Sneaky Awesome
“Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.”
- Miles Davis
Miles has it right, it is really hard to sound like yourself. You need time. You need reps. Most importantly you need the confidence to make mistakes.
Initially you’ll sound like someone else and that is most likely a necessary part of the process. Once you’ve gotten hip to what others are saying, the through lines will slowly start to emerge and you can experiment with combinations of old ideas that take on a fresh hue only attributable to you.
One strategy that has been sneaky useful for me is posting on Instagram. 1000+ posts deep and the process, counter to my intuition has strangely made me better. It’s made me a better personal trainer, a better massage therapist and a better teacher.
You see, I’m the dumbass who uses Instagram as a blog. I film my cat or myself doing something ridiculous, then I get to the real business of writing something that almost no one will read. There’s something amazing about concisely writing down your thoughts on a daily basis. That 2200 word constraint helps me process things I’m learning and get a grip on what it is I actually think. It also helps me to get the fuck over myself and make some mistakes. The incessant fear of being “correct”, “right”, “evidence based” or whatever is nonsense and it is strong with me for reasons I don’t totally understand. Best way to get over that shit is to make a few mistakes and be wrong every now and again. Stay open, keep learning, take it easy on yourself and work to be less wrong in the future.
As I’ve worked through a variety of movement and manual therapy ideas, I’ve written about it in real time. As I took FRC and PRI courses, I wrote about it. As I got more into Strength and Conditioning, I wrote about it. As I learned more about the Biopsychosocial model, I wrote about it. As I had successes and failures with clients, I wrote about it. And when I was sick of all that shit and just wanted to play music or hang with my cat, I wrote about it.
All to say that using social media to grow a business or as part of a marketing strategy is fine, but using it as a tool to get better at whatever it is you do and slowly becoming a more authentic version of yourself in the process…that is the pro move.
