Authenticity gets touted around as the big thing for personal branding.
But all this worry about authenticity means it’s easy to get wrapped up in our own bullshit. We become hypersensitive to our personal image, spending more time managing how we appear than doing what makes us who we are.
Authenticity as a selling point is important only to those who are worried that people won’t buy from them if they’re not hip or cool enough (in whatever sense for their target market). People swoon over the cool kid, and so if the cool kid sells a certain product or service, they think by purchasing the product they can be cool too.
Let me put it to you straight…
Authenticity is not a selling point.
Authenticity is part of a personal journey to align your actions with what you want your actions to be. Don’t pitch me by saying you or your work is authentic, it’s real enough as is, don’t be tautological on me. If it’s valuable enough to me and I can afford it, I’ll buy.
