Welcome back to Unfiltered with Love. I'm your host, Carrie Love, and I'm so glad you're here. Let's get into today's conversation. Can we be real for a minute? I've been thinking a lot lately about authenticity. So I was online on social media and these ads came up, one after another. So I'm wondering like why are they coming up for me? But one of them, the first one I saw, was a dating app, and they were saying if you want to sign up to meet people who were intentional, honest, and authentic. And I thought, what the heck are they advertising? To find someone authentic. I just thought, how sad is that that we've now become to a place where you have for have to advertise that because it just doesn't exist normally or something that I don't know. I I felt like I was in the twilight zone. And then I scrolled further and there was an ad. Sign up to get love letters sent to you by fictitious people. You can put in there what you want, and they will send you a love letter in the mail. You get a subscription to love letters. And again, why do we have to sign up for these things? Why are people not sending love letters? I mean, I know we're not using the mail as much anymore, but surely we could be sending text messages that are loving or phone calls of conversations that are loving. It's pretty sad to me that you have to sign up for a fictitious love letter to be sent to you. Again, am I in the Twilight Zone? When did authenticity become something we had to advertise? Have you noticed that at all? That actually reminded me of something. I've been in this job now for a couple years. And when I first started the job, I just noticed when I got in there that nobody really talked about personal things there. And it was mainly, you know, working, which I guess you know you're supposed to be doing. But I wasn't used to that because some of the past jobs I've had, I've worked with family members. So I worked in an office where I worked with my father and then some other people, sisters that work together and things like that. So there was a lot of personal conversations in that office. And it was nice. You become like a little family there. Not to say that it's not a little family at my current job. It is. It's a great place to work. And they are all like a family. But when I first started there, I noticed that I didn't feel like there was a lot of talk about personal lives very much. And maybe that's good sometimes, but I was probably sharing a lot. And then I was thinking, maybe I share too much. I think there is a balance, obviously. You you want to talk about yourself and be real with what's going on, especially when you've worked in these places with people for years. And that's what I found in the office that I was in, they'd worked there for years together. And maybe they weren't talking about it because they had worked together for years and maybe they already knew everything there was to know about each other personally, and I was coming in their news. But what's interesting is over time people started sharing more with me. Did they become more authentic or did someone just have to go first? Start thinking, because maybe sometimes people just need someone else to go first. I feel like I go first a lot. Why am I always the one that has to go first? I think somewhere in the middle, I think that's where connection lives. So I told you last time that I've been taking this embodiment class, and it's been really good. It's very interesting. I like it a lot. We talk a lot about showing up as yourself and being authentic and not performing. And, you know, the surface level conversations, how are you? Good. But how many people ask really, how are you? How many conversations do we have every day that aren't really conversations? Maybe that's why we have podcasts and they've become so popular. Because they're actually authentic conversations and not just touching on surface level things like we're used to every day. I have also noticed something about this podcast. My first episodes were pretty scripted because it was something new for me that I was embracing. I have worked in radio in the past, not on air, but in the background radio marketing, and I did some in the traffic department and I was an intern at several radio stations. So I'm used to the whole radio thing, but this was a whole different thing with the podcasting. So the first episodes for me obviously were a challenge because I it was something that I wasn't used to. But now I feel like season two, I'm excited because I'm sounding more like myself, even though obviously those first episodes were me, but I wasn't going off the cuff because I had a script. And if I forget what I'm saying, oh well, because I'm gonna have that happen, and maybe that's authenticity too. I don't really have an answer today. I've just been thinking about it, and I just wanted to share it and say, where in your life do you feel most like yourself? And where do you feel like you're performing? Last week I gave you a challenge to do something. This week I'm thinking, have one real conversation. Not ten, one. Maybe instead of saying, I'm good, tell someone how you're actually doing. Maybe ask someone a question and really listen to the answer. Because you never know what you'll learn or what connection you might begin simply by being real. Thanks for hanging out with me today. If you enjoyed this conversation, I'd love to hear from you. Send me a message, leave a review, or share this episode with someone who might need it. Until next time, keep asking good questions, keep being curious, and most importantly, keep showing up as yourself. This is Unfiltered with Love. I'm your host, Carrie Love. I'll see you next week.