The Not-So-Subtle Art of Caring What Other People Think
This episode was originally published as an essay on my blog on July 18, 2022. Read the full text transcript of "Brands, Self-Help, and the Art of Caring What Other People Think" here.
There are 4,230,000,000 Google results for "caring about what other people think."
Caring about how to stop caring about what other people think is a timeless (and highly marketable) problem to have — one that hearkens back to the Greek and Roman times, when Stoics like Epictetus first spoke about detachment as a virtue.
Modern Stoics like Ryan Holiday or Tony Robbins have re-popularized these ancient concepts. They sell books and $5K weekends to teach you the secrets of how to care deeply about not caring deeply.
But is "How do I stop caring about what other people think?" possibly the wrong question?
Is it even possible in the age of the personal brand?
After all, a brand is literally what people think.
And opting not to care makes it challenging to make a living.
Or to make change...seeing as systems are built and reinforced by people who make choices based on what they think.
Can you imagine a movement — or a world — full of people who don't care what anyone else is thinking? Are we already living in it?
Mentioned in this episode:
- "Why I'm Not a Stoic" by Mark Manson
- Episode 1. The Age of the Personal Brand
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Welcome to Marketing Muckraking, the show that asks not simply what brand culture can do for us, but what it’s doing to us — with your host, creative director, brand strategist gone wild, and the court jester of online business, Rachael Kay Albers — making fun of business and making business fun.
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