Your Body, Your Brand

An introduction to the ethos and story behind the Your Body, Your Brand podcast.

It starts with a toxic workplace and ends in a yoga studio. Jennifer Saminathen, a smart, driven, and vibrant woman, has an MBA and a promising career in Silicon Valley. So why does she want to leave it all to become a yoga teacher?Before we dive into the whys and wherefores wellness entrepreneurship, we’ll hear a case study on dropping out, on the eve of Jennifer’s first yoga teacher training class.

Do you know where you first got the idea that thinner, leaner, more or less muscular was better? Do you know why you keep reading articles that tell you that your beliefs are true? How about why magazines don't publish more plus size women or why diet companies keep raking in millions despite studies that show that representation can change the way you think about body image and diets don't work? In this episode of the Your Body, Your Brand podcast, we'll discuss how representation of bodies is often tied to social and financial capital -- getting "likes" and getting paid -- and why we're all drowning in diet culture. 

Women are dropping out. Maybe that woman is you. Maybe it's someone you know. Maybe it's someone you follow online. They say there's a serious leak in the corporate pipeline, or maybe it’s the lack of female representation in STEM roles. If you've ever felt like your nose was pressed up against the glass ceiling or like you had to be more "masculine" in order to make it at work, then you'll understand why women are choosing to no longer either give up and work for less money and recognition or fight it out as one of the boys -- they're choosing a third way: selling their body image to other women. In this episode, we'll get a sense of why women feel like they have less agency in the workforce than they do in yoga pants and on Instagram -- and why the conversation around feminism has shifted from burning bras to wearing sports bras. 

What, exactly, is a brand, and why are we all trying to become one? While bestselling author Daniel Pink says that “to sell is human,” exactly what is it that women are selling?In today’s episode, we examine why even feminist women end up objectifying themselves in the pursuit of the almighty dollar.

No one wants to consider sunk cost, whether financial or otherwise. Losing capital in a capitalist society is a sign that you’ve failed — and especially in America’s culture of the self-made man, failure is just something that we don’t tolerate. We’re not failing at breaking the glass ceiling, we’re succeeding at harnessing alternative income streams. We’re not failing at body positivity or fat acceptance or self-love, we’re just works in progress, trying to push until we don’t have anything left. We’re going to succeed -- even if it kills us.In this episode we're diving headfirst into a niche corner of economic theory: Identity economics. Using a theory put forth by Professors George Akerlof and Rachel Kranton, we're going to look deep into our own motivations for buying into "healthy lifestyles" and selling them back to others. Sources: "Economics and Identity" by George Akerlof and Rachel KrantonIdentity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being by George Akerlof and Rachel Kranton*Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story of Women and Economics by Katrine Marçal**Amazon affiliate links