The Return Of The Normal Person

Business and marketing often work in seasons and trends, and I believe we’re seeing the return of the normal person (It couldn’t have come sooner)

Faux authenticity needs to die - the staged mess, curated chaos, filming yourself crying to then use it as part of a glow up reel showing where you are now.

The sort of behaviour that you get away with because you’re posting online, but doing it in person with people would be met with a firm ‘What the fuck are you doing?’

‘I know you’ve written in your caption that you nearly forgot to take your child on the school run because you’re so ditzy and relatable - except, it’s not true is it?’

The correction obviously isn’t ‘polished LinkedIn professional’

It’s just that performative relatability was never helpful anyway

So much of the conversation about being ‘aspirational’ or ‘is your body your business card’ is just nonsense seen through one lens.

Being aspirational is probably important - for most niches, even though that will look different for everyone

Your body is probably your business card - if you sell the sort of transformation that is solely physical.

But being aspirational and looking a certain way don’t have to go hand in hand

Aspirational can be a way of living, a way of looking at things - or just being credible enough that people aspire to work with you.

No one sells the last one - despite it being very available (it’s just not very monetisable, or a lot of ‘mentors’ don’t have the intellect or skill set to help you with it - so it’s easier to say ‘Document your photoshoot prep’)

I can look in the mirror and say two things to myself - One is that I’ve survived in this game for a decade and done alright, so people must pay me for some reason.

The second thing is I can look at myself and say ‘Well son, it’s not for your looks or your body.’

This fact does not keep me up at night - it just confirms to me that I’m probably best off marketing by trying to show clarity of thought on the real problems, and an ability to highlight the shit people are doing wrong.

The test is whether someone in your audience could explain what you think to somebody else.

If they can sketch your position without you in the room, you’re aspirational.

If they can only tell them you seem nice, you’re not - you’re just pleasant.

You can be aspirational AND relatable

But if you only try and be relatable in a ‘Whoopsie, I’d lose my head if it wasn’t screwed on!’ kind of way

Don’t be amazed if you try and demand £300 a month to work with you - and people aren’t filled with confidence.

It could be that you’ve spent six months building the case against yourself, and they were paying attention.