Same Sweatshirt, Every Platform
Last Friday, I recorded a video of myself talking about everything I’m working on. (You can watch it here.) I hadn’t showered. I hadn’t brushed my teeth. I was in an old IU sweatshirt with no makeup on. But I was so excited about what I’m creating that I just hit record and started talking. Then I posted it everywhere: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Substack Notes. The same video, the same me, the same very well-worn sweatshirt.
No big deal, right?
It was a big deal.
For years, I believed I needed to be a different person on every platform. LinkedIn Andrea was supposed to be professional and polished, flexing accomplishments and talking in the third person about her career. Instagram Andrea needed to be short, punchy and concise: post professional-level photos, don’t talk too much. Got it. Facebook Andrea was to be cool and casual; Substack Andrea the intellectual writer. Every platform had its own algorithm and its own set of rules, and I attempted to contort myself to fit each one. That’s what the experts tell you to do: Know your audience. Tailor your message. Optimize for the platform.
None of it worked. Not really. Mostly because I was just dipping my line into each pond to see if I got any bites. I was always sort of testing the market instead of showing up completely. I never got any real momentum because I was never really all in. I was four partial versions of myself spread across four platforms, and none of them had enough of me in them to actually connect with anyone.
The reason I held back wasn’t strategic. It was imposter syndrome. I didn’t feel like I’d earned the right to talk about what I was creating. I hadn’t finished the book yet. I hadn’t opened the studio yet. I hadn’t launched the program yet. I hadn’t crushed the metrics yet. I was waiting for some threshold of legitimacy that would give me permission to own it and that threshold kept moving. That’s what imposter syndrome does. It moves the finish line.
I did this in my personal life too, by the way. I didn’t see it until I’d blown up far too many relationships, but in retrospect the pattern was clear. I’d meet somebody and within minutes I’d be subconsciously determining what they needed from me. Then I’d become that. I’d mold myself into whatever version of Andrea I thought the relationship required and then deliver it consistently until I couldn’t anymore. Eventually the real me would start to leak out and the other person would look at me like, who in the hell is this? Which was completely fair because they hadn’t actually met me yet.
All of that has shifted for me. I’m not entirely sure why, but I stopped waiting. I stopped compartmentalizing. I stopped hiding. I’m now posting the same content on every platform, talking the same way everywhere, showing up as the same person regardless of where I am. And that’s not just happening online. I’ve also started talking openly about all of it - the book, the framework, the studio, the workshops, the mission - without watering it down or qualifying or pretending. No more “Oh, it’s just this little thing I’m working on” or “I guess we’ll see”.
Nope. This is what I’m building. This is who I am. Take it or leave it.
I’m not saying take it or leave it in a screw you if you don’t get me kind of way. I’m saying it in a I get that everyone doesn’t want or need what I’m offering kind of way. That’s how it works. I’m not chocolate. Not everyone is going to love me. Some people are living lives that feel exactly like they want them to feel. They’re good. They’re not interested in transforming their lives or some aspect of it through creative action. That’s cool.
My people are the ones saying, “You know what… I’m not living a life that feels like my own and I’m not okay with it and I’m ready to do something about it.” That’s who I’m looking for. And I can’t attract those people if I’m trying to attract everybody. I’m only going to get back what I put out.
I’m telling you this because I think a lot of people are doing some version of this, and I think it’s about to stop working for everyone, all at once.
Look around at what’s happening online right now. Scroll through any platform where people are trying to build something. You’ll see the same posts, the same formats, the same hooks, the same advice, the same tone, the same everything. People have studied what’s working for other people and replicated it, because that’s what every marketing guru and branding expert has been telling them to do. Find what works. Reverse-engineer it. Follow the recipe.
The problem is that AI knows the recipe too and it can follow it faster, cheaper and at a scale no human can. Every template, every formula, every “proven strategy” for growing your audience or building your brand is now something a machine can do in seconds. If your entire approach is based on doing what everybody else is doing, you’ve positioned yourself as a less efficient version of a robot. That’s a race you can’t win and furthermore, why would you want to?
When you do what everybody else is doing, you’re fighting for a tiny sliver of a big pie that’s getting eaten up more and more by the day. But if you create your own pie, you get the whole thing. The catch is that it has be yours… your recipe, your ingredients, your voice, your weird, specific, unmarketable, probably-won’t-go-viral version of whatever it is you want to put out in the world. That’s the stuff AI can’t replicate, because AI’s trained on what already exists. It’s the compilation of everything everyone’s already done. It can’t be you, because you - the version of you that’s evolving and becoming - haven’t happened yet.
If you aren’t presenting yourself to the world as the actual person you are, then what you’re getting back isn’t for you. It’s for the persona. The relationships, the opportunities, the validation, all of it belongs to a version of you that doesn’t actually exist. And at some point you’re going to have to either keep feeding that persona forever or let it die and deal with the fallout. I’ve chosen the fallout. It’s not easy but it’s real, and real is better.
The new algorithm isn’t something you feed or serve. It’s something you embody. It’s not something you can game or optimize or hack. It’s who you are, and who you are will attract more of who you are - more people who get you, who like you, who are on board with what you’re doing and what you’re trying to build or make better.
Maybe I’m talking into the void. That’s completely possible. But I’d rather talk into the void as myself than fill a room as someone I’m not. I’m not trying to create another transaction. I’m trying to create a community of people who want to make real change in their lives through creative action, because I believe that’s how this dysregulated world starts to heal. Too many of us have been doing things that aren’t in line with who we actually are for far too long and the world is poorer, less interesting and scarier for it.
It’s time to do things differently. It’s time to show up exactly as we are.
No makeup required.