Author: Joel White

I am a person, not a brand.

Brands need to always be perfect, always presenting the best of what they have to offer. Focused on delivering a message what ever it might be.

A person, is a sack of meat and bones with emotions. We aren’t perfect, we don’t always have one message or goal. We are conflicted with what we think we should do and what we desire to do.

A good brand is something you can glance at and know its meanings and motivations. A good person can be having a bad day and be totally out of it.

I think social media and the way we use it has changed the way we look at each other. We have to now deliver the brand of Joel, not the person. I have to show off my smiles and my accomplishments and pretend that I don’t have any failures or faults.

It has become a place for self promotion instead of self reflect. I may have 616 Facebook friends and 444 followers on Twitter. But in real life I have the love of my life my wife, one close friend and then a handful of people that I can barely call friends at this point. People that used to mean a great deal to me have moved on and become distant. That is partially my fault, I now plan out things in advance to make sure I can keep up with my training and work. I no longer have the ability to be spontaneous and just go down to the bar or burger joint. I am sure I have said no 99 times out of 100 to going out and doing something irresponsible and fun.

But I have chosen to take on these adventures, to better myself and see what the limits of my body are. A few years ago someone that was very close to me previously asked me to stop sharing so much on social media about my training and activities because they didn’t want to see it so much. So I stopped. I probably shouldn’t have but if you know me, I will go out of my way to make sure other people are happy.

To get back to the original topic. I want to present my best to people and show them that I am amazing, but really I am a human just like you. Maybe even worse, I have a little bit of lizard in me. We have faults, rough spots, hard edges and the occasional jerkiness. Some more than others.

I guess I am writing this to say, “Hi sometimes I am fragile, sometimes I am weak, sometimes I need to not be on full blast. And I understand sometimes you need the same. If you are ever having one of those days where you just don’t feel right, its OK. It really is. We aren’t robots and we aren’t jelly fish. We are human.”

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