Authenticity is the new currency
In the social media wave, awareness was the new currency. Before that, distribution. Before that, proximity. A beautiful gradual expansion of our ability to influence as a single human being. That saying ‘You can only influence the 20 closest people around you,” probably was from the 1800s when yes, you really were just stuck with the hand you were dealt. But lucky for us humans, we’ve used that spark of creativity to make wonderful new progressions that now leaves us one step further in the journey.
Sadly, the illusion also progressed, albeit slower, but still it popped in it’s ugly little head. During the distribution era, it showed up as a few consuming up everything and leaving little for the rest. Gluttony and envy and a few scared men made really big companies that who the hell knows how many strings they pull today! No need to fret about that, getting bogged down in the search for the truth still leaves you bogged down. You’re just able to put your head down on your pillow more easily at night.
During the awareness era, the illusion popped up with comparison and this was when the world weathered its Filler era. The cheeks, the lips, the bootys were larger. And a lot of people were really sad.
So let’s focus on what’s next. The authenticity era. If you haven’t rolled your eyes yet at that word then you are not human, because that word is SO overplayed. So let’s focus less on the word, unless you want to provide me a better word of which I will adopt, and instead let’s focus on the why. What is the illusion that we need to outrace? In the next era, humans will not know what is real. Artificial Intelligence or Super Intelligence, whichever camp you hoist your flag in, will be able to create a photo or video on any well documented human to a degree that will be indistinguishable from the real world. That means, the majority of humanity that is accustom to gathering its information electronically will have to go to further levels of discernment. (which we love!!)
It also means that people, regular people, will be able to create content of their life that is actually not true. For example, a girl who truly wants to be a dancer and has been dancing her whole life may create a video of her dancing at a major concert and say, "Hey, I finally made it," while that's not true in real life. The 20 people that see her directly will know that that is not true. The 2 million people that see her indirectly through the vice won't know the difference.
Therefore, the teens that were once jealous of others' comparison of others in the awareness era, they're going to literally be able to create a different identity in the following era. The identity that they create will look like them as much as they would like it to. It strains the relationship with the people that are immediately around them, or it could strain the relationship with the family, because they're just confused as to why you are living such a different life than your true life. It really opens the door for misunderstanding. It also opens the door for the most authentic expression of people that, in the past, have not been able to authentically express.
Let's not say this is all bad. There are people that were not given creative or graphical gifts in different areas, and this technology can help fill in those gaps and fill in some of the executive functioning that might not be in all people. That is perfectly fine. That lack of executive function opens up space for so much creativity. That's why you have the divine feminine and the divine masculine. It's hard-pressed to find someone that has both of those to the tenth degree. I would be interested in meeting that person. They're probably a lot like Tony Robbins, and we love Tony Robbins, but he's probably a lot. Anyway, I digress.
Back to the authenticity era. What is going to matter here is that people are going to be really interested in brands that have a human story behind them and that have some sort of authentic connection. Here's a big one: they can meet in real life.
Anything physical, the physical experience in the next 10 years, is going to be massive, but let me be clear: it's the physical experience for the sake of the virtual experience, in a different way than it's been. Instead of going to a concert to take a bunch of hot pictures of you and you don't really like the music, it'll be more like going to a physical event. It'll be not having your camera out so much to take pictures of you, but being able to come tell your story of you at the event afterwards, which does have an inherent beauty in it. This is not all bad.
Some other things that change are that it's way more about a vibe instead of a continuous assault of a color palette and a logo. I think I might just remove the color palette from all branding and only use real physical stuff because we just get way too obsessed with our pastel colors. It's over, it's dead, it's done, it's boring.
The name of your company is going to matter a lot. What it sounds like when it's physically being said matters. How do the syllables sound? How long is it? What is the face structure when you're saying it? Do you drop into a lower tone or a higher tone? Just the naming of everything is going to be so important because it needs to tell the entire story. And don't get that twisted in telling the entire story with words. It can tell the entire story with just a sound. Let me: Sarah Blakely Spanx. Spanx is such a beautiful name for so many different reasons. It is short. It uses an X, so it's like you're kind of in on an inside joke. Spank sounds like you're getting your butt slapped, and it's like a woman you want to feel sexy in it. It literally encompasses every single thing in the name. That's the level of authenticity in naming.
And one that I would look out for, and that is very hopeful for 2027 and beyond, is the changing of systems. I think that we are open to a new monetary system, a new payment system, a new system of sharing materials and all of that. I think looking at the distribution of your product is a really big signal in the coming years. It's a signal for what you believe in, and it is one of the leading ways that we, as individuals, are going to be able to change the world: how our individual small decisions and holding fast to those decisions when you become wildly popular or are very successful or put under the pressure test. Are you going to withhold your values? I think that systems are the place where you have to make those grounded decisions and root into the system.
Some examples are the concept of sacred economy. You can buy my thing and consume it, and then you pay me how much you think it's worth. Let me just take that one example and apply that to any company that is a name-brand company and that is tough to swallow: "Come on into J.C. Penney's. You pay me what you want for these jeans." Ain't gonna work, because the truth is not everyone is living at the same vibrational frequency, and that is fine. At a scale within your community, you can put systems in, especially depending on the types of products that you are bringing into the world. They will be aligned with a similar frequency and vibration of the people that are playing in that plane.
