Your Brand Is a Glass Skyscraper and Nobody Can Get a Farcking Grip

Let me guess: Your Instagram feed looks like it was designed by a committee of corporate robots who learned authenticity from a PowerPoint deck.

Perfect. Polished. Soulless.

And you're wondering why your engagement looks like a funeral attendance list and your client retention is about as sticky as a Post-it note in a rainstorm.

I sat down with Cupid Hayes—brand coach, former CMO, and the self-proclaimed "Guardian Angel of Brand"—who proceeded to absolutely demolish the entire concept of what most of you think branding is.

Her analogy? Your polished brand is like a glass and concrete skyscraper. People hit it and bounce off like birds on a windshield.

No grip. No connection. No way in.

And if you're out here living what Cupid calls "the insta life"—constantly performing, constantly polishing, constantly pretending you shaet rainbows and your business runs on pure manifestation energy—congratulations. You've just built the most beautiful barrier between yourself and the people who might actually want to work with you.

The Sizzle Is Killing You (And You Keep Paying For More)

Here's what nobody wants to admit: Being popular on social media doesn't equal sales, longevity, or profitability.

I know. Devastating. All those engagement pods and growth hacks and perfectly curated carousel posts, and you're still struggling to convert followers into clients who actually stick around.

Cupid nailed it when she said most people are selling the sizzle instead of the steak. They're building facades instead of foundations. They're creating brands that look impressive but have absolutely no substance to support actual business relationships.

And here's the kicker: People can smell the inauthenticity from a mile away.

We're drowning in a sea of identical LinkedIn thought leaders, perfectly filtered Instagram coaches, and TikTok experts who all sound like they went to the same "How to Build a Personal Brand" webinar taught by someone who's never actually built anything.

The market isn't craving more polish. It's craving authentic client connections with people who are willing to be actual humans instead of brand avatars.

Your Rough Spots Are Features, Not Bugs

Cupid dropped this gem that should honestly be required reading for every marketing team trying to "optimize" the humanity out of their messaging:

"It's not that you have to go online and overshare and tell everyone your sob story, but explain what made you, you. What were the things that happened in your life that may not have been so great, but you used them to empower yourself to success in the present?"

This is the difference between making your mess your message and just trauma-dumping on LinkedIn while hashtagging it #MondayMotivation.

Nobody wants to hear you complain about your challenges while positioning yourself as a victim. But they absolutely want to connect with someone who's been through shaet, learned from it, and came out stronger—someone who's using those experiences to actually help other people.

Those cracks in your perfect facade? Those rough spots you're trying to smooth over with better lighting and more polished copy? Those are the only places people can actually grab onto and connect.

Think about it: You don't trust the person who claims they've never struggled. You trust the person who struggled, figured it out, and is now helping you avoid the same mistakes.

That's how you build relationship-driven revenue growth instead of just collecting followers who'll never buy from you.

The Story That Made Me Want to Farcking Applaud

Cupid told this story about working with a college student who didn't know what she wanted to do with her life. The girl was into fashion and costumes but couldn't see how that translated into a career.

Turns out, in her spare time, this student dressed up in a full tabby cat costume—not a Halloween costume, but a complete, self-made work of art with feet, paws, a tail, the whole thing. That's where she felt comfortable. That's where she came alive.

Cupid's response? "Why aren't you just making costumes? You're magnificent at this."

Light bulb moment. The student designed her own major, focused on costume creation, and now works for Disney making their costumes.

This is what happens when you stop trying to fit into someone else's definition of what you "should" be and start building business relationships around who you actually are.

But most of you are doing the opposite. You're hiding the very things that make you interesting, unique, and valuable because you think they're "unprofessional" or "off-brand."

Newsflash: Your weird hobby, your unconventional background, your left-field perspective—that's not a liability. That's your competitive advantage in a market full of identical corporate clones.

Brand vs. Marketing: The Distinction Nobody's Teaching You

Cupid gave me the best definition I've ever heard:

"Marketing is asking someone out on a date. Brand is the reason they say yes."

Read that again. Print it out. Tattoo it on your CFO's forehead.

Marketing is external—it's what you do to get attention. Brand is internal—it's who you are when nobody's watching. It's what makes people trust you enough to actually say yes when you ask.

And here's where most companies absolutely faceplant: They obsess over marketing (the asking) without investing in brand (the reason to say yes).

You're out here running ads, optimizing funnels, A/B testing your email subject lines, and hiring growth hackers to juice your metrics. Meanwhile, your actual brand—your values, your story, your reason for existing beyond making money—is about as developed as a middle schooler's understanding of existential philosophy.

This is why you have high acquisition costs and shaet retention. You're really good at asking people out, but once they say yes, they realize there's no there there. Just a well-marketed void where a compelling brand should be.

The Framework You're Ignoring (At Your Own Expense)

Cupid walks her clients through what she calls the "AIM for Authenticity" process, and it's so stupidly simple that I'm genuinely angry more of you aren't doing this:

1. Brand: Know Your Core Values

Not your aspirational values. Not the values you think investors want to hear. Your actual, real, "this is who we are when nobody's looking" values.

Pick three. Make everyone know them. Stand for something instead of running around chasing trends and trying to be everything to everyone.

Pro tip from Cupid: "A lot of corporations are being canceled because they don't have the courage to stand for who they are."

2. Story: Know Your Narrative

What are you saying, and why should anyone give a shaet?

Not "what features does your product have" or "how many years have you been in business." What problem are you solving? Why does it matter? Why are you the one to solve it?

And here's the part that'll make you uncomfortable: Ask your actual clients why they work with you. Send a survey. Get real feedback. Find out how they'd pitch you to someone else.

Use that data to confirm you're telling the right story—not to create a new fake one.

3. Impact: Know Where Your People Actually Are

Are your ideal clients on TikTok? LinkedIn? Your local Chamber of Commerce meetings? Hiding in their basements avoiding all social media because they're exhausted by the performative bullshaet?

Figure out where they are, then show up there with your actual brand—not some watered-down, focus-group-tested version of yourself.

This is how you create sustainable business expansion strategies instead of just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something converts.

Your Employees Know You're Full of Shaet

Here's the part nobody wants to talk about: If your brand doesn't match your actual company culture, your employees know. And they're either leaving, quiet quitting, or actively tanking your customer relationships.

Cupid put it perfectly: "If you don't make sure your brand matches your employees' values, you're going to end up with a lot of turnover and a lot of unhappy customers as a result of having unhappy employees."

You can't fake brand alignment. You can put up all the motivational posters you want in the break room, but if your actual values don't match what you say you stand for, your team will feel the disconnect every single day.

And guess what? Unhappy employees create unhappy clients. Unhappy clients churn. High churn means you're stuck on the hamster wheel of constantly acquiring new clients to replace the ones bleeding out the back door.

This is the opposite of high-retention client relationships. This is what happens when you prioritize marketing over brand.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Standing for Something

You can't build a memorable brand while trying to appeal to everyone.

You can't stand for something meaningful while also trying to avoid offending anyone.

You can't create authentic business relationships while maintaining a perfectly polished facade that hides everything interesting about you.

The companies winning right now—the ones building loyal communities instead of just follower counts—are the ones willing to polarize. They know who they're for and, more importantly, who they're not for.

They're not chasing trends. They're not pivoting every time the algorithm changes. They're not trying to be LinkedIn and TikTok and Instagram all at once.

They know who they are. They communicate it clearly. They hire people who share those values. And they show up consistently as themselves.

Revolutionary, I know.

Watch the Damn Episode

This conversation with Cupid went deep into finding your authentic brand, humanizing business relationships in a digital age that's obsessed with polish over substance, and building the kind of trusted advisor relationships that actually survive market disruptions.

If you're tired of performing, exhausted from pretending, and sick of watching your competitor's "authentic" content get more traction than your perfectly curated brand—this episode is your permission slip to stop being a glass skyscraper and start being a person.

Watch the full episode here because I'm barely scratching the surface of Cupid's frameworks and you're missing out on the good stuff.

P.S. I already know what some of you are thinking: "But Karl, my industry is different. We have to maintain a professional image. We can't just be 'authentic' and expect to compete with the big players."

Cool. How's that working out for you?

Because from where I'm sitting, the "professional image" you're protecting is the exact thing preventing you from building relationship-driven revenue growth. Your perfect facade is the reason people don't trust you. Your polished messaging is why nobody remembers you five minutes after they scroll past your post.

The big players you're trying to emulate? Half of them are hemorrhaging customers to smaller competitors who actually give a shaet about being human.

Being authentic doesn't mean being unprofessional. It means being real. It means standing for something instead of trying to please everyone. It means giving people something to grab onto instead of a polished surface that repels connection.

But hey, keep chasing the insta life. I'm sure the algorithm will save you any day now.

P.P.S. Cupid's client who made costumes and ended up at Disney? That didn't happen because she hid her weird hobby. It happened because someone recognized that her "unprofessional" passion was actually her greatest asset.

What are you hiding about yourself or your business because you think it's not "brand appropriate"? Because I guarantee that's the exact thing that would make you memorable in a market full of forgettable corporate clones.

Go watch the episode. Figure out what your rough spots are. And for the love of god, stop trying to be a glass skyscraper.

Karl Pontau hosts The Human Connection Podcast, where we talk about the stuff that actually matters in business: the humans running it. Because whether you're B2B or B2C, it's really H2H—human to human. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode where we probably say something that'll make your HR department uncomfortable.