I was listening to a recent Ben Settle podcast yesterday, and he talked about how important it is to be authentic in your business.

And I was reminded of the movie Reservoir Dogs.

If you haven’t seen that movie, lemme warn you, it’s not for the squeamish. Lotsa blood. Lotsa potty language. But it’s brilliant.

Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Edward Bunker, and director Quentin Tarantino play crooks hired by the great Lawrence Tierney to run a diamond heist.

None of them know each other, and they’re given aliases to prevent betrayal and other likely shenanigans — Mr. Brown, Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange, and Mr. Pink.

Of course, since they’re all hiding behind aliases, none of these guys can trust each other and a shitstorm inevitably ensues.

Anyway, the film kinda makes the same point Ben Settle made in his podcast…

Being authentic in your business is vital to its success.

I’ve seen a lot of small businesses go wrong because their owners, like the dudes in Reservoir Dogs, hid behind false fronts, pretending to be something they’re not.

A few years back, I knew a guy who worked solo out of his bedroom with nothing but a phone and a desktop computer. But he always spoke in first-person plural.

“We’d love to do business with you,” he’d yammer into the phone. “We’ll send one of our people over to see you tomorrow.”

Instead of putting himself out front and projecting his own personality and skills, he hid behind a big-sounding business name, a fancy logo, stationery, and business cards.

Then, just like in Reservoir Dogs — but without quite as much bloodshed — things went horribly wrong.

People caught on to his phony posturing.

His business tanked.

In whatever business you pursue, you’re selling your know-how, reputation, personality, reliability, integrity, uniqueness, authenticity, sincerity, believability, sense of humor, charm, intuition, gumption, resourcefulness, and initiative.

It’s all about YOU, not some façade that rings shallow and bogus.

Your brand should be authentic.

Be yourself.

You’ll attract more customers and clients. And you’ll probably keep ’em, too. (With minimum gore.)