Professional or Authentic?

Written By Dino Gomez

Want Hands On Mentorship to Grow Your Coaching Business? Book a Free Strategy Call With One of Our Scaling Experts. ​

Our scaling experts can help decide if you are a fit for one of our coaching programs. We have various programs for coaches are different experience levels in their business.

Transcription

Hey, you guys, Dino Gomez here and you are listening to the Secrets of Coaching podcast, where we break down the nuances of growing a seven figure online coaching business. And we are about to get started in 3 2 1.

In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about whether you should be cursing in your marketing and online and how you should dress, how you should look if you need to be professional, how authentic you should be. All of these things, these are questions that we receive sometimes from our clients is like, hey, how do I find my voice? How do I find my brand?

Who do I need to be?

So let’s dive into this, guys. Should you be cursing? Should there be should you be wearing normal clothes? Do you have to have makeup on? All of these different questions, right? Where do we draw the line online? I kind of like that one there. Draw the line online in terms of being professional versus authentic. Real quickly, guys, it is Sunday over here. I’m batch recording some of these episodes. It’s been an amazing day so far. I slept in a little bit, which for me, that means sleeping until about eight, got up, jogged down to the beach with Kona. We ran on the sand for about an hour, came home, showered, made her breakfast, and then I took back off with my laptop, found a coffee shop by the beach and wrote some more emails because that was something that we need to do is have some more new emails and new content. So I got those done. Been very productive. They did some podcast episodes, did some video recording. I was just in the mood today to work on a weekend, and it’s been awesome. I hope you guys are having an awesome day as well.

How professional do you need to be? Do you need to wear a suit? Do you need to have a professional background? Do you need to have all the fancy video and audio equipment and all of the different things? Here is what we always share with our clients, and we have so many case studies on this. The worst thing that you can do in your marketing and for your branding is to copy someone else that is a competitor. All right, so this often happens online, right? We see somebody who’s doing super well, and we go, oh, okay. I’m going to copy absolutely everything that they’re doing, including their persona, how they show up. They wear a suit. I’m wearing a suit. They have this in the background. I’m going to have my background look the same for my videos. They curse. I’m going to curse. They don’t curse. I’m not going to curse. They have makeup on and they always look done up. I’m going to have makeup on and always look done up. So again, we oftentimes I think that that’s the secret to success. And there’s a difference between modeling and copying. Okay? And so I’ll go through these two differences here.

The worst thing you can do is copy somebody’s branding and their persona, how they present themselves. Here is why, especially you do not want to copy them if they are a larger competitor, that is the worst thing you can do. And here’s why. It’s because they are already in front of you. All right? They’re already much bigger than you. They already have a much bigger audience, right? They already have more experience. They already have more systems and things put in place. So if you literally copy them, start talking like them, start dressing like them, have the same background in your video, start covering the same topics as them. If you do all of that, you are literally making it impossible for the marketplace to choose you over them. Because now you are just a clone of them. But guess what? They are bigger. They probably have more testimonials. They probably have more clients, a bigger team. They have more resources. You’re just a watered down version of them now. So you are literally putting yourself at a disadvantage by copying them. Now, with that said, you can go ahead and model things that they are doing.

Oh, my gosh, I noticed that they are doing a lot of TikTok videos and driving a lot of traffic with TikTok. Maybe I need to get on TikTok as well and use that as a platform. That’s modeling. But the ticktock account that you create and the content and the things that you do there should be authentic to you, right? You’re presenting yourself differently. You’re covering different topics. You have a different stories and opinions and things that you’re sharing and a different offer than them. All of those things. But you’re modeling the fact that, hey, this platform is working for them or this thing is working for them. All right? That’s the difference between copying and modeling. You never want to copy, especially a bigger competition, because your biggest advantage is the fact that you are you, are you. And as long as you remain true to yourself and who you are with your own voice, your own style, your own way of dressing, your own stories, your own messaging, your own branding and all those things, then people can see how your marketplace can see how you are different than a larger competition. And when you become relatable to a segment of that audience, they are going to choose you over the larger competition.

They’re going to say, hey, I just like the stories this person tells. I like their voice. I like how they explain this concept here. I feel closer to them than the bigger competition. So that’s how you be bigger competition, the authentically yourself. And so there’s no right or wrong. All right? Do I need to be professional? I’m a business coach. I always be in a suit. Guys, I wear t-shirts, and I joke around a lot, and I have fun in my business, and we’re very successful. And our clients that come to work with us, they like that feel, that vibe that we give out. Right. And there’s others in the marketplace who are very professional and have wear suits and do things like that, and they’re going to attract their perfect clients to them who also like that whole professional persona and so forth. Right. Again, you want to be authentically yourself, because again, when you are authentically yourself, whether that’s cursing professional, unprofessional, done up, looking good, or dressed down and looking casual, whatever it is now, nobody can copy you because it’s impossible. They can be a watered down version of trying to copy you and emulate you, but they will never be you.

And so now you’re giving yourself that advantage there. And so the answer to that is always be authentically yourself. There’s no right or wrong. What’s cool is the day and age that we live in. You don’t have to. Your only option is not to put on a professional persona. And there’s so many different examples of this. The example I’ll give you guys really quickly, one of my favorite motivational speakers is Eric Thomas. He’s now the third highest motivational speaker in the world. Tony Robbins is number one. Eric Thomas is number three. And Eric Thomas came up very quickly in the industry. He started on doing YouTube videos in his basement with, I think, just his phone. And it wasn’t, like, perfect lighting. It wasn’t, like, video editing done to it. It wasn’t this whole production. And at that point in time, Tony Robbins had the team and the brand and the production and all the things. So how did Eric Thomas come out of nowhere and create this massive movement and brand and fan base himself and grow to becoming the third highest paid motivational speaker in the world? How did he do that so quickly?

He was just authentically himself. He’s from the inner city. So he talks like he’s from the inner city. He’s not trying to be a version of Tony Robbins. He has his own stories, his own metaphors, his own life examples, his own way of motivating you. He screams and waves his arms, and he wears jeans and a T shirt, and he has his own brand that’s very different than the Tony Robbins brand. And for that reason, there is a segment of the marketplace, a large segment that’s like.

Hey, you know what?

I really like this Eric Thomas guy. I like his message. I want to continue to follow him. Right. And so he built his own following and his own fan base based on just being himself and his own way of motivating you in a different manner in style and light than Tony Robbins. And so that’s a perfect example. Gary Vaynerchuk is another perfect example. He’s out there with baggy jeans and a T shirt and always cursing and all these things. His company is now valued at a billion dollars. I just heard he could literally sell his marketing agency for a billion dollars and so he did that wearing a t-shirt and baggy jeans and doing the complete opposite of what a business consultant might have been had to do 30 years ago to come across as professional in a corporate environment. So that’s where the marketplace is now. You can be authentic yourself. It is appreciated and so people are looking for that real. So in case you were wondering who you should be, what is my voice? Just be you. Just be you. I hope that’s helpful. My friends will chat with you soon.

Hey Dino, Gomez here and if you enjoyed this, so be sure to head on over to the secretsofcoaching.com for more resources, downloads, videos and cheatsheets to help you grow your online coaching business. All right. And if you picked up a cool tip or strategy from this particular episode, we would love a five star review where every single month we choose one lucky winner to win access to one of our coaching programs. All right. So that is it for this episode. Guys, we will see you in the next one. Bye.

Related Blog Post:

RECENT ARTICLES

How To Raise Your Prices Without Losing Clients [For Coaches & Course Creators]

How much Money Can New Coaches Make? $22,500 Case STudy.