Genuine uniqueness is your moat
Can you tell what’s real anymore?
Deepfakes. Auto-written posts. AI-crafted photos. When everything looks plausible, doubt becomes inevitable.
That’s the real problem—not the tools, but the confusion they create. People are squinting at the screen asking, “What the hell am I actually looking at?”
Which is why your advantage now isn’t pumping out more content—it’s pumping out more you.
Infuse your work with who you are and how you help: your process, your point of view, and the people you’ve actually served. In a world crafted primarily through zeros and ones, your actual fingerprints are the proof of life.
The trend is clear: audiences reward what feels human, transparent, and tangible.
The AI authenticity crisis
Multiple consumer studies have found that the vast majority of people say authenticity is a key factor when deciding which brands to support. Stackla/TINT’s Consumer Content Report puts it north of 80%.
Layer on top of that another signal from the Reuters Institute’s 2024 Digital News Report: most people are concerned about AI-generated content being passed off as human-made. How many times have you been duped already while watching a Youtube video? I know I have.
Translation: as artificial content floods the feeds, people are actively scanning for real.
As a result, your genuine uniqueness becomes the pattern interrupt that earns eyeballs, attention and, ultimately, trust.
Why faceless brands feel fake (even when they’re not)
LinkedIn’s B2B Thought Leadership Impact research suggests that a considerable amount of buyers prefer to work with companies where they can see and know the actual people behind the business.
If decision-makers want to see the human beings behind the work, hiding behind slick, visual branding graphics, a wall of “trusted by” logos, compelling copy and stock imagery that everyone else is using isn’t just an outdated approach, it’s a costly decision.
Why? Doubt has already entered the chat before you even open your mouth.
And this isn’t a problem exclusive to B2B companies.
NielsenIQ has reported that a strong majority of global consumers will pay more for companies committed to transparency.
The founder who shows the journey, the team that shows the work before the work, the expert who shows how the sausage is made.
Those are the brands that feel trustworthy and worth the premium investment.
The trust tax of hiding behind the curtain
Another simple truth from social research: people are more likely to trust content when they can identify the real person behind it. Sprout Social’s Index has this well over half of respondents.
When you stay invisible, people fill in the blanks themselves—and that’s a dangerous game to play.
The “invisible coach” charging premium rates but posting only stock quotes and generic claims.
The “anonymous agency” promising game-changing results but never showing the strategists, their thinking, or what it actually looks like to work with them.
You’re giving your people nothing to believe in by going this route - and that route inevitably leads to blending into a sea of sameness.
Leadership visibility matters, too.
Edelman’s Trust Barometer consistently shows companies with visible leadership enjoy a meaningful lift in trust. Trust drives deals. Hiding drains trust.
That gap shows up in win rates, deal size, and pricing power.
Genuine uniqueness as competitive advantage
Let’s connect this to values.
Edelman’s research also finds that shared values are a primary reason people trust a brand. Here’s the problem: you can’t share values if no one knows what you value. Because they don’t know who you really are in the first place.
You can’t demonstrate relatability and alignment with potential clients and customers if you’re hiding behind generic or artificial visual language.
That’s why showcasing who you are as a business, brand and human being is the key. It’s your special sauce of experience, perspective, process, and personality that makes you unmistakable in a sea of sameness.
Your methodology: not just what you do, but how you think about solving problems.
Your lived experience: the real stories, failures, and breakthroughs that shaped your approach.
Your personality: your essence, humor, and presence that make you stand out in a genuine way.
Your values in action: not what you claim, but what you consistently demonstrate as an individual and organization.
A quick transparency note - and a meta example of this genuine uniqueness piece I’m sharing here:
I used AI as a research and drafting assistant to help organize my thoughts for this article, as I do with all of my articles.
But here’s the thing:
The overall concept for the article, insights shared, frameworks mentioned, and overall perspective I have on the topic come from years of collaborating with experts and building visual strategy.
I leverage LLM’s in the same way my clients leverage their marketing teams, except I don’t have to pay for vacation days and health insurance :)
At the end of the day, tools don’t automatically create value. Your judgment, taste, and experience do.
Just like my ridiculously expensive camera doesn’t make a highly sought after, professional photographer, an LLM doesn’t make an insightful and experienced visual storytelling strategist.
It’s never about the tech, it’s always about the operator…provided that you're not the direct copy-and-paste type of person, that is.
Now that that’s out of the way, back to regularly scheduled programming…
The human-first strategy that wins
This isn’t just theory, a human-first strategy moves the numbers in a good way.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, industry benchmarks indicate that B2B teams running “human-first” content strategies see stronger conversion lifts. And year after year, social marketing studies show personal brands drive significantly more engagement than faceless corporate accounts.
What do these visuals look like in real life?
B2B leaders: show your strategists strategizing. Document real workshops, whiteboards, collaboration sessions, and decision moments. Publish the thinking behind the work, not just outcomes.
B2C brands: put the founder and makers front and center. Share the origin story, process, materials, and customer transformations. Give them the goods to connect with.
Individual experts: document the work before the work, the work itself, and who you are outside of work. Invite people into your world, not just how you can help them. Put a face to the name you’ve made for yourself within the community you serve.
The stakes have never been higher
As AI-generated sameness floods the feeds, the people and brands who win will be those brave enough to show up as unmistakably themselves.
AI can create content all day long, but it cannot generate trust.
Algorithms can get more eyeballs on your business and brand, but they cannot create connections.
Automation can turn your backend into a well-oiled machine, but it cannot replicate your lived experience and expertise.
Your genuine uniqueness isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s now a standard operating procedure.
If you’re ready to stop hiding and start showing the real you—your method, your moments, your meaning—let’s build a visual system that proves it.
Book a Visual Storytelling Strategy Call and let’s document the authenticity that makes you unmistakable.
#authenticity #personalbrand #visualstorytelling #brandstrategy #B2Bmarketing #B2Cmarketing #thoughtleadership