So if youāve ever wondered what the Backroom actually feels like ā not the neat little description, not the tidy version I should write, but the actual lived-in, messy, human heartbeat of it ā let me just show you because words are not going to do this justice
This week, I made this HUGE banner filled with REAL humans from inside the Backroom.
Real humans. Like actual humans. Not models. Not stock photos. Not ālook at my curated perfect lifeā influencers posing with matcha.
Just the real faces of real people doing real life in all their chaotic, gorgeous, honest-as-fuck glory.
And when I tell you I got excited⦠I donāt mean a little excited. I mean vibrating. I mean full on š¤©š¤©š¤©š¤©š¤©š¤©
I mean staying up until 12:30 at night even though Iād promised myself an early one because I physically could not wait to launch the bloody thing.
My body was like, āSleep,ā and my brain was like, āABSOLUTELY NOT LETāS DO ART.ā
The second I put out the call asking if people wanted to be featured, my Mac went ballistic. It was like watching a slot machine jackpot in real time.
Ping ping ping. Dogs. Cats. Bikes. Laptops. Smoothies. People literally sending me the most human pictures and I swear it felt like watching a community exhale.
And the energy of this one single picture?
Iām not even joking⦠itās EVERYTHING. Itās warm and alive and messy and grounded and absolutely human in all the best ways.
Itās what business should feel like ā that feeling of āoh thank dog, I can ACTUALLY be myself here.ā
If I had actual walls in my house (instead of 92% nothing and jungle and geckos doing parkour), Iād print this thing like a giant mural and slap it up as the centrepiece of my life.
Because honestly, itās a masterpiece.
A full-blown masterpiece made of humans being humans instead of trying to be robots with perfect lighting.
This, right here, is what the Backroom is about for me.
Not perfection. Not pretense. Not ego. Not performing business like itās a bloody theatre production.
Itās messy. Itās real. Itās honest. Itās human.
Itās a place where youāre allowed to wobble, to win, to ask, to laugh, to not know, to be tired, to be alive, to be YOU. Itās business without the bullshit.
Itās community without the posing. Itās conversation without feeling like youāre about to be judged by someone clutching a notebook.
Look at that picture. Seriously. Look at it. Feel it in your body. Let it land. Thatās the vibe. Thatās the whole bloody point. Thatās why this thing exists.
And if youāre someone who actually wants a space like THAT ā a space where you donāt have to filter yourself or perform or pretend youāre further ahead than you are, where being human is literally the requirement ā then honestly, youāre going to fit in like youāve been here the whole time.
$1. Real humans. Real talk. Real belonging. Zero bloody bullshit.
Link in the comments. Grab your coffee. Come join the partay
The gecko approves.