Gangsta rapper Da Lux gets shot. He almost dies.
Now he's more popular than ever. His records are flying off the shelves.
Marvin, a member of Da Lux's crew, is jealous. He wants to get shot, too.
So he pays $7,000 to a mafioso to shoot him in a “fleshy part of the thigh”.
“But I don’t want to know when it’s coming,” he says.
One day, he’s picking up some hamburgers. The mafioso’s waiting outside. He shoots Marvin in the ass.
This is the plot from an episode of The Sopranos. It’s not a real story.
But it’s based on something real: most gangsta rappers aren’t actually gangsters.
(They just pretend to be gangsters, because they think it’ll help them sell records.)
The fake ones usually don’t have great careers. Most of them have a decent album or two, then fade from the public eye.
The real ones, who actually lived the life — like Snoop Dogg, Ice-T, and 50 Cent — usually last a lot longer. Because people can tell their music is real.
The online info-product space works the same way. Most people are faking it.
Tons of people position themselves as smarter than they actually are, brag about how great they are, and hide all their flaws.
The problem is, when you “fake it”, people can subconsciously tell.
(Especially the type of people who spend thousands of dollars on courses and coaching. Those are the people you want to impress. People like that tend to be pretty smart, and they tend to have pretty good BS detectors.)
The irony is, you don’t need to be fake.
If you're a rapper, you don’t have to pay $7K to get shot in the ass. Plenty of rappers — like Kanye and Eminem — build great careers by just talking about their lives.
And if you sell coaching or info products, you don't need to be fake, either.
You can build a great personal brand just by being yourself, warts and all.
(Even if you haven’t 100% “made it” yet.)
In fact, you usually make MORE sales by showing some of your flaws. It builds a stronger connection with your audience.
So even if you haven’t “made it” yet, I recommend just being yourself.
Be real, be authentic, and be vulnerable.
Tell your story.
-Theo