“Be yourself.” Has there been a more cliché statement ever made? The overly simplistic piece of advice has been told to us for generations from as early as Oscar Wilde to today. Rows of self-worth books clamp on to those two words. Hundreds of motivational memes are made from a single Will Smith quote and shared across LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. And, just about every keynote or commencement speech will try to inspire you to be yourself. It’s almost a guarantee that when seeking advice, you’ll be told to be yourself. However, it’s a lot more challenging trying to connect individuals with a sizable platform to their given advice about being yourself.
When we asked TikTok influencer Josh Mayer what he believes is the key to success, he started his response with “being yourself…” Here we go again, right? Another individual with a large platform is giving empty advice. Well, not quite. Mayer is one person who truly embodies that statement. Since high school, his interest and passion for golf has multiplied exponentially. He lives, breathes, and plays golf, and he does so with his own goofy spin on the very serious sport. That is who he is and who he projects on his uber-successful TikTok account @Trickshotjmay.
Since he launched his account in 2019, he’s now built a following of over 1.4 million and earned over 18 million likes across his 135+ posts. Sure, he didn’t reach that level of success by just posting about golf. He also has a solid strategy in place that touches upon the essence of social media. His key to success in its entirety is: “Being yourself and taking the time to respond and interact with people who watch your content.” He added, “People just want to connect.”
In fact, that’s what Mayer does, as well. He responds to as many comments and direct messages as possible.” He enjoys engaging with followers as much as he enjoys golf. Being able to merge the two has proven to be a successful recipe for influencer.
When asked if there any comments from followers that have stuck with you, Mayer said a kid told him, “I inspired him to buy a set of clubs and start playing golf.” Mayer added, “definitely cool to think my passion for something inspired someone else.”
To inspire others may also seem a bit cliché but take a glance at a few of Mayer’s TikTok posts and you’ll instantly sense his genuineness. He recently launched a series dubbed “golfing your comments” where he uses objects suggested in comments as golf clubs. One of those posts where he uses a lightsaber as a club accrued over 1.4 million views and more than 158,000 likes. But, what’s more impressive is the engagement. Over 5900 comments to the post indicate that Mayer didn’t just build a larging following, but an active community.
That level of engagement takes time, but that’s okay. “Thinking too short term trying to buy followers or take shortcuts,” Mayer advises up-and-coming influencers to avoid. “My advice would be to play the long game, make decisions based on how they will affect you 5-10 years down the road.” Mayer admits he, too, still has a way to go planning ahead.
That’s who Josh Mayer is. Are you comfortable being yourself on social media?