authentic to me means speaking your truth,

no matter the circumstance, even when it's hard,

and actually even more importantly, when it's hard.

When I say authenticity, I think if you're trying to show somebody

whether it's how to do something,

how to live a certain way, what have you,

it should be congruent with what you're doing.

So you should be speaking your truth. Kory I'm excited to talk to you today because you are a person who's kind of near and dear to my heart and the things that you talk about.

You haven't just given one TED Talk, you've given not two, not three, but five TED Talks, the last count.

You've written multiple books, but the thing I'm most interested in talking to you about today

is there's two words that are kind of very buzzy right now.

Number one is personal brand.

Number two is authenticity and they're really related and I know you know a thing or two about authenticity.

So the first question I have for you is for people who don't know who you are can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit of your backstory.

Yeah, I like to call it these days, Chris, my origin story. We feel superheroish even if I'm not, or super villainish.

But my origin story, I grew up in a small, tiny little town in Canada,

and I was raised by a single mother, barely graduated high school.

I didn't know the difference between fiction and non-fiction.

Probably you think you shouldn't admit I actually had a girlfriend go on a date and then not continue

dating me because I admitted that.

But that was kind of my story when I started.

And I also didn't read a book until age 27.

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