The Power of Authenticity
There's nothing more motivating than being around high-performance athletes.
Having worked in the sport sector for three and a half years and as a member of the sports media for more than 20, I've had plenty of chances to be around some world-class men and women.
Having been on-board with the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships this year, you would be hard pressed to find harder working athletes than these men and women. Their vocation is their sport and if you think you put in a decent day's work 9 to 5, you need to spend a day in the shearing shed.
Their physical prowess and stamina was amazing to watch first-hand, but it was their authenticity that made my job as Media Manager for the event all the more enjoyable. What you saw was what you got. They would never be afraid to say what they thought and, at the same time, they could not have been more appreciative of the coverage of their sport.
More recently, we saw the perfect example of the power of authenticity in an athlete. Her name is Wendy Frew. She captained the Southern Steel netball team, based in my home town of Invercargill, to an undefeated season and victory in the ANZ Premiership, New Zealand's domestic netball league.
Just two week's out from the Grand Final, she and five of her teammates were in a van which was hit by another car in a Christchurch intersection. Frew bore the brunt of the crash. 70+ stitches and two weeks of rehabilitation later she was hoisting the trophy above her head in front of a packed crowd at ILT Stadium Southland.
(You can read Logan Savory's amazing story on her remarkable return from injury here.)
She is, without doubt, the leader of the team. She's a straight-shooter and she has been the rock upon which a championship team has been built.
Good luck talking to her about it though. I was lucky enough to co-host the Steel's annual Gala Dinner last week and the moment you would try and ask her about herself and what she had achieved, she would deflect on to her team and what they had done together.
And she means every word. It's not forced. It's the definition of authentic. And we love her for it.
In today's over-hyped, over-marketed, over-sold world, authenticity is a non-negotiable when it comes to your business and/or personal messaging.
For better or for worse, (and it is nearly always for the better) design your marketing messaging so that it tells it like it is. Be you. Don't try and keep up with your competitor across the street.
If it's truly authentic, then it can be yours and yours alone. And that's marketing gold right there!