Vulnerability should be in your marketing

I had an insight while watching Netflix documentary “Sly”

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, “Rocky” is widely considered to be one of the best films in American cinema. The following is a synopsis from IMDB:

A small-time Philadelphia boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight the world heavyweight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.

The star of the film, Sylvester Stallone, has recently had a Netflix documentary about his early life and the making of his iconic films. My post is regarding the insights I gathered while watching this documentary. One of the most striking aspects of the film is his willingness to divulge very vulnerable parts about himself. While I thought I was simply watching an enjoyable documentary, I ended making some connections between his approach to film and to life with the art of business marketing.

The vulnerability in telling his story connected with the vulnerability of his audience

He drew from personal experiences of arguments he had with his father.

He took all the pain from his childhood, not having either of his parents provide nurturing, and channeled it into his character of Rocky.

In the beginning of the documentary, Stallone spoke of what it was like to grow up in Hell’s Kitchen. His mother and father often fought with each other. Stallone never outright said “abuse”, but it was implied in his stories of his father. His father was “ferocious”, in Stallone’s words, and did not hold back verbally and even physically if Stallone or his brother misbehaved.

His mother and father were working so much, being from a poor class, that him and his brother spent much of their early years living with others.

Stallone admitted that he considers his motivation to become an actor was in part due to desiring validation and love from a large audience. He felt he didn’t receive enough love and validation from his parents growing up. He loved his audience as if they were his family.

During a scene from Rocky, he gets into a fight with his manager Mickey over how fickle Mickey’s loyalty to him was.

Stallone said that initially there was only one or two lines written for this scene, but in the heat of the moment, he released all his pent up rage at his father for not being there for him when he needed him growing up. He goes on a long diatribe, so long, that the character Mickey just leaves the apartment of Rocky and starts walking home. Long after Mickey has left, Rocky is still ranting about how much he desired a steady father figure in his life. Stallone divulged in the documentary that the reason he released all that personal, emotional pain in that scene was because he felt his vulnerability would resonate with someone in the audience. Little did he know, was that the vulnerability and heart in the film is what lead it to be one of the greatest films in American history.

Sylvester Stalone îs an example of leading with your heart

“Sly”, Sylvester Stallone’s nickname, did not base his decisions on logic.

He made some of his casting decisions based on the feeling he had about an actor when they entered the room.

When it came to casting the role of Adrian, his love interest on Rocky, he was very picky. He said that when Talia Winters walked in the room, the energy of the room just felt different. He said her sweet aura and kind eyes immediately sold him. She did not even read the lines of her character yet, and Stallone was decided that she would have the role of Adrian. He had somewhat similar experiences with other members of his cast, that somehow all the right actors fell into place. For example, the original pick for Apollo Creed, Rocky’s boxing nemesis, dropped out at the last moment, and they filled in his character with Carl Weathers. Weather’s performance as Apollo is iconic and I personally can’t imagine anyone else playing him.

When he wrote the script for Rocky, he wrote it in only three days.

Stallone wrote the script from a very personal place. He always seemed to understand or embody a “thug” type persona, who is action oriented. However, he wanted to soften up the character, give him heart, make him like someone who is good at fighting but doesn’t like to to fight out of principle. Because he wrote from a place of “flow” and intuition, the words came to him easily and naturally.

Stallone did not listen to anyone else as he pursued this dream of becoming an actor.

His father in particular, never believed in him. Stallone knew he was up against mountains of competition in Hollywood. He could have given up on acting altogether, but no matter how many rejections he received, he pivoted and changed what he could change.

What I learned from “Sly”

Your intuition will take you places you’d never imagine.

He never gave up on his dream

He had many rejections when he started out as an actor.

He was considered “un-castable” due to his unique look and way of speaking.

He had a nerve injury to his face when he was born, leading to the mild paralysis of one side of his face. This affected how he could move his face and how he spoke. As a result, he was often typecast as a “thug” in most of his early films. He usually placed an extra or side character, but never the lead.

He learned how to be a scriptwriter to write the roles he wished he could play.

Stallone said he would go the movies, and after watching the film he would go home and try to rewrite portions of the script to make it better. He was self-taught and did not take classes. He trusted that he could eventually get good at writing with practice. He wasn’t afraid of writing something bad, stating that even if 90% of his writing his bad, oftentimes there was something worth reading in 10% of it.

When he finished the script for Rocky, he tried to sell it to different studios on the condition that he himself would play the main character Rocky.

Studios were offering him up to $250,000 to not star in the film if they could have the film rights. Stallone kept refusing, knowing that he would always hate himself a little if he sold out. He preferred knowing that he had tried and failed than never trying at all. Due to his belief in himself, eventually a studio picked up the film and allowed him to play Rocky.

Stallone was not afraid to dream

If Stallone could do the impossible, why not me?

He learned to stop listening to other’s opinions

He marched to the beat of his own drum.

He often would improvise during his scenes with other actors when he felt the script was lacking emotion.

He broke off with the script when he was doing a scene with Robert De Niro in the movie “Copland”. He kept poking and prodding at De Niro’s character until De Niro snapped and improvised an angry reaction. Stallone could feel when a script was stale and needed something more. He felt better acting based on his own scripts. He had a hard time speaking lines written for him by someone else. Whenever he added his own take on the script, it often resulted in a much stronger scene that would resonate with more people.

He liked to push himself outside of what was comfortable for him, even if his managers thought it was dangerous to his career.

After the success of the film Rocky, his manager and others that he worked with all advised him to play it safe. To always keep doing the same role. Stallone needed to feel afraid to really feel alive and passionate about his work. As a result, he took some risks after Rocky, even starring in comedies and other films that were a huge departure from Rocky. Most of them flopped, however, Stallone doesn’t feel regret, because he grew as a person and an actor, and personal growth was the biggest motivator for him, not the money.

Not everyone could understand how Stallone thought.

Similarly, you have to just follow your heart, even if it leads to mistakes along the way, because it will grow you as a person.

“Sly” Stalone îs inspiring me to lead with my heart in my content marketing

I am afraid of being personal in my content.

I often fear that I will share something too personal, so personal that it will not land with anyone.

However, I do believe vulnerability is the quickest way to build trust with a stranger. All the vulnerability and risk that Stallone took with making “Rocky” and his other franchise “Rambo”. If he hadn’t listened to his intuition and used his own personal experiences to write his scripts, his films would likely not have garnered so much love and lasting adoration that they have. His films helped people feel not alone and inspired them.

Stallone’s passion for getting personal in his films didn’t always do well.

Stallone spoke of how he may have gotten too personal in his script for Rocky V. He wanted to impart in the script how much he wanted his son to become like him. Because this experience did not resonate with everyone, Stallone felt Rocky V was the worst in the franchise.

I resonate with his metaphors of fighting in the ring and showing up in life

Even if not everyone always resonated with his movies, I still thing showing up and letting yourself be seen in all your imperfections is the best path forward, even in business and in marketing. It reminds me a lot of Brene Brown’s research on shame and vulnerability. She wrote her self-help book called “Daring Greatly” that is based on a speech by US President Teddy Roosevelt stating that the only critic that counts is the one also getting beaten in the ring. That imagery combined with Stallone’s character of Rocky really puts in perspective how one should show up. Going forward, I really want to write and film content from a place of heart. Vulnerability will resonate with your audience and help you find your people, the kind of readers, subscribers, or clients that are on exactly the same page as you.

What this means for me going forward

Even though it’s scary, I truly believe vulnerability can lead to greater connections with your ideal collaborators and clients. I want to base more of my content on this strategy in the future.

If you are scared of vulnerability in your own marketing…

Schedule a free chat with me and let’s talk through it together.

Marketing yourself can be scary. Take it from me, I had the hardest time breaking through my shell to show up and let myself be seen online. It’s a huge risk, because not everyone is going to get your messaging.

Ironically, the less you care about your messaging appealing to EVERYONE, the more like yourself you will sound and the better clients will naturally come your way. If this post resonated with you, it’s possible we could collaborate well together, because my mission is to make your Pinterest account look and sounds like you, inside and out.