The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - be yourself, but don't be ugly

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

Having a digital personal brand is a cheat code to life 💡so I made a FREE 7-day branding course + (🎁)challenge for you. LIMITED SPOTS: https://tapx.it/unlimitedyou-challengeThank you Stan for funding the challenge! ✍🏻FREE EMAIL LIST https://tapx.it/stanzoeunlimitedLearn & Grow with me.💖 Instagram: https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedig💜 TikTok: https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedtiktok🖤 Listen on Apple & Spotify: https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedapple https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedspotify🪭 All my outfits https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedltk👩🏻‍💻 LinkedIn https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedlinkedin🛒 Amazon Essentials https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimited👉use code ZOEUNLIMITED for 10% off ALL travels on Klook https://t.ly/aA76T📸My gear: (Sony A7Siii) [ZOEUNLIMITED15] https://tapx.it/lensrental 📧 Business inquiries: [e-mail] //🕙Timestamps: 0:00 Intro3:33 Authenticity 1.05:26 The Alix Earle Effect8:48 the "SheIn" Alix Earle Effect11:59 Hidden Crisis13:54 Marketing Solution

Excuse me this, what makes you confidence. Be yourself. Yourself. Yourself. Yourself. Alex Earl, Emma Chamberl and Katie Fing, Taylor Swift. Every one of them broke the internet through the magic of authenticity. Authenticity is the magic.

I've heard it. Until it wasn't. Nothing you'd cake. Here you take the bomb. Obviously, health tips with Sabcar. We're opening the over 300 packages I received in P.S. Try being an influencer for a day. Every single relatable influencer is just like you.

Listen, I get it. Stay at home moms. If you work in the medical field, my mom's a teacher. Like, I totally understand. But not really. So I went luxury shopping and completely blacked out. Great, but a month. So over the...

I just like, I literally don't want to get glammed. Everyone is trying to be hashtag authentic with fake messiness, fake vulnerability, like a cute trend. Get ready to fast for school. Authenticity is dead. As your marketing bestie, who graduated top 1% UCLA business economics with a background in marketing, we're going to explore what killed authentic branding by studying some of your favorite influencers. And you studied business, right?

Yes, marketing. You should have been teaching the class, not the professors, right? And how you can take inspo from what worked, but with the updated marketing knowledge. Because branding is not how you see yourself, but how your future client, Future boss, future boyfriend sees you. And I'm creating the series to analyze pop culture girl icons from a marketing perspective because having a digital personal brand is literally a cheat code to life. Quitting the job you hate.

Working on things you love that puts a smile on other faces. Getting closer to financial freedom. All on your own time. And I want you to have it. You asked, I deliver. I made a free seven-day step-by-step guide to building your dream life with social media. Not just going viral, but actually monetizing and getting closer to financial freedom. There was a group of small creators I started YouTube with.

It's only been five years, but guess who else is still doing YouTube? No one else. It's actually too easy to win when you're in the 1%. You just need to sign up for the challenge in the description. And yes, prizes worth thousands of dollars are involved, including a personal brand audit with me. FYI, I almost never take new clients. Plus a private monetization strategy session with Stan. The same Stan store you heard Stephen Bartlett,

the diary of the CEO would talk about, plus an entire year of free Stan Creator Pro subscription. Huge shout out to Stan for funding this challenge so everything is free. Vetted by Gary Vee and Stephen Bartlett, Stan is where creators aren't anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of dollars without needing a huge following like Alex Earle

or show you how inside the challenge. You don't need to sign up for Stan to join the challenge, but if you're entrepreneurial, check out their free trial. You'll be ahead of the curve in your monetization game. You're welcome. As always, free email list below for additional marketing knowledge. Originally, I was going to make a dive on how did Alex Earle become so famous so quickly, which I will answer.

But I found something far more interesting about the dying science of authentic branding that started way before time. Authenticity 1.0. Since the dawn of cinema, there is a fascination with natural beauty. The heroine wakes up beautiful and glowing, thanks to a whole group of makeup, lighting, and post-production. But these are actors. So when reality TV was born in the early 2000s, the idea of quote-unquote real people as entertainment took off. These aren't actors, they're real people like you.

Except these real moments are edited, scripted, and cast it for drama. which the Kardashians took to a whole new level. Of curated intimacy, crying on camera, ugly fights, messy divorces, except everyone is always still glam, beautiful, and perfectly lit. Naturally, people caught on that it's just Hollywood. So, perfect timing for the third wave. The relatable girl next door on YouTube.

Oh my god, I'm tearing up. In a sea of videos filled with perfect beauty gurus, came an Emma Chamberlain who burped and showed her acting on screen until this very relatability propelled her to celebrity status. How is your day so far today? It actually has been a very chill day. Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community.

Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my head of office has a first first. Forever Center. An IG Private Wealth advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IGPrivatewealth.com. This episode is brought to you by Tell Us Online Security.

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Or that. And enjoy. Via rail. Love the Way. Great. A very, very chill day. And left a void in who to relate to. TikTok said, don't worry, I got you, girl.

Zero production, bearous barebones. After being on six trips this past month, my room looks like an absolute disaster. I thought that my life was over, and I thought it was never going to get better. And that was Alex Earle's time to shine. Who is Alex? Get ready with me.

Get ready with me. Get ready with me. Welcome to a day, my life. Welcome to a day, my life. I do not want to post about it, a visa with 10 of my life. So I got my breast documentation. People have like 100 million followers on TikTok.

That's insane. I never really got that until... The Alex Earl effect. Money can buy you pretty, but it cannot buy you brand. It is one thing to have a following, but another to have influence. Alex Earle just wore a skinny jean led by our girl Alex. Like I'm really cool. Oh my god, I forgot what it's like to put on a skinny jeet.

The Alex Earl effect describes how anything endorsed by Alex Earle Get sold out immediately. Skinny jeans, check, hair oil, check, make up, check, check, check, even Tumblr. Sold out, check. Page 6 alleges that she makes $450,000 for every sponsored Instagram story. One single story. Which means she must be making the brand at least as much as that. That is real influence.

Whereas there are many countercases by massive influencers. Charlie DeMilleo, cosplaying is a Walmart employee. Bitch, you know I'm sexy. But Alex Earle isn't just a pretty girl with a glow-up. Girl studied marketing. And her brand started branding after two years of trying on TikTok. She figured out the ugly truth. That people say they want realness, but what they really mean is they want curated realness.

There were hundreds of thousands of girls making very real lo-fi get-ready-with-mease when Alex Earle blew up, but they never even made it out of the 200-view jail. There are very real people documenting their real lives living in very real and unesthetic settings who will never make it onto your 4-you page, make it to Forbes or times, go on brand trips after brand trips. Why? Because when people say they want realness, they don't actually mean it. It's, like, is this too much for a little, like, bar in New Jersey? Definitely.

Just like when the internet cried for real bodies, Victoria's Secret, 23 said, okay, then everyone was like, um, weird, take that back. What have you done? You have made the girlies so mad. Or when influencers get too real. I really don't want to work anymore. People get angry. Curated realness means not just a mess, but a hot bombshell mess using great lighting, the very real life of Alex Earle, but still with crazy exclusive partying.

Let's do somewhat light makeup for a book diet. Just me and my town. She sells first the hot best friend fantasy, giving you premium access to your sorority life, which is not to Walmart in the Midwest that anyone can walk into. Second, parisocial relationship. Am I okay? Alex told everything. Hookups, breakdowns, boob job drama.

You have emotional investment. Third, timing. Notice a time Alex Earle blew up. She filled the void of Emma Chamberl gone on YouTube. Supply demand. But notice how both girls, despite their messiness, are pretty thin and one shower or glam away from being carpet ready? That's the hypocrisy of the realness culture. People always want beauty, but make it wink wink natural.

Very soon, something else began to shift. People see the results, the money, the fame from Alex Earle's curated messy branding, and tried to reverse engineer the Alex Earl effect. And that's when it's all about to turn to the Sheehan Alex Earl effect. Good morning, my angels, and welcome back to another day in my life. Performative realness, where authenticity becomes cheaper and cheaper. Stage one, fake, get ready with me. Influencers started faking the messy vibe, pretending to be late,

hair undone, but still perfectly stylized. Stage two, fake story times. Get rid of me while I'll tell y'all about how there was a fight at my heart. school today. She like pulled her hair and smacked her. Oversharing equals relatability, right? It worked with Emma, Alex, and Katie. Got it, got it. Let me just overshare. Oversharing became a tactic and nothing else. Stage 3, fake relatability. I totally understand.

Everyone loves ridding for the underdog. But when the underdog finally wins, Oh, she's no longer hashtag relatable. Emma Chamberlain, for example, still has a great personality. But it's a little hard to argue that facing your fear flying alone in first class going to the meds are not the most relatable to a 20 year old But I don't care when I'm scared I will pray to it Similarly the dorm room energy of Alex Earl is not the same as luxury apartment and brand clubs So over the I just like I literally don't want to get glam But at stage four the brand cash in is where it gets really icky almost without fail every

time brands try to copy organic authenticity. I use Huggy Skin and Central diapers to protect against the top two causes of diaper rash. Very demure. Very mindful. They turn it to cringe and ruin the whole damn thing. What do I mean? Well, why does every single influencer sound like? Get ready with me to go to Target,

where I happen to be using this insert brand mascara. Can you not afford to write another breeze? This is like actually insane. Oh my god. Michaela? Like, what? It's the mapling super set. It's new. It's 24 hour powder foundations. Just like my skin was really hydrated.

Then, story time about the first time I used X skincare and how it changed my life. Holy crap, this sucks. Oh my gosh, guys, stop what you're doing right now. I think I just found my favorite lipstick. And even worse, get ready with me briefs for like six, seven-year-olds. So cute, too. It defies the very essence of the authentic branding and turning it into just overused words. The paid partnership is not there unless you download the video.

It was purposely hidden by Michaela. The trust collapses. Everyone is so sick and tired of authenticity and relatability. Even the more staged content like Nara Smith in a gown making water from scratch and Becca Bloom plating her dogs at 12 course breakfast now seem more real than a girl doing a get ready with me telling a story no one cares to believe in anymore. The branding crisis of realness fatigue. The brands and influencers ruined realness, yes.

But we should also look at a hidden issue. Unreal expectations of realness. There is a very contradicting desire for social media to fulfill, to be both an escapism and to find connection. Therefore, you don't just want to escape to a place that reminds you of your current reality. That's why aesthetics need to be curated. But also, you don't want to feel unworthy. So the content should also feel relatable.

Hence, the creation of the most dangerous curated, real parisocial bonds. A, viewers project their own ideals onto the influencers. She should be fun, messy, relatable, and still accessible. Oh, and pleasing to the eye. B, a consistency bias. Where the objectified image of a persona must stay, the same. Perhaps they are a hypocrite.

Hence, cancellations of influencers falling out of touch simply because they spend more now or they use a bit more makeup or, God forbid, have different hobbies and beliefs now. If you're not the same as your 12-year-old self, why is it the end of the world when someone else isn't? C. Attachment.

Whether or not someone is perceived as a positive influence online, celebrities included, unless you had a deep, heart to heart conversation with them face to face, you don't know them and they don't know you. Therefore, putting emotional currency in something completely out of your control is a sure way to feel disappointed. As much as it feels like it, they are not responsible for your happiness or my, but because influencers and celebrities don't want their fans to feel disappointed, often they use every ounce of their energy to stay relatable, to stay authentic, when it's

no longer the real them. It adds no value to either party. Babes, it is okay if you're not relatable. It is not a crime. If you're relatable to everyone, you're relatable to no one. The one and only solution is, if you're building a brand, don't chase authenticity. Build consistency and community trust. Authenticity isn't dead, but it cannot survive a scale or stay the same. Even death things change through decay. Brand building is not a one and done band-aid. That's why the best brands are always evolving, learning, and why Alex Earl and Emma Chamberlain are not tied to this one type of hot mess authenticity.

Sure, they might lose fans, but new ones will come, as long as they keep showing up to give value that feels most true to them now. But let me know if you think authenticity is dead. Join the free Branding Glow Up Challenge if you want to become a positive force on social media. If you learn something here, share the pod, give it a five-star review. Free email list, resources, all links are below. This is your marketing bestie, Zoe Unlimited. Episodes are available on all podcast networks, Apple, Spotify, YouTube.

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