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January 11, 2025 14 mins
In this episode of Her Business Elevated, I’m sharing why staying true to your unique voice is the key to standing out as a content creator. I’ll dive into why copying others isn’t sustainable, how to connect authentically with your audience, and the freedom that comes from embracing your individuality. Plus, I’ll share practical tips on building trust and avoiding the comparison trap. Ready to create boldly and authentically? Tune in and let’s grow together! 🎥 Watch on YouTube: Why Being Your Authentic Self Is So Freeing

//Resources Mentioned//

Let’s elevate your business, together! Tune in now.

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📷My Solopreneur YouTube channel  https://www.youtube.com/@demetriazinga/
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hey there friends. If you're new here, I'm so glad
you joined me. I'm Dmitria Zinga, your host and virtual
cheerleader for all things content creation and online business strategy. Now,
if you've been tuning in for a while, welcome back.
I'm so excited to share some updates with you, starting
with a slight shift in how I'm running this podcast.

(00:38):
So this year, I'm pouring more energy into my YouTube channel,
where I'll dive deeper into some actionable strategies and tips
to enhance your content creation journey. So be sure to
subscribe at YouTube and at my name at Dmitria Zinga.
You'll find me there, or you can type in Dmitria
Zinga Solopreneur Lifestyle, which is the name of my channel. Well,

(01:00):
that way you won't miss anything. I'll still keep bringing
you episodes here on the podcast, of course, but you'll
notice some more variety here. So some shows will be shorter,
about seven to eight minutes, packed with quick insights to
fuel your creativity, while others will be a twenty minute
deep dive into strategies and solutions and even interviews. I'll
have a few special guests dropping by from time to

(01:21):
time to inspire you along the way. Now, the heart
of this podcast in twenty twenty five and beyond is
to encourage women's solopreneurs and creatives like you to enhance
your online business through better content creation strategies. Whether it's
through my words here or over on YouTube. I want
to be your go to source for motivation and practical advice,

(01:42):
especially on those hard tough days when it feels really
hard to keep going. I always like to say at
the beginning of each show that my goal is to
encourage solopreneurs on your business journey and to help you
gain business clarity as you turn your profitable passion into
a plan of action. And after over twenty years as
a creator, I've decided to pull together everything I've learned

(02:06):
and share it with you to help you grow and
shine and create content with confidence. Now, speaking of confidence,
I'm thrilled to remind you about like Content with Confidence course,
and it's really designed to help you just map out
your content strategy that aligns with your goals and it
empowers you to show up authentically to your audience. It's
the perfect resource if you're ready to build a content

(02:27):
strategy that's authentic to you and not a cookie cutter
version of someone else's approach, so be sure to check
it out. I'll leave a link to it in the
show notes. And today we're diving into a topic that
I know that many of you will resonate with, and
it's why I don't copy other creators. You can also
find this video on YouTube, so be sure to check
that out because it is slightly different than this particular episode,

(02:49):
so I wanted to bring your attention to that because
it's not a cookie cutter version of this podcast. They
are not one and the same. They are very, very different,
but yet the same content. Now, I think this conversation
about not copying other creators is a really important one,
especially in a world where we're constantly bombarded by what
other people are doing or saying. So I'm going to
give you a couple of tips to help you with that,

(03:11):
and also share some of my stories about how I've
been able to overcome this over the past two decades. So,
whether you're tuning in on your lunch break or just
have a few quiet moments at home, or maybe catching
this while you're on the go, I would love for
you if you can to grab a notebook or just
get really comfortable, grab your favorite beverage, kick up your heels,

(03:32):
and let's dive in. So my first tip for you

(03:54):
is staying true to my mission. It's what I did
when I first started creating content over to decades ago.
It was really tempting to mimic what I saw other
people doing. There are big names out there at the time,
and the ones that I followed specifically were Amy Porterfield
am Mariefolio, and they had and still have incredible platforms

(04:14):
and audiences. And if you watch my channel, I go
into detail about why I was so attracted to these
wonderful content creators and how I got through the process
of not copying them per se, even though I won't
say that I didn't try. But here's the thing, their
journey isn't my journey. So I, as much as I

(04:35):
love Amy Porterfil, had to really dig deep and define
my why. And for me, it's not about chasing metrics
or being the next digital marketing expert. My mission has
always been to empower women and solopreneurs and small business
owners to thrive using strategies that feel authentic to who
they are. Because that's the journey that I'm on I'm
also on a mission to stay empowered and to stay motivated,

(04:59):
so in or to be authentic in my journey, copying
someone else would dilute that mission, and so I really
had to learn how to stop looking to all the
greats in my industry and start to really focus on
what it would take for me to learn my skill
and craft even better and get better at what I do,
while at the same time retaining my own style and

(05:21):
way of doing things. Because remember, your mission matters, and
I had to understand that for myself, that my mission
really does matter. It's what sets us apart. Right, So
if you're clear on why you're here and who you're serving,
you will never feel the need to be anyone but yourself.
Tip number two. Your audience wants you. So here's something
I remind myself constantly that my audience doesn't need another

(05:45):
version of someone else. Right, They're not looking for the
other person. If they were looking for them, they type
in their name and Google and find them. But when
I come to the table, I have to bring myself
all of who I am, and with all of my
hiccups and all of my idiosyncresies and all of my weirdness.
I need to bring that to the table because that's
what makes me me. And guess what, the same applies

(06:05):
to you. Your audience connects with you, your quirks, your perspective,
your very unique approach to how you do something. They're
not looking for a carbon copy of someone else that
they're already following. They're looking for that one of a
kind connection that only you can bring. So instead of
asking how can I be more like so and so,

(06:26):
or in my case, how can I be more like
Amy Porterfield because again I think she's so awesome, I
ask myself, how can I serve my audience better in
a way that only I can? Tip Number three Authenticity
beats imitation. So we're going to talk about that really briefly,
because we've been talking about this a lot already about
being authentic, and I have several episodes about this as well.

(06:47):
You may want to check out episode number twenty five
and episode number nineteen where I talk about being authentic
with your audience. And then I interviewed Josevi Jackson, CEO
of Black Card Books, and she talks about her authentic journey.
So this is a hot topic for me on this
show and I won't prolong it on this episode because
I talk about it so much, but what I will

(07:09):
say briefly is that when you copy someone else's style,
their voice, their strategy, it really does show. Okay, So
your audience can tell when you're not being yourself, and
that can break trust faster than anything else. I've seen
it firsthand, and the times that I actually tried to
emulate other creators early on my content felt forced. It
didn't connect because it wasn't truly mine. Once I leaned

(07:32):
into my own strengths and my own personality, everything clicked
and my audience noticed. So there were times that I
was actually trying to imitate more of a corporate feel
in my videos. I tried it for a couple of videos.
This was probably about eight seven, eight years ago I
tried this. It just completely fell through. I could not

(07:53):
keep up that image because again, I am not corporate.
I am a solopreneur. I am who I am. I
don't have a bore of directors, I don't have trustees.
I do not operate my business that way, and so
I need to show up like the solopreneur and content
creator that I am, and that way I'm free to
deliver my content in a way that is natural for
me at this season of my life and with what

(08:15):
resources are in my actual hands, instead of trying to
appear to be something that I'm not. And so I'm
recommending that we all do that, that we become authentic
and just be true to ourselves. My fourth tip to
you is to remember that inspiration is okay, but imitation
is not necessarily always okay. Don't get me wrong. Being

(08:38):
inspired by other creators is perfectly fine. I've learned so
much from again, people like Amy Portofal, people like Leslie Samuel.
Their warmth, their humor, and practical advice have influenced my approach.
But here's the key. I don't copy them. I cannot
copy them, and I may have tried, so I won't
deny having tried to, but I can't, and I'm glad

(08:59):
that I can't, because that means I'm only relegated to
what I can do, which is be myself. So instead,
what you want to do is take what resonates and
adapt it to your own style. Inspiration will spark ideas,
but it's up to you to make those ideas uniquely yours.
The fifth tip I have for you is that comparison
is a trap. One of the biggest reasons that creators

(09:19):
fall into copying others is comparison. We see someone else's
success and we think, if I just do what they're doing,
I'll get the same results. But here's the truth. Success
isn't one size fits all. What works for someone else,
what's working for Leslie Samuel might not work for me
because my audience and my strengths and my goals are
very different than Leslie's. So instead of comparing ourselves, we

(09:43):
need to focus on honing our own craft and getting really,
really good at what we do best. Remember that you
have the freedom of doing things your own way. When
you stop trying to mimic others, you unlock a whole
new level of creative freedom, and this is what you want.
You're no longer constrained by what work for someone else.
You can then experiment, you can take risks, you can

(10:04):
discover what works for you. And this is what's happening
in my life right now as a blogger. As I'm
on YouTube, I'm learning a whole new set of skills
on YouTube, as I'm trying out different things on this
particular business channel that I'm restarting and revamping, and it's
a journey, and it's an awesome journey because yes, I've

(10:24):
had a channel for ten years, but that was my
homeschool channel, and that channel I showed up differently there,
and I didn't have to learn some of the skills
that I'm learning now at my business channel, because this
new stage of life requires that I show up differently.
And so I'm glad that I have the freedom to
take risks and to experiment. This freedom is where the
magic happens. It's where you'll find your stride and where

(10:48):
creating content that truly resonates with you will happen for
you because you have this freedom. And when you have
freedom like that, you can start building trust through authenticity,
because trust is that currency of content creation. You can't
build trust if your audience feels like you're just copying
what's already out there. So by staying true to your
unique voice and your unique mission, you show your audience

(11:10):
that you're here to serve them, not to chase trends
or to copycat success. And so I say all of
this with such passion because I want to help you succeed,
and in doing so, my way is to encourage and
inspire and motivate. Always like to say that that's what
I do, That's kind of what I'm called to do
in various aspects of my life. One of them happens

(11:30):
to be in business, and I encourage and inspire and
motivate in other areas as well. But I love doing
what I do because I feel infused and empowered to
do it, and I'm passionate about it. Why I don't
copy others At the end of the day, copying other creators,
even though it might seem like a shortcut, it is
not sustainable. So even if someone else is making the

(11:51):
six figures the seven figures that you aspire to, it's
not attainable for you to copy their specific steps on
how they got there, because they got there the way
that's best for them on their particular life journey. And
if you try to take their master key to success
and apply it to your life, it may not work,
because again, true success comes from being authentic, serving your

(12:13):
audience with integrity, and showing up as the best version
of you, not someone else. So here's my challenge for you.
Take some time to reflect on your own strengths, your
mission and your audience, ask yourself questions like what makes
you unique and how can you lean into that? Even
more if you need help figuring you that out, I

(12:35):
want you to first take a look at my free
product that I have for you to download. It's just
a way for you to discover your own business passions
before you start your blog, your podcast, your YouTube channel.
It's called Discover your Business Passions, and it's a short
little workbook to help you work through some of your ideas.
And I will probably have a few other resources listed

(12:55):
in the show notes as well that I'm not mentioning
on the show at the moment because I do have
to dig up some more of my content. I have
a lot of free resources that I don't have published
and available yet, So I'm going to get all that
stuff up and available for you guys and start adding
links to the show notes so you may find more
links that I haven't even discussed in the show after

(13:17):
it's been published, so go back and check. But for now,
I do have the Discovery Your Passion's workbook, and also
besides my free resources, I do have my Content with
Confidence course that is designed to help you build a
content strategy that's aligned with your goals, your audience, and
your unique approach and help you get past the fears
of creating content. And as always, thank you so much

(13:40):
for listening to the show today. And if you enjoy
today's episode, please don't forget to subscribe to this in
Apple Podcasts, share it with a friend, leave a review
in Apple Podcasts. That way they know that this is
a credible resource for content creators and solopreneurs. And hey,
while you're at it, why not head over to my
YouTube channel to watch this episode and seek what else
I do it up to. And until next time, stay bold,

(14:03):
stay authentic, and keep creating content that is uniquely you
to your online business success.
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