In today’s episode, I discuss a key takeaway from the recent election that applies to all of us, regardless of political views: the growing demand for authenticity.

I explore how people are increasingly drawn to real, unfiltered voices and how this shift impacts not only politics but also marketing.

Drawing from examples like Joe Rogan, I discuss the power of bringing your unique voice and values into your content, standing out, and connecting in a more meaningful way with your audience.

Let’s get into it!

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh: 

Hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I am super excited for this week. I have a team member, one of my right-hand girls who just flew in and we are hosting my mastermind retreat. So as a part of Elevate, which is a six month mastermind that I host, super intimate one-on-one coaching with me. We have weekly calls. It’s a very intimate tight knit group, we run it for six months. We have weekly calls. They get some one-on-one calls with me. And then part of that experience is a in-person retreat here in Austin. And so this week is our elevate retreat. And I am so excited because in-person experiences are my absolute favorite thing, the transformation that can happen in person and just the success of evolving compared to when you aren’t in person is so much greater and I learned this firsthand when I started going to retreats and really prioritizing that and then I’ve hosted a couple of retreats myself and I’m just so excited. I’m so excited and I’m so grateful for this opportunity because it’s a whole experience that I’ve curated for these girls and I am also so honored. One of them has flown here from Finland to Austin to be at the retreat. 

And I’m just like, how cool is this? It is so cool. So I will be doing that this week. I will post some behind the scenes on my stories, but I am I’m so excited. So all right. Well, I feel like things are calming down a little bit after the election last week, but I want to talk about something that I think is very valuable. So regardless of who you voted for, regardless of your opinions right now, this actually has nothing to do with the political opinion side of things, although I have had actually several requests for people for me to do a podcast deeper around my beliefs and my thoughts. So I shared a little bit on the podcast last week where I stand politically. I shared it on my social media. I haven’t really done that very directly before. Of course, with that, I got a ton of supportive messages, like 90% support. I got a couple rude, you’re an idiot, unfollow, unsubscribing messages, which is fine. You have free will to do that. And then I had, my favorite was a handful of conversations from people who were like, listen, I really respect you. Like I’ve followed you for years. I respect your thoughts. I respect your brain. or I know you have a good heart.

And I want to understand this because I’m on the other side, but I feel like I’m maybe missing something or like I’m not seeing this. So I want to understand it. And that is what I think we should all be able to do. Last week, I actually intentionally went to different influencers and pages on the other quote side because I wanted to hear what they were saying. I think with social media, we end up in this bubble of only people who agree with us and it’s super dangerous. Anyways, I’m not going to get into my my actual beliefs and thoughts anymore. I’ve had tons of conversations in the DMs and kind of hit my capacity for that and was like, all right, I’m done. like I got to put my energy somewhere else, but I think it is a conversation I would love to have in the future. And I think it’s important, again, to have these conversations and let me come into this with an open mind and then let me make my decisions and my beliefs and my thoughts from there.

Okay, separating that. This is something that I’ve wanted to talk about for a while, but I have felt inspired to talk about it because I think there are lessons in this. So please try your best to separate your actual political views before you listen to this podcast because it really has nothing to do with that. It is what we can all learn from what is happening and bring it into our marketing. I think there are two really significant things that we can learn from the results of this election. And there’s one that I want to focus in on and it has to do directly with your marketing. So that thing that I want to focus on is the concept of authenticity and the concept of connection that people are craving online and looking at this kind of big journey and cycle that we’ve had since the beginning of social media really taking off. And I know I’m young, so I really don’t have a ton of experience with elections and how things used to be like, I can remember them when I was a kid and there wasn’t any social media and what that was like. And like really people listened a lot to the news. But now i can I can reflect back on that and reflect on how it was and really look at how it is now. And it’s significantly different. 

And I think this is such an exciting time to be alive regardless of your beliefs because the actual way that things are being done is changing in front of our eyes. It is so historical. so This piece that I want to talk about is authenticity. and I want to want to think about this because I was reflecting and I’m just fascinated watching this all unfold because I just feel it’s so fascinating. When you look at the candidate of Trump, and you separate what you think about him, you separate what the media thinks about him. He’s not a politician, right? He came from whatever that show was, The Apprentice. Like his background, if you go back before he started running, is business, TV show, he’s not a politician. You can have an opinion on if you like or dislike that, but what attracted so many people to him from the beginning in 2016?

It was actually the fact that he wasn’t a politician and when trump gets up and speaks you you get what you see like the way that he speaks is just who he is and you’re not getting this very scripted polished version of someone that you don’t really trust what they’re saying. If we go back and look at a lot and most other politicians, that’s how they are. Being, quote, political and even when I look at sometimes like in my kids sports, like my daughter’s a part of this  kind of high level soccer club. And I’m like, I hate when the head of the soccer club talks because I’m like, just talk like a normal human and stop being political in your response, like making it all polished and sound good. And it’s like, you’re saying things, but you’re really saying nothing. And I think that that’s what a lot of politicians have historically done. It’s very polished. It’s over promising. It is saying a lot of words that ultimately when you really look at it, it’s like, what are they even saying? And are they going to actually do this? And I think prior to Trump, like when I think about the elections when I was a kid, the sentiment often was like,

Yeah, you know you had the two sides and people wanted their sides to win, but it didn’t really matter, like it does today, who’s president because you knew that on both sides, nothing was really ever going to change like significantly. Then Trump comes along in 2016 and this completely non-politician TV personality, who I think does have a lot of business credit. And that’s a good thing for our country. But people were attracted to that. Why? Because they were tired of the lack of authenticity from other candidates. And I’m not at all sides, both sides. Like if you look at Bush, all of them, I think they have that political, overly polished, you can’t actually trust what they’re saying, version of them. Okay, so you’ve got this with Trump that’s what attracted people to him because that’s the movement that started to happen was people are like we want truth we want to be told something and to believe that it’s true and to cut all of this corruption, cut all of this BS, all of this like the political corruption and government corruption and people say ultimately all these candidates saying things and never fulfilling on the promise. And it’s like it has become so over complicated and so many rules and just like he’s a mess, right? And Trump’s comes in and he’s like, I’m going to get rid of all that. Screw all that.

And again, regardless if you believe it or not, the one thing I want you to see is that that’s what attracted people to him. And that’s also what made the mainstream media hate him because he was a huge threat to the entire system he is because he there’s no like the way that he speaks he’s not political you know that’s how he can go on a joe rogan podcast for three hours and just off the cuff speak nothing is really scripted it’s just you get what you see you either hate him or love him Then you’ve also got the same thing with RFK. And this is why it’s caused so much controversy because I think that oftentimes new is very rejected. And you’re often called crazy for believing something or or seeing something because it is so different than what we were used to. And so when it’s early on, a lot of people really reject that because you’re like, well, who are you to come up and start speaking like that and saying things like that? You’re supposed to be a polished politician and Trump doesn’t care.

What attracted all these people to him though is the authentic perception. Again, regardless if you agree, I think we can all agree when he gets up and speaks, you know that’s exactly who you’re getting. I don’t think we can say that about a lot of politicians on either side. Like you’re getting a polished scripted version that you can’t trust. Same with RFK. You’re getting someone who doesn’t care, speaks their mind, speaks their voice, is going against the grain and standing out, which is what causes people to either love or hate them. Okay. Then. We’ve also got the Joe Rogan podcast that i want I want to tie into this. Okay. I don’t know the valuation of the podcast today, but I do know he sold it for a hundred million dollars a while ago. And I think it’s probably worth more. That’s crazy. Joe Rogan is like an everyday guy, right? He’s done a lot of things in and m MMA and and the things that he’s done in the past and like fear factor, right? So maybe he’s not an everyday guy, but like when you talk to him, when you see him talk, he’s an everyday guy if he doesn’t have any special qualifications or huge background prior to this. And the way he comes off is like a very chill everyday guy. I know that people love or hate him, but honestly, he my husband calls him the modern day Socrates, which I think is really accurate because he just asked questions, right? And he he has a really good conversation. Again, though, what attracts people to that podcast so much so that it’s worth $100 million dollars or more. 

So much so that the views on the Trump and Rogan podcast were over 30 million. That’s insane. If you think about that, an independent person’s podcast, getting that much traffic, like this is the future of our news. and in this independent out of the mainstream networks. Why? Because people are attracted to the authentic. You get what you see. It’s not scripted. It’s the truth. Like you’re you’re watching and listening to someone just hang out for hours. You can’t fake that. You know, Trump can’t get onto this three hour podcast and pretend to be somebody else for three full hours off the cuff. No script doesn’t even know what questions are going to be asked or where it’s going to go. You get the good and the bad of him. Like when I watch Joe Rogan’s podcast episodes with Trump or whoever, which I actually don’t watch a ton of them because they’re so long. My husband loves them, but I’m like, this is so long, three hours. But I did watch the whole Trump one and it’s like, there were things that Trump said that I was like, that was kind of stupid.

Like I, like I don’t love the way he answered. So I am critically looking at this, but you are getting what you see. And that’s my point. People today are craving authenticity. When we combine this, the election results, the Joe Rogan podcast, what people are drawn to. And then you look at social media. You look at TikTok, you look at Instagram reels, you look at the content creators. What are people drawn to? It’s not overly polished, scripted, created content. It is off the cuff, raw, unfiltered, the more real, the better. Our social media has become reality TV. Joe Rogan’s podcast and other podcasts like that are going to mark my words become our news. like The mainstream news networks are done. like They’re going to have to rebrand, I really think, to to have much of validity because they have done such a poor job of being unbiased and I do think it’s challenging to find any source that isn’t biased. Like I will even argue at this point that Joe Rogan and some of these podcasts doesn’t lean one way. But I think he tries to have both people. Like he wanted to have Kamala on the podcast. He said it in the interview. She would not go on because she refused to do it for three hours. She said it has to be one hour. We have to have the questions beforehand and be able to edit it..red flag. 

That’s not what people want. They want truth. They want authenticity. So the lesson that we can all learn from this is your audience and the people that follow you are craving authenticity, are craving the real version of you. So the more that you can let your voice come out, you can let your opinions, your thoughts, your values, yeah your unique expression of your experience and even be polarizing. Like the more that you can do that and the more that you can let go of trying to please everybody, because think about it. Trump does not care if everybody likes him. And that’s actually a key thing in a politician is to be able to speak to the polarizing, but so do most of these creators. They have learned to, like, Rogan is not trying to please everybody. If you go on in on Instagram and you look at big influencers who are really successful with their content, they’re not trying to speak to everybody. They know their voice, they know their opinions, and they’re not afraid to be authentic in those. So I think this is a lesson for all of us that we are continuing to head. We’ve been heading in this direction, but we’re continuing to head in a direction where authenticity is king and attention is currency and how you get attention is through authenticity. So the question to sit with is, how do I bring more authenticity in my content, in my brand, in my marketing?

First, you have to be clear on what that means for you. First, you have to be clear on who you are and what your values are and what your beliefs are. and How do you turn up the volume on making those louder and not being afraid that it’s going to repel some people because that’s okay? like That’s the thing that we all have to realize is it is okay if we are not for everyone. It is actually better if we are not for everyone. So something that I’ve been working on all year and bringing into our the way we develop marketing strategies is actually starting with what I call identify and align. And it means identifying your unique voice, your unique gifts, your unique values, your opinions, the things that make you different and then aligning those with your marketing and making sure your marketing comes from a place that actually amplifies those because you will get more attention. And I think we often struggle with this idea of like we don’t want to look bad on social media or we’re judging ourselves and I do it too. Like you’re judging yourself or you’re afraid of being rejected or canceled or somebody criticizing what you’re doing and I think the more we can let go of that as long as what we speak and teach and say is with an integrity of our values, then it doesn’t matter. like That’s the alignment we need to constantly have is what are my values, what are my opinions, what is my voice say?

And, you know, that’s also going to evolve. I always say, I have a mentor of mine who says, I reserve the right to change my opinion anytime. It proved me wrong. And I love that because I think it’s important that we don’t wrap our ego around. Well, I said this five years ago, so I can’t go back on it, but life experience has changed my mind, right? That happens a lot to us in business and and me too. Like this has happened in my brand. Things I said five years ago, no longer align with me anymore what aligns with me today in terms of my values, beliefs, passion, gifts, experience, and how do I amplify that in my marketing. So specifically, if you are somebody who is a coach or a practitioner or an expert in a field, health, business, spiritual, you likely have opinions. You have against the grain opinions of things that work and don’t work based on your experience. And there’s no right or wrong. That’s your valid opinions and experience on what you believe is the best route to getting the result that you help get.

Those need to be infused in all of your marketing. And the reason why a lot of marketing doesn’t work is it’s missing this. It’s watered down, it’s templated, it’s bland, it sounds like everything else out there. And we’re in a time where saturation is at an all time high. Like there’s no shortage of podcasts to listen to, books to read, people to follow, content to consume. Your content, your entire marketing, your entire business has to be completely infused with authenticity. I’m actually, I didn’t plan this angle of the election in this, but this is a pre-planned training, but next week I’m hosting a two-part workshop series and part of it is how to infuse your marketing with that authenticity from the beginning. That’s the first day. Then we take that, the messaging and the authenticity of it and we create a strategy from that. It’s two parts and I’m also highlighting my most successful clients and showing your their you their strategies and how they do this in their marketing so you can customize it to yours. It’s completely free if you want to save your ticket. You can go to embodiedmarketing.com/authenticity. It’s the authentic marketing series and i I really believe this is going to be the most important thing in 2025.

And I think there is going to be a lot of opportunity for innovation, but it has to come from deeply connected to who you are and your beliefs and your values. And again, if you are someone who’s a practitioner and you specialize in something, What do you believe is and is different than other people in your space? And how do you amplify that in everything that you do? So would love to see you guys at that training. It’s two days, two days, about one hour each day, two part workshop series, embodiedmarketing.com/authenticity, you can save your spot. The only way to get access to the trainings is to register. We’re not sending it out to the list. I’m literally showing you like, Optin pages adds numbers from our most successful clients. So it’s a very kind of behind the scenes secret training too. So we’d love to see you guys there. I hope this episode got you thinking about some things and just like your, your brain churning, regardless of what you think. Again, it doesn’t matter. This is just how we can sit back and be an observer and learn from what is happening right in front of our eyes. All right, everybody. I’ll talk to you on Thursday.