Introduction
What is ‘The Irving Show’?
A cautionary tale about what happens when you try to manufacture meaning instead of living it.
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It all begins when Irving realizes he wants to build a presence on social media. He starts to think: How can I make this happen?Then, he gets what seems like a brilliant idea. He likes sea turtles — so he will position himself as a protector of sea turtles. Not everyone cares about sea turtles, but they're a worthy cause. Hope slowly creeps in: maybe he'll become the best sea turtle advocate there is. Maybe he'll get sponsorships. Maybe WWF will reach out.
So he goes to a marketing agency.“Wow. What a noble pursuit! What a great guy you are.” they say. “For 25k, we can make you magnetic. Here's an invoice for this conversation, and we require 30% upfront payment.” Irving hesitates. It's a lot of money. Then he pays.
Now Irving is invested. He starts to think about sea turtles. He starts to live and breathe his “mission.” But quiet doubt begins to creep in — motivation becomes harder. Because now something has changed. At the beginning, Irving liked sea turtles. Now, Irving needs sea turtles.
The agency gets to work.
They send over mood boards, a brand identity, a color palette inspired by the ocean, and a minimalist turtle logo. Content pillars: Education. Awareness. Advocacy. Irving looks at it and thinks: “This looks… legit.” For a moment, he feels like the person he imagined.
Then reality starts.
“Hey Irving, we need 3 videos this week.”
“Can you share your personal story with turtles?”
“Talk about why this matters to you.”
Irving freezes.Because there is no story. There is no moment when a turtle changed his life. No deep wound. No obsession that kept him up at night. Just an idea that sounded good. But he's already paid 25k. So he pushes through.
He writes scripts that sound right. He repeats things he's read online. He mimics the tone of people who actually care. The content goes out. A few likes. Some polite comments. No real traction.
“We need more consistency. More emotion. More you.”
Irving tries. But every time he presses “post,” there's friction. Not fear. Not resistance. Misalignment. The motivation he once had is gone — replaced by pressure. Because now it's not “I want to talk about sea turtles.” It's "I have to justify the 25k."
So he starts avoiding it. Misses deadlines. Delays shoots. Ignores messages. The agency pushes harder. Irving withdraws further. Eventually, it dies. Not with a big failure. Not with a dramatic collapse. Just silence.
And here's the uncomfortable truth: Irving didn't fail because he lacked discipline, or because the agency was bad, or because social media is hard. He failed because he tried to outsource alignment. He picked an identity before earning it. He chose a mission before living it. He tried to buy clarity instead of confronting the absence of it.
The Irving Show isn't about sea turtles.
It's about people who choose what sounds meaningful instead of what is meaningful to them. Who try to manufacture passion through positioning. Who invest money hoping it will create conviction. But conviction doesn't come from strategy. It comes from friction — from lived experience, from something that bothered you long before you thought about content.
If Irving had started differently, it would've looked boring. No agency. No branding. No positioning. Just talking, exploring, following what actually holds his attention over time. Letting the identity emerge after the behavior.
Because the people who actually make it? They don't wake up and decide: “I will become a sea turtle advocate.”They can't shut up about sea turtles long before anyone is watching. That's the difference. One is a show. The other is a byproduct of who you already are.
If you have to force it, it's probably not yours.