Performative Confidence

I had ChatGPT analyze me by reading all the blogs and asked it to tell me one theme that strikes true across them. The output:

“You’re uneasy with performative confidence, in branding, leadership, faith, even in yourself.”

Alright, you might have me there. It’s funny though because in a way, advertising/marketing could almost be described as “performative confidence.” So what does that mean?

I jokingly coined a phrase earlier this month called Identergy. It is when you unlock your true identity and it releases energy that attracts people to you or your brand. I believe it’s the only way to truly stay consistent and true to yourself in a world that just wants to consume.

This term “performative confidence” could be seen as the antithesis of Identergy. I understand we will all have days where we have to perform confidently, but you can’t generate out of that all the time. Eventually, you just have to be you. Not the performer you, just you. Because most people get tired of only seeing confidence and there is always a better performer around the corner.

My wonderment is if people want to see both sides of this coin. It’s nice to see someone perform confidently, we’ve built a whole industry around it called Hollywood. But, why are people obsessed with celebrity gossip? We want to know the real scope. It feels great when everyone considers your favorite celebrities a genuinely good person, right? Why? Because when we see them perform the next time, we’re already on their team, not trying to decipher if we like them or not. We can just enjoy the performance.

When you or your brand lives in identergy it creates fans because they are rooted into who you are, you are not trying to just make them fans of what you are performing. It actually takes some of the pressure off “performing.”. You can just be you.

This is final boss level stuff in culture and brand. Where people can experience both sides of the coin at once. Identity Driven Performative Confidence. This is a great commercial or amazing speech from a CEO. When you don’t feel like you have to pander but instead are just being truthful OR you genuinely WANT to “perform” because you know what you created was for your fans, you want to share it with them. That’s the good stuff.

Dude, just be you.

PS. When it comes to faith, happy to have that conversation offline. When it comes to myself, I’m working on both sides of the coin.