When Your Backstory Goes from Branding to Pandering
If you look at lots of big tech companies like Apple or Microsoft, or even Amazon, at some point you’ll hear about the founder’s backstory.
Steve Jobs was ousted in the 80s, or Jeff Bezos was working out of his garage, getting investments from his parents, and working on tables made from doors from Home Depot.
I think that’s an amazing, intriguing part of the tale. The “from rags to riches” backstory — how the grind brought them success.
But one of the challenges I faced at the startup I worked at was that I was essentially the same as the founder. They, like I, was a second career student in the healthcare industry. We were nearly the same age, with them only a few years my senior.
As I grew into my multiple roles in the company, I learned of their story. And how similar it was to others in our field. What was telling, was that it became part of the “brand.” Over time, the story became part of their presentation. Part of their online persona, and part of the brand.
The Fine Line
After heading up a particular part of a feature launch, we had to interact with thousands of users. This was really the first time that I was thrown into the “user voice” persona. Basically, it was a united front. Everyone that had to present, in live events, or in streaming videos, this unified voice to the user.
But the problem was, that voice wasn’t mine. I had my own unique story to tell. I originally went to college to major in art, only to bow (and somewhat fail out) two semesters in. I got married and divorced. Then remarried…and then entered healthcare.
The grind of school for a healthcare degree is nothing short of a climb up Mount Everest. It was this gigantic elephant I needed to eat. By the time I started official “college,” I was nearly 30, with two young children. I had eaten through my PTO at my current job and had to start a side-hustle to make ends meet. It was a tough go. And once I graduated, I got licensed. And it wasn’t hard. I barely studied…and that’s what kills lots of students in my industry.
What was more challenging for me was balancing the act of being a working adult, in school, with small children, and being a newlywed. I had taken tens of thousands of dollars in student loans and then hustled some more. I made it work. But I was motivated to succeed, and that was part of my story.
Not the story of the company.
It became this weird paradox. It was part of “work me,” but not part of the “real me.” What was even weirder was this idea of the company voice becoming my voice, and I had to be ever cognizant of who I was in public. I couldn’t just be myself. I was always “representing the company.” And I never knew which side of the line I was on.
Lose Yourself
What I should have realized is that this part of company culture is silently toxic. Just like the “family,” using a founder’s story as part of the company brand begins to lose its effectiveness. At some point, it loses its impact — the effective draw.
And then it just feels gross.
Customer service reps were going to enterprise meetings regurgitating that story. We were writing content around that premise. Social posts were going up left and right, telling this “rags to riches” story.
Gross.
Enter: Healthcare
When I chose my career, I knew I wanted to accomplish three things. First, find a long-term career that was meaningful to me, my family, and the other 7 billion people on this planet. Secondly, find a career that was both challenging and rewarding. And three, find a career that married my love of science, healthcare, and art (the last part hasn’t really come until this past year).
I’ll be the first to admit that I was fortunate enough to have in-laws who supported my schooling and outright wrote me checks for tuition. In fact, they “forgave” those loans, and I’m eternally thankful. It’s allowed me to really pursue a career in a discipline that I passionately love, will fight people for, and will appreciate intimately.
Not everyone has that. And I am sympathetic with them, and constantly try to help where I can. On social, at work, on the street — constantly passing on whatever knowledge I have, from rudimentary rote memorization to complicated subjects. However I can help, I do.
Enter: Entrepreneurialism
The irony of this whole situation is that the backstory of the company is based on some fallacies. The “rags to riches” story isn’t all it’s out to be. Did they have challenges? Sure. Were there tough moments? Absolutely. Is their story vastly different from the hundreds of thousands of students out there today?
No. In fact, I would challenge that their story is really nothing special. But they exploit it to make it seem like it is. To make it seem like they faced TWO Mount Everests to everyone else’s ONE.
And instead of branding, it’s become pandering.
I’m all about the spirit of entrepreneurialism. I have multiple website domains and a few sites. My side hustle (originally in school) is a licensed business where I live, and I operate a blog on the side, focused on helping students in a huge arena very different than what I learned in. But when you use emotive exploitation to drive your sales, are you really doing any good?
What’s more, is that there’s an inherent financial disparity in lots of these students. Many are taking student loans out to pay for school, and then paying for additional services. Not only that, the market has gotten tighter, focusing on an even more niche demographic. And it’s hard to watch from the sidelines.
Best Wishes
When I left the company, it was a relief. But it’s felt somewhat like a bad breakup. Remember the whole “family” culture, I got a text when I quit. Just a text. So much for “family.”
I think what they do to help people is admirable. I really do. I think that many students have found success. And I wish all of them the best of luck.
But, it’s hard to sit quietly on the sidelines and constantly regress to a persona that’s not yours. So, that’s why I left.
I learned a lot in that job. What I learned is that there are still multitudes of problems in the healthcare system (education, hospitals, insurance, job market, etc etc etc), and that we can really only take one bite at a time. But it is nice to be authentic in my experience, and now to make recommendations to people without fear of being lambasted or retaliated against.
