The Biggest Branding Myth No One Talks About → On The Cult of Authenticity

In Part 1 of this series, “The Missing Piece In Raising Human-Centered Brands,” we unpacked how weak Ego, not hubris, plays a significant role in the rise of both toxic corporate branding and unsustainable personal brands. And although personal brands are not our bread and butter, we promised to deep dive into "anti-cult personal branding" for Founders who feel compelled to loop a personal brand into their larger brand strategy. So here we go…

“Be vulnerable with your audience."

"Do what scares you."

"Bring your whole self."

"Build in public."

This is the soundtrack of The Cult Of Authenticity, pouring from the mouths of gurus and influencers who are primed to profit from your pain.

At Humaniz, we don't buy into the big push toward "authentic" personal brands. Not because we are against being real. Realness is awesome. The world needs more realness, bring on the realness, PLEASE!

But if we're being real, then we have to talk about:

• How easy it is for healthy authenticity to be perverted by the pressures of capitalism and morph into self-imposed exploitation of the Self.

• How "authenticity" becomes the justification for inappropriate and bad behavior that harms others or undermines personal and professional goals.

• How people with influence worm their way into the hearts and minds of others and convince them that vulnerability is the only way to grow.

On Authenticity

Authentic (adj.): True to one's own personality, spirit, or character

Your inner world isn't a monolith; it's a constellation.

You contain conflicting desires, contradictory values, old wounds, future visions, and adaptive parts that all have their own timing, tone, and agenda.

Sometimes the most honest expression of your Self is restraint.

Sometimes it's contradiction.

Sometimes it's confusion.

Sometimes it's silence.

And the truth no brand coach selling "authentic brands" wants you to realize: you are inherently

authentic.

Even when you're shaping, editing, or masking, those choices come from the real you.

Even when you are lying, or code switching, or merging, or over-editing yourself, that is who you authentically feel you need to be in that moment.

Being inauthentic as a person is an illusion.

But the cult of authenticity has conflated authenticity with vulnerability, and vulnerability with oversharing.

You can't scroll one thumb swipe without tripping over the sentiment that sharing of yourself is the only way to grow, or that reservations are proof you're insecure or not ready.

We've flattened meaning, and now people think:

Authenticity = Vulnerability = Exposure = Trust

Why It’s Dangerous

Time for more operational definitions:

• Vulnerability (noun): the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally

• Oversharing (verb): the disclosure of an inappropriate amount of detail about one's personal life

If you are operating under the false belief that authenticity must be created, performed, allowed, invited, etc., you start looking for ways to "be more yourself" - and you land on the doorstep of the oh-so-popular vulnerability flex.

Again, I am not anti-vulnerability. I am, in fact, pro-vulnerability.

But as the very wise queen of vulnerability, Brené Brown, explains:

"Vulnerability is sharing with people who have earned the right to hear our stories."

Key word: earned.

You might feel vulnerable pitching a massive contract, owning a mistake, or standing behind an unpopular decision. That's real. That's human. That's appropriate.

But you reveal a personal trauma in a LinkedIn post not because you've processed it or because it adds value, but because you're hoping it drives impressions, engagement, etc.?

That's oversharing.

In the moment, oversharing is the exploitation of the Self.

As a pattern, it ought to be considered a form of self-harm. You keep exposing more and more of yourself, thinking that's what it takes to be seen.

To grow.

To be taken seriously.

But when that exposure doesn't deliver the return you hoped for, the logic turns on you:

"I must be the wrong kind of authentic."

That's a psychological trap. And it's a brutal one.

At Humaniz, we are in the business of deploying strategies that celebrate humanity, but just for kicks, let's entertain the idea that we’re naive, that we live in a dog-eat-dog world, and you need to claw your way to the top.

Then is this "Cult Of Authenticity" and it’s "an authentic personal brand" the way up?

Still no.

Why It's Bad Advice

It’s bad strategy, because the aim of a brand, personal or company, is not expression—it's impression.

A great brand sets, meets, and exceeds expectations.

And as lovely as you are, not every part of you has a place in your brand, because not every part of you matters to your ideal audience.

"Bring your whole self to work" is about you, not the audience.

The job of a good personal brand is to consistently and coherently deliver the parts of you that add the most value to your ideal audience and to be in integrity with your values as you do it.

You don't need to overshare with potential clients and referral partners to win their trust, any more than your brand needs you to lead with self-righteousness or express every impulse to avoid the burden of self-regulation.

Branding is about holding boundaries, not obliterating them.

The words that should own your inner world if you want to raise a brand, personal or otherwise, are not authenticity and vulnerability. They are:

purpose, commitment, value, boundaries. purpose, commitment, value, boundaries. purpose, commitment, value, boundaries.

But watch out - because when you win at this and your brand takes off, you will be up against the hard truth that personal brands are not scalable.

The second you try to delegate under the umbrella of a personal brand, you will face an authenticity breach - and pretending you don't is an integrity breach.

And this is why we never advise founders to build a personal brand (exclusively) as a way to grow their business.

Conclusion

If you've started to suspect that "just be authentic" isn't a real strategy, you're not wrong you awake, because it’s not.

In Part 1 we broke down how we got here, and now in Part 2, you've seen how authenticity can become a performance trap.

In Part 3, we'll look at how to raise a human-centered brand that can take on a life of its own and scale beyond its founder.

• If you want that in your inbox, subscribe below.

• And if you already know you need something more strategic than "just be yourself," engage Brand IdQ™️ to start humanizing your brand, without self-exploitation.

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Who We Are

"We don’t create brands, because we truly believe that every business already has a brand. Rather, our role is to help founders and their teams embody the brand fully, express it with more clarity, and expand its influence and impact with more confidence."

~ Charlie Birch, Author of On Raising Brands + Founder and Creative Director @ Humaniz Collective

Bringing a brand to market is just the beginning of your brand’s development and life story. 

And that’s where we come in!

We’re creative, marketing and operational experts working together to ensure brands come to life from the inside out.

We support brands throughout their lifecycle across three phases of service:

• Brand Strategy

• Brand Design

• Brand Stewardship

If you’re looking for a brand partner to walk beside you, ensuring your brand grows up healthy and strong, makes good life choices, and attracts the right people into its orbit, Humaniz Collective is the obvious choice.

Engage with Brand IdQ - our complimentary brand strategy generator - and let us prove our worth.

→ Engage Brand IdQ

The Missing Piece In Raising Human-Centered Brands

We thought personal brands and entrepreneurship were the solution to burnout culture. We were wrong. And to understand why, we need to ask the question:

What do toxic corporate brands and unsustainable personal brands have in common?

The Answer:

Weak Ego.

Wait what!?

Most people think Ego is the problem. The real issue, however, is weak Ego. Let's clarify…

Ego is not confidence. Ego is not inflated self-worth. Narcissism is actually a manifestation of weak Ego.

What then is Ego? And what does this have to do with branding?

Let's start at the beginning with a crash course in psychology.

Ego, Id, Superego, and Personas

Ego is the function of your personality that helps you stay grounded, make wise choices, and manage emotions.

It acts as a peacekeeper and synthesizer, balancing your instincts and desires (the Id) with your morals and conscience (the Superego).

In childhood, the Id is in full force. You've seen this—the unfiltered child who shows up raw in every moment.

As we grow, our cultural context—family, religion, school, society, workplace—contributes to the formation of our Superego.

In a healthy person with well-developed Ego strength, the Self can oscillate between the Id and Superego, choosing moment to moment between instincts and compliance, or desires and obligations, to best serve the Self.

Adults who lack Ego strength will struggle to thrive, consistently becoming the victims of their Id's impulsive behavior or overcorrecting by building an ironclad, oppressive Superego.

But here's the catch:

All of this is happening below the surface, masked by the resulting Personas.

No, I'm not talking about customer personas (though they do have their origin here).

I'm referring to the roles we assume and the parts we play.

The version of yourself that you know? That's Ego.

The version/s others know? Those are Personas.

Personas are a necessary function; everyone builds them. But not all Personas are created equal.

Some are adaptive—anchored in Ego strength, able to shuffle in and out of use without losing coherence.

Some are protective—built to obey or survive.

Some are performative, built to impress.

Stable ↔ Volatile

Expressive ↔ Oppressive

Embodied ↔ Performative

Where a Persona lands along these spectrums depends on its key influences, Ego, Id, or Superego.

When Ego is in charge, life is good. When a Persona is mainly driven by the Id, it will either be observably dysfunctional and deemed increasingly invaluable, or the person who adopts it will struggle to participate in society. To the contrary, people with Personas driven by Superego can get very far before things start to go sideways.

What does this have to do with raising brands?

Great question!

A personal brand is a Persona.

A company brand is a Persona too—a collective one, expected to be adopted to some degree or another by people at every level of the organization.

When Ego strength is on board, both personal brands and company brands can be forces for good. When Ego is weak, chances are the Superego is the organizing force and this can be very dangerous indeed.

Let's examine this claim in a cultural context.

The Cult of Professionalism

➜ The Cult of Professionalism believes that success comes from control, composure, and compliance.

For a long time, the majority of high-functioning professionals rose through the ranks by adopting Personas deemed appropriate by their employers.

These Personas were fueled by varying combinations of Ego and Superego, depending on who embodied them.

If the Ego of an individual was strong and allowed the person to code-switch—"at work” vs. “not at work"—all good.

But when the Ego is weak (which, truthfully, many people's are), the Superego is in charge too much of the time.

Your outward Self performs obedience.

The inner Self withers under the weight of perfection, professionalism, and “what will they think?"

➜ With the Cult of Professionalism, we're left feeling not good enough because we can't measure up.

This dynamic really came to a head in the 80s and 90s.

Millennial kids who saw the ruthless impact of parents stuck in Superego-dominant Persona decided:

“No. We won't do that again."

And we began to build something new, The Cult of Authenticity.

The Cult of Authenticity

➜ The Cult of Authenticity believes that success comes from full self-expression.

Over the past 20 years, this belief has reshaped the professional world, especially for founders.

Personal brands have become more than tools; they have become identities. Power shifted from polish to passion, from composure to confession.

This Persona isn't defined by conformity, but by visibility. You are expected to be transparent, emotional, open, and always "real." The more raw you are, the more trust you deserve.

If the Ego is strong, it can set boundaries, knowing when to reveal and when to restrain.

But when Ego is weak (and many are), the Superego begins to exploit the Self, stripping it of relational boundaries, personal privacy, thoughtful pause, emotional safety, and more, all in the name of complete undiluted brave authenticity.

Eventually, paradoxically, the Self still withers this time under the judgment of not being authentic enough. Or worse, being the wrong kind of authentic.

➜ With the Cult of Authenticity, if we can't measure up, we're left feeling that at our core, we're not enough.

Here's the problem:

The pendulum rarely lands in the middle before crossing into a nearby level of the matrix. No. It swings hard and fast in the other direction.

Instead of looking at the root cause of the burnout epidemic—Ego strength or lack thereof—we just changed our costumes and started performing a new play with the same story arc.

So, it's no surprise that we are hustling harder now than ever before, still burning out, and turning to technology to fill the void and claw our way to the top.

And in this world, Founders are sold two bits of expensive advice:

1. Focus on building an “authentic" personal brand

2. Then scale your business on the back of your authentic personal brand

I feel very deeply that this advice is not only wrong.

It's dangerous.

But in a subculture where we not only have to work, but want to work, how do we fix this? How do we raise brands that nourish instead of drain, heal instead of harm?

Raising An Anti-Cult Brand

You thought I was using this word lightly, but I wasn't. I was using it literally, because a cult is at its core a system of imposed ideals—rigid, absolute, moralizing. It offers belonging, but only through conformity to a Persona. You are accepted if you reflect the values of the group—professionalism vs. authenticity, no less and no more. It is structure, an identity, imposed from outside.

An anti-cult, on the other hand, is not rebellion for its own sake. It is integration. Here, the Ego leads—not by force, but by function. The Ego mediates tension. It knows when to express and when to contain. It holds opposites without collapsing: impulse and strategy, transparency and discretion. In the anti-cult, you are not fused with the Persona. It is structure, an identity, grown from within and engaged intentionally.

So I will prescribe a remedy that goes against most advice in your feed:

➜ Don't build an "authentic" personal brand. And don't try to scale your company on it.

Instead, raise a strategic human-centered personal brand if personal gain is your aim.

And raise a strategic human-centered company brand if scaling is your aim.

Since my clients are founders—not executive track professionals—at Humaniz we specialize in the latter. And to be fair, Founders do need to consider doing some deep work in both the personal brand and company brand camps.

And that's why I plan to unpack both issues in sequence in the following two issues of On Raising Brands.

But in the meantime, if you are a Founder who has read this far, you probably don't want to wait a whole month to take action, so I'll point you to our complimentary Brand IdQ™ tool, which is designed to shed light on your brand's inherent Id, Superego, and Ego and kickstart the process of creating that strategic human centered brand persona.

Ready to raise your brand up right?

Engage with Brand IdQ + Results Integration Call to start humanizing your brand.

And make sure to subscribe below so we can send the next two issues in the series directly to you inbox!

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Who We Are

"We don’t create brands, because we truly believe that every business already has a brand. Rather, our role is to help founders and their teams embody the brand fully, express it with more clarity, and expand its influence and impact with more confidence."

~ Charlie Birch, Author of On Raising Brands + Founder and Creative Director @ Humaniz Collective

Bringing a brand to market is just the beginning of your brand’s development and life story. 

And that’s where we come in!

We’re creative, marketing and operational experts working together to ensure brands come to life from the inside out.

We support brands throughout their lifecycle across three phases of service:

• Brand Strategy

• Brand Design

• Brand Stewardship

If you’re looking for a brand partner to walk beside you, ensuring your brand grows up healthy and strong, makes good life choices, and attracts the right people into its orbit, Humaniz Collective is the obvious choice.

Engage with Brand IdQ - our complimentary brand strategy generator - and let us prove our worth.

→ Engage Brand IdQ