Do you remember when being “professional” meant pretending to have your life together 24/7? Of course, you remember that’s still being pushed, even right now. Like, when it comes to promoting your new business, you basically need to have the perfect website, perfect captions, perfect smile plastered over your perfectly color-coordinated brand? Yeah, a lot of people are seriosuly so sick of this era, and this giant push for AI is also making it so much worse.
For the most part, people don’t want polished perfection anymore. They want real, like full-on rawness. They want coffee stains, awkward pauses, and actual human energy. You remember YouTubers from the late 2000s and early 2010s? You remember how real and imperfect YouTubers were? Remember early social media and how imperfect all the posts were on there? Yeah, that’s what people want again.
If you’re a solopreneur trying to stand out right now, well, now’s the time to just stop trying to look perfect and start showing you’re human. Yeah, it might be a hot take, well, at the moment, but if you’re a solopreneur trying to stand out right now, then you need to stop trying to look perfect and start showing you’re human.
The Era of “Perfectly Boring” is Over
Well, at least it’s getting that way. But yeah, for years, the unspoken rule was that to be taken seriously, you had to sound corporate. Like, you had to basically sound all buttoned-up. Well, that and predictable. Actually, it had to basically be all “beige”. Like every post had to read like a press release, and God forbid you admitted you were figuring things out as you went. But you know what that did? Well, bluntly put, it made the internet boring.
So, you’ve got the same tone, the same buzzwords, the same fake smiles. So yeah, it’s really not all that surprising that people are tired of it. And it makes total sense that no one believes anyone’s that perfect anymore.
Everyone’s had it with those “I’m thrilled to announce…” LinkedIn posts that sound like they were typed by a robot wearing a suit. Obviously, before AI, people were already writing that way, but yeah, chances are it’s practically a robot wearing a suit generating those nowadays (people still are, too obviously). Anyways, you’re seeing more and more audiences are craving something different, they’re craving something that sounds like an actual human wrote it. People just want humans again, like being totally unfilleted.
Authenticity isn’t a Marketing Trend
Well, to be more direct about this, it’s more like a reality check here. But yeah, there’s just one thing every business owner and content creator just needs to understand, and that’s being authentic isn’t about baring your soul or trauma-dumping online. You don’t have to try on camera, you don’t have to make a fool out of yourself or anything like that (actually, that often seems inauthentic).
It’s just about being honest. You don’t need a script or a strategy for that; instead, you just need to stop pretending you’re a brand and remember that you’re a person. You just need to remember that people connect with people. No, they don’t connect with logos, not slogans or jargon either. So, when someone sees your face, hears your voice, or reads your post and thinks, “Oh, same,” you’ve already won them over.
Actually, it’s funny in a way, because so many solopreneurs worry about looking “unprofessional” if they show the messy bits. But seriously, think about it for just a second, because that’s exactly what makes people like you. Seriosuly, no one relates to flawless. Getting pretty honest here, flawless is boring, but relatable is pretty magnetic.
AI Might is Basically Everywhere
Which, honestly, is a problem within itself. While yeah, AI can write blogs, design graphics, and even mimic your tone (kind of), and can generate images of you wearing a suit, or doing something crazy with the help of Sora 2, that’s as far as it can go. You need to keep that in mind, plus, it can’t replicate warmth. It can’t fake humor. It can’t create a connection. No, it literally can never ever do any of that stuff.
Since there’s so much AI slop right now (and it’s seriosuly running rampant offline and online), it’s basically getting to the point where authentic marketing and just being real is becoming super hot. You know how you can obviously tell if something was made from AI? Yeah, so can others too. Yeah, people can tell when something’s written by an actual human who feels things. AI might be convenient, by all means, that’s totally true, but it’s also kind of creepy when everything starts sounding the same. Well, that and just extremely boring too.
Ironically, some people even use an AI text converter just to make sure their writing doesn’t sound too robotic. But it makes sense, since AI was trained on human writing, it’s crazy to think that now, human-written content can actually sound like AI, even though it’s actually not. But again, the whole point is to just sound like you. Just sound unapologetically like you, that’s all.
Real Always Beats Perfect
Sure, at one point it didn’t, but now it does. Now, at one point in time, people bought from perfect brands. Yeah, some people still do, like luxury brands, for example. But more and more people are getting more interested in buying things from humans they trust. Besides, trust doesn’t come from flawless branding; it comes from honesty.
If you mess up, own it. No, really, it’s that simple, and if something took longer than expected, talk about it. If you had a weird week and your brain’s running on empty, well, just say that too. Believe ir ot not, but that kind of transparency doesn’t make you look weak. Actually, you’ll be seen as pretty relatable.
Besides, at this moment in time, it’s like the whole world is full of AI-generated everything, well, that and people just trying to be too polished and too corporate, so being unapologetically human isn’t just refreshing, technically it’s also pretty revolutionary too.