I bet no one has told you recently that you need to be weirder, but I am here to fix that. I want you to take a minute to think about some of your closest friends and list out some of the reasons you love them. My guess is they are probably kind, compassionate, fun people, but they are also probably a little bit weird. Weird in a way that makes your weird okay too. Weird in a way that has led to many late nights spent laughing. In a way that makes us all feel a little more connected. 

I hope this is making sense because what I am trying to say is that your weirdness, is your superpower. That is the reason people stick around and share more about themselves with you. 

AND this should be applied to your business. 

You still here? I thought this might be the point that you might click out of this post. Long gone are the days with the perfectly curated Instagram feed, and a new outfit for every post (because god forbid you should outfit repeat), and the days when you try to mold yourself to fit into those Instagram squares. 

I don’t want you to think I am telling you to ditch branding and professionalism, because I am not. Those are still valuable tools. But now you have an additional tool and that is your weirdness. It’s a way for people to connect to you outside of the products you sell. It fosters community and a space for everyone else to be a little weird. 

If you are anything like me, then you probably are nodding your head along and agreeing with me but you have no idea where to start (and you probably want to keep some boundaries up) because your Instagram community, although important and filled with people that you love they aren’t your best friends so they don’t need to know everything. 

Here are a few ways to get comfortable sharing more un-curated parts of yourself. 

1. Share an embarrassing moment. 
2. Show when your house is a hot mess and laundry is piled up. 
3. Share a favorite snack that you eat all the time that everyone around you thinks is weird. Mine is a tortilla with hot sauce. 
4. Nerd out about your favorite books or movies. 
5. Be nostalgic. 
6. Do you have a hidden talent? Share it! 

By sharing these small things, you are opening up to your community and allowing them to do the same thing. You never know, you might just find your community that loves nerding out about books and stocks their fridge with hot sauce and tortillas too.