The key to growth, it really is in your hands.
And if you've watched my last couple of videos you know that that's what I've been trying
to get to the root of.
And if you want to check out those last two videos that I gave you two exercises to go
through, to really get to the root of how you can show up authentically as you.
So those links are in the description below this video so you can check those out and
do those exercises.
And in today's video, I teased this in the last video, because I'm so excited to dive
into this exercise with you because it is one of the most powerful things I've ever
done.
And it's something that I have done with a lot of people privately, but I've never actually
done it here on my channel.
So, if you are starting to think about how you are the leader and how you are the hero
and in when it comes to social media, how you can get people to want to follow you as
their hero and their leader, we're really going to get into the details of how to do
that and how to share your story, and what kind of content topics you can create.
And I can guarantee you, by the end of the video, you'll have so many content topics
and content ideas for social media in an authentic, true to yourself way that your mind will explode.
So if you're excited about this, be sure to hit that like button.
I'm really, really excited to share this with you.
So, based on last week's video, I just wanted to acknowledge a few of the comments that
really, really touched me.
I am reading through all of them.
I may not have responded to your comment yet, but believe me, I'm reading them.
And the first one was, "Your last few videos remind me of the quote, 'True leaders don't
create followers, they create more leaders.'
Sunny, you are truly enabling so many of us to reach our full potential and lead."
That makes me so happy.
Brianna Jay said, "I personally believe it's those hardships and downfalls that are creating
us into the hero of our story, and once we start looking for the lesson or blessing in
the darkness we face, that is when we find the hero within our own self."
Yes, Brianna, you get it.
That's exactly what I'm saying.
We all go through things and we all have a journey.
We all have a story.
And oftentimes the hard things we go through are not the things that we want to highlight,
but oftentimes those things are where our best lessons come from.
And there's an amazing quote by Albert Einstein and it says, "The only source of knowledge
is experience," and that dude was a genius.
So, you have to think of your experience and the things that you've been through as the
lessons that you can ultimately teach.
Everyone is a teacher in their own right if they give themselves the allowance and the
space to share what they've been through, there's always a lesson hidden in there.
I talked about how I used to be a journalist, and I used to have to find that lesson in
every single person I spoke to, no matter who they were, whether they were a celebrity,
or whether they were somebody who owned a local business.
Every single person has experience to share, and that experience turns into the things
that people need to hear most from you.
So, I'm so excited.
The thing I want to say before we get into this exercise and I actually have a fill in
the blank exercise.
So this is going to be good.
You are your niche.
You know that thing that you're trying to figure out, and honestly, I think it's one
of the biggest questions I get asked is how do I find a niche?
What niche should I be in, et cetera?
And that's really focused on the science of YouTube because the science of YouTube needs
to figure out where to categorize you in the algorithm.
But here's the really simple truth.
You, you, you are your niche.
Every experience you've had, everything you've been through, that's your niche.
That's what you should be teaching to the world.
It's not going to come from studying other people or looking externally.
There are tactics and things you can do around that, but you really are your niche.
And we're going to shape that today.
So, I asked six questions a couple of videos ago to get to the root of that.
One was, what's the hardest thing that you've ever been through?
What's a problem that you've had to solve for yourself?
What's the most painful thing you've ever been through?
What makes you different or unique?
What do people always ask you for help with?
And then what are the greatest lessons that you've learned?
And then in the last video, I asked you to think of yourself as a leader and a hero because
you are, and I wanted you to think of if somebody was to make a movie about you or do a story
on you, how would they position you as the hero, not as the villain, not as the victim,
as the hero.
And it's such an important exercise to think of yourself in that way because you have to
believe you're worthy of being seen, in order for other people to see you.
So, that's what we're going to do.
We're going to actually write your hero's journey.
And this is the exercise that I've been kind of like leading up to for a really long time
now, and I'm excited to share it.
So this is combining the heart and the science.
So it's going to show you how to create content that's true to you, and then also take that
and turn it into something that's going to get discovered through the science and the
algorithms.
So, literally a fill in the blank.
All the answers to those questions, everything that you thought of when you thought of your
painful experiences and your triumphs in your life, it's going to fill in these blanks.
So the first one is this, your zero state and key pain points.
So I was at my lowest, most frustrated, most challenged, most stuck point when I was blank.
So you want to fill in that blank.
What is that blank?
I can guarantee it's probably going to come from the answer of those questions.
This is the first part of your story.
Read this sentence and fill in that blank.
The next piece of your story is this, your hero state.
I was craving, let's say, freedom.
I was craving being real and showing up as myself.
I was craving working with people that I couldn't wait to work with in order to achieve a business
that I really loved, a brand that I really loved.
So I'm going to give you a few examples of this in a second, but those are your blanks
to fill out for the next piece of your story.
And you're going to just write this as one paragraph and just start to let it marinate
and start to think about what these could be filled in with.
And they will come from those six questions and they will also come from your life's movie
and the story where you're positioned as the hero.
The next one is the required shift and transformation.
So I had to shift from working myself silly, working myself into the ground, burning myself
out to figuring out how to create a business that worked for me and not against me.
That would be an example of something that I would put into those blanks.
And that's part of your journey because every journey, every story has a beginning, middle,
and end.
The shift and the transformation is really your middle, working towards your hero outcome.
The next piece is resources and content examples.
This is where you're going to start to see that maybe there's already people out there
who are talking about what you want to talk about and have a bunch of content examples
of things that have worked with their audience, which is probably a similar audience to who
you're trying to attract.
So, to learn more about this, I turned to books, podcasts, blogs, magazines, influencers,
experts in your field.
Who did you turn to, to find these answers?
Who did you turn to, to learn, to get out of that challenged, frustrated, zero state?
How did you ultimately correct the path and get to a place where you were able to solve
your own problem?
What were the things that you looked at?
These are all examples of things that you could be talking about.
And these are all examples of people who have been down the same path and found the solution
that you're trying to provide as well, and it's proof that people need it because they
have an audience.
You can have an audience too.
The next one is the expertise you can teach.
When I achieved or made it, I shifted to a business that I loved and working with clients
that I was so excited about.
Or I've shifted to showing up as who I really am to build an audience that was invested
in me as a person, and not just me as a talking head educator.
Sound familiar?
That's my story.
So fill in that blank.
What did you have to shift to in order to get to where you ultimately wanted to go?
Did you have to change your business model?
Did you have to change your relationships?
Did you have to change your finances?
Did you have to change your spiritual beliefs?
Did you have to change anything in your life you've had to change, what was it, what was
that shift?
Because that right there is the experience and the expertise that you can ultimately
achieve.
Maybe you are struggling with a health issue and you worked through it and you found the
right things to pull together to solve it or heal it for yourself.
That's experience that a lot of people probably need, and I've seen that firsthand that there're
a lot of people who have found the right remedy for themselves, and then they are able to
teach it to others.
The core desired feelings.
I felt when I achieved, so this is when I achieve that outcome.
I felt free, confident, happy, and at peace with myself.
Fill in those blanks.
How did you feel?
How did you feel in those moments?
Because whatever you're feeling, the audience you're building is craving to feel those same
things.
So you can speak and think and act like them because you are them.
And then the zero state and key pain points.
So this is a repeat of that first question.
I went from being in that challenge state, so burnt out, exhausted, lonely, anxious,
et cetera, to the hero state, to feeling liberated and free so that I could show up as myself
wholeheartedly and feel no shame around it.
Whatever that is for you, this hero state is what you've achieved, and what other people
are looking to learn from you.
That's how you write a hero's journey.
And the thing to understand is that you really are a mirror for your audience.
So whatever you put out there, whatever your experience as a person is, those are the lessons
you need to teach.
And you're going to attract people into your audience that are needing those same lessons,
and you're just a mirror of what they can become.
And even if you aren't thinking of yourself as a hero quite yet, this exercise should
help you see that you are, you are a leader, and you have valuable experience and lessons
to share.
And I wanted to share something with you because this will help you kind of have more light
bulb moments around this.
So, Ms. Dory Linda said, "Sunny, I love these videos.
Showing up on YouTube as ourselves gives others permission to do the same in their own lives.
I did a video a while ago where I shared the challenges I've had in my career journey,
and someone emailed me to say that that was the video that helped them decide that they
wanted me to help them with their career journey too.
They said it was because they no longer felt like I would negatively judge the struggles
they were having.
It blew my mind."
So showing up imperfectly, showing up with your experience makes you relatable.
It creates true connection for people to say, "That's who I want to look at.
And that's who I want to listen to."
A lot of the comments on my channel recently have been about how I used to feel like I
was unrelatable and too perfect and too perky and positive all the time, which I am just
an optimistic person.
I'm perky, that's never going to change.
But since I've shown up with no edits and just raw and real, you feel like you know
me and you feel like we can relate on a different level, and we are.
And that's the beauty of showing up as yourself with your whole story.
And then Jola said, "What you said is so true.
We are the heroes of our own journey.
I healed myself after 20 years of living with endometriosis and recently did a channel to
teach the girls to do the same so that they can teach their daughters and friends.
What you're afraid to share is what you should be sharing.
So true.
I was so afraid of sharing my illness and my story, but I feel liberated and at peace
with myself."
That's the beauty of this.
When you share it, it empowers others to do the same, and it creates a situation where
you're able to lead and lead by example and lead through truth, which is something that
we're all craving so much right now.
So, not only will that exercise give you content topics and ideas and people who maybe are
doing something that you ultimately want to do, and building something you ultimately
want to build and have an audience that you're interested in having, so you have proof that
it actually is something that people need and want, but you also can take all of those
topics and every blank that you just filled out, write them down because those are going
to become your content topics on social media, on YouTube, et cetera.
And then all you have to do from there is you have the basis of what you want to talk
about, now you just need to add in the science and figure out, "Okay, how do I structure
the titles to make it keyword friendly, to make it get discovered in the algorithm so
I can start owning that specific category."
See what I mean?
Your niche is you.
It's not going to come from anybody else.
It's not going to come from anyone else's experience.
Your niche is you.
Isn't that an amazing thing that we're at a place in time where you can do this and
that people want to hear your story?
So it's really your responsibility to show up, and share it, and tell it, and talk about
everything from your losses, your pain points, your triumphs, your victories, the things
you're proud of.
Those are the things that people want to hear and see right now.
Not perfection, not fake Lamborghinis and bullshit like that.
No judgment, but seriously, I think we're over that phase.
People want real.
And I think that this channel and the recent shift in my content has been a good sign of
proof of that.
So the content topics that we just talked about through creating your hero's journey,
that's the heart.
And then you just match that with the science.
But you start with the heart of it all, the heart and the art.
And then the power and the depth of your audience, the people who are going to be with you for
life, that comes from your authenticity, whereas the reach and your growth is going to come
from the algorithm and they work hand in hand, but it has to start from here.
I showed you exactly how to do that.
And that's an exercise that I want you to go through and you don't have the answers
right now, but really think about it because I know you can fill in all those blanks.
I really do.
I know you can.
So it's a really exciting thing to do because it gives so much clarity to what, ultimately,
what you want to be creating, and what's going to make you feel excited to create.
So you're not following another mold or trying to copy someone else's success pattern, but
it's based around you and who you really are and how you want to show up as yourself.
And I think the big thing for me is that I know that I've talked a lot about showing
up authentically and it's not...
Your story is not about comparing one to the other because listen, there is a lot going
on in the world right now.
We all know that, and everybody has a story and everybody has a journey and it's not about
comparing and saying, "Oh, woe is me and my life has been so hard," and all of that stuff.
That's not what this is about.
It's that if you strip away the layers, you recognize that every person on the planet
has a story.
And it's not about comparison to another person's story or judgment of another person's story.
It's about connection.
Because when we show up as ourselves, like you have said to me, it empowers others to
do the same.
And if we all showed up more as ourselves, we would feel a hell of a lot more connected
than we are right now, and it would create less of a divide.
So, there's power in every aspect, the wins and the losses, the pain and the pride.
There's power in all of it.
And that all needs to be incorporated into your story and that's where your endless stream
of content ideas are going to come from because no matter how long you've been on the planet,
you've been through some stuff.
And those are the lessons that you ultimately can teach.
And so, I want to lead by example, and I got a comment from Debbian Angel, love that last
name, "By the way, this video encourages me to really release a video of me being scared
and just being me.
I already scheduled to be released.
I feel better seeing this now," and that was on last week's video.
And I recognize I've talked a lot about authenticity and I really do believe that our greatest
power lies in that authenticity and in showing up as who we are and empowering those around
us to do the same, so we can strip away all of the fake, and bullshit, and crap, and stuff
that is putting on a front to protect ourselves.
And so, I think I am ready to share my story.
And again, I just want to preface, I am so aware that I've lived a privileged life and
sharing my story, it's not about me sharing it to say I've had it rough because I haven't.
But I have a dream and I've been through some things.
And if I'm going to teach you how to do this, I think I need to do the same.
So, I guess this is my commitment.
Oh God.
Next video, I'm going to commit to this.
I'm going to show up and I'm going to share my story.
I have no idea what it's going to look like, but I'm going to do it because hopefully,
it empowers you to do the same and to not feel shame around things that you've been
through.
And hopefully, it shows you that being authentic and being true to yourself is truly the way
to grow an audience and to connect with human beings, regardless of where we're from, what
we look like, et cetera, because our stories create empathy.
And Lord knows, we could use a little more of that right now, and also it'll show you
that the key to growth, honestly, the key to growth is in your hands.
It's in the palm of your hands.
It's not out there.
It's in here, it's in here.
You've got this.
So hopefully, this created some light bulb moments.
I cannot wait to hear what you took from this video, and you can leave it in the comments
below.
Yeah.
I love reading your comments.
They've been so amazing and so deep recently, and I know I haven't been able to comment
on everybody's, but just so you know, I am seeing them and they really do mean the world.
So tell me what you thought of this whole exercise.
It's so powerful, and wish me luck.
Next week, you'll get to know me on a level that I've never talked about publicly.
I'll see you there.
Lots of love.
Bye.