What does being authentic even mean anymore?

I do this work for a living. But when I had to do it for myself, it was hard! Here's what I've learned about authenticity as I run for public office. Plus: a movie rec to help you belong, better.

I spent the past few weeks consulting a client on how to take her policy ideas, connect them to her lived experiences and the lived experiences of her audience, and turn it into a durable story.

Then I found myself rewriting my own candidate bio for the fourth time, trying to figure out what version of me should to show up on the ballot.

I do this storytelling-reframing-narrative-building work FOR A LIVING, and even I am not immune to this problem:

Figuring out how to be authentic.

I’m running for a local elected office at the county party-level. And even though my constituency is hyper-local (we’re talking a six block radius!), and I don’t have to fundraise, I still wanted to nail down my story and get it into a stump speech.

Turning in my petition to run for office was just the beginning! Source: me

So I spent two hours on a set of “find your story” questions from a think tank that were supposed to take me 20 minutes. I read the histories of various storytelling frameworks and the one t…