I've been thinking about who
influences the influencers,
who are the influencers.
Are you trying to influence others
to the point that you are moulding
yourself into the image
of who you think
those you are trying to influence
want you to be?
I know that's confusing, but
I'm going to break it down an
influencer as somebody who
influences others.
Now, an influencer is
a full time job on social
media where people are being paid
somehow, whether
it's through receiving promotional
materials, whether it's through
ad revenue, whether
it's through they're actually
getting paid by companies,
but they're being paid somehow
to influence other people
to buy into the lifestyle
that they are living and
buying the
products that are necessary
in order for them to live the
lifestyle that they're trying to
promote. Most influencers, when
you think about them nowadays,
you're thinking of, you know, the
makeup queens and kings,
you know, be party animals.
The people who are
living luxurious
lifestyles.
Well, in reality, a lot
of those influencers are no
longer people who went
up the ranks and social
media where they were
discovered, let's say.
But in reality, a lot of them
have arrived on the scene
these days out of these seemingly
blue.
But in reality, there is a big
PR team that is behind
them and that
they are now just more like
these folks person
and they are being
paid to be who
they are presenting themselves to be
on social media.
Unfortunately, that's beginning
to backfire.
And there has been stories in the
news about young
influencers who lost
track of who they were as
people who they had no
idea who they were any more
and who have fallen
off the grid completely.
And nobody knows where they are
anymore. They just gave up and
walked away from it all.
So that's what an influencer
is.
But we are all being influenced
somehow, whether we want to admit
it or not.
Unless you happen to be up on
a mountain top without the internet
and you wouldn't be watching this
right now, you are being
bombarded by messages
every single day that are trying
to influence you
into either changing your mind
about something or you
buying something that
they're trying to sell to you
with the hope that
your life will be changed if you buy
that item or if you buy
into whatever they're trying to
sell you.
Are you an influencer?
Yes, you are.
If you talk to anyone,
if you type anything to
anyone.
If you walk down the
street, you are influencing
others by your actions,
by your words, and
by the way that you live.
We are all influencing
someone.
Are you being influenced
by those people who you
are trying to influence?
Yes, you are.
And there is a huge temptation,
especially on social media,
where you are drawn to social media
in the first place because
you felt that you had
something of positive
value that might make the difference
in someone's life.
For example, those of us who have
got YouTube channels or
websites or that kind of thing,
we're on these things
because we feel we have a
message.
But if we are trying
to broaden our audience
so more people hear
what we have to say because we
really think what we have to say
is of importance and it might
make a positive change in somebodies
life. We might get them thinking
about something they never thought
about before.
We might help them get out of a
slump they're in or
we might have something
that we've gone through that
we've learned things to do
to get out of that area
and we'd like other people to know
about it. Or maybe we just
got a great lifestyle
that we have began
to walk in and
we just want to share it with other
people because, hey, maybe they'll
want to do something to
follow their own dreams.
OK, so that covers a whole
lot of people who might be watching
this. I just want to give a word
of caution.
Speaking from my own
experience, not necessarily
here on YouTube,
but in my past, I
tried to create myself
to be in the image
of whatever group I
was hoping to be part
of.
If it was the cool kids, I would
try to be a cool kid.
If it was the intellectuals, I would
be as intellectual
as I could be if it was a party.
Animals. I tried to
party.
You get the idea,
but I lost who
I was.
All these parts were factions
of who I am as a person.
It wasn't like I was
a deep introvert trying to be an
extrovert.
All these things were part of who I
actually was.
But in order to
fit in to what I was trying
to fit into, I would leave
parts of me behind
and emphasize parts
of me that perhaps I wouldn't always
emphasize somewhere else.
If you get any idea what I'm talking
about, I came to
the realization the
older that I got and the more
healing that took place in my
own heart that
people were being put
off by me trying
to fit in to whatever
group that I thought
I wanted to be part of.
Got to be honest, I find it
utterly, totally exhausting
to try to figure
out what a particular group
wants me to be at any particular
time in order for me to be
accepted by that group,
in order that whatever message
I might have to say will be
heard by that group.
I just don't care anymore.
And that's what the real truth
is. There's one good reason
beyond the fact that it's totally
exhausting to hold up
a facade
of who you think people want you to
be. It exhausts you.
It's like your arms get tired.
If you're holding a mask up, your
spirit and your emotions
become exhausted when you're trying
to be something to someone else that
you're not. And the mirror
of that is people
know when you
are trying to be something
that you're just not,
they see it and it puts
them off.
And with every generation
in the last 30 years,
people are more and more
turned off by those who are
not being their true and
real selves.
Well, yeah.
They're popular on YouTube.
Everybody wants to do all their
makeup tips and all that kind of
stuff.
But they've got a very small
group of friends and they've
actually got a very small
group of people
they're actually influencing
in a positive way.
And most of them have become so
lost in the character
that they think others want them to
be, they've lost themselves.
So I'm just going to end it there.
Just think about it.
Who is influencing you?
Are you trying to be an influencer
or are you trying to bring
a positive change in whatever
way you think that positive
change can be?
