performative authenticity

Back in October, I was in the speakers room with my friends preparing for their talk.

I was speaking to one of their content managers and laying out what I thought the future of content was.

One of their team just looks at me and says this is so authentic, you should talk more like this on your content too.

I cringed as soon as the A rolled out of his tongue to say authentic.

Not because I don’t want to be, but more so because it seems to have become a strategy and not a state of being.

And I actually think this is why many of us struggle to be authentic online.

Because it’s coined as a strategy to get leads or followers.
Instead of it being what it is.

The highest form of living life. Living in the frequency of authenticity.

The authenticity paradox.

The more authentic you try to become the less you actually are.

Probably the best statement that’s ever come out of my mouth.

Authenticity isn’t about performing but being.

And the way to be in that state is to stop trying to impress others.

You live your life as it is. You tell it as it is. You grow as you become.

The reason why the statement this person said was because it reminds me of the times I’d performed ‘authenticity’.

Performed as an expert.
Performed as a ‘polished professional’
Performed as the ‘dream girlfriend’.

Everytime I did that, I felt empty. Because it wasn’t me.

I was trying to fit in. I was not loving who I was. I was hiding my insecurity of my work.

It made me realize: sometimes we’re so busy performing our personality that we forget how powerful we already are without the performance.

Look, the real edge to a personal brand isn’t being authentic.

It’s being undeniably yourself.

Don’t chase authenticity. Practice understanding yourself instead.

I saw this the other day by my friend Dakota and it summed up this thought best.

When you write every day, you gain clarity.

And that’s what I’ve been doing for 3 years. Getting clear.

This leads you to know yourself best, and understand what you know and don’t know.

As you write, you learn more about you and the topic that interests you (hence why you write about it) which leads to mastery of the subject.

Makes it easier to verbalise and explain.
Makes you incredibly concise too.

The more you write, the more authentic you become.
Because you know you.

If you want to be seen as authentic, start seeing yourself first.

Write about what you care about and excites you.
Master the understanding of it and explain it in your content.
Build an audience who cares as deeply as you do.

That’s what I’ve done. And i’d recommend you to do the same.

Skip the ‘candid’ selfies or the ‘story’ about your trauma that you feel forced to share for the sake of ‘authenticity’.

Two resources for you on this:

A brilliant podcast by Dr. Gabor Maté where he covers emotions to depth and this topic with a lot more eloquence (free)

A 7 minute video inside of Literally Academy (My flagship course) discussing this theory and how to tactically implement it in content.

Sign up here.

That’s it for today, hope you’re enjoying these emails.

Got insane feedback for the last one. So thank you again for reading.

Been following my own advice - shocking it works.

Love,

Lara 🙂