Hello Friends, No Fizzy Drink for me Today

The importance of accountability and consistency… and TikTok.

If you’re at all familiar with a little app called TikTok, chances are you’ve come across a sweet-natured, mid-forties Indian man reporting his daily progress as he strives to kill a decade long fizzy drink addiction.

In case you missed it, here was today’s update:

“Hello everyone, no fizzy drink for me today… this morning I received a big boost of confidence from my wife. She saw me sleeping and she complimented me later that I’m sleeping like a baby, and I’ve told you before that my sleep has increased significantly. I even had a power nap in the afternoon. And I’m even more inspired now to continue on this journey. So thank you all, overall no fizzy drink in 53 days… Thank you very much.”

You’re probably thinking there’s nothing particularly profound or entertaining going on here, and you’re right. But it’s been less than two months of consistent posts and his face has slimmed, he’s gained over 200K followers and had a bunch of videos go viral. He’s been dubbed the ‘CEO of No Fizzy Drinks’ and his supporters can’t get enough of it. If someone slapped his face and “No fizzy drink” on a bunch of t-shirts right now they would probably fly out the door.

Consistency is Key

This level of support proves more than our strange ability to blow almost anything into an over-hyped internet sensation. In a nutshell, it shows how obsessed we are with progress and consistency. There’s a reason why before and after shots are one of the most widely used marketing techniques: it’s what we respond to the most.

Starting our own journey is hard to do; breaking a habit or building a new one is a grind, which is why we love following the progress of others. With all his sweetness and innocence the ‘CEO of No Fizzy Drinks’ is on a real mission to improve his life-expectancy and health by simply showing up daily. If there’s anything we can learn from this, it’s that small daily actions accumulate and lead to life changing outcomes.

Over-share, don’t under-share.

The other lesson we can learn is that over-sharing beats under-sharing. I say often because you never want to compromise your personal values. Don’t go sharing photos of your children or intimate details of your spending habits if you’d genuinely rather keep those things private. My point is, sometimes the posts you don’t feel others will find interesting or important work out to be the opposite. The video you don’t share may just be the one people resonate with the most, so don’t take that risk.

As Gary Vee puts it,

“Nothing beats the truth. Stop trying to figure out the perfect post, the perfect way to get likes. Just stick the phone to your face and spit your truth and your feelings at that moment into the camera and post that. Watch what happens…”

Don’t replace quality with quantity, instead focus on both. If you’re really trying to build something, put your pride aside and share more with your audience (preaching to myself here). Be candid and open, and people will resonate.

Surround yourself with positive, like-minded people.

TikTok is a pretty unique platform in terms of its algorithm. As opposed to Instagram which helps you find people, TikTok is wired in such a way that helps you find creators aligning to your taste. I created a TikTok account for Origins Sourced a few months ago and I can count on one hand the number of people in ‘real life’ who know about it. It means I can post without caring too much about feedback or likes. We can all let our inhibitions go a little, kind of like we did with Facebook back in 2008… remember those days?

If any of Fizzy Drink Guy’s friends or family saw his posts they’d probably laugh, but he’s choosing to embrace the community at hand and lean on their support to fix a very real problem. We have a similar perspective when it comes to our business right now, in that we’ve deliberately kept a lot of details from our friends and family in order to avoid confusing streams of ‘advice’ or input. What we’re doing is a little left-field and risky, so we’re choosing to surround ourselves with the positive community of people online for encouragement.

So whether you’re trying to make or break a habit, build a brand, or develop a following, pick up the phone and simply spit out truth. You never know what could ensue.