Why Being More YOU Is the Best Marketing Strategy

What if the reason people buy from you has less to do with your offer, and everything to do with your energy?

In this episode, I’m diving into the truth about authentic marketing, magnetic personal brands, and why authenticity sells harder than perfection ever will.

After a weekend trip with my husband Joey to the biggest UFO festival in the world, I started thinking about what actually makes businesses memorable. And it’s rarely just the product itself.

It’s the energy behind it.

People can feel when someone genuinely loves what they do. They can feel enthusiasm, care, devotion, obsession, creativity, and genuine delight. And in a world saturated with offers, courses, coaching programs, and perfectly curated content, real energy stands out.

In this episode, we explore:

•  Why people buy energy, not just products or services 
•  The connection between authenticity and magnetism in marketing 
•  How enthusiasm creates trust and emotional connection 
•  Why specificity and passion attract loyal clients 
•  The energetic side of personal branding and visibility 
•  How women entrepreneurs can stop watering themselves down online 
•  Why your “weird” interests may actually be your greatest business advantage 
•  The real reason some brands and businesses feel unforgettable 
•  How to build a business that feels aligned, alive, and authentic 

I also share:

•  My emotional attachment to goat cheddar 😂 
•  The business lesson hidden inside gourmet popcorn 
•  What mystical UFO festival tarot candles can teach us about branding 

This episode is for entrepreneurs, coaches, creatives, and multi-passionate humans who are tired of trying to sound polished and professional enough — and are ready to build a business rooted in authenticity, alignment, joy, and real human connection.

Because at the end of the day: People don’t just buy your offer. They buy your energy.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello, and welcome to Fuck Around and Get Paid, the podcast where fun, flow, and strategy meet to help you get paid for doing what you love. I'm your host, Jennifer Liss, and today we are talking about how people buy your energy, not your offer. Let's dive in. Hey there, friend. Welcome back to the podcast. Today we're gonna talk about aliens, we're gonna talk about goats, we're gonna talk about cheese, and we're gonna talk about your energy. We're gonna talk about how to fuck around and get paid. How's that sound? Let's dive in. Um, this weekend I went to the biggest UFO festival in the world. There were aliens everywhere. It was amazing. I have wanted to go to this event since moving into Oregon and finding out that this is a thing that happens. So we're not gonna spend the entire episode talking about aliens, but we're gonna talk about aliens for just a minute. Okay. This is important. So the there is a farmer years ago in McMinnville, Oregon, who went outside and he and his wife both saw a flying disc flying above their farm. And the word got out, the story got out, and now McMinnville is known for aliens, man. And they have this festival every year that commemorates that event. And people dress as aliens, and it was the best. I did not dress as an alien. I did have the opportunity, however, to make a tin foil hat because somebody was giving away tin foil, a free tin foil hat in front of it where he was selling his wares, which was a genius marketing tactic. He was totally buying in to the concept. He had amazing art. He had this painting of a dog getting a corgi dog getting beamed up into the atmosphere. And he drew people to his space with tin foil hats because he's like, I'm totally in on this energy. Do we see that was such a smart marketing tactic and a great example of leading with your energy? He was fun, he was playful, his paintings were fun, his paintings were playful. There was another guy who was there who was selling these intricate mystical candles. They were, dude, he had what looked like a giant uh book on mysticism that he had made out of candles. It had five wicks at the top of it. He had tarot card candles, he had pumpkins, he had weird little spooky masterpieces, totally different energy, same event, right? There was the guy with the fun little alien thing. There was this guy who was selling his magical, mystical stuff. Both of their booths had completely different energy. They were leading with the energy of who they are, and both of them were awesome. And both of their stuff caught my eye. They weren't, neither of these people were trying to be anybody other than who they were. They were both at the same event. And those are the two booths that stood out to me out of all of these mini booths of people who were selling alien things to alien people who love alien stuff. So I share this because it's really important to understand your energy, who you are, and how that moves into the things that you offer to the world and how to position who you are, what you do, your energy in the right place at the right time to meet the right people. Because that's how you fuck around and get paid. That's how you do something that you love, create it, put it out into the world. So if all of that sounds fun to you, this episode is for you. The truth is that everything is energy. And if you don't quite understand how things are energy, like literally everything is energy that we manifest through our hands, through our physical bodies, words, even are energy. Everything is energy. If you need help with this, this is what I teach. Come into the expansion room. If you're like, what the hell are you talking about, Jen? This is so important that we understand that everything is energy and that you are literally manifesting through energy all the time. When you get the concept of this and you understand that you are an alchemist who is alchemizing energy and putting things into the world in the way that that fun guy with the dog painting and the ten foil hats, and the way that the guy with the intricate mystical stuff they are turning their energy, their thoughts, their ideas, their way of being into things that they put into the world when you can do that with specific intention. Ooh, la la. That's where things get so fun and so interesting. And that's the work that I do. So gentlest.com slash slash expansion come be part of this. We're having so much fun in there. That's an aside. So I want to share just the way that energy goes into the offer that you have. So people can feel who you are without you saying a word. People can feel who you are. People can also feel what you actually care about. We can feel your obsessions, we can feel your delight, we can feel your all of your things, we can feel your ease, we can feel your stress, we can feel all of the things. So the energy that goes into the thing that you create, whether that's a coaching program, whether that is some kind of intricate candle, whether it's popcorn, we're gonna get to popcorn in this episode too. Stay tuned. Whether no matter what it is, people can feel it. I could feel that that beast, based on the fact that he put the tinfoil hats out there. I could feel that this is somebody who is delighted by life. This is my people, could feel the delight that went into him making that. And that was ultimately what made people stop. We stopped, of course, for the tinfoil hat, but it wasn't just the tinfoil hat. It's the energy behind that. That's like, oh, I'm primed now to go and look at the things that they have. And that is good marketing. Okay. Now on the way home from this alien event that we went to, we were all full of alien food, all full of all of the alien stuff that we could possibly handle. You know, I'm I'm not necessarily an alien person. I am somebody who likes to be delighted by weirdness. And I got my fill. I got my fill after a couple hours of it. But we're driving home and along the side of the road, we're actually going to stop at a coffee shop. So we've got our eyes open. Okay, actually, let's back up about the coffee shop for a second. Joey and I were like, where do we go to get coffee? And there was a place that was like the coffee depot. And then there was a place that was like sip and stop. I can't remember the actual name of it, but it was something like that. It had a playful vibe. And I was like, which one do you want to go to? They both look equal. They both get about four point whatever stars. They seem like reputable places. Which one do you want to go to? And I was like, you kind of need to go to the bathroom. Do you want to go to the depot one? Because they probably have a bathroom. And Joey's like, no, no, no. I like the name of the other one. I like their vibe. So we went to the other one, even though Joey had needed to go to the bathroom. We chose the one that had the more fun name because of the energy of whoever owns it obviously has a similar energy to us. We're like, oh, we like that they did a little playful something, something with the name of their coffee shop. Okay. Not everybody would be drawn by that, but people like us sure are. And so we know that the person who created it also is. Their energy created the vibe of their coffee shop. Also, they just so happened to have a $3 latte that day. We got our coffee for the price of like one latte for both of us to get lattes. It was awesome. But on our way to go get that coffee, we passed a place that said gourmet popcorn. And I was like, ooh, Joey, you love popcorn. Let's stop at this popcorn place. So we turned tail and we went into this popcorn shop. So we go into the popcorn shop and we're looking around, and they have the most weirdly specific, weirdly delightful flavors of popcorn. There was a key lime and salt popcorn. They had pickle popcorn, they had all of these different flavors. They had a lemon popcorn. It was actually a sweet. I wasn't sure because the key lime was actually really kind of salty and tart, but then the lemon one was really sweet. It was delightful. And the person who happened to be working behind the counter looked exactly like the logo. And we were like, oh my gosh, is this the person on the logo? Is this Hannah? It's called Hannah's Gourmet popcorn. So we're having this whole experience in this popcorn shop, which happens to have a bathroom. So not only did we get our fun little coffee place, but Joey also got a restroom. But we bought this is popcorn. Okay. You can go buy Orville Redenbacher's popcorn at the store for whatever, $3 for a whole box of them. We spent $26 on two small things of popcorn at Hannah's gourmet popcorn so that I could get some sea salt popcorn. And Joey got, I don't, his was just basically normal popcorn, I think, because he likes plain popcorn. But let me tell you, these popcorn kernels, it is the fluffiest, most magical popcorn I have ever had. The flavor of it, I could tell how much care they put into it. I could tell by the kinds of styles that they have, by just the whole setup of the place, the fact that they had a public restroom that was available to people because they know that people are driving on the side of the road and that, or they're driving on the highway and they might need to stop at the restroom. They understood their audience. And what I understood as an audience is that they care. The people who made this popcorn care enough to select out the fluffiest of fluffy kernels. There's no residue at the bottom of that bag. You could see how perfectly they had done things. You could see how they've been testing new ideas and they had all of these things. The energy of this popcorn lady, this popcorn, I was willing to pay $26 for two bags of popcorn. I tipped them to. I think they were $12 a piece. So understand that there is a market for everything, and that the energy of who you are gets to go into your offers. If you're somebody who loves a certain things to be a certain way, you like for things to be just so. You really like a certain kind of popcorn kernel. You like to have specific kinds of flavors. Or if you're the kind of person who just appreciates fun, or you're the kind of person who appreciates intricate, ridiculous, intensive designs, the energy of who you are goes into your offers. It's easier for us to see when it's a product, right? When it's a physical product. But if you have an intangible thing, you have an intangible coaching offer, you do business strategy for people, you help people with their content, you help people to live lives that they love. Understand that the energy of who you are and what you care about needs to go into your offers, and it already is, but you can do it with intention, and that's when it gets really powerful. Needs to go into your offers in a way that lands with the people who want to buy them. So popcorn already exists, candles already exist, coaching already exists, offers courses, all of it already exists, but your specific energy, your kind of enthusiasm, the things that you care about, that is what is rare. And I think people really massively understand what makes a business magnetic. Most people think it's like, I gotta have that strategy, that branding, that content. I need to be putting these things on Instagram. But your embodiment of who you are and what you care about and what really matters to you matters so much more than the words that Chat GPT spits out for your sales page. Because your energy, if you don't understand who you are, it's not gonna make it to that sales page. Your conviction, your way of thinking, your enthusiasm, the things that delight you, the things that you care about, the things that you don't give a shit about. All of that will make it onto your sales page. But first, you've got to really grasp this about yourself and understand who the hell you are. Yeah. And that can sometimes be something that suddenly comes to you that you didn't realize was so important before because we all go through different life changes. For example, staying on the food wagon, I didn't even know that goat cheddar existed. I did not give two craps about goat cheddar a couple of years ago, but regular dairy basically now tries to assassinate me as of a few years ago. So now I am emotionally attached to all things goat because I can have goat. It is the only cheese that I can have. And so when I see that there is something new that is made out of goat cheese, like there's these goat cheese crumbles, there's this goat cheese cheddar that I was eating the other day that I sliced up, and I actually got to have you guys a charcuterie board because there is a farmer out there, there is a company that is selling goat cheddar that I can slice. It's not just soft goat cheese, it's cheese that I can slice and it makes me feel so happy and so seen and so understood, and it's so specific that people will pay premium prices to feel understood, to feel seen. This cheese makes me feel so seen and I can tell that whoever it is that made it forgets that this is something that somebody might want, that somebody might need. They they too care enough about goat cheese to make it into a sliceable form because they know that there are people out there that that is the only cheese that they can have. And so they're gonna put it on their charcuterie board. So there's that. There's also people who just care so much about cheese that they want all the weird cheeses in the world. There's also those people, right? So they understand their audience. So understand who it is that you are, the things that you enjoy. Because this person, I have to assume, and I'm sure that there's probably like this whole market for hard goat cheese that I don't even know about, but I know my specific experience, and I know that there are many other people out there that it's the only cheese that they can have. And so we're looking for things that offer that to us, and there's somebody else in the world that understands the value of that too. And so they have made it. Make the thing that delights you, make the thing that you want, make the thing that you wish that the world had, and do it with fucking gusto. That's when you get to fuck around and get paid. And it doesn't even have to be polished. This goat cheese is not in the prettiest packaging in the world, it just simply exists, and it's like hard cheddar goat cheese for the person who cannot have regular cheddar, such as myself. Makes me feel so sane. I'm just telling you. I'm telling you. Another example, I saw a friend the other day who she had moved to Thailand for a couple of years. And she, when she was in Thailand, she became obsessed. I actually remember her content. She was always sharing these Thai teas. She was obsessed with Thai tea and like the drinkable tea. And she was talking about it all the time. She talked about the food that she had in Thailand. She was obsessed. Well, eventually she missed her family, and so she came back to the States. Well, it's been a couple of years, and she still misses the taste of that Thai tea. And so she found the ingredients so that she could make it herself. And she's become so obsessed with it that she decided she's not the only one that needs to have how good this tea is. She is going to make everybody else just as Dululu about her tea as she is about it. And so she's opening up uh an actual like little uh coffee stand, tea stand. I think it's coffee and tea, actually, where she is serving this specific tea that she is obsessed with. And it totally the whole vibe of the thing has her energy all over it in every single way, and her content's so cute. She's telling the story of how she was obsessed with this tea, and now she's bringing it out into the world, and it already is picking up so much steam in her local area. Now, again, I know I've shared a lot of physical product ideas today, but I hope that that can inspire you to understand how the energy that you put into a thing, like I'm not just gonna go, there's so many tea places that I could go to if I was into Thai tea. Like I could go to the local place that's been around forever, I could go to all these different places. But if I'm into delusional things, her tea place is so cute. It's called uh Delulu Bruise, I think, or Dululu something. If I'm into being Dululu, if I'm into so Dululu that I'm gonna spend eight or nine dollars on a tea on a drink, then I'm gonna go to her stand because I feel like that's my energy too. If I care so much about big fluffy popcorn kernels and little like delightful flavors, I'm gonna go buy from Hannah's popcorn. If I care about the intricacies of things, I'm gonna go buy from that guy who makes those candles. Like I can get a million different candles a million different ways, but I'm gonna go to that guy because they're so cool and I can tell that he cares about the details. If you're somebody who cares about the details, your offer, your coaching offer should definitely have all of the details taken care of. You should be focusing on those specific things because that's what your audience is going to care about is those details. If you are somebody who doesn't care about the details, then you focus on the energy. You focus on how people feel, you focus on that. Know who you are and infuse your offers with that. And that's where I see a lot of people kind of getting it wrong because you'll you'll listen to one person who says, uh, you know, just do it messy, just do it messy. And yes, I am actually all about, especially when you're getting started and you're like trying to overcome yourself, then just do it messy, just get it out there. But that process will not feel good to the person, to that guy who makes those candles. That's not going to feel good to him because that's not who he is. He is not somebody who does it messy. His energy is somebody who is a little bit more meticulous. So he can ignore, he didn't put out tenfoil hats. He wasn't drawing people in with silly little delightful things because that's not him. It was the intricate uh like beauty of his work that drew people in. So that might be you. Do we see that? But you might be somebody that's like, it's just fun and it's delight and it's having a good time that is so important to you. That's the energy to draw people in with. Know who you are, know what you care about and lead with that and just let the rest lie. We don't have to do everything. You just have to know who you are and the energy that you operate best with, and then people will be naturally attracted to your offers. So for me, surprise and delight is a big part of who I am. And doing things like unexpectedly, surprises, uh, just putting things out there, not being overly planned, that is a part of who I am. And I know that I am not in my best flow when I'm getting way too into structuring things. Like my strategy literally is joy. My strategy literally is fun. And people who like to work with me tend to be the people who either need a little bit more of that in order to get them moving, which is some of you, especially the strategists in the room. You need an infusion of that to get you going, or it's the people who need permission to operate that way, which is a lot of people. We we really have a struggle with using our. Fun using our specific enjoyment as your strategy. And that's what I'm here to help you do. Because even if you're one of those detailed strategist people, that is enjoyable for you. And maybe it's felt like that's wrong. Maybe it's felt like that is putting your energy in places where you don't need to because you just need to get it out there. Well, is that true? Or is actually spending a little bit of time on those intricate little details important to you because that's actually what you enjoy. And that's what your people are going to enjoy too. Now that is not, do not use that as an excuse, those of you. Those of you who are actually the messy people, the the energy first people, the joy astrategy people, don't use that as an excuse to go get yourself, oh, I need to get it all figured out. No, if you're one of me, no, no, no, no, no. That's actually just resistance. So how do you know? Well, go take my quiz. If you haven't gone and taken my quiz at genlist.com slash quiz, it will reveal things about you and your magnetism and how you can use your joy as your strategy so that you can lead with the energy of you, lead with who you are, and let the rest follow, my friends. So it doesn't matter whether you're selling tea, popcorn, goat cheese, candles, coaching, uh, anything else, anything else. If you're selling AI products, if you're selling some, if you're selling uh podcast courses, if you're selling teaching people how to use their voice, whatever it is, lead with your energy, which is rooted in your enjoyment, joy as your strategy, my friend. Remember that your energy is infused into everything that you do. Your weird little obsession, your weird little obsession might actually be your own market research. Your joy is not a distraction from your success. Your joy is the actual strategy because at the end of the day, people are not just buying the offer, they're buying your energy. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you got something out of it, I would love to hear about it. And I'd also just love to hear what is your own little obsession? What are you obsessed with? Please tell me. I'm suppressed. I I'm I am obsessed with surprise and delight. I love surprise and delight. Those that the little tinfoil hat, it's the thing that I can't stop thinking about about the entire event that somebody thought to bring a royal roll of foil and put up a little sign that he'd obviously written with a marker and just put up for people. That was the delight of the entire experience for me. There were people who had put in so much effort into all these other things, but for me, that was it. So, what is your weird little obsession that says something about you? And when you're in business, it's very important that that is infused into who you are and what you do. So if you want to tell me your weird little obsession, you can write to me at hello at gentlist.com and let me know. I would be so delighted to hear what it is. Thank you for listening. I'll catch you in the next episode. Bye.