The "UN" Manifesto

Hello Kind and Curious Human,

I need to tell you something about a word I love and honor.

AUTHENTICITY.

I built a book around it. Said it from stages in front of thousands. Leaned on it in boardrooms when the room got uncomfortable. Made it central to how I lead, how I mentor, how I show up in the world every single day.

And I think it is time to push myself to go deeper.

Not the idea. Never the idea. But the word? The word has been borrowed by so many people, slapped on so many coffee mugs and corporate values statements, that it does not carry the weight it used to. It has become wallpaper. Everyone claims authenticity the same way everyone claims to be “passionate” and “purpose-driven.” It is easy to say. It costs nothing to put in your bio.

But the thing that word was supposed to describe?

That has never been easy. And it has never been free.

I grew up in Ohio. Gay kid who did not have language for it yet, in a place that definitely did not have space for it. I learned early what it meant to edit yourself. To read a room before you entered it. To figure out which version of you was safe to show and which version needed to stay hidden.

That is not a LinkedIn anecdote. That is survival.

And then, somehow, improbably, that kid ended up in rooms that were not built for him. President of Disney Stores Worldwide. Senior roles at 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation. Leadership at Gap Inc. CEO of Claire’s. Nobody drew that trajectory on a whiteboard. There was no playbook for a gay kid from Ohio ascending to the C-suite of Fortune 500 companies.

I was the unlikely CEO. Every single time.

And the thing that got me there was not a strategy or a mentor or an MBA framework. It was a refusal. A refusal to keep being the edited, diluted, concealed version of myself that the world kept asking for. At some point I decided that if I was going to lead, I was going to lead as the whole, unvarnished, complicated truth of who I am.

I called that authenticity. For years, it was the right word.

It is not enough anymore. Not because the idea failed. Because the language has not kept up with the lived experience. Time to expand the vocabulary and the possibilities.

When I started paying attention to the language I actually use in real conversations, not from stages, but in the moments that matter, I noticed something. The words that kept showing up all started with the same two letters.

UN.

And once I saw it, I could not unsee it. Because “UN” is not just a prefix. It is a reversal. Every “UN” word is the story of someone pushing back against what was done to them.

Someone edited you? You go UNedited. Someone diluted your message? You go UNdiluted. The world told you to hide? You live UNconcealed.

The prefix is the rebellion. It is the exact moment you stopped accepting what someone else decided you should be. It is not passive. It is not a vibe. It is a choice. And usually an expensive one.

That is what I meant by authenticity all along.

Now I have seven words that say it better.

At this point in my life, every single one of them is UNnegotiable.

I have led teams on four continents. Built brands that cross borders and languages. The ideas that matter most should travel, so I am sharing these in both English and Spanish. Not as a gesture. Because good leadership has never spoken just one language.

UNedited  /  Sin Editar

Stop living the version someone else cleaned up for you.

I spent years in corporate environments where there was an unspoken dress code for behavior. Smile this way. Frame your ideas this way. Sand down the edges that make people fidget. I was good at it. Most of us are. But the edited version of you is never the version that makes real impact. It is the version that makes other people comfortable. And comfortable has never changed anything.

Show up with the rough drafts. The messy truths. The parts you were taught to cut. The world does not need your highlight reel. It needs the real take.

UNdiluted  /  Sin Diluir

The world will try to water you down. Full strength is a choice you make every single day.

Every room you walk into has a thermostat, and most of the time, someone else has set it. They want you at a temperature that does not disrupt. Speak up, but not too much. Have opinions, but not ones that challenge mine. Be yourself, but the palatable version.

Undiluted means you stop adjusting your concentration to match someone else’s comfort level. You show up full strength. Not aggressive. Not reckless. Just complete. Every time.

UNfiltered  /  Sin Filtro

Say what you actually think. Not recklessly. But stop running every thought through a committee before it leaves your mouth.

There is a difference between being thoughtful and being filtered. Thoughtful means you consider your impact. Filtered means you silence yourself because you are afraid of the reaction. I have been in rooms where I knew exactly what needed to be said and I watched everyone, including myself, dance around it. Unfiltered is not about saying everything. It is about stopping the habit of saying nothing.

UNdeniable  /  Innegable

Do the work so consistently and so boldly that people cannot look away. Not loud. Just impossible to ignore.

This one is personal. As someone who has spent a career in rooms where I was underestimated, overlooked, or quietly categorized before I opened my mouth, I learned something early. You cannot argue your way to respect. You build it. Brick by brick. Quarter by quarter. Decision by decision. Until the work speaks so loudly that denial is not an option.

Undeniable is not about volume. It is about evidence.

UNstoppable  /  Imparable

You have survived every obstacle so far. That is not luck. That is proof.

I think about this one on the hard days. The days where the imposter syndrome creeps back in, where someone questions whether you belong, where the setback feels like a verdict. And then I remember. I have been counted out before. More than once. By people with more power, more resources, more access. And I am still here. Still building. Still showing up.

If you are reading this, so are you. That track record is not nothing. It is everything.

UNconcealed  /  Sin Ocultar

Stop hiding what makes you different. It was never the liability they told you it was. It is the asset.

For too long, I treated my identity as something to manage. Something to reveal strategically, carefully, on my timeline, in rooms where it felt safe. And I understand why. The cost of visibility is real, and I will never judge anyone for the choices they make about what to share.

But I will tell you this. The moment I stopped concealing who I am was the moment my leadership got better. My relationships got deeper. My work got more honest. The thing I was hiding was the thing that made me valuable. That is true for most of us.

UNplugged  /  Desconectado

Step away from the noise long enough to hear your own voice again. You cannot show up as yourself if you have forgotten who that is.

This is the one people skip. We talk about showing up fully, but we never talk about the maintenance required to know what “fully” even means. If you are consuming everyone else’s opinions, algorithms, and content every waking hour, you are not forming your own thoughts. You are assembling them from spare parts.

Unplugged is not about going off-grid. It is about creating enough silence to remember what you actually believe before the world tells you what you should believe.

I am not going to tell you to stop using the word “authenticity.” It is all of ours, and it still matters.

But I am expanding. Not because the idea failed, but because one word was never big enough to hold everything it needed to hold. And I have spent too many years in the business of communication to keep leaning on a single word when seven say it better.

I was the unlikely CEO. I am still the unlikely voice in a lot of rooms.

And from here on out, I am going to be UNedited, UNdiluted, UNfiltered, UNdeniable, UNstoppable, UNconcealed, and UNplugged about it.

These are not aspirations. They are decisions.

Join me in Community and Conversation

Jim