IDENTITY CRISIS NAVEL GAZING
This past couple of weeks I’ve been preparing to deliver a keynote I first gave last year.
Same title. Same premise. Technically the same talk. But it doesn’t feel the same.
Last year, Main Character Energy was about visibility. Taking up space. Backing yourself publicly. Being unapologetic.
And it was necessary - especially in regional rooms where ambition can feel dangerous and confidence is often misread as ego.
So no surprise - it landed.
But over the past year I’ve realised something kind of uncomfortable: it’s easy to look bold online, but it's much harder to be aligned offline.
The internet rewards polish. It loves strong takes and shareable soundbites. Hell, there’s entire micro-economies built on teaching you how to be magnetic without ever risking being divisive. There’s a million "60 Hooks to Grow Your Followers Overnight” downloads waiting in your inbox.
But when we all start reading from the same script - then what?
In a regional ecosystem, you don’t get to hide behind the performance.
Your brand walks into the café before you do.
Your reputation moves faster than your content.
I’ve been saying for a while that authenticity is a myth. The better question is: who are you when nobody’s looking?
Because when it comes to brand building, you have to build something sturdy enough to survive the Bush Telegraph - strong enough that when your ideas are paraphrased three towns over, they still sound like you.
What I care about now is surviving the pressure test:
What happens when the room gets smaller?
When an opinion costs you something?
When growth slows because you chose clarity?
Main Character Energy 2.0 isn’t louder but it is sturdier.
Less concerned with applause. More concerned with architecture.
And if the room narrows? Good.
Small rooms built on conviction compound faster than big rooms built on performance ever will.
And as it turns out - the Main Character gets character development, too. Who knew.
BRB, accidentally evolving.
This piece first appeared in Excessive Consumption - a weekly dispatch on culture, branding, politics and whatever other modern internet brain rot the algorithm has emotionally assigned me that week.
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