My favorite song right now? Homicide by Eminem ft. Chris D’Elia.
Yes, I teach yoga. Yes I love to meditate.
I also love swearing. A lot. Shit is sometimes the only word I can use to accurately express my feelings. I woke up with a hangover on Sunday. And yes, I decompress by listening to songs with all the swears.
Slightly off brand for me. Or is it?
As a yoga teacher and entrepreneur you’re told to have a brand. To maintain an image that helps identify who you are. Something relatable, authentic, genuine — all the buzzy buzz words. Good advice to be sure. But recently I’ve been experiencing some internal kick back.
I feel the negative effects of this advice. Especially as a woman in her 30s who is still coming into her own. And as those who are a few years older than me have shared; after you get to know yourself a bit better, that doesn’t mean you’re done changing. As humans we are constantly evolving, and hopefully maturing (last one seems optional for some).
When we’re told to have a specific brand, it hampers this process.
I’ve witnessed and personally experienced this hampering. I’ve had many a conversation with fellow yogis who have an online persona that resonates with the bright lights and pretty pictures insta loves. But when the camera turns off, their truths come out and it usually sounds like this;
“Life is god damn hard! And my Instagram is not showing the shit I deal with.”
Nor should they air their dirty laundry online. That’s their laundry to wash on their own time, on their own terms.
But the friction of living between the online persona and the real live gong show that life tends to be creates a lot of really annoying heat.
Thankfully there is a helpful way to approach this. One that may also be good business advice.
When I look at the brands that do well in the long run, they are the ones that allow for change. They stay true to their core values. Nike is still just doing the things, but they are playing the zeitgeist – women’s rights, self awareness, inclusive messaging (still with stupidly stunning models delivering this message, but whatever. Baby steps. Sigh).
It’s this capacity to evolve that makes us quality people, and more importantly, satisfied humans.
Even so. It’s so precarious encapsulating self in a brand. When we pigeon hole ourselves in an image or an ideal, we really mess with our personal growth.
We need to allow for messing up, and even more so – for the whole spectrum of the human experience.
I am not just white rooms and pretty yoga poses as my website would lead people to believe.
It’s just one, small part of me. A palatable aperitif to get you interested.
I also love gangster rap, boxing, weight lifting and scotch served neat. Swearing and sarcasm are probably my favorite sports. I overeat, watch too much TV and the first thing I drink in the morning is coffee, not lemon water (phew! Feels so good to get that last one off my chest #notalkalkaline #soacidic)
My point is this;
In order to develop fully as people, we must remember we are not brands. We are souls.
I get it. We all need to find a way to make hay while the internet sun shines. I’m not saying throw the branding out with the bathwater, But have we stopped to think about what it’s doing to our minds?
I see the pressure people are under to present an image to the world via social media. Especially young people.
I didn’t grow up with the internet watching my every move op. My awkward individuation is sparsely documented in a few old photos snapped from odd angles by disposable cameras. Usually blurry images of me attempting to make graphic t-shirts, seashell necklaces and bangs work as an ensemble.
Branding is exhausting! I have to wonder if it is sustainable. We are not put on this earth with the singular task of producing “content” for others to consume. We are not here solely to entertain one another or sell our lifestyle. And conversely, how can we offer content to the world when we are not content with ourselves and we have no content in our own lives because we are too busy looking at the bright and shiny content of other people’s feeds? (Rant over)
Another thing to consider: presenting what you THINK people want, rather than WHO you actually are. –> Someone call Goose. We’ve flown into the danger zone.
I love Instagram. I really do. It’s a fun medium to express yourself within, a brilliant, somewhat egalitarian business tool, not to mention the gloriousness of memes. But just like all things that have a bright side, it also has a darkness.
Like anything in life it’s a balancing act. With businesses it’s a little more clear cut. You’re selling a product. A concrete thing you can easily define. As a yoga teacher, your practice and who you are IS the product. Which feels so fucked up. Our life shouldn’t be something we have to sell. It should be something we own.
In this regard having a concrete brand can be helpful. It can guard against oversharing and overexposure of intimate details.
Even so, I maintain that having a brand and thinking of yourself as a thing you are selling is potentially harmful to a person’s mental health.
This blog is meant to start a conversation. Not so much to offer a set answer to the issue at hand, or label the world of social media and branding as evil. That’s not true, nor is it the point. This blog is meant to challenge the new status quo of branding and selling of self. A person as a product is nothing new. But people as brands on a mass scale IS new (thanks social media). How this is going to play out has yet to be fully experienced.
The only thing I can think to do is to move forward with caution, remembering I am a person. Not a product.
Loveeeeeee