There are No Girls on the Internet. As a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative, I'm Brigitta and this is there are no girls on the Internet. So I've been seeing this idea everywhere that if you want to do basically anything right now, you have to have.
A personal brand to do it.
Want to be a writer, you better have a big social media following or some kind of online platform.
Want to be in real.
Estate, You'll need a cohesive social media brand to set you apart from the competition. Want to be a musician, how's your social media video game? We even talked about what happens when this need to always be branding goes really extreme and dark, like that surgeon who lost her medical license because she was live streaming the surgeries as part of her social media brand. Vox actually reported on this phenomena in a piece called Everyone's a sellout?
Now they right?
The Internet has made it so that no matter or what you do or who you are, from nine to five middle managers to astronauts to house cleaners, you cannot escape the tyranny of the personal brand. For some, it looks like updating your LinkedIn connections whenever you get promoted. For others, it's asking customers to give you five stars on Google Reviews. For still more, it's crafting and engaging
but authentic persona on Instagram. And for people who hop to publish a bestseller or release a hit record, it's quote building a platform so that executives can use their existing audience to justify the cost of citing a new artist. As a podcaster, I know this feeling innately like down in my bones. What I love to do is having conversations about the world around me on a microphone. But in order to do that successfully, I have to be a video editor, a social media marker.
And beyond.
It's a lot, and personally, I always feel like whatever I'm doing, I'm kind of doing it wrong.
I am Eve's Jeff Coo. I am the co host and co creator of On Theme, which is a podcast with iHeartRadio that's about black storytelling and all its forms.
And I'm also a I'm Katie Mitchell, the other co host of On Theme and the author of Prose to the People, a book about black bookstores, set is coming out in twenty twenty five.
Eves and Katie know exactly what I'm talking about. They're both writers and creatives, and together they make a podcast celebrating black storytelling in all of its forms called on Theme, which you should definitely listen to, because what is personal branding if not a form of selective storytelling about who we are.
So I have a lot of feelings about social media and about what branding means, and I definitely rub up against some friction a lot of the time when I'm thinking about what branding means and kind of feeling compelled to come up with the brand and do the active branding. But I am wondering, since you're very in tune with social media and digital media strategy, what exactly does personal branding mean to you?
To mesonal, branding is very powerful. It's a necessary way to show up online. It is a necessary way to make sure that the people that you want to be in conversation with, the people that you want to give you money to make things that they think of you when they think of whatever it is that.
You specialize in.
However, I would also say personal branding is really exhausting. I think that it's something that we are forced to do because we live in a capitalistic, white supremacy society that kind of forces us to be not just making the thing and excited about making the thing, but selling how we make the thing.
And yeah, I just don't.
I think that any conversation about personal branding also has to be rooted with the fact that sometimes it feels like we are forced to do that kind of work in addition to the work that we want to be doing.
So, given your stance on personal branding, give us your personal brand a bio tell us who we are?
Oh man, so who I am, and as it pertains to my how I've branded myself personally, or like.
Yeah, like if we were if I was a big shot in an elevator who had the money, like, what would you say to get some off of me?
First of all, I would say, if you're a billionaire, you probably didn't get that money ethically. So you want to say it funds your content?
No? No, no, no, well no.
I did once to get drunk at a party with very rich people, and I asked somebody how much their house costs.
My friend was like, that's such a rud question.
We'll do that when I'm not drunk.
So if I was in an elevator with a big shot media professional, I would say that along with my amazing team, with folks like Tari Harrison and Joey Pat, I make conversations about technology and the policy and the people that run it. I make those accessible, and I make those in ways that highlight the reality that it is traditionally marginalized people who make technology what it is.
And so we're fostering and curating conversations that really deepen the perspective of black folks, queer folks, black women, trans folks, working people, all the kinds of people that are often left out of conversations about technology, the Internet, social media, what it means, and the policy that shapes it. We start there like that is our starting point for those conversations.
I can tell you've done that before, Bridget I.
Give you some money.
I'm gonna right money, please.
So when you are thinking about personal branding, like because I've went to your website and I was and I listened to your show, I'm like, I truly don't know anything else about you besides what you like put out there that's pertaining to your professional career. Like I don't know if you got a man, you got a woman,
you got kids. I don't know nothing I'm like, I'm nosy and I want to know those things, but I feel like you personally, like purposely don't put those out there, So like, what story are you focused on telling?
And what story are you?
Like, No, that's a distraction for why I'm trying to get at Katie.
That is a very like that is you're good with your internet sleuthing because you would have to dig pretty deep, I think to find out personal information about me, and that is very much with intention and by design, and I think it goes back to what I personally have found about my branding is that because I find personal branding and sort of storytelling about myself online, I find it kind of exhausting and I don't really like participating in it that much these days, but I know I
kind of have to because of the career that I'm in. I am very intentional about it. I almost would use the phrase like, you know, kind of neutrally manipulative. I don't want any I only want someone to be able to say like, oh, well, she does x y Z kind of work, she's interested in X y Z kind of projects.
And part of it is.
Because you know, I care quite a bit about my work and my professional identity, but my real identity, the people that I love, my community, my values, all of that. I kind of hold that a bit closer to my chest because I don't want that to be something that is a personal an exhaustive personal branding exercise. Right Like when I'm spending time with my family, I don't want to feel that I have to be digitally curating a story about that time. Otherwise it doesn't count. That's just
like not a not a dynamic. I'm really interested in bringing in to certain parts of my life, but I'm happy to talk about it with you on in terms of how I brand myself, it doesn't really show up.
Yes, I'm nosy, I want to know who let's talk about that after Katie.
Well, I'm curious, like how is it shown up for like how do you two as creatives and hosts and people who have platforms and make things like how do you?
How have you found that dynamic?
I think we approach very differently.
Say more about that.
I think cause like I don't have like a website about myself or anything I've taken to like also not like really posting anything about my family, and I used to I felt like people asked me questions, I just felt like I had to answer, like and it's like so silly to say. It was like, you actually don't have to tell people things just because they ask you that, Like, oh, guy Ross is asking me about my grandpa, I have to tell him and I'm just like, oh no, I don't.
So like I've tapered off of that. I feel like I've grown into like cause like in my personal life, I'm very like to myself, like I don't even be telling my friends like every single thing. So I'm like, why am I telling the internet every single thing? And I think I got to that very quickly. It's like, actually, I don't like this, Like I feel like I don't really have a curated personal brand. Maybe my personal brand is like not having one, like being mysterious I would
like to think. I was like, yeah, my agent was like, you need to have a website and you need to do this, and I'm just like, hmm, I hear you, but I'm not going to do that.
So yeah, they tried to do the same thing to me, like back in like years ago, when I first started hosting podcasts, they were like, you should probably set up a Twitter I mean, and look how that's gone today,
you know. But I mean, I have felt compelled to be to have a public presence, but that feeling of being compelled has never actually led me to do anything that I'm uncomfortable with, because at the end of the day, I know that I have control over what I choose to share with people and how I choose to share it. So I have found myself telling myself that I want to share more, but if that doesn't show up right
in my body, then I don't do it. So I have shared more in the places where I feel most comfortable, which for me oftentimes that is if it's on social media, then that's in the Instagram space. But if that's outside on the internet, like you know, just the articles that I write in the podcast that I produce, those are spaces where I know that I have creative more creative control, and they're subject to scrutiny in different ways, or at
least more measured scrutiny. I don't think I have a personal brand either, but I think maybe one has been constructed for me and my chosen interest. Actually, speaking of this bridget We've talked about this before in the title of public intellectual and how that's something that is like I would be labeled as regardless.
Whether or not I would choose to call myself that.
I mean, you are one.
I don't think somebody comes down from the sky and as like Eves, I w a public intellectual.
You are one.
You publicly opine and have good takes and good opinions, and you're part of the public conversation and people look to you. The people who are listening to on theme, they listen to the both of you to help them understand, you know, what they should be help shape their own opinions. And so yeah, I think you are a public intellectual. Even if you don't feel like you would ever call yourself one, you both definitely are.
I feel like I'm getting a therapy session right now and helping me work through some things.
Well.
Also, think about all the kinds of people who wouldn't feel like I just know a lot of people who are like, oh, I'm a X Y Z expert, and I'm like, oh, I feel like experts the kind of thing that other people have to call you.
It's you're calling yourself one. That's interesting.
And I think more more people who have actual good things to offer the world should take ownership of those labels that mean so much.
So what would you say, you're an expert in.
Oh, god, nothing, No, that's not true. I am an expert in This is a good question. I am an expert in curiosity. I know that's kind of a cop out answer, but you know, like, that's one of the reasons why I love podcasting is that you really just get to poke and product people. And you know, Katie, you said something earlier and Eves was like, Oh, tell
me more about that. If there was a question that animates my entire existence in this world, and probably tell me more about that, because I am just genuinely very curious about who people are, what motivates them, their values, where they see themselves, how they see the world. So I think I'm an expert in curiosity.
So you have your own personal experience with personal branding, But when you see other people and the ways that they choose to personal brand in public, what are your feelings about that, Like, do you have any sort of initial emotions that come up when you think of the ways that people have to personal brand on the Internet.
I don't know if anybody can relate to this feeling but lately I have made a lot of intentional efforts to sort of step back and be a little more selective about how my own brand shows up online. And also I've made the choice to care a little bit less about it and say, like, if I want to be a kick ass podcaster, I'm going to lean into podcasting and the personal branding stuff can come second, and
that's okay. However, lately, I have felt like when I scroll social media, I am just constantly being bombarded with the ways that I'm getting it wrong, the ways that I'm like, oh, you're not making reels. You should be making tiktoks like this. You should be offering your audience this. If you want to grow, do that. And I think part of that is just the nature of social media algorithms.
It seems like every other month Ada mos Ari, the head of Instagram, will be like, oh, well, last month, we told creators if they wanted to use Instagram to the best of their ability, they should be doing X.
Now it's why.
And I realized that I just have no interest in being on this hamster wheel while where I have to be, you know, responding to the whims of billionaires who run tech platforms who I will never meet right, and so I've made that decision for myself. But I don't feel like it's very easy to sit in that choice all the time, because constantly I'm bombarded by people who are doing it right or have the answer or want to
sell me the answer. I often find other people's personal branding a little bit exhausting, and it's so just like me projecting my own insecurities and anxiety around it onto them, like they're not doing anything wrong. But it sometimes it seems hard to just exist online without constantly branding yourself
and constantly selling people on who you are. Like whatever happened to kicking it online or having fun online or finding community online in a way that wasn't like just intentionally branding yourself as some sort of expert in your field.
Yeah, but that also makes me think about how corporations and commercial institutions, how their anxieties and their issues have been projected onto us, and how we've kind of had to co op them in our own efforts to survive and live in this world. And I'm wondering if you see any differences in the way that black people have had to operate in that space of being forced to personal brand, to live and how people of other races have operated in that space. Do you feel differently about them?
Do you see a difference between the two.
I do see a difference. I think the stakes are different for us, you know. I mean, I think historically we have a lot less access, So we have a lot less access to platforms and spaces and traditional media outlets, and we've really had to build our own platforms and spaces and media outlets. If you want to be heard and want to be able to show up as our
authentic selves, that is a gift. That is a gift that we as black folks have always had, is building our own tables when we're not invited to other people's stables, right, So I want to honor the fact that that is a truly a gift and a legacy. So I'm not knocking that. However, I think that because of that, we kind of always have to be doing that, and like there's a feeling that if you stop doing that, you'll cease to exist or you'll cease to get those opportunities.
And I actually really do believe that. I think that if I were to take a year off of social media, or a year off of making my podcast, I think that it would be that much harder for me to come back because people will be like, oh, what like in that year, I didn't see you constantly posting what awards you were winning, or constantly and posting what content you were making, So I guess you didn't exist, right, And So I think that because of these because of
the way that historically we have been shut out of that kind of access, I think it creates this kind of need to be doing something that luckily we're quite good at, which is building our own platforms. And I just yeah, I just want to make sure that when we talk about that, we're talking about it in a way that both honors how great that is, but also is tuned into how tough that can be, that feeling can be, to be like, oh, I can't even take a break for a moment, I always have to be branding.
Yeah, if we're already black people, is the way I'm talking about already subject to so much scrutiny because even when we're visible in the very smallest of ways. So what do you think that kind of loop of visibility of having to be present at all times just by nature of the Internet, but also because we're black, how does that affect like how we are treated in terms of our visibility and hypervisibility.
Hypervisibility is a good word for it, because it's like, as black folks who show up online, we're both hyper visible, but in a lot of ways erased or overlooked. And it's just very interesting to me how you can sort of be both. I've had accomplishments in my life where things happen in my life that I don't put on social media and people act like they don't exist, and so I'm really challenging myself to sort of resist that internally.
And I really think about this quote from MICHAELA. Cole when I think she won an Emmy, and she said, in a world that entices us to browse through the lives of others to help us better determine how we feel about ourselves, and to in turn feel the need to be constantly visible. For visibility these days seems to somehow equate to success. Do not be afraid to disappear from it, from us for a while and see what
comes to you in the silence. And I have always found so much power in that quote because when you have that silence and that space where there aren't eyes on you. For me, that has a equated to really making something I'm proud of, or really being able to lean into something right.
And so I think that in.
A world that tells us that visibility is success, not being afraid to step back and go invisible, go dark for a little bit, you know, I think it's really powerful to be able to do that and understand what the power in that in a world that tells you always have to be showing yourself and branding yourself.
Let's take a quick break at our back.
Have you ever taken a social media break?
Oh? All the time? I mean I'm not. I'm not somebody who will be like, hey, guys taking a.
Break, like like nobody cares.
Y girl, you could have kept that to yourself.
Take a nap, right, like, we wouldn't have known if that was the algorithm or them taking a break anyway.
I definitely take long breaks, short breaks, all the breaks from social media.
And I don't feel the need to announce it.
But isn't it so weird that you would even feel the need to announce it, Like there's like how many other things in your life? If you stop doing it for a week or a month, would people be like, oh, are you okay?
What's going on with you?
Like, if you didn't play a certain game for a month, do you think that you would feel the need to like announce that to the world.
I just think.
That that really, to me illustrates how we're so caught up in this idea that everybody, everybody has to be on social media all the time, and that you know that's not true, Like you can you can dip in, dip out, do it as it feels comfortable and right to you, and truly nothing will happen.
I think that also goes to the difference between personal branding online versus personal branding like IRL, because I don't think people paid that much more. People pay more attention to the online presence than like their in person presence. So like you're going to think about like what outfit you're posting when you're posting online, and you're going to craft your caption really well, and you're going to like have all this thought, But when you're out in the streets,
you're looking a mess. You've got a bond it on, and you're talking crazy to the people at American DELI like, you're not really thinking too much about your personal brand.
And when people apologize for that, they do it online, like when they apologize for their public presence. I've seen people say I had to where I couldn't go outside
today because I wasn't. They'll say things about like wearing makeup or wearing a bond it out or not being dressed to the nons, you know, not having their faces beat and apologize for that because they know that might show up online in a certain way, but not necessarily because they care about how that personal interaction in real life went.
So yeah, I mean, by the way, I'm pro bonnet outside just putting that out out.
I'm just saying people will apologize for things like that because they want to be perceived a certain way because they know how their brand will show up.
Yeah, But it's like the personal branding, Yeah, I'd like, the obsession with it doesn't really for I think for most people, it doesn't show up outside unless you're like on a panel or at a conference. But like just how you move every day, I don't see that as much.
There is this weird kind of collapse that I see between in real life and online evens where it's like, yeah, somebody might have an interaction offline that is in some ways authentically them because they're not branding it. It's just happening, you know, off the cuff or whatever, and then go online to talk about that interaction in a way that is part of the brand. It's so interesting how these
online and offline realities have kind of collapsed. And I do think that if something like in a lot of ways, the digital realm has become more real than reality in some ways, where it only sort of matters how it shows up online or how it's branded online and shows up in reality is a lot In a lot of cases, it's a lot less important to folks.
I think, yeah, for sure.
Are you familiar with the Google for faces pim eyes? Oh yes, so I just learned about that, I think last week.
Are you familiar with the use.
So it's basically like, if say I have a picture of you, and you can have a mask on, you can have your eyes closed, you can be like looking a different way. I can put that into that and it would show every instance where your face appears online, whether you posted it, whether you're just like in the background of somebody else's picture, just everything, and like learning about that really just like made me want to just
go further away from not branding myself. Like I was, like, I want to remove every picture of myself from online just because, Like I think when we first started doing this, I would say like for us, maybe like the early twenty tens, we had no idea like what the internet was going to be, and so like now in twenty twenty four, I still like we still don't have a true idea, but we see a little bit more, and to me, it's like very scary what the internet is about to be.
Yeah, I completely agree.
You know, I think I might be a little older than both of you, But I remember when I first got Facebook, I was an undergrad in college and I graduated college in two thousand and seven, two thousand and seven, and this was when the main thing was like you are connecting with your friends, you are going out to a nightclub, you are taking a thousand pictures from that single outing, posting all of them pits days, and all
of them for sure pit stains. Yeah, like albums, right, And so I think that was sort of that the heyday when we really really kind of it was easy to think of this as something that was about connection here in twenty twenty four. I don't think that anybody feels like social media platforms are offering us genuine connection anymore. I think what they're offering us is exploitation. I think
what they're offering us is anxiety. I think what they're offering us is surveillance, criminal, is all kinds of things. And I think that you know, that idea of connecting with your friends, even if you look at your if you if you open Instagram right now and scroll your you know.
Whatever, their version of their feed.
A lot of the stuff that you're being shown is it from your friends or people that you've opted to follow. It's algorithmically generated content that they want you to see that they think that you might like, right, And so I think that what is I think we should be asking what that means for our role in all of this, how we fit into that If social media platforms are going to go to a place where it's more about like surfacing you content than connection.
So if you're no longer connecting with your.
Friends, are we all like Katie Eves and Bridget are we all now de facto content creators? Or or what like are we the audience here? I think that we really need to have a more refined role in how we fit into this because the two thousand and six, two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight days are like way behind us in terms of how this is all working.
We're living in unpresidented time, but we've been doing so for for a while now. It's not like, oh, we have like one one event that happens. It's like, ooh that was unprecedented, Glad that's over. It's just like all of it, like the evolution of it is just like, oh my god, Like what's next?
What are we going to do?
And as a podcaster, Bridget, I'm interested in getting your take on like who owns our personal brands? Because it sounds like, oh, it's our personal brand, we own it, but you know, like as contractors, like do we own those or is it you know, XYZ Corporation media conglomerate that owns our personal branding?
What do you think about that?
Well, as a company girl, I have to shout out the good folks that iHeart radio definitely own my brand and all of the things that come with it. No, I'm kidding, I mean I think your question is it's like a really good one. I am. I might be a weird person to ask because I'm particular about ownership, right. If you ever watched that show Breaking Bad and Walter White,
one of the reasons it's like revealed by that. One of the reasons why he's so weird about his math recipe is that he was cut out of a cut out of a deal when he was a scientist and he didn't have ownership over a product that he made, and it like stuck with him. I kind of feel like that's a little bit of my origin story too, where I am a real I am very particular about ownership. I would rather get screwed on the money and have
more ownership of something. I don't know if that's like the best choice, but part of it is because of
that discomfort around who owns what. I just hate the idea that something that I create, right, something that I conceptualized, that I put my heart and soul into, that came from me, that was that was colored by all of the experiences that I have brought with me to this to this world, that somebody else could be like, oh well, that's just another point in our annual sales meeting about how we're doing right, So like I am, I'm like very weird about that kind of thing, and I do.
I mean, I've had situations where the line of ownership who owns what about me and my work and my brand isn't so clear, And so these days I'm trying to really move through the creative professional world with a lot more clarity about where the lines are about who owns what about you know, who has the final say, who has control, who makes the money all of that, because I think it's I think you need to you know.
I don't want to get too into it, but like when I was first coming up in podcasting, I've signed some deals that I wish I had looked at a little closer, because I would see, like, oh, I'm I'm inherently, both in the work and on paper, just generating stuff for other people. And so no matter how much of myself I put into that, I'm only going to ever
be generating for others's supposed to generating for myself. And so yeah, I feel a bit burned on that in some ways and really trying to move now with a little more clarity around it. But again, as creative so it'd be really curious how you all are navigating that as well.
Well.
I was just about to say you are. You would not be the only person to say that, Bridget, And I think it's like comforting to hear that coming from you, a person who's worked on so many podcasts, because these deals were happening then and they're still happening now. And yeah, I think pretty difficult to navigate because if you're working with the company, there's going to be some trade offs, and the question is that you have to ask yourself, like what are those trade offs to you? And what
are the most important parts of it to you? Those questions are often about ownership, and I think that I in the past have not been like competent enough, or I haven't had the team on my side, like a good lawyer on my side to be able to tell me what the right things were. So I've been able to learn from crowdsourcing and the sharing of information, which has been amazing.
Information is power.
If anybody listening wants like DM me, I will I will give you my contracts, I'll give you my lawyer's name, right like it's the only way that we will ever take up more space in this industry is if we share information, this mindset that like, oh, we have to be cling to what you have because you don't want her to get it or her to get it. That's complete bullshit, Like there's enough room for all of us.
We need to have that mindset and we will all win and rise up when we share information with each other.
And yeah, I to that point.
He's like, whenever I see companies that are hosting like, oh, we're doing a contest where if you submit your idea, maybe we'll make your show, I'm always like in the Instagram comments like, hey, what's the ownership look like?
What's the IP look like? Great contest? Like do they own it? Like? How does it work? What's the adsplit? Yay? Like that's me in the comments asking those questions.
I was at a festival and they had one of those like activations like picture podcasts.
I was like, don't do good.
Yeah, And I think for black people in podcasting and in writing in general, I've come up against that question of like what I choose to share and what I don't choose to share because as a creator, it's a it's it's like a generative process and a part of the process that there can be fear around, but it can be important to share certain things and to not be afraid to put yourself out there all the time.
But especially as black creators in American media, it's important for us to protect ourselves and the work that we create. So it can definitely be a fine line to tiptoe.
More after a.
Quick break, let's get right back into it.
I think it goes beyond just sharing information, honestly, Like I can speak to it from the book publishing side of it, and I'm getting like less than fifteen percent of list price. And I have done all the work on this book. I thought of the idea, I've gotten all the people together, I'm designing it, and I'm not a designer, but I'm like showing the designer everything that I want to do, written, everything I travel, you know, all these things. And I'm getting less than fifteen percent
of list price. So like even if I told somebody that coming in, like if I said, ease, I'm getting this much, Like okay, like maybe you can get like one more percent, but like I don't know, I don't think like that's truly going to make a change. And like a lot of people's books are very personal. Like I don't know if y'all read the memoir Heavy by
Kisa Leiman, but it's like a very personal book. And the books you've written before, it's like got one thousand dollars total for those books, and it's like this is the publishing industry, Like this is what they do, like even if you're going to be a really big name.
So I think it goes beyond sharing information and like actually, like you said, like making our own thing and like having it cooperatively owned and not like wanting to like cozy up with these like big companies, which I know is like so like hard to not think is really cool. But I feel like every time I think something's really cool and I'm like, fuck, this isn't cool.
It's not no you know what. You know, those big companies aren't cool. You know what's cool? Katie's cool, Like you know, you're cool.
Like it's such a weird it's such a you're so right, it's such a hard thing to turn off that being associated with X y Z big brand or big company or big publisher or big network or whatever, that is going to make me feel successful And it's just not true, and it's like half the time those deals don't look as shanny as they as they appear on the outside on Instagram. Right, And you're so right that I think
it's not just information sharing. It goes beyond that of like, here's the reality of what it looked like for me to work with this company, so that you can decide if it's worth it for you to work with this company to only get X y Z of the price. Right.
And I agree. I think it really has to go back to.
Building more abundant models for us to put our stories and ideas out there that don't involve having to cozy up with companies just because they have a big name but a terrible reputation about how they treat people.
Yeah, And I also think it goes back to the personal branding, because I will be the first time to say, like, I'm like, I like make an announcement about my book, like I have a book deal with the biggest publisher in the world, and it's just like, well, and I'm not going to be like and I'm getting like shitty royalties and like all this stuff, Like I ain't saying all that, you know, because I want to get my Instagram like so off and for people to buy the
book to tell me congratulations. I think it goes back to like the personal branding, like yeah.
And that makes me think about just going back to our initial ideas around this about how personal branding is a form of storytelling. We craft a certain story about ourselves when we're telling our personal brands. We choose to give this, we choose not to give that. And I pulled a definition from personal brand dot com which I had.
No idea existed before this episode, but they specifically say a personal brand is a widely recognized and largely uniform perception or impression of an individual based on their experience, expertise, competencies, actions, YadA.
YadA, YadA. All the rest of that definition. You can go look it up. But the point is is that it's clearly a crafted thing. It is when we create our personal brands, we are thinking. We're being intentional about what we choose to share and what we don't based on how we want to be seen. So I know that we've used the word authentic a couple of times
in this conversation. I was wondering, Bridget, if you think it's even possible for us to be authentic and maintain a sense of self in how we express ourselves when we are doing this personal branding.
Oh, absolutely not.
I mean I think I think, based on the definition that you just read that I agree with and our conversation here, I think it's I mean, I don't think it's a lie. You know, when Katie says like, oh, I have this great book, deal with this great publisher and all of that, leaving out the bit about the parts that maybe aren't so exciting that she's not doesn't not thrilled about. That's not a lie. It's just selective.
It's just you're only getting a partial view into it that Katie wants to control, right, And that makes all the sense in the world. So I don't think it's I don't think it's inauthentic to mean dishonest, but I
do think it's selective. And we should all like have that in our minds when we're scrolling Instagram every day, that we're not getting the full lens into whatever whatever is actually going on with people when they're branding themselves online, Like I'm not giving my full self and how these things feel for me when I'm branding myself and I don't think the people that I'm consuming their content, I
don't think that they are either. And I would also add, like, I think that it's really important to be branding yourself
online if you're a person making something in twenty twenty four. However, I think that I've really found power in doing it, understanding that I have to do it, but then not really putting too much stock into it because how many likes my stuff gets or whatever it feels good like, it's like a like who doesn't like it when they're when like all their friends are in the comments like yay, good job.
But you really have to like have a sense of.
What success looks like, like what nourishment looks like for you. Right, So, like, I know stories that I want to tell, the work I want to put out, I know how closely it aligns with my actual values. Those are the kinds of things that make me feel like a successful creative. And I have to be really clear about the things that like are the benchmarks of success for me, and what
are not the benchmarks of success for me? What just like feels good and if I'm having a bad day might give me a pickup, right, And so I think it's important to not conflate those two things.
Yeah, I also think it's important to acknowledge how that self selection, even though we have agency when we're doing it, it can also be exhausting. Like just because we're doing something we have control over doesn't mean that it doesn't also take like a mental and spiritual toll on us having to segment those parts of ourselves. Because black people we have to compartmentalize in so many different ways already. We have to be respectable sometimes, you know, we have
to tone shift. We have to do so many different things of like how we think about how we appear to other people in order to ensure our safety. So when we self select in doing that and personal branding, I think some of those things can also come up around how it takes a toll in our bodies and how it takes a toll in our spirits. And I think that is also an important thing to acknowledge because both of those things can exist at the same time.
I'm so glad you said that.
And yeah, and it's so funny that you could be crafting and in control of your personal brand, but still very aware of like needing or wanting to come off as a certain way, like more palatable or something. And it's like, if there's ever a time where you should be the person in control of how you show up, it's like your little corner of the Internet. But I don't feel that way. I wonder if you all feel
that way. You know, I don't really want to be in spaces where I have to show up a certain way in order to be accepted there.
However, even as.
I curate my little corner of my personal brand Internet, I am aware of that sort of double consciousness that you're talking about.
I think, Yeah, I feel.
Like if I truly showed up how I am, I would be online like an FBI is most Wanted List, like.
We all have black pillow our heads in some secret.
Room, like girl, I ain't even trying to get that deep with y'all for real.
Like, and then there are often times of dissonance for me where I feel like I'm branded a certain I can go look at my website. Y'all know I'm Southern. Y'all know I'm gonna say y'all, y'all know I'm finna
ad be in front of things. And then, like you know, when I'm in certain rooms, I mean, that's how I am, that's my personality oftentimes, but you know that excuse me, yeah, but that that there's a dissonance between my brand and like how I do show up in some ways, not necessarily because I am cutting off parts of myself, just because I'm multiple people, Like I'm different ways in different places.
So also speaking of being multiple people and showing up in different ways, I would have never expected you, Bridget, to align yourself with Walter White. But so that's something I wasn't expecting you to say. There is one thing I want to say, just that I think we would be remiss or I would be remiss not to say that you were part of that information sharing for us, Bridget as we were doing this podcast, like you shared
your contract with us. So when y'all hear Bridget say that, know that she's telling the truth, I would do the same. You know, anybody can come to me. I will be transparent about that. And I can't solve all your problems. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know intellectual property law. You know there are other people who will need to be on your support team, but I would be happy to be of whatever kind of assistance I would like to be.
Oh, my gosh, this is my favorite topic. Like I will tell you how much money I make, down to the penny. I will like, like, I'm curious about other creatives how much money they make. There's so much smoke and mirrors, So like I want to know how much your house cost. I will ask the question, and I'm happy to give that information back to others.
Yes. Yes, So it turns out.
That Eve's, Katie, and myself all feel this similar strain of discomfort around the idea of personal branding. All wanted to know what that experience of personal branding is like for one another as black creatives, and what happens when it feels really exhausting, and what it all means for our digital selves. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech, or just want to say hi? You can read us at Hello at tangodi dot com. You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tenggody dot com.
There Are No Girls on the Internet was created by me Bridget tod It's a production of iHeartRadio, an Unbossed creative. Jonathan Strickland as our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Amado is our contributing producer. I'm your host, bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, rate and review.
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