This Week in America — The More I Became Myself

This week in America, I reflect on a milestone I never expected to reach: 10,000 YouTube subscribers. But surprisingly, the number itself isn't what has been on my mind.

Instead, I've been thinking about the stories people have been sharing. Stories about family, kindness, belonging, moving to new places, and the moments that shape who we become. Reading those stories has led me to a realization about this channel, my life, and why the videos that connect most deeply are often the ones where I simply sound the most like myself.

In this episode, I talk about authenticity, curiosity, starting over in a new country, my career in banking, building a media brand from scratch, and the unexpected lesson that has emerged from all of it: the more I've become comfortable being myself, the more meaningful the connections have become.

If you've ever felt pressure to become someone else in order to succeed, this conversation may resonate with you. 

☕ Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/fromdownundertodownsouth

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FromDownUndertoDownSouth

🌏 Website https://fromdownundertodownsouth.com 

📘 Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068568677919 

🐦 X https://x.com/aussiemika74 

📩 Business enquiries: michael@fromdownundertodownsouth.com 

Thanks for listening. Hoo roo maties.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

This week in America, I met a personal milestone by crossing 10,000 subscribers on YouTube. But strangely, that's not where my focus has been. What I've been thinking about are the stories that people have been sharing. You better take cover. The comments have been completely overwhelming. I'm reaching the point where keeping up with them all is really becoming impossible, which is a wonderful problem to have. But what has surprised me isn't so much the number of them. Really, it's all been about what people have been sharing. Stories of their parents and grandparents, childhood memories, moves across this huge country, the first day that they arrive in a new town, or the stranger who helped them when they needed it, the teacher that they never forgot, the neighbor who made them feel welcome. Sometimes I sit here reading them and I think to myself, how did I get here? I make videos about talking to strangers, about feeling welcome. I make podcasts about the little things that people do every day without really thinking about them. And yet here we are suddenly discussing life. But that's what keeps happening. And over the last month or so, it's made me realize something. The videos and podcasts that seem to connect with people the most are also the ones that sound the most like me. Which is interesting because for a long time I thought the opposite would be true. When I first started from Down Under to Down South, like most creators, I spent a lot of time thinking about growth. How do you get noticed? How do you get clicks? Cursing the YouTube algorithm like it was some person that had a personal grudge against me. I looked at topics that seemed popular, topics that generated debate or that got people worked up. You know, things that looked like they might go viral. And looking back, I guess there was nothing really wrong with that idea, but they just weren't really me. I've never been someone who enjoys outrage. I don't wake up looking for reasons to be angry or to have an argument with someone. I don't spend my day searching for hot topics. In fact, if you know me in real life, you'll know I'm probably the opposite. I'd much rather sit down with someone over a beer and have a conversation. It's just always been how I have been. Give me one interesting person and an hour to talk, and I'm happy. Put me in a giant nightclub where the music is so loud nobody can hear each other, and I'll spend the entire evening wondering when I can leave. It's just who I am. And the funny thing is that for a long time, the channel wasn't really built around that person. It was built around what I thought might work. At the start of this year, I decided to change that. I stopped worrying so much about what I thought people wanted. I stopped trying to build a channel around topics and outrage, and instead, I started building it around curiosity. The things that I notice and the questions that I ask, the experiences that I've had living between Australia and America, the conversations, the moments that make me stop and think. And the strange thing is that the more that I did this, the more people connected with it. The more I sound like myself, the more people seem to recognize themselves in what I was saying. And I don't think that's because my observations have become better, but I do think it's because they've become more honest. I've realized something over the years. People can tell when you're trying to be somebody else. Maybe it's not a conscious thing. They probably couldn't explain exactly why, but they can feel it. And for a long time, I think I was doing what many people do, trying to become a version of myself that I thought would be more successful, more interesting, more worthy. And looking back, I've probably spent a lot of my life doing exactly that. Growing up, I always felt like I had something to prove. Then I carried that into my career. You know, work harder, achieve more, push further, take on more responsibility, prove that you deserve to be there. And I spent over 20 years in banking. I led teams and regions, hit targets, climbed ladders, chased promotions, and worked some pretty ridiculous hours. Every time I reached a goal, there seemed to be another one waiting. You celebrate for a day, maybe a week if it's a really good result, and then someone hands you next year's target. The finish line just keeps moving. I don't think I ever stopped to ask whether I actually wanted to be running that race. But life has a funny way of forcing you to ask different questions. Moving countries and starting over, leaving a career and trying things that don't work, trying things that might work. Starting a YouTube channel, a podcast, and a media brand that for a very long time seemed determined to remain very small. Those experiences tend to change you, or at least they changed me. One of the biggest changes has been becoming more curious, and not just online, but in real life as well. A few weeks ago, we were in Daytona Beach for a dance competition. It was about nine o'clock at night. The girls were starving, the sort of starving where every five minutes you're reminded that food is urgently required and that apparently you, as their dad, are solely responsible for solving this crisis. And we found this little pizza place within walking distance of the hotel. It wasn't anything special, but it was just somewhere that was open. And as we sat there waiting for our food, another dance mum and her daughter walked in a few years ago. I probably wouldn't have said anything. Not that I was unfriendly, it's just because that's what most of us do. We stay in our lane and keep to ourselves. At this time, I made a comment about us clearly all coming from the same place. The kids were still with the team jackets on and had their hair and makeup on. And we got talking. They were from Minnesota. The studio had 350 dancers competing. That's a number I still can't get my head around. Because at what point does a dance studio stop being a dance studio and become its own municipality? Surely they need traffic control for pickups and drop offs, a logistics department. Who knows? Maybe they have their own airport. The conversation lasted just a few minutes. It was nothing profound, but afterwards I found myself thinking about it because I enjoyed it. And I was curious and I wanted to know more. And I realized that curiosity has become a much bigger part of my life than it ever used to be. And maybe that's why the videos and the podcasts and the articles that I write now feel different to what they did before. Because the goal isn't really to explain America, at least not anymore. I feel like the goal is to notice things, to pay attention and ask why, and then share what I've learned. And what I've discovered is that when you do that, honestly, people often see themselves in it. Someone watches a video about strangers talking to each other and suddenly they're remembering their grandfather. Someone watches a video about kindness and remembers a moment from 30 years ago, how somebody made them feel. Someone watches a video about feeling welcome and remembers what it felt like moving somewhere new. So the topic is only the starting point, but the real connection, it happens somewhere deeper. And reading all of your stories has taught me something that I wish I'd understood much earlier in life. Because for years, I thought the answer was becoming more successful, more accomplished, more confident, more impressive, or more of whatever I thought other people wanted me to be. But the older I get, the more I'm starting to think the answer might actually be the opposite. The more I've become comfortable being myself, the better life has become. I still overthink things and I still worry about things that I probably shouldn't. And I still have days where I question what I'm doing. Ask my wife, she'll tell you that's happened at least three times this week. But I've stopped trying to be somebody else. I've stopped trying to sound like somebody else and stopped trying to build a life around what I think other people expect. And strangely enough, that's when things started moving. Not just on the brand, but in life. Because the biggest lessons that I've learned this year isn't about algorithms or growth or social media, it's much simpler than that. The more I've been myself, the more people seem to connect with it. And maybe that's because most of us are looking for the same thing. Certainly not someone that has all the answers, but just somebody being honest about what they've seen, what they've learned, and who they are. At 52 years old, that's a lesson I'm still learning. And I suspect it's one that I'll be working on for the rest of my life. Before I go, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's taken the time to watch, listen, read an article, leave a comment, send a message, or support the channel in whatever way you've done. This started as a way of sharing my observations about life between Australia and America. But these days it feels much more like a conversation. Now, if you'd like to come along for the journey, you'll find the YouTube channel podcast website and buy me a coffee links in the description. But for now, that was this week in America.