Authenticity is vital; #authenticity is bullshit. Actual authenticity doesn’t need an audience, or have attachment to what that audience thinks about it, even if it puts itself forth in a way that might invite an audience. I know you’ve already made that distinction. It’s what you do, and do so well. Most of what I know about actual authenticity I learned from this guy:

I was professionally trained by one of the top life coaches in the world- a man most people have never heard of. Iyanla Vanzant and Jack Canfield have studied with him. He coached Mohammed Unis the year he won the Nobel Prize for creating the Grameen Bank. This man is one of the world leaders in the fight to end abject poverty around the globe. He is a real influencer about things that actually matter, but most people have never heard of him and would not recognize his picture, and that suits him just fine.

He does not copyright most of his materials and encourages students to make them their own and use them without attribution because he wants his work to benefit people. He lives quite well off of the royalties of the one major book that does have copyright restrictions, Becoming A Master Student, as well as his coaching, training, and teaching. He starts off his seminars and trainings by saying, “This here that I’m about to tell you in not the truth. It’s just my best thinking on this topic, and I hope that you will take it on for the next (length of the course) and put any resistance aside for the time being. After that, run it through your own filters and see what works for you and what doesn’t.”

That kind of authenticity is something the world needs a lot more of. That’s the type of influencer that means something, because he cares about the way he lives his life and the impact that it makes, but not the image that he creates or the optimal way to monetize everything (although he is a very rich man). He is my authenticity hero — his name is Dave Ellis.