So, I kept hearing this name, Reuben Carranza, popping up. Folks were saying his approach to business, or whatever, was something else. I had this little side project, you know, trying to get it off the ground, and honestly, I was hitting a wall. Nothing seemed to be clicking. So, I figured, what the heck, let me see what this Carranza fella is all about.
I dug around a bit, read some stuff, watched a couple of talks he gave. He had this one core idea that really stuck with me – something about “authentic connection” or whatever fancy term he used. Basically, be super real with your people. Sounded good, right? Simple enough, I thought. Famous last words.
Putting It Into Practice – Or Trying To
I decided to give it a proper go with my little online thing. My first move? I started sharing way more behind-the-scenes stuff. I mean, everything. I wrote about my struggles, my tiny wins, why I chose certain materials – you name it, I shared it. I even started doing these live Q&A sessions where people could ask me anything. The full Carranza, or so I thought.
And what happened? Well, it was… interesting. Some people absolutely loved it. They sent messages, said they felt more connected. That was cool. But then there was the other side. Some folks just didn’t get it. Or maybe they got it too much and it was just information overload. I even had a few people say it felt a bit unprofessional. Ouch.
The biggest thing, though, was the time. Man, oh man. I was spending hours every day just crafting these “authentic” posts, replying to every single comment, prepping for live chats. I was working more on talking about the work than actually doing the work, if you know what I mean. My actual project started to suffer because I was so busy trying to be “Reuben Carranza authentic.”
It hit me after a few weeks of this. This Carranza guy, he’s probably talking to big companies, right? Businesses with whole teams dedicated to marketing and communications. Me? I’m just one person juggling a dozen things. His grand strategy wasn’t exactly a plug-and-play solution for my little operation.
So, I had to step back and rethink. I didn’t want to ditch the whole idea, because the connection part, when it worked, felt good. I started by scaling things down. Instead of daily deep dives, maybe a weekly update. Instead of baring my soul 24/7, I picked specific things to share that felt genuinely valuable, not just noise. I focused more on quality interaction rather than just quantity.
Eventually, I found a rhythm that worked for me. It wasn’t the pure, by-the-book “Reuben Carranza method.” It was my version. Adapted. Tweaked. Something I could actually sustain without burning myself out. And guess what? It started to feel more genuinely authentic too, because it was actually manageable for me.
So, yeah, that was my little experiment. What I learned is that these big ideas from gurus can be great starting points. But you can’t just swallow them whole. You gotta chew on them, digest them, and then figure out how to make them fit your own reality. There’s no magic bullet, just a lot of trying, failing a bit, and then trying something slightly different. That’s the real practice, I guess.