Episode 173: Why Losing Followers is the Best Thing for Your Brand
I’ve been shadowbanned again, and honestly? It doesn’t bother me. In this episode, I’m sharing why I’m embracing my core values, showing up authentically, and letting go of followers who aren’t aligned with my mission. If you’ve ever felt pressured to water down your message to stay “safe,” this episode is for you. Learn how to prioritize impact over approval, even when social media algorithms try to silence your voice. Discover how to stay true to yourself and grow your brand authentically in a world of digital noise. Personal branding, authentic marketing, and community alignment are key themes we’ll explore in this empowering episode.
Key Insights on Embracing Personal Values, Authenticity, Community, and Redefining Success in Business
The power of being unapologetic about personal values in business
How societal changes and challenges are shaping business practices
Why authenticity and self-expression are crucial in marketing
Navigating shadow banning on social media and its impact on marketing strategies
The role of community responsibility in building a strong business
Evolving consumer expectations for authentic brand connections
Redefining success to prioritize human connection and impact over financial metrics
Encouragement to embrace unique stories and challenge conventional business norms
Your authentic voice, story, and values are your greatest assets—powerful even in their imperfection. The more you show up unapologetically, the more your ideal audience will find and connect with you. This year, embrace the courage to speak up, build your brand, and create meaningful impact. Keep showing up, expressing yourself, and being radically you—the world (and the right opportunities) are waiting!
Product Businesses! Download my free HOW TO GET INTO A GIFT GUIDE/PRODUCT ROUND UP roadmap for free HERE to get more sales and traffic to your site this season.
If you want to land your first feature for free without any connections, I want to invite you to watch my PR Secrets Masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought-after industry expert. Register now at www.gloriachoupr.com/masterclass.
Resources Mentioned:
Join the PR Secrets Masterclass
Join the Small Biz PR Pros Facebook Group
DM the word “PITCH” to us on Instagram to get a pitching freebie https://www.instagram.com/gloriachoupr
Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriaychou
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/428633254951941
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Transcript
00:00:00 Gloria: What's up, small business heroes? Welcome back to Small Business PR, where we make marketing and PR super accessible for the everyday small business underdog.
00:00:08 Gloria: Today's going to be a little bit of a different episode. And I'm just going to warn you now, if you are someone who is an all lives matter type of person who doesn't want to talk about race and equity and diversity, this episode is not for you. So I encourage you to leave and unsubscribe because there's not going to be a value alignment.
00:00:26 Gloria: So at the time of recording, we are in January of 2025. And I don't know where you're listening from across the world, but somehow you found yourself to me. And I think I owe it to you to let you know kind of how I'm feeling and how my community's feeling and this radical approach that I am taking to my marketing and being unapologetic about my values.
00:00:47 Gloria: And hopefully it will give you the permission as well to be unapologetic in the way that you message, to show up even if your thoughts are incomplete or if it's not polished. Because I really do believe that us being able to express ourselves is a radical act and it's a courageous thing to allow other people to do it as well. So as you know, a lot of things has happened and the US is changing a lot and it's really made us question, right? Like our values, where do we stand?
00:01:15 Gloria: And if you know anything about me, you know that I grew up in a very untraditional way. I didn't have a mom and a dad who biologically, you know, raised me. My father passed away when I was three. My mother and I only spent eight years of our lives together. I lived with my best friend's family throughout high school who took me in. And it's a Black family. And growing up with all these different intersections and being at in all these different worlds has really made me realize that there's really like so many different types of lived experiences.
00:01:44 Gloria: And unless we get proximate to those lived experiences, we will always just keep perpetuating whatever bubble or status quo that we are in. And I recently talked about that. I talked about how on MLK day, we need to remember that we are all here together as a society. And it's really about helping one another and shining a light on those people and providing an equal opportunity for people who maybe traditionally have not always felt comfortable advocating for themselves and maybe not given permission to be the loudest ones in the room and how I'm doing my work to do that.
00:02:18 Gloria: So I actually got shadow banned by the algorithm. So my Instagram views crashed from a couple hundred to 13 and 14. And then my my post, usually that gets, I don't know, one to 4,000 views got like 300. And so I was shadow banned by the system where the algorithm basically hid me from view from most people. And I just thought it was so interesting because as you know, like so many different changes are happening with the people, the billionaires who own our social media and data and content and how they have pledged allegiance to a certain political party.
00:02:52 Gloria: And so of course, right, of course their agenda and their viewpoints that quite frankly differ from mine, probably aren't going to jive with what I was talking about. And I thought about this whole thing about like where we are as a society. Oh, there's my dog coming in. And like why it's so important for us as business leaders, as people who sell anything online, I don't care if you sell a fidget spinner or a plastic cup or whatever, to really feel like you have permission to speak up, even if you feel unwelcome or silenced.
00:03:20 Gloria: Because so many times we feel like we need to have a polished or a completed version of what we have to say to shield ourselves from judgment before we express that opinion. But it's that very self-censorship and that's that over curation perfectionism is the reason why we got to where we are, where people's voices have been suppressed and there's been a hierarchy of power. So when I think about my business, I started to realize like, I am nothing without my values.
00:03:46 Gloria: And to be honest, when I started my business, I didn't even realize that I was building a community. I just was building an online funnel to get people in to opt in to sell a certain piece of knowledge to transform people's lives and rinse and repeat. I had no idea the access and the role that I would play in people's lives. And the more that I grew my audience and the more that I realized I have a really diverse, lived experience, I mean, we have people who are deaf, who are blind, who have no arms and no legs
00:04:12 Gloria: We have people whose English is not even their first or second language, that I have a responsibility. And I'll never forget, I was at this networking event from this really, really famous business coach who has millions of followers and, you know, a lot of the other business coaches who were sitting around me who had way bigger audiences, they, you know, they turned to me and they said, you know, I really love... you know, to have a lot of diversity. I want to attract more people of color, people from all lived experiences, but they just don't buy from me.
00:04:38 Gloria: Like, do you know why that is? And I just had to be honest. I was like, you know, like, you don't attract diversity, you become diversity. And what I mean by this is like, at any given point, we have a, we are giving an option to choose the content that we consume, the people that we buy from, the voices that we amplify, the... the circles that we join in, the platforms that we sit on, um the rooms that we are in, the peoples whose stories we give access to and platforms to through our email list, all of that is a... is a decision-making.
00:04:38 Gloria: And so if you want to have a business that that reflects the diversity of your values and your people, think about the content you're consuming and who you're following, and whether it's subconscious or conscious, that is sending a signal to people, right? So... I really think that in this day and age, like people are not just buying because you have the most authoritative thing. I think authority only goes so far.
00:05:32 Gloria: People are more, I wouldn't say wounded from that, but I think after COVID and after this whole like online gold rush of online businesses and how information is no longer a commodity, people are looking for something much deeper. They're looking for resonance. They wanna know, are you really there for me? Are you gonna show up for me? Or you're gonna just lump me in a group of people and try to just get rich at all costs. And you are what you seek, right?
00:05:56 Gloria: So a lot of the bro marketers out there who are wanting to 10, 20, 30 extra income, like they're gonna attract people who are very transactional and only care about outward measures of wealth. Whereas for me, after all the healing that I've done and a lot of the stuff that has made me unravel my own journey with generational trauma and scarcity passed down from my mother who was literally living in communism and never even had running water in her house, by the way. My uncles went to went to labor camps. Its' a... It's so deep, right?
00:06:24 Gloria: It's so deep and at the core of who we are. And it's so much more than just like marketing. It's our beliefs around safety and self-worth passed down from generations. And so I realized like I did not build this business to get rich at all costs, even though in the beginning I was told, you know, from my mom that the more I made, the more worthy I am as a person. But I don't have to choose that anymore.
00:06:44 Gloria: And so I actively from literally getting burnt out and forcing myself to work after I had a huge surgery to remove a 13 centimeter fibroid in my uterus and realizing that like all the goals that I hit financially were not making me happier. I started to question like what is it that I really want? What is it that makes me get up in the morning? What is the flavor of richness that makes me feel present and alive?
00:07:08 Gloria: And it's honestly it's not how much money I make. It's really not. Of course, do I like nice things? Yes. Do I want to make more money? Yes. But there is so much richness I have found in the way that you pause and listen to people, in the way that you fully show up for someone to surprise them in the DMs, in a way that you stay on a call past the hour mark so that they can feel like they are completely supported, from the way that you connect with them and think about them and give them opportunities to shine in ways that are outside the confines of your regular coaching calls.
00:07:39 Gloria: And so as I build my business, as I feel like from being shadow banned and realizing, like, all I have is my values. I am going to take a very radical approach to my marketing this year. And not everyone's going to like it. I already saw a lot of people unfollowed me and unsubscribed. I actually had someone who told me that I use too many F words in my emails and that she was going to buy from me, but decided not because she felt like the F word did a lot of harm. And I said, you know what? I respect you, but here's, let me, let me tell you how I am doing. No harm.
00:08:07 Gloria: I am doing no harm by truly showing up for people and letting them come as they are embracing their whole essence. I am doing no harm not by the F words that I'm speaking, but inviting people to be themselves as well. Right? So you will always have people who disagree with you. And anytime you feel like you want to say something, but you're holding back because the thought is incomplete or you don't know how to structure it, give yourself permission. Give yourself permission to express.
00:08:32 Gloria: Because I think this overly perfectionism that we have to be polished or ready is exactly why we are seeing the systems of oppression that we are and why certain voices who are just like equally brilliant, if not even more deserving, are silenced. So hopefully this episode of my journey of being silenced, literally silenced, banned, blocked, and people unfollowing me has given you permission to realize like those people were never meant for you anyways. And the more you show up as your unapologetic self, the more your people can find you and lean all the way in.
00:09:04 Gloria: So another part of this is that after I have started sharing about my thoughts and being shadow banned, so many people have reached out to me in the DMs and emails. Somebody said that they actually don't like to read emails. They think it's performative or a fake, but they were so happy that they opened my email because it was so genuine. The way that I express from a place of intention, from imperfection and wholeness, made them realize that they also deserve to speak their mind.
00:09:32 Gloria: And so that to me is an impact worth more than any revenue number, more than any dollar amount that you can track on a KPI sheet. So today actually in my coaching call, and we do these monthly group coaching calls for our accelerator PR accelerator members. And instead of the usual like, okay, like let's break out in a small room and get to know each other. I asked them to answer this one question, which is how are you defining success differently this year?
00:09:56 Gloria: And the reason why I said different is because we have as a society, as a as a mankind, we have like experienced so much change in the last 12 months alone. Whether it's AI or the war or politics or changing policies. We are experiencing such a fundamental shift out of speed that is so exhausting and unfathomable that we need to be reminded who's really for us and who's not for us. And so I encourage you as you build your business to realize you're so much more than just a founder of a product or service. You are living, breathing essence of your values, right?
00:10:31 Gloria: Of all of your lived experiences and that of your ancestors and who you decide to shine a light on, which rooms you step into. Those are intentional, deliberate choices that have ripple effects. And so I want to give you permission to express yourself and be radical in your beliefs as well. Of course, not everyone will agree. Not everyone listening to this will agree with me. Probably will have a people unsubscribe from listening to me, and that's okay. That's okay.
00:10:55 Gloria: I am not a McDonald's, I am not for everyone, and neither are you. So if there's one thing I wanna let you know is you have permission to be unapologetic AF about the way you show up and express yourself. And you do not need to curate and, and pick and be polished before you express something, right? Feel free. If something speaks out to you, speak it out into the universe. You never knew who's going to resonate with you.
00:11:19 Gloria: So this was not a rant. I hope it doesn't come off as one, but I just wanted to get something off my chest because this is something that you are going to see more from me and my marketing, it is going to be polarizing. It is going to ruffle feathers and and push people away. But my hopes is that it'll do much more good than harm because it's going to make people finally feel seen in a way that maybe they didn't even give themselves permission to be seen.
00:11:44 Gloria: So if you know of another small business owner who would resonate with this message, please tell them about our podcast, Small Business PR. I am an open book. I share really openly about my... all of my things, my trauma, my experience with my mom, my healing, my journey on my Instagram @gloriachouPR.
00:12:01 Gloria: And I know a lot of you are lurkers and that's totally fine. But I just feel like in this day and age, like we are not here creating content just to keep feeding the machine. We are creating content to move, to create resonance, to make people feel seen. So may you make this year the year that you show up unapologetically as yourself too, with so much love from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here. I do not take it for granted. And I really don't think there are coincidences and there is a reason why you found me today and I look forward to connecting with you. Thank you, thank you so much.
00:12:35 Gloria: Hey, small business hero, did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, the New York Times, Marie Claire, PopSugar, and so many more, even if you're not yet launched or if you don't have any connections? That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR Secrets Masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert.
00:13:03 Gloria: Now, if you want to land your first press feature, get on a podcast, secure a VIP speaking gig or just reach out to that very intimidating editor, this class will show you exactly how to do it. Register now at GloriaChouPR.com/Masterclass. That's GloriaChou, C-H-O-U-P-R.com/Masterclass. So you can get featured in 30 days without spending a penny on ads or agencies. Best of all, this is completely free. So get in there and let's get you featured.