My Cringe Mountain & Reverse-Engineering Shareability

Hey Climbers. This week — My Cringe Mountain, whether you can reverse-engineer shareability and why it’s easier to do something 100% of the time than it is 98% of the time.

My Cringe Mountain

If you’re new here, let me re-introduce myself with my Cringe Mountain.

I was a radio host on a national radio station for years. Every morning from 6-9am I’d roll outta bed and fill the ears of hundreds of thousands of Australians. I interviewed some of the world’s biggest celebrities like Billie Eilish, got free tickets to music festivals and went to fancy award ceremonies. From the outside looking in, I was killing it. But on the inside, I was dust.

Every morning on air I got a constant stream of messages telling me how cringe I was. And over time I became so obsessed with these strangers' opinions of me that in an attempt to avoid the feeling of being cringe, I shrank myself down. I tried not to laugh too loud, speak too much or be too opinionated. I stopped sharing my true thoughts and feelings.

Instead of stepping into my voice, I tried to craft it into what I thought they wanted. But in the process, I stifled it completely. I was miserable. Should I just give up?

Then one day something clicked.

If I avoided cringe forever, I would never grow. And then I’d never get to become the person I knew time, passion and practice would allow me to be. I was still learning. So yes, I felt cringe. But that feeling was a sign that I was on the path to becoming who I was destined to be.

A few years later, I can truly say I’m happily climbing Cringe Mountain without a second look behind me. I’ve won awards for my work, built multi-million dollar campaigns for major national brands, got over 100 million views on TikTok and been shared by Jenifer Garner and Ryan Seacrest.

And guess what? I’m still cringe. But I’ve realised I never want to stop being cringe. Because where there is cringe, there is growth. It’s a sign you’re striving and trying and aiming high - and that’s something I never want to stop doing.

✨ Quick intermission - Help me help you? ✨

I’m making something I wanna give to you for free; The Iconic Content Brainstorm Buddy. It’s an idea generation tool for coming up with original content that cuts through.

I want to make it as useful for you as possible, so can you please hit reply and tell me - when trying to come up with ideas for your content, what’s the number 1 thing you struggle with?

As I said, It’ll be completely free. My motive? I just wanna see more creative, original and compelling content online. So let me know! Ok now back to regular programming.

Climber tip of the week

Can you reverse-engineer shareability?

I have more than half a million shares on TikTok. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about shareability.

There are too many variables for it to be completely orchestrated. But I do think there are a few things you can do to increase share engagement - so here’s one.

Marketing bros always say “think of who your target audience is”.

But when I’m aiming to make shareable content, I like to think about both who my target is, and who their target is. Who do I want the person watching it to send it to?

E.G: My audience is mostly women 18-30. I wanted to make a video they’d share with their romantic partners.

My hook: in any relationship there are two types of people.

I’ve found this takes some of the guesswork out of what makes something shareable. Try it & then hit reply to share your video with me!

Creative inspo of the week

The 100% rule is the idea that it’s easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time.

Why? It has to do with identity, decision fatigue and willpower being kinda bullshit.

Read about it below, or watch it on Youtube here

Ok, that’s all for now.

Until next time,

Keep climbin!

Erica

p.s. Shout out to my 2 new Basecamp to Breakthrough clients, Kevin and Tam, who’ll be climbing Cringe Mountain with me for the next 30 days. I am now booked out, but will let you know when more slots are available.