one to admit that this is a very strange job to put my life out there into
the public and to make these videos that get seen by hundreds of thousands of people it's always
gonna be weird like it's gonna it's a strange thing but it's not that rare because we're all
doing it we're all putting ourselves on the internet or at least 95 percent of the world
is and so whether you're making a living doing it or not i think we all can help to better connect
with the communities around us if we are ourselves if we are authentic if we're not faking it online
if we're actually sharing the truth i'm not gonna lie it is really really challenging to open up in
these ways but just because it's difficult doesn't mean that it's not worth it thank you guys so much
for watching this video i hope you got a thing or two out of it i really appreciate it again if you
want to check out my youtube course um master youtube it's yeah no it's slowgrowth.com/master-youtube
i should know that um but it would truly mean the world to me if right now you're not in
the position where you want to start your channel or if you just don't have the cash right now
uh to join that's totally okay i don't want you to feel any pressure to join the course uh we will be
open again sometime at the middle of next year so i just really appreciate you watching subscribing
to my videos and supporting my content however you can thank you so much and i'll see you next time
i gotta finish this coffee okay i got a little bit left can you see
oh it's just it's just like the last dribble oh by the way uh if you if you're looking for a coffee
subscription i highly recommend that you check out my friend chris baca's coffee company it's called
cat and cloud they're an amazing company um they don't pay me to say this i just uh truly think
they're great people and i think that they're making a company that puts people first and that
is so rare these days and so if you want amazing coffee and if you want to support a small company
check the link in the description below i will link to cat and cloud coffee thanks for everything