What’s Your Kayfabe?

My husband Scott is into wrestling. Like, really into wrestling.

He’s the co-host at Rudos, a podcast-slash-YouTube channel that covers independent wrestling in the United States, Mexico and Japan. We have framed posters of wrestlers in our living room. It’s a whole thing.

One weekend, I mentioned I was having a hard time explaining the distinction between someone’s professional platform (as an author and entrepreneur) and who they are as a person.

Out of nowhere, Scott said “It’s a kayfabe.”

In case you didn’t know, professional wrestling is fake. There are real people involved, obviously, and what happens in a wrestling ring — the moves, the drama, the blood — can also be real but nearly everything is staged. Including the “characters” each wrestler plays. Some characters, like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin are close to reality. (And others, like Luchasaurus, a dude who wears a dinosaur mask, are not.)

Scott shared that an important part to any good kayfabe is taking your natural, authentic personality and dialing it up to 11. Steve Austin is a good example. He’s pretty tough and probably doesn’t let people push him around. But Steve Austin isn’t “Stone Cold” the wrestler, who runs around pouring beer on people and starting fights. Another great example? Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Dwayne Johnson doesn’t walk…