No One Cares What You Ate For Lunch

Is social media creating a weird world where seemingly normal, everyday people idolise themselves?

I’ve had a personal brand business for 8 years. And in that time, social media has gone from something I used to share holiday snaps on and stay connected with old school friends… to something I’ve had to consciously unlearn.

At some point, without really noticing when, everything I did started being filtered through a single question - will this help my business?

A walk with my dog wasn’t just a walk anymore. Lunch wasn’t lunch. A coffee wasn’t a coffee. It was B-roll. It was content. It was something to be captured and repurposed.

Followed by…. do I look okay? Do I sound okay? Is that angle flattering? Can you see my eye bags? Which filter makes me look more “polished” but not too polished? At what point did building a business turn into this?

I’ve started to wonder whether personal brand businesses have drifted into a strange beauty contest. Who can look the most attractive online. Who can cry the most convincingly into the camera. Who can be the most raw, the most exposed, the most curated version of “real”.

Breastfeeding reels. Tears. Pyjamas. Bikinis. Just be more real…

I’m not judging and I don’t want it to come across as if I am - it doesn’t offend me when others do this. I’ve played some version of this game myself over the years and I still will, partially - but with more awareness and intention because it does have a role in my business, albeit much smaller than before.

..But I do find myself asking when did how beautiful you look, how exotic your location is, how expensive your lunch appears, or how many business lounges you can tag… become a measure for how capable you are of actually helping someone?

I was thinking about this on the weekend. I made my kids brunch then I walked the dog. Then I went  to Chartrons market. Grabbed a coffee, bumped into a friend. Did a bit of work. Went to a rugby match. And in all of that, I didn’t see a single person in Bordeaux propping a phone against a lamp post, filming their lunch or taking a pouting selfie.  

Not one.

Then I thought, is this just me and am I the only one living in this strange parallel reality where people running online businesses equate success with this? Where normal life gets documented and posted in the hope that attention might turn into income…

Because I know for a fact my non-business friends think it’s weird. And they’re right - It is weird.

For a lot of people, the first thought of the day isn’t what needs doing in my business, it’s  “What am I going to post?” What B-roll do I have? How can I document my life today in a way that makes me feel relevant and validated?

Is it just me… or is that weird?

What snapped me out of it was the practicality and embarrassment of looking like someone who loved themselves. Interrupting normal daily things to build a b- roll library. And feeling like a complete egotistical dick in front of non business people who don’t even need to think about this stuff. I don’t see anyone else doing this where I live.

Plus I’m not even convinced this approach works reliably for the people doing it. Yes, people make sales, visibility creates attention and attention can convert. Of course it can. That’s not the argument. The argument is reliability.

I know people with huge followings. Beautiful reels. Hundreds of likes. Incredible engagement. They spend hours filming, editing, posting and they get a few enquiries - with no guarantee they’ll convert into sales - so they’re essentially wasting their time. Yet they keep doing it. I know this because they’ve told me.

They’re visible. They’re talented. They’re exhausted and yet they’re not getting paid. This doesn’t pay the mortgage.

It’s the worst possible business model because it works just enough to keep you stuck. It’s like playing the jackpot machine and calling it a strategy. Real businesses aren’t built like this.

There are plenty of people online I respect a lot. People with infrastructure, assets where social media is part of what they do but not the thing they are. They get up in the morning and run a business. They don’t wake up wondering what to post.

I love Daniel Priestley - nobody on earth believes his business depends on posting daily reels in the hope someone might notice him. And that’s not even how he built his audience in the first place. His books will tell you. 

I’m not anti-social media. I like it and use it …

I’m questioning the weirdness of the distorted online bubble that we as entrepreneurs live in. Business is still business. Even online. And business isn’t this distorted performance of self-adoration, desperation, and algorithmic obedience.

I think more people are quietly waking up to that realisation and now that I've seen it I’m finding it very hard to unsee it. Anyone else think this?

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