The 95% Beneath What Everyone Sees w/ Courtney Johnson

On the latest episode of "Authenticated," Kate is joined by personal branding coach and content creation strategist Courtney Johnson to explore what it actually means to authentically build online through content. They leverage their shared understanding that honesty, with yourself and your audience, is the only currency that matters, dissecting why most people fail before they even begin and how the fear of being seen is completely rational fear and one that can be faced. Kate and Courtney also examine the privilege of honesty that comes with financial stability and audience growth, the 95/5 rule that creating at its core is mostly internal healing work, and why posting imperfectly 10,000 times will always beat posting perfectly 100 times. Their conversation explores the intersection of propaganda and positive behavior change, the analytics as a reflective tool for deeper self-discovery rather than rejection, and how withholding truth is the biggest integrity breach of all. 

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Transcript

Episode 24 - COURTNEY JOHNSON - Authenticated

Kate McLeod: [00:00:00] okay, so last question for you, which is, what is, what does authenticity mean to you?

Courtney: These are such good. These are like the best podcast interview questions ever.

Kate McLeod: Thanks.

Kate McLeod: Welcome to the latest episode of Authenticated with your host, Kate McLeod. I am intrigued by people, people watching. I love people learning. That's where I'm insatiably curious. I'm interested in the why and how of the creative minds pattern of thinking. The subtext to the creative thinker or in its more conscious and malleable form, the creative conscious.

Kate McLeod: Because when you are so clear on yourself via the triad of consciousnesses, then you become reflective to others. Meeting yourself is an infectious practice because what feels good is infectious and something I think we could all use a good dose of. So join me in conversations with a diverse arsenal of creative thinkers, from artists to entrepreneurs, to serial thinkers ready to optimize their creative conscious with me. Self-made and self-proclaimed creative [00:01:00] entrepreneur. Sounds hot, right? 

Hey listeners, thank you so much for being here. This is our 24th episode and it's a magic number to me. I have a great association with 24. This episode is so good. I am so excited for you to listen. It's with Courtney Johnson, who is a professional builder of brands. She is absolutely incredible.

I have so much respect for her. Unfortunately, we had a couple technical hiccups. We met online and for some reason her side of the podcast did not capture for two points in this episode. Now, I do have her permission to release this with the note at the top that there was two interruptions, unfortunately.

But that does not mean that. This is not one of my favorite episodes to date. It is insanely inspiring. And for someone like Courtney who is similar to myself, honest all the time, in order to keep our channels of [00:02:00] communication as free flowing as possible, her approach to it is really, really inspiring.

And I feel like I got to the core of what authenticity is for her and her work and the work that she puts out. And if you're here. The work that you consume or will consume. She's a really wonderful person and I'm so happy that you get to listen to all the insight that we came into. you're gonna drop in about six minutes into our conversation, which is when her camera started to pick up her side.

there's another part when we start talking about Gay Frederick's Big Leap. That book, it's about 30. 8 39 minutes in, um, we have a little drop out there, so if something doesn't contextually make sense, just know there was again, another technical issue. But as creative thinkers, I'm determined to think that everything works in our favor.

And when Courtney gave me the go ahead, it felt so good because we didn't have to rerecord, we got to keep the initial magic that was this episode, and I'm really excited to have preserved that creative integrity. Enjoy. 

Courtney: I'm gonna start taking it [00:03:00] seriously now, and then I pulled back. I'm gonna start to start taking it seriously again. Pull back. I'm gonna post for a whole year, pull back. So it was a couple of years before I really, really committed. going all in on like, I'm building a personal brand. This is gonna be my life, this is gonna be my career, this is my identity, and I'm not letting anything waver from that.

Kate McLeod: I think failure is so important as someone who comes from the acting world, you know, the way that you and I met was through your LinkedIn course when one of your associates was interviewing me and saying, do you have a fear of being seen? And I was like, 

Kate McLeod: I've already worked through, years of rejection. And so being here, I feel like that's not the issue. The issue is more of. The language of how this all works, this personal branding, she had said that it was failure that gets you to that point, and I think that you would probably agree as well.

Courtney: absolutely like you need to expect nos. Like not only are you going to be like, not only are you gonna get nos, you have to expect them and you have to start to want them. Because in anything, if you're putting out a post, you wanna get a client, you're applying for jobs, you're going for a [00:04:00] role, you're gonna get 99 nos before you get a yes. And really like being in the acceptance of that is where magic starts to happen.

Kate McLeod: that's the magic thing is the acceptance of it, right? No, not being like the end all be all, but seeing no as equally as valuable as a yes. When it comes to just like what the acceptance of what the experience is and how little control we actually can have, but have over what is under our jurisdiction on the way there.

Kate McLeod: So one of the reasons I reached out to you to be on the podcast is because you do something that I do that I don't see in many people, but you do it in a completely different way than I do, and that is saying the most honest thing possible and the nicest most direct way to people.

Courtney: Yeah,

Kate McLeod: you don't mince words, you are very direct and I'm wondering what your relationship is to being honest with other people in terms of your voice when you speak to others with honesty, but also how you speak to yourself.

Courtney: Usually the number one reason why people don't accomplish their dreams is because people aren't [00:05:00] being honest with them. Everybody around them is being a yes man. Everyone is sugarcoating feedback rather than giving them actual direct feedback. It's the same with content. I have a certain target audience and they're trying to get from. A to B, I've already accomplished B, so I'm just illuminating what's in the way. I've tried to be super soft about it. I've tried to be like, well, you could try this, or whatever, and I found that it's just most helpful to be like a loving interruption of like, Hey. The reason why you're successful in this is because you're in your fear of being seen and you're not willing to get out of it. Or the reason why you haven't been able to make money is because you hate all rich people and you have this narrative about you, how you hate them, I can clearly pick up the narrative of why you're not. From point A to B, and I feel like it's wasting my time if I'm skirting around that life is short.

Courtney: We literally only have a few decades to accomplish our dreams. Like I'm gonna bulldoze whatever the fuck is in the way of that.

Kate McLeod: [00:06:00] Yes, I, completely agree. I mean, that's an approach I take as well, because if I'm not honest with them, then I'm not honest with myself and no one really has any service there, and I think it actually hurts all parties involved.

Courtney: I wish I was more honest, honestly.

Kate McLeod: Wait, what would total honesty look like?

Courtney: Do think I can be a bit of a people pleaser and so total honesty would be like in full abundance of like not caring. If someone doesn't wanna be my client anymore, or doesn't wanna be in my course or content club or whatever, and like actually fully calling them out or like not being afraid of. Making people upset or getting canceled and just like fully calling people out, which I've done a little bit of like, there's definitely some topics that I get really spicy with. But I could go harder.

Courtney: you know, I gotta say a little bit brand friendly.

Kate McLeod: I think there also is a palatability, especially when you have a larger audience. Like I know the more specific you get, the more you can attract people who are like-minded to that. But I also think that there is an element, of caution [00:07:00] of proceeding with caution.

Kate McLeod: I think we're also in the midst of the technological revolution, and I feel like a lot is changing constantly. And so not that pulling back or not being a hundred percent isn't. It's not like out of fear, but it's kind of out of like sussing out what's next, and I think it gives you more options later.

Courtney: Yeah, totally. Also like honesty is a monetary privilege. If you're like just out of college and you're gonna be like, this is why the finance industry is broken and why it sucks while trying to get finance jobs. that's probably not gonna fly, but, or if you're starting to freelance for the first time or you're starting to coach or whatever, and you're. This is completely what you're doing wrong and why you suck at blah, blah, blah. not gonna go over well. there is a privilege of honesty that comes as you grow your audience, as you make more money and can like call in more money. And as you start to develop your audience, you can start to be more honest and filter because you're not like needing a client, you're not needing a job, you're not needing the [00:08:00] approval of others.

Courtney: And so it's interesting 'cause I just see people get more honest and more in their word over time.

Kate McLeod: I love the way you phrase that because it does become something that you earn later with status, with the amount of money that you have. I mean, money is power, money is positioning, and so you do have to find yourself at a pretty supported standing position in order for you to be that honest.

Courtney: Yeah, totally.

Kate McLeod: Yeah, that kind of changed my mind a little bit about it too. 'cause I just thought it was always a trait that I had. But I mean, looking at it as a privilege is also absolutely like another lens.

Courtney: Mm-hmm. It's

Kate McLeod: What is the It's both, yeah. what's the relationship in your opinion, of honesty to personal brand?

Courtney: it's the only thing that matters, right? If you're trying to please everyone, you're not gonna be able to build a personal brand first. you need to be honest with your audience, actually share where you're coming from, how you're feeling, what your opinions are, get honest with yourself. 'cause if you're not honest with [00:09:00] yourself and you're constantly making excuses and you're constantly in victim of like. Oh, I couldn't post because I was just tired yesterday and a lot's going on in my life and I'm really busy. So I just need to take a little bit of a step back, like, and then you wonder why you're not succeeding. You gotta get honest with yourself on where your own gaps are, or it's gonna be really hard to step into that the important thing in a personal brand is consistency. It's being able to put the reps in every single day forever. if you can't honestly identify that gap, you are gonna be stuck in a victim spiral loop. 

Kate McLeod: Well, when you say a large part of it is consistency. To me, that's like the tangible evidence of honesty to other people. That's your audience being like, oh, we trust you because like you're consistently here But when you're developing a personal brand, how can you develop a personal brand that reflects you back to yourself?

Kate McLeod: So you continue to have that conversation with yourself so you continue to be the most honest you version of yourself.

Courtney: Yeah, it's also just like not bullshitting yourself, right? It's not the algorithm [00:10:00] that sucks. It's your content. It's not the trolls that are being rude, they're just reflecting back to you. How honest can you get with yourself? The level of honesty you can get with yourself and others your audience is like literally perfectly correlated to the level of success that you're gonna have.

Kate McLeod: What is your personal bandwidth for your own honesty with yourself when you're honest to yourself?

Courtney: Yeah, I have a lot of like checks and balances in my life. I have a lot of coaches and friends and people around me that keep me accountable, and they do a great job of not selling out on me and not bullshitting me. And sometimes it's uncomfortable and sometimes it requires a lot of risk, but it's always, always worth it. I really recommend that everybody works with. A coach or a therapist or has a partner or a friend that will keep you accountable and call you out on your bullshit. 'cause it's almost impossible to do yourself. It's [00:11:00] really, really hard. Again, we can get in the stories very easily you gotta have that support system or you're just gonna, again, you're gonna bullshit yourself and then you're gonna be stuck in mediocrity.

Kate McLeod: Yeah, I mean that completely checks out. do you have any like cheat codes or personal touch points that you implement into your own personal brand so that you could do like, essentially audits of your own?

Courtney: Mm-hmm. My strategy is around outliers, so I'll go back and look at my content every month, every two months, every three months, every year, like every, uh. A period of time, I go back, I look at my content. Maybe if we're saying a month, I've got 30 posts, I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna look at my top five that's gonna tell me everything I need to know about my strategy moving forward.

Courtney: Top five and bottom five. The top five is gonna tell me this is what's working well. This is the type of content your audience wants. This is the type of format they want, and the bottom performing [00:12:00] content, it's gonna be like, this is what they don't want. This is what does not perform. And I just continue the cycle of looking at my top performing outliers in the bottom, performing outliers, and use that as like non-emotional feedback on the strategy to implement moving forward.

Courtney: So a lot of people are like, oh, I need my perfect strategy. I need to know the strategy and the plan, and then I'll execute. And it just doesn't work that way. You execute at a large volume and then the data from that is gonna tell you the strategy and the plan moving forward.

Kate McLeod: I love that you said that. So since I joined your Sunrise Content Club, I, in my personal branding and my messaging and all the content that I put out, it is very thoughtful. I can't. Yet to generate it like that. It's not a quick thing that happens, but I wanted to challenge myself to put something out every single day just to get the analytics.

Kate McLeod: It's not of the reps of the type of content that I wanna be putting out, [00:13:00] but it was the repetition of me just getting it out there, getting in a flow and going, what do you think the value is of trying something like that, like I'm talking about with Content Club, it's just like I'm just putting it out there.

Courtney: I just want the analytics because I'm not gonna take that personally. My ego is non-existent, like rip me to shreds and then I will go reassess the content later Yeah, it's just that that's the only way, right? Like if I post on social media 10,000 times and 90% of them are like not that good of content. But I got 10,000 reps and you post on social media a hundred times and you made sure that the posts were perfect. I'm gonna be way more successful than you.

Courtney: I'm gonna have way more followers. I'm gonna have a way better strategy. The more reps, the better. Now of course, you wanna stop and you wanna evaluate at each step, so the reps are getting better and better, and so you're improving. But volume gives you more data. Data gives you better decision making and better decision making equals goals [00:14:00] accomplished.

Courtney: And it all comes from a high volume of reps. Like just get it out. can make it perfect later. And I also have this iterative of creating content where I'll just make a bad version of it first and post it and like, okay, it's a shitty version. The lighting sucks, my audio sucks, it's half baked.

Courtney: And then I'll make another version of it that's a little better, and then another version that's a little better. And eventually like version 10 and I'm posting them every time. version 10 later, like that's the one that takes off or goes viral now I know that that goes viral.

Courtney: I know that that's a lever I can pull and I can pull that lever whenever I want. The more volume you put out, the more levers you have to pull.

Kate McLeod: So with the repetition, do you think it was the repetition and seeing the data that helped your ego sort of chill a little bit? Or was it internal work before you even started that part?

Courtney: Yeah, there's been so much internal work before I even started that part. Like again, I was very start and stop for a long time it took a lot of internal work. I actually think [00:15:00] content creation energetically wise. Maybe 5% of it is the actual posting. 95% of it is the healing, the energetics, the personal development work behind the scenes. You gotta go really deep, like fear of being seen is a really valid. right? Like we have very, we develop a lot of, like irrational fears from a young age. For example, let's say you pushed me on the playground and now I have this weird unconscious things where I don't wanna be friends with like, girls named Kate with brown hair because whatever. Right? That's something made up like It's not true that girls named Kate with brown hair aren't gonna like me. What is true is the fear of being seen. It is a valid fear. It's not irrational. It's completely rational. You will be isolated. People in your life will go away. You will piss people off and you will be more susceptible to like negativity. You will be ostracized from certain groups. It's much harder deep work because the fear is [00:16:00] completely rational rather than irrational. And again, 95% of it is like inner work.

Kate McLeod: I would agree with you with that. Because it is such a rational fear. And I do remember having it, and I do remember how long it's like come for me to do that. But that's also what my first career has been is like in the arts, in performing, like in being seen and getting that like live feedback and also the healing work, inner inside, realizing that I'm not responsible for people's reactions to my emotions, you know, or to my expressing of myself.

Kate McLeod: What I'm doing with a personal brand is I've tried to. Gamify, the reflection back of myself and like the interest of like, oh, well that's cool. I guess I learned more about myself today because that's like the person I have the most control over. So with the personal brand, as we said earlier, like reflecting back who you are, what do you think about that sort of gamification for whatever the narrative is of the person that you're building the brand for?

Kate McLeod: Making it a game to see more themselves and like get excited by that.

Courtney: Yeah, that's such a beautiful [00:17:00] reflection because it is true that you come into more and more of yourself, like more authenticity as you create content if you're on this content creation journey as any other art journey. What was the second question you asked? I.

Kate McLeod: Just how you could build a personal brand that would reflect you back to yourself in a way that satiates, that mental gamification of, oh, I got to see more of myself.

Courtney: Yeah, gamification. I mean, content creation really is gamified, especially since social media is set up literally like a casino, psychological manipulation. Like they actually use casino tactics. It's quite crazy. Anyways, yeah, I mean, how can you set it up in a way that gamifies, it's really just getting the feedback loop. Because what's beautiful about content creation is it brings you closer and closer to your purpose Earth. Like if you feel called to it and you're doing it, post a wide variety of content types, right? You post a thousand different pieces of content. [00:18:00] Those outliers are gonna be able to show you not only what content performs well. But your purpose on Earth, like when I started posting content, I was posting about Airbnb. I was posting about coffee shops in Austin. I was posting about my dogs. I was posting about psychology. I was posting about Facebook ads, like all this random shit turns out. Every single time I would look at the outliers and analytics, it would always be like me talking about mindset about LinkedIn. That's so fucking random in niche. But the fact that that pattern showed up over and over and over again, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna play with this clearly people like when I talk about mindset around posting on LinkedIn.

Courtney: So I'm gonna post more. Okay. And then that feedback loop has started. I post more about it. People like more about it. My message is refined. I see the value that I bring, and the value that you bring to the world is pretty correlated with your satisfaction and the impact you're making and the money you make. So a mistake I see people make is they go in being like, oh, I need to stick within this certain niche. [00:19:00] And I've never seen that work. I've never seen that be successful. What I see as successful is people posting about everything they're interested in and then narrowing it down from there. And if you wanna shortcut to this. You should just ask your friends, like text 10 friends and say, Hey, what do you come to me for advice for? What am I really good at? Usually that's, it's a blind spot you get to play this game of, again, iteration and also getting feedback from others of where you truly shine because a lot of times like. The thing is way too obvious to you. a lot of clients I work with would be like, yeah, Courtney, I did that exercise. My friends came back. They told me I'm really good at resumes. But like, that's easy. That's dumb. Like whatever. That's too easy, right? A lot of people have this story that like, things have to be hard.

Courtney: You have to work really hard to be successful, it has to be painful, and a lot of times we miss out on the thing we're truly good at because we're like, well, that's too easy or that's too obvious.

Kate McLeod: Okay. [00:20:00] All that makes sense, to me. No, I love that. Like all of that makes sense to me because you said the value I bring. from a young age, especially as women we're told not to make it about ourselves, you know, don't make it about yourself. Make it about the other person. So if you look at the analytics of a certain post that you Courtney posted, but then you see, oh, so and so didn't like it, and you make it about the other person, that's not their information.

Kate McLeod: That's your information about you.

Courtney: Yeah.

Kate McLeod: so it would behoove you to like, refocus your lens and be like, no. That is what I did. That was the response to me. And this idea of niching to me has always kind of felt like you idolize a celebrity who's already a celebrity, who's already established, and you love them for one facet of themselves, and you're trying to emulate that.

Kate McLeod: Like no one loves a singular facet at anything. Everyone likes a multidimensional everything.

Courtney: I mean, if you, like, if I was to just post about marketing, I'd be like every other marketing bitch in the world, nothing interesting about me, right? But the fact that I'm posting about all these different things creates a category of one. I'm literally the only person in the world. That's coaching on mindset for LinkedIn posting like [00:21:00] nobody else is doing it. And that came because I created a category of one. So same for anyone. Like let's say your thing is project management and that's what you love and that's what you freelance for and that's what you post about. If you only post about project management, no one's gonna give a fuck, no one's gonna wanna work with you.

Courtney: You're boring. But. They're gonna wanna work with you if they resonate with you in some way. Post about how you're a mom, post about how you love your dogs post, about how you do like ultra marathon running, post about travel, post, about leadership, post, about your self-development, things that you're doing, like that is truly what gets people to want to work with you. it's not the niche because you could go to anyone. Also, you could find the information anywhere again. Like being on my content club, can find the prompts. Like you could just go on open up Instagram, you can go look at who I follow and like find the exact same prompts and do it on your own.

Courtney: You're not paying for the information, you're

Kate McLeod: No.

Courtney: the accountability, the implementation. And the commitment like to yourself. And it's the same with content. Like it's not the [00:22:00] information that really matters. You can get the information anywhere. It's that it's being delivered in a way that's causing you a behavior change, like a positive behavior change, getting you closer to your goals and in a way that's like entertaining or resonant somehow.

Kate McLeod: Yeah. Well, I mean, that's connection ultimately, right?

Courtney: Totally.

Kate McLeod: Do you think that there is a cheat code for connection?

Courtney: That's a good question. Q code for connection is the personal brand because a company brand a non-human entity and a non-human entity. You need to do a lot of, like, spend a lot of money, have a lot of advertising, a lot of repetition. In order to get somebody to have an emotional connection with that non-human entity like Coca-Cola, right? It takes little like grooming. In order to have me have a emotional connection with a brand like Coca-Cola, for me to have an emotional connection with [00:23:00] you, Kate takes literally zero seconds. In fact, we're biologically wired to have emotional connections with each other, and that's why personal brand works so well is because there is this. Biologically wired emotional connection that we have human to human. Instead of having like a brand step in as this intermediary, it just like makes everything more complicated. And company brands are important. Like it's important to have a strong brand entity, a strong brand identity, but the cheat code is the personal brand.

Kate McLeod: Yeah, the personal brand is so necessary, and I think moving forward everyone is going to need one. You know, because it's the digital representation of how you're gonna manifest online that represents someone else. 'cause we're all gonna be online. You know, personal brand means everything because you don't want to send someone out to represent you unless you believe in that entire package.

Courtney: Yeah, totally,

Kate McLeod: So with personal brand though, as we get into basically the personhood of who you are as an individual, that's what makes you inherently interesting. Where is there [00:24:00] room for privacy in personal brand?

Courtney: Yeah, I think you have the, you know, you get to set a boundary wherever you wanna set a boundary. Personally, I don't really post about my relationship. I don't post about travel, I don't post about lifestyle. I don't post about my day-to-day life just because I see this as like work and I'm gonna do my work and then I'm gonna. home and I have like somewhat of a separation. Now, a lot of people have different boundaries, right? But what's really important is to understand if that's coming from a true boundary or if that's coming from a fear. So some people are like, well, I'm creating a new Instagram account where I'm only talking about graphic design because I just wanna do that. But actually, if we get deeper into the question, it's because they're afraid of what so and so is gonna think about them. Or they don't wanna annoy their followers with their graphic design stuff, right? So you can get to the root and identify if that's coming from a true boundary or if that's coming from a wound. and that's how I think about it. So I have some [00:25:00] boundaries, it's just 'cause I have a limited amount of space to create and I'm gonna prioritize career and entrepreneurship over like lifestyle.

Kate McLeod: Yeah, of course. And I think also too, like leaving space for you to be present in just those moments that amplifies your boundary because it also expands you in that area, so you get satiated in that version of yourself. So when you come here, you're whole too.

Courtney: Totally. Yeah.

Kate McLeod: Oh, that's so good.

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

Courtney: and have somebody help you edit, help you post, help you repurpose old content, help you schedule it out like it should be take, I mean, there is an initial time. That you put into it, right? There's like the time of getting established, learning the platforms, whatever, and that time eventually peaks. Once you're really consistent and then you can like lower the time, you can delegate, you can [00:26:00] create systems that work for you. It doesn't have to be just like manually posting forever.

Kate McLeod: So like if your zone of genius is like being in front of the camera, creating the content and it's like your IP that has to, you'd want to streamline delegating the rest of it.

Courtney: Exactly. Exactly. And I don't delegate all of it, but I do delegate some editing, some planning and strategy, some scheduling, and that leaves room for me to have a lot more like creative freedom because I don't feel so pressured. It's not like, oh my God, I didn't post today. What do I post? Like I know a post is going out.

Courtney: Sure. It might be. A repurposed piece of content that I've now repurposed 15 times, but I know something is going out and I know it's at least like keeping me on an upward trend.

Kate McLeod: So when you make a piece of content, what is your expected lifecycle of that singular piece of content?

Courtney: Literally forever. I'm never

Kate McLeod: Forever.

Courtney: unless, unless it's topical, unless it's like, this is a new update, you need to know, and that's only relevant for like a week. I'm gonna post the same [00:27:00] things over and over and over forever. Like I really only post the same like five posts over and over again. Just different versions of them.

Kate McLeod: That's so smart.

Courtney: Yeah, it's like behavior change, right? Like for humans to create behavior change, you need a fog ton of repetitions. Like for example, let's say you're trying to lose weight. do you lose weight? You eat less and you move more. Like it really is that simple In order for somebody to actually implement the advice of eating less and moving more, for some people that's gonna take tens of thousands of repetitions, of hearing the same message and hearing the same message in different formats from different people in different ways until it finally clicks.

Courtney: Like a lot of this is very rooted in like manipulation, truly. And you can use a lot of different words for it. Some people use marketing, but it is like human behavior change, psychological manipulation, and the most important, it's like propaganda. The number one [00:28:00] rule in propaganda is repetition.

Courtney: And as content creators we are. other people's behavior change or influencing other people to have a behavior and repetition is the most important thing around that. So again, the like one of my messages is, The reason why you have a fear of being seen is because there was a time in your life where it was not afraid to be seen, and it's time to bring that to consciousness so you can step into being seen. I probably said that 500 times. And still there are people who have not it yet and it hasn't clicked for them. And there are some people who have seen the same videos and seen me say that 500 times and have made the behavior change and it's now reinforcing that behavior change. So everything comes back to like. Propaganda addiction, psychology, psychological manipulation that we can use for good instead of using it for Evil. And this is why I, am all about on gatekeeping because a lot of these dark arts are very gate kept because they are and can be so dangerous. [00:29:00] And also, if only like the bad guys have these tools, we won't be able to implement positive behavior change from that.

Kate McLeod: when does something become stale?

Courtney: It hasn't happened to me yet.

Kate McLeod: 'cause repetitions to me can make things stale. Like I, right now I'm taking a break from the gym because I go five times a week. 'cause I've been going for years and now I'm like, you know what? This is actually how I disrupt my cycle right now is by doing something else.

Kate McLeod: But it seems like with content that's kind of the life cycle that continues to repeat itself because there's always gonna be a new audience and there's always gonna be the moment when it actually clicks for someone.

Courtney: Totally. But I do do what you're doing around the gym. Like I do take breaks. I will be like, I'm not posting for a week. It doesn't mean no posts are going out. Usually I'm like, I'm gonna go find five posts. I'm gonna schedule those out for next week. I'm gonna schedule them out in like 20 minutes and I'm not even gonna open social media next week and give myself a little bit of a break, you know?

Courtney: So behaviorally there are, I do those [00:30:00] actions, but as far as like messaging again, when does the advice of eat healthy go stale? It's true. It's true. Advice go stale. I mean, it's either gonna be, thank you, I needed that, or, yeah, thank you for reinforcing my behavior of eating healthy.

Kate McLeod: Yeah, so like authentic messaging doesn't get stale.

Courtney: Exactly.

Kate McLeod: Oh, I really, really, yeah. No, I think I, and I think that's the thing too, is like so long as you say true to it, it won't.

Courtney: Like think about world religions. Every religious text says the same thing. It's like love each other, right? Like every

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

Courtney: aha epiphany that any person has ever had is like the same as everyone else. Be nice. Love each other. Live your dream. Like all these like dumb ass platitudes, like really do have such a significant meaning.

Courtney: And we're all just like playing off these platitudes of live your dream, do your best, accomplish your goal. Connect with others like they [00:31:00] are these archetypes of messages that we've just been saying over and over and over for like millions of years. I don't know, have we been around for millions of years?

Courtney: Something like that.

Kate McLeod: A long time. But I think the point is too, is that there's also like a timing element to all of this, right? Whether or not you and I have the exact same information. You're gonna say it your way, I'm gonna say it my way, but mine's gonna resonate with a certain group and yours gonna resonate with a certain group there's no competition there.

Kate McLeod: But what there is is knowing that you are the right person to reach this vessel human, you know what I mean? And vice versa. How much does timing do you think, play into it?

Courtney: I really don't think about timing at all. I mean, am pretty impulsive in my content creation. I think timing really only plays into it if it's like a timely subject because there

Kate McLeod: Mm.

Courtney: there is content and there are personal brands that are built around timely subjects, and I think that's a great strategy. but yeah, I really don't think about time at all. I'm just like, I'm just gonna keep posting my shit and. You know

Kate McLeod: Now.

Courtney: resonate with someone, but I [00:32:00] do love that you say like it. That is really important. Like, let's say again, you talk about losing weight. If I talk about it and you talk about it, Kate, and we say the same thing, you're absolutely right. Some people are gonna resonate with me and some people are gonna resonate with you, and some people are gonna resonate in different ways. Like you could resonate with person A because. They're also a mom, or you are also from the same type of small town, or they talk like you, they look like you. Maybe they share very vulnerably and you resonate with some part of their story.

Courtney: It could also be unconscious. Like all of our decisions are made around unconscious biases like. Basically recognizing patterns, in the past and like our consciousness recognizes patterns. So even if I am not conscious to it, but the pattern is that like someone that looks like you, Kate is like a friend and like, cool, and like looks like my age and someone I wanna hang out with then I'm gonna wanna work with you, right?

Courtney: There's enough room for everyone. And I truly believe like first of all, the amount of people [00:33:00] that are called to be a content creator. It's very small. It's like 1% of the population it's called to create content even less than that is actually gonna do it. Most people are like, okay, I am, I want to, but I'm, I'm just not gonna do it.

Courtney: Even less of that want to do it. But they don't have the emotional capacity, and even less of that are gonna be consistent. So just starting out the amount, like 96% of podcasts don't go past episode three, right? So just

Kate McLeod: Hmm.

Courtney: by having four episodes, you're already in the top 96% of the podcast, So most people that feel called to content creation won't do it. They're too afraid, they're not willing to do the internal work. And even less of those are gonna be successful. really the only initiation, the only way to actually like succeed is to be consistent and like, that's it. That's the game. And so few people do it that I know some people have this story around like, oh, it's [00:34:00]saturated. My industry is saturated, or whatever. It's actually not saturated at fucking all there's room for everyone because there's so few people.

Kate McLeod: Well, my response to that is like, oh, it's saturated is always well, is it? Is it actually. If you actually look at it, is it No. And if you're feeling called to do something that is for a specific reason, what is that specific reason? And if you're talking yourself out of what you are naturally called to do, okay, so then there is some healing that needs to happen.

Kate McLeod: You talk about like. The like ground, like I love the analytics of this because there's like that grounding factor, right? It's like very matter of fact, I feel like I can emotionally detach for a second and just be like, this is, these are analytics, this is like facts. But what about when you've had to deal with repercussions to something that you've posted or something that you've said in our idea that you've put out?

Courtney: Yeah, I definitely have had to deal with repercussions. Like I've had people be really upset about what I've said. I've definitely communicated things the wrong way. I talk a lot about money, and money is definitely my most activating content. I grew up in a really, really small town. [00:35:00] No economic opportunity. I was super, super broke until I was like 25. I mean like super in debt, no money, minimum wage, all of it. So I know that I'm coming from a place of like, yo, I've been at rock bottom. I know how it is and I'm gonna call you out for your stories. And also that doesn't always resonate. Like a lot of times money is obviously a very sensitive issue, and have had situations where I'm like, yeah, I could have been some of it.

Courtney: I'm like, okay, I know I'm not gonna soften this for you. Some of it I'm like, yeah, I definitely could have been softer. So it's like, again, taking the feedback in a way of, it's coming from reality and not a trigger. So I'm like, again, that's me being like, yeah, you know, these commenters really had a point.

Courtney: I could have approached it a different way instead of being like really reactive and defensive and at the same time being like, okay, and these other commenters, I think they're just kind of triggered whatever. It's part of it. You're gonna be the fucking canceled. You're [00:36:00] gonna be like, people are gonna be mad, whatever. gonna go viral and everyone's gonna be pissed at you. And that's a great thing. That means you have relevance. Like you cannot make it to the top without garnering some haters and some trolls, it just doesn't work.

Kate McLeod: I think it's also par for the course, right? Like, I mean, I've definitely been in acting rooms where someone has just flat out said, absolutely not like you're wrong. Or someone's like commented on my age being like, you don't read this age. I'm like, well, you're the first person to say that.

Kate McLeod: Like, okay, but what is the difference for you between when you care and when you don't?

Courtney: The difference for me when I care and when I don't is if I'm getting the feedback consistently from people I trust and people whose lives I admire. I don't take feedback from like trolls on the internet, really, if I get the same comment over and over. Uh, whatever. But if I get the same comment over and over from friends, from coaches, from people that I'm working with, then I'll take it into account. We have a lot of blind spots like truly, truly, truly have so many blind spots [00:37:00] and you really have to actively seek out feedback if you want to actively overcome those blind spots. But yeah, most people that like troll my comments are like, ugly, like broke men, and I'm just like, not gonna take their advice

Kate McLeod: No. Call 'em out. No. I always think that's so funny to like look at the source to be like, is your. Opinion something I need because I'm aspiring to go in the direction that you're at. I usually think that a majority of that, as I'm sure you do, that's not even about you, that's a reflection of the other person.

Kate McLeod: Especially 'cause personal brand is so reflective of who you are as a person. Even things like comments from a troll, I could see that being part of their personal brand and it's like, oh, is that really what you're trying to curate, bro?

Courtney: Yeah, exactly. It's kind of, it's kind of sad actually. Like, ugh.

Kate McLeod: Because it's like, of all the reps that you got to put in today, you only had 24 hours in the day. Like that's the rep that you wanted to put in.

Courtney: Yeah.

Kate McLeod: I don't think anyone left feeling like nice in that way.

Kate McLeod: Um, there is this ideology where it's like someone has to have that energy so you don't have to, so they can hold it and you don't have to.[00:38:00]

Courtney: I've never heard that.

Kate McLeod: I don't know where I sit on it, but I think it's very interesting. I also wanted to bring up too, there was this one quote I wrote down, from a book that you got me onto, which is a Big leap by Gay Fredericks. The most popular integrity breaches are lies, broken agreements and withheld truths.

Kate McLeod: And so can you speak a little bit about that idea next to why it is that you stay honest?

Courtney: keep your integrity, keep your word, be on time, follow through, whatever. Don't be like a flaky ass bitch. Um.

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

Courtney: But withheld truths. Wow. That's where we're missing. That's where we get to risk, that's where we feel really uncomfortable and we sell out on people around us.

Courtney: And I notice myself doing it. Like I work with clients every day and I will go into people pleaser and not actually tell them what's in their blind spot and what's in their gap. Um, and like selfish of me to do. So I feel like the third aspect of. The unsaid truths with the intention of bringing somebody into their [00:39:00] dream and their goal and bringing them closer to their greatness is in our society.

Courtney: Culturally, the missing piece of success. And again, if you're desiring success, it's gonna be really hard to do that without objectively getting feedback from people around you.

Kate McLeod: So then who have been the people in your life who have been the most honest to you and helped model that the best for you?

Courtney: Yeah, like really coaches that I work with, my partner, he's like pretty honest with me and friends, like it's really friends that are more successful and accomplished than me. It seems to be part of their language, I have been studying what I call a players for many, many years. In fact, I

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

Courtney: about it,

Kate McLeod: Congrats.

Courtney: Yeah, thank you.

Courtney: The A players in the world culturally give feedback to each other and culturally are not triggered by that feedback. So it's like, how can we start to integrate this into other cultures? Like how can I integrate it into the culture of content club, into the culture of my [00:40:00] coaching, into the culture of my containers? In the same way, like a really good sports coach will, like, I always just bring it back to like, okay, yeah, that's a, like a really good sports coach would like hold me high and not put up with my bullshit.

Kate McLeod: Yes. The people and mentors in my life who I've respected the most, have been the ones who have seen my potential at its highest.

Kate McLeod: in the way of like, no, no, no. I know that you can do better and I know that your lazy day is actually very easily disguised as someone's best.

Kate McLeod: You can do. Better go.

Courtney: Yeah. I love that.

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

Courtney: Oh my God. Yeah. Somebody's lazy days being their best. I resonate with that.

Kate McLeod: okay, so last question for you, which is, what is, what does authenticity mean to you?

Courtney: These are such good. These are like the best podcast interview questions ever.

Kate McLeod: Thanks.

Courtney: Authenticity is like a clear clearness. It's clearing yourself from your stories, [00:41:00] from your limiting beliefs, and from everything that's not authentically you. It's like the message and the resonance that's underneath all of that, right?

Courtney: We're conditioned from a very young age. We develop stories, we develop coping mechanisms. We develop protection mechanisms, and. I believe the more you can strip that away, the more you come back to your own innate authenticity, which again goes back to the fact that personal brand is 95% a internal self-development journey around your triggers and moving through your triggers and seeing what's on the other side than it is an actual, like posting stuff online journey. So authenticity is the. clear version of you.

Kate McLeod: I love that. And I lied 'cause now you just inspired something else I wanna ask you. Um, which, which is like, I've been fascinated recently with, my research of whether or not the body is smarter than the [00:42:00] brain. And I can't tell you which one is. And the attunement to listening to yourself requires you to speak both languages.

Kate McLeod: When someone is trying to define their own personal narrative to translate that into their personal brand, what are the tools to actually listen and hear yourself with the brain and the body?

Courtney: Yeah. First it's the body and brain. Which one is more powerful? Um, they're gonna fight with each other. What's most powerful is your dream. where you can ground into an anchor.

Kate McLeod: Yeah, I.

Courtney: in an anchor to your thoughts. You're gonna go into like a logic spiral loop. Yes. You can ground into your body.

Courtney: And also what I find is that it can be a cop out sometimes of like, oh, but my body is feeling tired, but my body is feeling like, oh, but I don't wanna push anymore. Right? so anchor to your dream, like when you're in a neutral state, really understand what your dream is. Understand the impact that you're meant to have on this world. Create your [00:43:00] non-negotiables and don't stray. From the non-negotiables. Now, the non-negotiables shouldn't be like anything extreme. It shouldn't be like, I have to go to the gym every day. I have to post every day, whatever. No, no, no. Your non-negotiable could be at least once a week for 10 years, there's gonna be at least some type of post going out, and that's a non-negotiable, right? Maybe again, the non-negotiable is not going to the gym every day. It's non-negotiable that I'm going to move my body in some way every single day, no matter how shit I'm feeling. I'll stand up and do a 10 jumping jacks. I'll do a little bit of a stretch. I'll go on a tiny walk with my dog. Even if I have the flu and I'm sick, I know that that can make me feel better.

Courtney: Right? Those negotiables, the absolute micro moments that you, that are absolute bare necessity for your dream, and when you anchor back into that. Anything becomes possible and the noise and the stories totally go away. then what was your second question?

Kate McLeod: Uh, oh. Well, I think you answered it because a feeling is something [00:44:00] that incorporates the body and the brain, and so when someone is defining their narrative, I think listening to, with an anchor to your dreams, but then listening to what it is that you're feeling, which involves both your body and your brain, I feel like that's like a good channel of communication within yourself to tap into, to be like, is this resonating?

Kate McLeod: Is this the right thing? Because I think that's where your instinct sits.

Courtney: Totally. Totally. And also creating space and being impulsive as well. I find that people's best ideas and best performing content come through impulsivity. So you're driving, you're in the shower, you're on a walk, and you're like, oh my God, that's such a good idea for a business or for a piece of content, or whatever.

Courtney: I'm gonna write that in my notes app, and then you just never come back to it. If you were able to be more in flow, be able to shift your emotions and shift your energy intentionally and act on those impulses extremely quickly, like that's where a lot of magic happens.

Kate McLeod: Oh my God, you're so right. That is something that I've been trying to implement in different ways by giving myself safeguards to support [00:45:00] myself when those ideas hit. So different recording devices around, or like camera set up on a tripod kind of a deal so that when the moment hits, it just happens. And there's not room to overthink

Kate McLeod: when I started getting analytics of consistency with sunrise content, I was like, oh. Okay, well then all I need to do is just figure out ways to make all this faster because I am so highly creative. It's like by the time the next idea comes, I'm so excited by that, that there's not enough time to take action on the former.

Kate McLeod: Thank you so, so much for coming on here. I mean, I am a huge fan of you and, I just really love everything that you're doing to impact the world in the way that you're doing it.

Courtney: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me on.

Kate McLeod: Of course. Wait, tell us the name of your book, when it's coming out, and where people can find you.

Courtney: You can find me on TikTok @courtney..johnson, Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson, LinkedIn, Courtney Johnson, just Google, Courtney Johnson Social media and all come up. My book is called Career Cheat Codes and it comes out in the spring. Very excited for that. And yeah, my [00:46:00] Sunrise Content Club, we meet every day from eight to 9:00 AM I give you a prompt.

Courtney: We brainstorm, we walk through it together. We all post at the end, so it's a great container to come in if you are desiring consistency in your content. And yeah, again, if you Google me, it'll come up.

Kate McLeod: thank you so much.

Courtney: Amazing.

Courtney: Yay.

Kate McLeod: And that's the latest I'm honored to have been part of your thinking sphere today. Feel free to share, like, and subscribe on this platform or follow and participate on any of my social media platforms. If this practice intrigues you as much as it does me, then join us in the ME three community where we will work directly and you'll curate a mindful method of thinking to define your own creative conscious. Thanks for listening to the latest episode of Authenticated. I love that you're here.