We have been told that being authentic or transparent is one of the best ways to establish trust with clients. Our goal should be letting others see the “real us” and showing the world that we have a human side to our business. After all, not many people want to deal with a faceless corporation and customers want to feel as though they truly know us. But authenticity can be a double edged sword and something that was meant for good can become harmful.

• What if being the real you is abrasive to some people?
• What if you’re the type of person who is willing to say what’s on your mind in an unfiltered way?
• What if the authentic brand of your company doesn’t meet what consumers truly want?

Humans are finicky. I hear people voice their value about honesty, yet I’ve watched the same people dump on colleagues when the colleague is “authentic” and shares a real part of them that the other person doesn’t like. I read about Blake MyCoskie of TOMS Shoes being shunned by the gay community when he made the decision to work with Focus on the Family (which he later withdrew from). It seems these days that consumers only want authenticity, transparency, or the “real you” just as long as it stacks up with their worldview or values. Why else do we see so many people asking others to boycott companies or to pull their support for a product for one reason or another?

Authenticity is an ideal that many of us would likely say is valuable, but I am not convinced that the majority of consumers in the world actually feel this way. My opinion is that humans only want brands that are authentic as it is defined in their own minds. If you stand up to the consumers ideals you are good. If you step on their toes in any way, you are done. With this in mind, authenticity is walking on a tight rope and one slip can easily kill you or your brand.

What you you think?

If you resigned or retired, would anyone care?

This was the question I kept asking myself as I continued to see tweet after tweet roll out about Jobs. I wasn’t thinking about it in a narcissistic way, but rather with a concerning wonder if I was making enough difference in the world through my life, my products, or my services. Am I doing something worthy enough that people would miss it if I quit?

I once saw a similar question in a church leadership book. The author asked church pastors or church planters if their church shut their doors today, would the community truly miss them. Boom! The reality is that most churches never make any impact in their community and people wouldn’t notice if they were gone tomorrow.

I don’t know about you but I want people to care if I resign. 

I want my products or services to inspire people like Steve Jobs did through Apple. I desire that my coaching and mentoring helps change lives like Tony Dungy has done through his coaching. I dream that I can give back like Bill Gates has through his foundation. In short, I hope that what I do makes a difference enough in that I’d be missed … not for ego or self-serving values, but because what I did changed lives.

How about you? Do you want to do great things?

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make a little jingle to put in your pocket, but when I visit your site or read an RSS feed and every other image or link is an affiliate ad, you have lost my interest and respect. I feel like this over the top, in your face pushing of products is like a cheap whore who will do anything for a nickel. I don’t mind people sharing a great service or product, but when you continually throw it out there and every thing you write includes (affiliate link) over and over again, it just communicates to me you are desperate.

Here’s another thought. People don’t want to be hit up all the time.

I started to follow you because I trusted you and your expertise or insight. When you turn into a marketing machine for every company you can make a buck from, I feel that trust has been broken. You’re no longer a friend, you’re a snake-oil salesman.

Yes. Being an affiliate is fine. Really.

I admit that I have signed up for a few affiliate programs, but I rarely try and promote those links. I tell people about MailChimp, FreshBooks, House Industries, HostGator, and others because I love using their products and think they’re awesome. They don’t have to pay me to spread the word because I already believe in them. I’ll gladly do it for nothing.

My rant is over.

What I want to say is be careful how you do your affiliate marketing, because if you do it wrong, it sucks and people are going to get tired of following you. I’m deleting a couple well known people from my feeds and bookmarks because they’ve abused this privilege.

Am I off base on this?

Many entrepreneurs believe that success comes from how big their business grows or how many clients they can close on.  Bloggers determine that having a larger audience or comment base is better and hardcore Twitter lovers place an extreme value on how many followers they have.  If bigger is better, then why do so many big businesses fail?

Think about Starbucks.

They are hurting right now and have been closing stores because they grew way too fast.  The placement of Starbucks stores in about any location or venue they could place it damaged the unique experience people loved.  Now they are trying to regain market share by becoming small again and by inventing “local coffee shops” that are forced and inauthentic.  It’s an epic failure.   The same thing happened with Krispy Kreme and Orange County Choppers.  Something unique is created, the demand is raised to higher levels, and then mass production destroys the uniqueness … and profits.

Seth Godin preaches about how scarcity generates value.  This is not a new concept but it is absolutely true.  The less likely you can get something, the more it is worth.

I like love this mindset for business!  Cory Miller and I had a conversation about this while at WordCamp Boston.  He asked if I thought highly popular “mom and pop” shops should grow to meet the demand of new customers or stay small.  I believe that when you start getting bigger and making more of your services or products available to a wide range of audiences, that the short term profits you might earn now, will hurt the life of your business later. I’ve seen entrepreneurs who keep their businesses small or limited, thrive year after year.   Eischen’s Bar in Okarche, Oklahoma is well known for their fried chicken.  It’s a small bar that is packed out every weekend and lunch day (regardless of reviews going either way) and much of the allure is because they’ve decided to keep the special “whole in wall” experience to one location and a limited menu.  Other businesses that use similar strategies are In-N-Out Burgers and Tom Bihn Bags.

My point is that you don’t have to have a large client list, following, or readership to be a successful brand or business.  Sometimes the best thing you can do is stay small and focused, or just create a really cool or unique experience.  If you are something remarkable and worth talking about you won’t have to worry about being a huge success.