Authenticity Isn’t an Accident

What two gallons of salsa taught me about being strategic and unapologetically yourself.

Nothing says authenticity quite like a Chanel-inspired salsa booth.

For this year’s Puro Salsa competition in San Antonio, we entered as Salsa N°5. Black-and-white branding, a name borrowed from luxury perfume, and a homemade salsa recipe that impressed the city.

It was intentionally a bit over the top. And very much us.

But I wasn’t just making salsa. I was building an experience, from the recipe and branding to the booth and social media campaign. Every detail had a purpose, and I wanted the whole thing to feel as memorable as the salsa itself.

Four videos across TikTok and Instagram generated roughly 50,000–60,000 views, with just $25 invested in TikTok advertising and no established influencer following to give us a head start. All that attention translated into something tangible: we won People’s Choice, earning the most votes in the competition.

Somewhere between roasting vegetables, designing labels, and watching those views climb, I kept returning to a question that comes up often in my professional life:

Can something be strategic and still be authentic?

We’ve developed a strange relationship with authenticity. We associate it with spontaneity, with being natural, unfiltered, or off the cuff. And somewhere along the way, we’ve started treating anything carefully planned or designed as a little less genuine.

But planning something doesn’t make it dishonest, just as improvising something doesn’t automatically make it true.

Our salsa was our recipe. The ridiculous branding reflected our humor, and the campaign was designed to get people excited about something we genuinely loved making. We were thoughtful about how we presented ourselves, but we weren’t pretending to be something we weren’t.

Spontaneity is how something happens. Authenticity is whether it reflects something true.

I think there’s a lesson here that reaches well beyond a salsa competition. Strategy doesn’t have to manufacture a personality or polish away what makes an idea interesting. Done well, it can help people and organizations express what makes them distinctive in ways that actually resonate.