Authenticity is a superpower
It's tough to tap into though
Hey hey,
This’ll be a short and sweet note due to residual tiredness from a long Thanksgiving weekend spent a few hours away from Zagreb in serene Central Istria.
Without further ado.
I find the idea of personal branding about as palatable as a peanut butter and swordfish sandwich.
Nonetheless, I recognize that being present on the internet and vocal is an important element of building something that can sustain you.
The phrase “necessary evil” comes to mind.
Which brings me to the topic du jour: authenticity.
The only thing less appetizing than promoting something I’ve written or produced professionally, a conference I’m participating in, a podcast I was on, etc. etc…
…is sharing something personal about myself.
That’s something I did earlier this week, however.
On a personal note
On Wednesday I shared a post about reconnecting with Judaism on Instagram/Facebook (you can read it here if interested).
It wasn’t business-related and there was no motive, it was just something profoundly true I wanted to share about myself.
Unvarnished, squarely from the heart.
And something magically happened…
…It genuinely resonated with people.
Sure, I’ve had things I’ve posted on LinkedIn go bonkers before, like this one last year:
A testament to timing, having a lot of my LinkedIn connections in Croatia and giving them extremely relevant content.
It was authentic, but it wasn’t personally revealing or deep.
The post about my journey the other day was all three.
And while it did nowhere near those numbers, I can’t remember the last time I posted something so authentically meaningful to me.
Some of the people who engage did so from an equally inspired and emotional place.
Why authenticity is tough
Risk.
There’s risk in opening up and having people close the door on you.
If someone doesn’t care for photos you’ve posted from a World Cup parade, an article on website planning, a piece on digital transformation or whatever else you’re sharing…so what?
Those things aren’t core to your identity.
If you write something about you and people push back, give you shit or disagree…it feels like they’re in essence rejecting you.
Which is why inauthentic, surface-level content is mostly what we see—and why most content is so easy to ignore.
We gravitate toward those that are open.
Being open is another story.
The upside
As much as you give the wrong people an opportunity to opt out when you’re truly yourself, you give the right people a clear signal to opt in in equal measure.
If you’re creating a personal brand or building an audience, that authenticity is your superpower.
Lean into it.
For me, that’s still very much a work in progress.
~Steve “peanut butter and swordfish sandwich” Tsentserensky
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