Sharing Your Authentic Self in Business

By Katherina Pattit, Associate Professor in the Ethics and Business Law Department at the University of St Thomas Opus College of Business

How do you scale a business that’s so closely tied to a personal story? Where does the person end and the business begin?

For CEO Kate Arends, Wit and Delight started out as a creative outlet and grew organically for five years before Target came calling. Even now with a team of six and national sponsorships, she's constantly reevaluating her influence and opportunities. She’s created boundaries between her private life and public persona while capturing an audience of 3.3 million readers.

But deciding how much to share of your authentic self can be challenging. For example, Kate saw a drop in followers after some political comments and blog posts. Yet political perspectives are still part of how a person sees society working and how people interact with each other. What do we owe the people who follow and trust us? 

Many businesses in general shy away from taking a political position because it can easily alienate a large group of customers and followers. Do we need to be less afraid? Or should we put it all out there as a business or professional? It’s an interesting time to live within the era of social media likes -- we're so focused on the likes and feedback.

The role of the influencer among consumers today has changed. There’s been an interesting shift of blurring between different spheres. We used to go to Consumer Reports and friends to find out what to buy. Now we have people on social media, where boundaries are starting to blur. We need to recalibrate what types of things are important to us in our own judgment.

Interested in hearing Kate’s full story about her personal blog turned social media platform? Check out the full episode on the “By All Means” podcast with host Allison Kaplan.