The Vicki Kotris Podcast

Episode 50: Why Authenticity Ain't It, Babe

• Vicki Kotris • Season 3 • Episode 2

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Could it be that chasing authenticity in business is overrated? Inspired by a thought-provoking exchange with renowned marketer Seth Godin, we're flipping the script on traditional beliefs by making a bold claim: consistency, not authenticity, is what truly matters to your customers. We dissect how brands like Amazon have thrived not by being authentic, but by providing unwavering reliability and predictability. This episode invites you to reconsider the weight of authenticity, suggesting that the real magic in business lies in showing up consistently and delivering on promises, even when personal struggles threaten to get in the way. 

Join us as we explore practical strategies to maintain this kind of consistency, especially when motivation hits a low point. We'll discuss how aligning your personal strengths with customer needs can pave the way for business growth and personal fulfillment. Whether you're contemplating a career shift or nurturing a side hustle, the focus is on prioritizing exceptional customer service while keeping professional integrity intact. Let these insights empower you to create not just satisfaction, but genuine impact and financial success in your ventures.

Thank you again for tuning into another episode of the Vicki Kotris Podcast! I want to support you, cheer you on a HYPE you up!! If you're celebrating anything (and I mean ANYTHING), send me a DM and let me highlight you on a recent episode.

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Vicki Kotris podcast. I am your host, none other than Vicki Kotris. I'm a retired corporate girly, two-time six-figure founder who's obsessed with brand building, sales generating and digital marketing. My mission with this podcast is to share the lessons I've learned, to help you make more magic and money with your own marketing efforts, and to feel inspired to continue on your own journey as a creator and entrepreneur. Here I'll share real life strategies, marketing tips and mindset shifts that have helped me go from cubicle to creator.

Speaker 1:

This podcast is for business owners, creatives or those just looking for a little more sparkle in their day, so let's kick off this week's episode. Hey guys, I hope everyone is doing well. I know I've been intermittent with releasing podcast episodes, have so many things cooking, have so many life changes happening, and I can't wait to catch you up on all of that. But today is not about me. Today is about you, and it's a reflection day of something that is so painfully obvious to me and has been missing as I search for this next stage of my business, and I'm hoping that you don't make the same mistakes that I do and you are able to use this information to better drive and better build whatever venture or business that you are currently focused on.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so yesterday I was listening to a podcast with the famous marketer, seth Godin. He is an incredible marketer. He's an incredible author. I always love listening to podcasts that Seth is on and if you haven't listened to it yet, it is one of my favorite podcasts. It has been changed the name has been changed many times. It's now named Abundant Ever After by Kathy Heller, and she has him on, and they're talking about his most recent book, and he says something that I think is very profound and something that goes against a lot of the things that I have been preaching and thinking about throughout being an entrepreneur and being a business owner, and what he says is that, above all else, when you think that you should be authentic, you should actually be consistent, and I thought about what he was saying, because it matters most about how you are showing up to serve the other person, and the reason why it goes against everything that I typically preach or typically think about is because the idea of being authentic is showing up as your true self. It is showing up in a way that is not fake or phony or non-reflective of your own personal values, but it's bringing your whole self into something, which I think there is a lot to be said about that.

Speaker 1:

I think there is a wonderful component when you are being authentic, when you are being yourself, when something feels natural and we all you know that feeling. Right, you know that feeling when you're uncomfortable in a situation because you're having to wear a mask or you're having to act as someone else so that you can play your part most effectively, and it doesn't feel natural but, most importantly, it doesn't feel like you can actually bring your own talents or self to the table. Bring your own talents or self to the table. I have been in those situations many times in my life and I think it's because many times I was not aligned with who I was working with or what I was doing and especially, I feel that connected to corporate America. I hear that a lot when I talk to my peers, who also don't feel connected to what they're doing. But I am going to turn this idea of authenticity on its head, something that Seth made me do when I was listening to this podcast and when he said, above all else, you should show up to the table with consistency over authenticity. This is how I understand it and maybe it will help you too, as you are building your value propositions or just realigning the actions that you're taking with the services that you're providing customers.

Speaker 1:

So, number one I think about this as when you are serving a customer or serving an individual, they really only care about what's in it for them. If you think about yourself as a consumer, it's amazing to think about all the work that goes into a product before it's delivered to your door, but I don't think about the five different distribution centers that a package must get through and who is handling a package at Amazon before it arrives at my door. I just know that when I click next day delivery, that it's going to show up on my front door and I'm going to be able to use whatever purchase of the day that they got me for Today was shampoo, which was actually needed. So I'm going to say toot my own horn for that. I'm not buying random crap on Amazon, although I do. So I don't want you to toot too much of my horn, but what I'm saying about that is that that is why we rely on Amazon as a company.

Speaker 1:

It is consistent. It is maybe not authentic, so the consistency is what drives us to be a repeat customer of Amazon. We know when something's going to arrive, we know how it's going to arrive and we know that we're getting the communication back and forth so that we're staying up to date on everything that's happening. We don't really care if Jeff Bezos and company are showing up as their authentic selves, because I'm going to tell you an honest, ugly truth about ourselves we are not always happy to show up to work. We are many times pulled in so many different directions that if somebody were to ask me who my authentic self was today, I would say overworked, underpaid, overstimulated, sometimes mom of the year, sometimes forget to pack extra socks in my son's diaper bag. Sometimes we're eating whatever frozen food is left from our last Costco run three weeks ago. Those are the things that are front and center and that is authentic.

Speaker 1:

I am telling you that that is a very real reality in my life, but it doesn't matter to my customers. My customers are only coming to me for one thing whatever matters to them most, and I have to look at a 10,000 foot view of my business and of myself and say it is more important to serve the customer and the betterment of my business that provides my income, provides employment to my employees, provides a home for my son to show up and be a consistent provider, versus my authentic self. And the reason why I think that this was so poignant to me is when I was working in corporate America and I felt like a pull, a push and a pull of who I really was versus what I was doing and I wasn't able To see that big picture of. I felt so incongruous with what I was actually doing that I wasn't able to see that the bigger picture was not about me at all, because when I show up to work, I have to be that person to my clients to help solve their problems. Solve their problems In this third business that I have created and working 13 years in corporate America.

Speaker 1:

Only then am I able to have this kind of viewpoint and reflection moment that if we treat our businesses in the highest act of service, then we will always be aligned with what our customers need and we can still recognize that we can't be our authentic selves 100% of the time. Because we are humans, because life happens, because emergencies happen, tragedies happen, amazing things happen. I mean we again, we're experiencing all the high and lows, but our barometer for success cannot be measured by how we're feeling that day, because that changes all the time. But what can be measured is how well we are serving our customers and how consistent we're being with our service offerings. I was thinking recently because I'm doing I'm part of this coaching group accountability team to invest in some kind of coach or group or just something to where you get additional insights. And I'm in this group today and we're talking a lot about what is the value that we bring? Not necessarily the value prep is proposition of our businesses which can play into this, but it is who are we as business owners, as entrepreneurs, as solopreneurs, who are we to bring this value? And what kind of value do we bring to our customers that they can't get anywhere else, that we do better than our competitors, and I'm reflecting on that and I'm thinking a lot about what I do in my catering business that has helped me grow so much.

Speaker 1:

I believe this to my core why we work with corporations and schools and customers year over year. Just today, we were booked for a graduation party Next summer. They hired us two years ago for were booked for a graduation party next summer. That they hired us two years ago for their other child's graduation party. So why I think that is is the consistency that we bring as a brand, as a company, when we come and serve customers. And it's such easy things, the easy things that we do better than anyone else is. We are highly effective communicators. We provide details, outline service, we provide contracts and invoices. When we say we're going to, we arrive when we say we're going to. When things pop up or circumstances change, we are really great at thinking on the fly and making solutions happen. We are really great at thinking on the fly and making solutions happen.

Speaker 1:

And not every provider, service provider I don't care if you're a caterer, I don't care if you are providing a technology, if you're a marketing consultant, if you are a photographer. If you have those two major things, which is being an effective communicator and outlining the services for your customers, you will win the majority of the time because people know what to expect from you. So we're tying this all back to how can we be a consistent service provider? Not always authentic, not always bringing our full selves to work, but if we look through the lens of our customer and we rise to the occasion of what they are expecting of us, then we win. We win every single time.

Speaker 1:

So if you find yourself struggling in how to show up for, in how to show up, for how to show up when you don't necessarily feel like showing up, I would recommend that you look at how can you bring consistency to your customer based on what you know about yourself.

Speaker 1:

If it's I know, I can show up physically, be there and provide the kind of work that I need to, or I know that I can outline services in the way that I need to.

Speaker 1:

That is so effective in continuing to grow your business. But also come back to the value that you bring to your company. I think it can also help you eliminate some of that friction that you might feel if you are in a role in a company or corporation that you don't feel quite right for, that you don't feel super connected to, but maybe you're planting your seeds of working on your side hustle or you want to transition out of your job. Is shifting that focus to the friction that is caused by maybe not being fully aligned today and looking at it through the lens of your customer and saying how can I show up for them today, putting myself aside and just doing what I need to do to provide that product or service to make them stand in their highest power or help them function in the way that works best. So I hope that helps. Go listen to that podcast episode because I think it's really enlightening too. But I hope everyone has a great day and is always happy to help you in your marketing and small business journey.