What if you are who you’ve been looking for?
Spoken word artist, Adam Roa, took the stage at transformational comedian, Kyle Cease’s event in LA called “Evolving Out Loud” where he shared his spoken word piece “You are who you’ve been looking for” with 1,400 people. When the video made it into social media feeds in late October last year, the content went viral in 5 days. While there is a known formula out there for video virality, this particular video’s message held the key to thousands of shares and a new conversation around fulfillment and happiness. What was so compelling about this piece?
1. It puts happiness back into the hands of the individual.
The piece touches on the everyday insecurities relatable to everyone that are bread through the media, consumerism, marketing, Hollywood, and many other avenues telling each of us in one way or another that each of us “needs” something outside of ourselves to be happy. Adam is not telling the audience what they “need to do” but rather, reminding them that they already have everything they will ever need to find fulfillment. We are in a time now where it is becoming more socially acceptable to find fulfillment internally, through things like yoga or meditation, which makes the timing of it a bit more receptive to the general public.
Adam expanded on this stating, “The reason why it’s gone viral is because we are in a world right now where so many different avenues, people, social platforms, and companies are trying to tell people what to do. “Here is the blueprint for happiness and here are the ways in which you are going to find what you are looking for.” I believe that deep down if we have a deep connection with ourselves we can find our own unique path to our joy and purpose. What it takes is a reminder that we are in possession of all that we need to figure it out. We are in possession of our own intuition, and our own emotional intelligence. We have been born with everything we need to find fulfillment. I think that people resonate with the fact that I am not telling them what they need to do, but instead I am reminding them of a truth they feel deep down inside of themselves.”
2. It’s written in the common language we talk to ourselves in everyday
Often, we think about larger picture ideas in the same context, the larger picture. In this piece, Adam Roa takes the opposite approach and speaks from and about the little moments people have each day that don’t make it to the social media accounts. I believe this is key in the video’s virality, because these are the most relatable times, since everyone knows what it’s like to brush your teeth, get dressed, commute, and so on. And he takes those relatable times, and creates the piece from not the physical voice, but the voice that everyone hears throughout their day in their head.
Adam further explains by saying, “I think the other thing that is worth noting is that, I take this as a sign of how ready the world is, and how ready people are to return to love. And that return to love. Not just a superficial kind of connection, but rather, a deep, profound love that starts within each of us, in the little moments. The little moments when we are brushing our teeth and look in the mirror, noticing what that voice in our head saying. Those little moments are our lives. While they may not make the highlight real, they compose the majority of our time. I think people are ready to find the love in those moments.”
3. The message is crafted for the individual viewer
One aspect of the piece that I noticed immediately upon viewing was that the focus of it’s entirety was written to speak directly to the individual listener. This creates a deeper intimacy in the conversation, and allows the viewer to feel a strong connection to the call to action, which is that you already are enough.
Adam explains, “A huge reason why I do what I do, is that I understand that everything starts with the individual. So my messages are crafted for the individual, trusting that like a pebble in a pond it will ripple out to everyone in the immediate vicinity and so much further beyond that.”