Hello beautiful soul
I want to show you something.
My icon slash logo.
Two shapes perhaps...?
Two people maybe...?
Nope. One person. The two sides of you.
The 2nd one is the “right way up.”
The first is "upside down".
And this isn’t an accident.
Because most of us have been taught to live — and lead — from the “right way up” version of ourselves.
The polished one. The appropriate one. The version that fits.
The one that knows how to behave in the meeting.
How to say things in a way that will land.
How to not be “too much”.
The one that gets rewarded.
I call this the Authenticity Gap, and I promise you, mine was HUGE.
The Authenticity Gap is the space between who you are and who you feel safe to be. It’s what happens when belonging feels conditional, and you adapt instead of express.
But that’s not the whole of you.
There’s another side. The upside-down one.
Your weird. Your quirks. Your wild.
The parts of you that don’t quite make sense on paper.
The parts of you that you’ve probably spent years trying to tidy up.
In a session I ran recently, I asked a group of women something simple:
“Tell me what makes you weird.”
And at first… they resisted. Because we’ve been taught that weird = unprofessional.
But then it started to come out. And I said — no, go further.
Give me the ACTUAL detail.
Because this is the stuff that matters AND I can't emphasise how important this work is my darling.
So here’s some of mine.
1. I LOVE to match colours in my outfits, because it’s how I express how I feel that day. My outfits are a reflection of my energy.
2. I hyper-fixate on music.
Like… one song on repeat for days because it’s helping me process something I can’t quite put into words yet. Always seeking the perfect beat.
3. I go deep very quickly.
I don't like living in the shallow end of life, I got ALL IN on everything, conversations included.
4. I get completely obsessed with ideas.
Like I can’t leave them alone until they’ve come to life.
And yes… sometimes that people might "find that a bit much".
But here’s what I’ve learned.
That’s not the problem. That’s the work.
Because brand — real brand — isn’t what you say about yourself.
It’s the feeling people have when they experience you.
It’s that moment where someone feels like:
“I don’t fully know her… but I feel like I know her.”
And more importantly:
“I trust her.”
And trust doesn’t come from being polished.
It comes from being real.
From being specific. From being human. From letting people see something true.
So when those women started sharing their quirks…
“I’m really direct.”
“I feel everything.”
“I interrupt when I’m excited.”
“I can’t do surface-level conversations.”
“I question everything.”
I said to them:
This upside-down version of you…
This is your one of your BEST bits.
This is the part people actually connect to.
This is the part that builds trust.
This is the part that creates impact.
So plot reveal: I’m not here to help you perfect the “right way up” version of yourself.
There are enough of those.
I’m here to invite you to lead from the part of you you’ve been taught to hide.
Your weird. Your wild. Your wonderful.
Because that’s where your power lives.
And I know this can feel edgy.
Because the moment you start showing more of yourself…
There’s a voice that says:
“Will this be too much?”
“Will I still be taken seriously?”
“Will this cost me something?”
And maybe… sometimes it will.
But there is also a cost to not doing it.
A quiet disconnection.
A constant self-editing.
A sense that people are interacting with a version of you — not you.
And over time, that erodes trust too.
So here’s the question I want to leave you with:
What is the part of you that you’ve been editing out… that might actually be the very thing people need to see to trust you?
If you’re ready to explore that more deeply, this is exactly the work we do inside my 1:1 Power Move sessions.
We don’t polish you.
We don’t fix you.
We bring you back into contact with who you actually are — and help you lead from that place.
For my birthday (and Aries season, HOLLA!), I’ve opened up a limited number of sessions for less than half price.
There are 12 available. Grab your spot here.
Rooting for you always
Ruth x
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