Can You Go Viral and Still Have an Authentic Company?

As a 3/5 profile, everything is an experiment. When I learned to see everything as an experiment I began to understand that everything is temporary. This changed my life.

The writing of this post and the recording of its creation are both experiments (of the micro variety). Now, I will attempt to craft the first of STARRYUU’s four Core Values, Authenticity.

Let’s dive in.

Experiment: Crafting STARRYUU’s Core Values — Part 1: Authenticity

Questions:

1. Can you be Authentic and have a viral company?

2. Is anyone interested in watching the live writing of an online newsletter? A micro experiment.

3. What does Authenticity mean to me and to STARRYUU?

4. Is a founder’s Authenticity different from their company’s?

5. How can you be Authentic in your engagement with your consumers/customers/followers/users?

6. How do you spread the word about your company in an Authentic way? Is this possible on social media?

Hypothesis:
Authenticity in business means letting your company exist as it wants to without it trying to be something it’s not. Since a company is inanimate, it relies on the personal values of its founding members, which dictate its existence to some degree, but it can still be its own entity.

Materials:

• Newsletter writing: Beehiiv

• Recording: ClipChamp

• Previously created notes: From my physical notebook

• 2013 Macbook Air

Procedure/Observations/Data:

• Writing this post is an observation in itself. 

• Personal research and opinion—not typical for a lab, but as I told you, I'm no scientist.

What is a Core Value?

Let's start by looking at the definition of a Core Value for businesses, as taken from The Harvard Business Review. (The article also pinpoints that having Core Values can help you differentiate your company—a form of corporate Individuation, perhaps?)

Knowing this, how do I want STARRYUU to utilize its Core Values?

• Everything we do needs to go through the filter of our four core values.

• People who work with us need to understand the importance of our core values and will have to accept them to work with us, even if they might not “agree” with them.

• Am I forgetting anything? Probably.

Lencioni references the Collins and Porras quote about how a company’s core values “can never be compromised, either for convenience or short-term economic gain.”

How will STARRYUU adhere to this? We must not ignore our Core Values in the face of:

• Societal pressure

• Investor pressure

• Social Media pressure

• Bully (trolls, real-life bullies, inauthentic partners, and collaborators, etc.) pressure

The experiment begins…

1. Can you be Authentic and have a viral company?

What’s funny is that I’m exploring this question without having yet gone viral, and without yet generating any revenue. So, why am I asking it? As with core values, where you have to consider the future, be it partnerships, potential situations with customers, growth, or something else, going viral is a very real possibility for, well, anyone.

I think the question that has to be asked is: Why is the source of the virality? Did you stay true to who you and your brand are, or did you do something out of character, only to find that is what the algorithms wanted? From there, did you replicate this experience to achieve the same outcome? If so, how many times? At what point do you lose your identity and your company’s to please Mark Zuckerberg?

The core of STARRYUU is still very niche. As mentioned in my last post, by the time 2027 rolls around, maybe it won’t be. Maybe by that time, people will organically be searching for more information about Individuation. Until then though, I am guilty of regularly posting on social media. If I participate in trends, am I trying too hard to go viral? If I don’t go viral, is my only other option to reach my ideal audience to pay for social media ads? Is paying for ads inauthentic? If you don’t reach people on social media in 2024, where do you reach them?

When I think about it, I’ve been a creator my entire life, going back to the days when I was a kid and wanted to create my own magazines. In the end, magazines are the same as social media at their core: pretty pictures and text that catch your eye and make you learn or want something.

For the month of January, I decided to dedicate 40 hours per week to content creation across STARRYUU’s / Jackie’s Lab Notes’ social media accounts, including:

• TikTok

• Instagram

• YouTube

• Beehiiv (Does it count? Can you go viral on Beehiiv? File under: Another experiment)

• TBD: Threads

• I will not be joining Twitter, I even refuse to call it “X” lol.

At what point does dedicating your every day to content creation become inauthentic? What if you enjoy content creation, and what if the content you’re creating is true to who you and your company are? Can I still be authentic while using a trending song if I do like the song? What if I don’t like the song? Am I posting content when I feel inspired, or when I think the algorithm will want me most?

Sidebar: I’m a Manifestor so most of the 40 hours is spent following any creative urges I might have. I’ve found that Notion is the perfect tool for helping me to put practical use to those urges. Stay tuned for a post about this in the future :)

What does it even take to go viral? If you google the answer, you’ll come across a multitude of influencers explaining how it happened for them. They create long YouTube videos or write blog posts about the specific formula they believe worked in their specific case.

It’s nice they want to give back and help people in the way that maybe no one helped them. Maybe they’re all 3/5’s too and going viral was also an experiment for them and they just want to share their own Lab Notes with the little founders like me.

It does make you question how authentic they are, though, because, if you create content about how you went viral, don’t you know before creating “how-to content” that it will likely go viral, too? (Reason being: Millions of people are dedicating their lives to going viral, googling “how to go viral,” and finding that content.)

If you dedicate your life to going viral, are you constantly looking up social media trends and creating content within the trends’ limitations, and therefore forgetting to live and create as your authentic self?

I think Rayne Fisher-Quann said it best in her post micro-individuality:

Personally, I have a theory that the year 2027 will bring with it a bursting of the content bubble. We’re already seeing it with Gen-Z letting brands know that they see through their influencer-based product marketing. They’re growing up on TikTok, watching how people with the best quality videos, taking part in the latest trends are the ones who are getting picked up by the algorithms. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Gen-Z tries to create content but it will never be picked up because there’s just too much of it and the algorithms are only trained to pick up a certain percentage.

In reality, there are so many different types of people on the planet with different interests and proclivity toward specific things. Some have said about 2027 that it will be the year of all things niche coming into fashion. I think that includes content. I think Gen Alpha will lead the cause in true authentic content creation, to be consumed by the very audience it is meant for, and not “trending” content for the masses.

2. Is anyone interested in watching the live writing of an online newsletter? A micro experiment.

It’s interesting. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when I decided this was something I wanted to try out, but if you think about it, the concept is closely aligned with Authenticity. Perhaps, even Transparency. This micro experiment involves both.

Let’s look at some traditional definitions so we can see the difference, and ultimately why I chose Authenticity as a Core Value instead of Transparency:

I think the clear difference here is having a choice. When it comes to true Authenticity, I don’t believe there is a choice in being authentic when you are being authentic. If you are showing up as you are without “doing” anything differently or without “trying” then there is no choice in the matter, you are who you are and that is how you are existing. You’re not “doing” anything.

When it comes to not being authentic, you are choosing to do so, to be different than you are.

Transparency feels similar, in that, you can choose whether or not to do something openly, and you can choose whether or not you want to do so with secrets.

Since Individuation is such a big part of STARRYUU, I’d also like to explain the difference between Individuation and Authenticity.

Where Individuation is a process of uncovering/working toward/unveiling/discovering your true self without the influence of others, Authenticity is the true self you are discovering. From there, if you live authentically, you are not trying to revert to the person you were before you Individuated, and you are just existing as you are. It’s kind of like when the characters in The Matrix are released from The Matrix and live in the “real” world as their true selves and are questioned if they even hint at wanting to go back.

Sidebar: I have no choice but to show up authentically as myself when recording while writing something, right?! In theory, you could pretend, or be fake while writing knowing you’re on camera, but doing both simultaneously seems pretty hard—and annoying. Unfortunately, some people reading this may feel like I am being inauthentic when they realize that only a few minutes of the video shows me writing this post. The reality is, that ClipChamp did not work as expected.

3. What does Authenticity mean to me and to STARRYUU?

It seems like an obvious thing to want Authenticity to be at the core of your company, but when you’re creating a company under capitalism, it can feel like you have to show up in ways that are inauthentic to survive. (The part of the “creating an authentic company under capitalism” journey I am on right now is whether or not I want to accept calling myself a “founder” — see my intro post to better understand what I mean by this.)

I do think as a thing changes its true authenticity can change. For example, if I realize in the future that I need to be called a founder to receive funding to help this concept of the process of Individuation reach more people, and the title and money will help me stay more true to my authenticity, then I would have no choice but to accept it!

I’ve recently started creating a STARRYUU Patreon (This will be detailed in a future post because I prefer some Patreon alternatives and might end up going with one of them instead). However, when trying to nail down the tiers for my subscription options, which I am planning on being the main source of STARRYUU revenue, I had to think about how to structure the tiers and how “transparent” I wanted to be in what the “funding” would go toward. I am also planning on donating a certain percentage of STARRYUU’s monthly revenue to a different organization each month, another reason for “transparency.”

If Authenticity is a core value of a company, it’s like a filter that everything runs through, so if the core value here is Authenticity and not Transparency, how can “being transparent” actually help me “show up authentically”? This is where the question of whether can you separate a founder’s authenticity from their company’s comes in.

4. Is a founder’s Authenticity different from their company’s?

As mentioned, I want to be able to donate more money to organizations that matter to me and to do so, I need to make more money. This is something that I believe in in my own life, something that is true to my being. So, being a founder and accepting funding, and being transparent with that funding lets me show up Authentically. As mentioned in my previous post, Authenticity is everything to me. I’m not sure that I know how to be inauthentic.

That sounds pretty inauthentic…

I was recently listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The Astrology Podcast, on the episode about Libras. The podcast mentioning that Libras sometimes seem fake or indecisive resonated with me, as a rising Libra. The core of the argument was that Libras may come across as inauthentic because of their natural charm, their need for balance, their appreciation for presentation, etc, but they usually come from a place of authenticity.

Of course, I’m generalizing here. The podcast also discussed how many politicians are Libras, and we know many politicians are inauthentic, or perhaps, they are living in their authenticity, but their authenticity sucks lol.

Before I continue, let me go into my own astrology and Human Design charts to provide even more context for STARRYUU.

Multiple elements of my Human Design and Astrology point to me being deeply impacted by other people’s energy. Such as:

• Moon in Pisces

• Open Ajna, Head, Sacral, Root Centers

• Gate of Caring activated by my conscious Sun

• Gate of Ideas activated by my unconscious Moon and Uranus (both 3rd Line), and conscious Uranus (5th Line)—in an open energy center

It’s always a question for me how to know the difference between what I want and what someone else wants from me. The Astrology Podcast mentioned something similar about Libras, how things become more real for us if we have someone to talk them out with.

This is why I’ve wanted a board for STARRYUU since its first inception as The Manifestor Diaries—that and a multitude of other reasons, which maybe I need to make a post about lol. I digress.

Being authentic means showing up as yourself without the influence of others—that’s not the hard part for me. The hard part is in which direction act for STARRYUU, when close friends, collaborators, or my board want something different than I do—a good problem to have if I ever actually get a board lol.

Again, we are speaking in generalities here. Of course, it depends on the founder, and it depends on the company. I’m a human and I’m not perfect. There are times when I show up in authentically: when I say something I didn’t mean because I felt pressured to do so, or when I made a choice I didn’t believe in because I was hungry and just wanted to eat already!

The point is, that I want to live as authentically as I can, and STARRYUU is a direct output of my being true to myself. How, then can STARRYUU be itself?

As you probably know by now, Human Design is a big part of STARRYUU. I’m a quad right, which includes non-specific manifestation. When it comes to what I want for STARRYUU, I have to let her become what she will. Because of that, and not just in a passive sense, but core to STARRYUU = I have to keep creating, being, living, speaking, publishing, experimenting, researching, and testing as authentically me for STARRYUU to be authentically her. Although STARRYUU is an extension of me, she and I are not the same, we are separate entities with our own identities. Yes, I realize I’m comparing myself to a corporation, lol.

Sidenote: If you didn’t know, STARRYUU is formally STARRYUU, Inc. If anyone is interested in the incorporation process, let me know and I’ll write a post about it, or maybe I’ll just write a post about it anyway, lol.

5. How can you be Authentic in your engagement with your consumers/customers/followers/users?

Because we’re talking about company values here, and not personal values, it’s a good question I want to consider for the future of STARRYUU. Let’s take this newsletter, for example. This is a piece of content wherein I’m engaging with my community—either current consumers/customers/followers/users or future consumers/customers/followers/users, likely also people who don’t convert, or maybe even others who want to connect with STARRYUU, or me, in another way.

I’m showing up authentically in this space as a person. The fact that this newsletter exists (an honest account of starting a company) is me showing up authentically. The way I’m writing, my recording of it—all authenticity. It’s also a form of authentic communication on behalf of my company. STARRYUU is here to offer you something, and its offerings are rooted in authenticity, and here’s how it was created, and who created it.

The space also exists to help others live their most authentic lives, through the Individuation process, coming to know their true selves. So her very existence is encouraging lives lived authentically.

Where can I encourage consumers/customers/followers/users of STARRYUU to live most authentically?

Our space exists in a Circle space (more on Circle in the future!), which is a social media/chat platform on the internet—both desktop and mobile. Is this the best place where I can facilitate what I’m trying to achieve? Right now the way STARRYUU communicates in-platform is via DMs. I’ll have to dedicate another post to why this is, but I think it can help people feel safer to be more themselves versus having a face-to-face video chat or in-person 1:1, but I’m still working this out.

Don’t forget, that the core modalities (Human Design, Tarot, Astrology, Star Matrix, Self-Exploration, Journaling) of STARRYUU are in place to help people come closer to their authenticity.

Finally,

Living authentically is living with the knowledge that you have, and bringing with you the knowledge that you come to learn. STARRYUU will continue to be infused with new knowledge, both what I am learning to improve my company, and what the community will be sharing within the STARRYUU space. I believe that with knowledge comes responsibility.

Can you guess our next Core Value?

May the stars be with you.
🦋 Jackie

PS Here’s the video!

STARRYUU is a space for experimenting with individuation. We democratize information around various self-exploration modalities via our virtual community space and accessible tools and resources—including your birth chart! We hope that this tool may be a helpful resource along your individuation process.

Thumbnail Image Credit: Eliza Alves