I confess to having moments where I thought I might be going too far.
Only now do I consider I might not have gone far enough.
Admittedly, I have been dragging my heels about launching promotions on TikTok for the new book.
My only solution — enthusiastically approved by the marketing team — was to include Vlad in everything as much as possible.
Just after filming the first videos, I was delighted when a client and friend shared what is perhaps my favorite author photo of all time:
Yuri Knorozov (1922–1999) apparently wanted to always use this as his author photo — co-starring his beloved cat Asya — and, as the story goes, got annoyed whenever editors cropped her out.
In fact — although the internet meme casts the story more broadly — he apparently insisted on her being credited as co-author on one manuscript, albeit a handwritten one.
Knorozov was a Soviet linguist and epigrapher whose work made the decisive breakthrough in deciphering ancient Maya writing.
First, you have to admire Yuri’s intellectual integrity — Integrity is this month’s theme; new meditation HERE — in sticking to his guns until academics finally accepted that his theories were correct.
Second, rather than keeping all the credit for himself, you have to admire the playful integrity of Yuri’s willingness to share it.
After all, who can really say how helpful Asya was in that scholarly breakthrough?
My motives for incorporating Vlad into my PR efforts (see above) are perhaps even more ruthless.
Yes, the algorithm favors content with cute dogs, but honestly he’s doing full-on emotional-support work.
He elevates the content, but more importantly, he elevates my mood.
While I dread staring at my face on camera and during editing, I’m perpetually delighted to look at his.
Yet filming is still not without its challenges.
I wrote about this in the new SGR Journal Substack on Tuesday:
I started off with the best intentions, but within 3 minutes, everything collapsed.
I’d gotten the simple lighting setup right, and more importantly, the framing worked.
Without someone else holding the iPhone, filming myself and Vlad together in a vertical format is near impossible.
After narrowly avoiding a tech meltdown, I finally figured out how to use my iPad as a monitor, so I could see the shot and control the iPhone camera at the same time.
My “life-changing” social media triumph was about to begin — except the moment I hit record, my iPad informed me there wasn’t enough storage available.
Defeated — in other words — before we’d even begun.
If you’re curious, you can read the full post HERE — and subscribe to the SGR Journal Substack for more behind-the-scenes updates.
Anyway, since I’ve been figuring out the smartest way to use Vlad’s talents on TikTok, the algorithm has flooded my socials with courses and workshops.
One of the most appealing ones has me torn.
Two years ago, I purchased a few courses from these charming creators, who genuinely seem like super-wholesome and sincere Canadian marketing pros.
One of their lessons, though, completely shifted my perspective.
In fact, it made me reconsider everything I believe about them.
Most of their content consisted of the three experts speaking straight to camera, then sharing examples.
One anecdote began, “Here’s a story that happened to my friend’s mom.”
The thing is, I knew that story.
In fact, I’ve shared it in both yoga classes and even in this newsletter before.
It’s a classic tale from motivational legend Zig Ziglar, dating back to the 1970s.
Rather than simply citing it as a well-known inspirational anecdote, passing off a homespun tale as something that actually happened to you shows a very strange lack of integrity.
Speaking of Yuri and other striking publicity photos, I learned something new about Richard Avedon this week.
Widely regarded as one of the premier fashion photographers of the twentieth century, Avedon’s work helped redefine both fashion imagery and portraiture. (↑ see above ↑… I mean, come on…)
Avedon shot countless covers for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as high-end commercial advertising campaigns.
When he joined the armed forces in 1942 during World War II, he served as Photographer’s Mate Second Class in the U.S. Merchant Marine.
As he described it, “My job was to do identity photographs. I must have taken pictures of one hundred thousand facesbefore it occurred to me I was becoming a photographer.”
I find it amusing to think that so many people were photographed by Avedon, not for fashion magazines but just for their military ID.
Before he made people iconic, he made them identifiable — and thousands of servicemen unknowingly walked away with the ultimate future humblebrag:
“You know, Richard Avedon took my portrait.”
Another Avedon masterpiece.
I wrote last week that:
Intuition is knowing.Integrity is living what you know.
Sometimes it’s also refusing the flattering myth.
For example, there’s a dramatic story that Yuri rescued rare Maya codices from a burning Berlin library during WWII.
Apparently not true.
Knorozov himself later said there was no heroic rescue from flames; the books were in boxes and were taken to Moscow.
He could have let the legend stand, but — unlike those marketing gurus — the truth mattered to him more than the promotional spin.
Integrity and marketing are strange bedfellows.
And sometimes credit can be hidden, delayed, or only visible in retrospect.
As disillusioned as I am by marketers falsely claiming lived experience as their own, I’m also amused that one of the world’s greatest fashion photographers took countless ID photos anonymously.
More and more, I love how Yuri set his own portrait standards and I’m delighted that in the end he won.
Although he reportedly complained about editors wanting to crop Asya out of his author photo, there are actually two larger-than-life statues of Yuri in Mexico (see one above) — in the world of the Maya writing he helped decipher.
In both, he is shown with his cat, Asya.
In the end, Integrity can be more than just telling the truth about your life.
It can also include refusing to crop out what really sustained you during the process, giving credit where credit is due.
Tell A New Storm. Transform Your Life.
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Follow Vlad (and me) on TikTok as we fumble through our very awkward beginnings HERE.
Learn more about the SGR Journal HERE.
New Integrity Meditation HERE.
Rapid Reinvention Self-Paced Workshop HERE.