Have you ever wondered where the line is between being “real” online and being fake?
Today I’m joined by the iconic Sarah Kleist — Showit web designer, Broadway actor, unapologetic musical theatre nerd, and multi-hyphenate brand queen — for a deep and wildly validating convo on the blurry (and often misunderstood) space between authenticity and performance.
We dive into what it really means to “show up online,” especially when you’re the face of your brand, and why the word “performance” gets a bad rap in the online business world.
Sarah also shares her hot takes on website templates vs. custom design, why minimalist branding can be totally ok, and how how creative business owners can stop shrinking themselves to fit someone else’s idea of what “legit” looks like.
Before we started the episode, Sarah needed to share three things that qualify her as a freak to pass her Freak Show Audition:
Official verdict: Sarah's a freak, and I welcomed her to the stage!
I've been sitting with this question for a while now… Why does the word "performance" get such a bad rap in the online business world?
Everyone's shouting about authenticity — be yourself, don't put on a show, just be real. But Sarah asks:
"What is authenticity without performance?"
Because even when she's sitting alone in her room, not working on anything, not interacting with anyone — she still put on matching clothes. That's a choice made for society, even when no one's watching.
So can we ever access true authenticity? Probably not. We will always be “acting” in a way, but acting isn’t lying! It's telling the truth within the context of the circumstances.
And marketing works the same way. You're telling your truth within the context of your brand story — what you're selling, who you're serving, what you stand for.
Two things can be true at once. You could be having a genuinely shitty day AND feel excited about something you're launching. You don't have to trauma dump on Instagram every time things get hard. Carefully curating what you share is not fake.
Plus, putting on a performance can be fun. Remember when we were kids, making our parents sit through elaborate shows we'd choreograph in the living room?
Your business is your digital stage. And if you're not having fun with it, what's the point?
Now, because Sarah's a website designer and I'm a brand designer who also builds websites, we had to get into it: templates versus custom.
Our conclusion: Both approaches work. It just depends on where you are and what you need.
Sarah's take: Most people could probably get away with a templated site that's been customised. But she's not talking about DIY-ing a template and calling it a day. She's talking about starting with a well-built template as a foundation, then customising the hell out of it.
When she works with clients on template customisations, she's not just swapping in their copy and photos. She's often building custom sections, reworking layouts, moving things around. The template is a starting point, not a finish line.
The key is understanding that most website pages (besides the About page) are pretty formulaic. There's an order to content sections that just works. So if you have a solid template that accounts for that structure, you can make it work for almost any business.
According to Sarah, you should get a custom website if you want something that's "truly singular, basically a work of art that has been created from the ground up just for you."
Some people genuinely want that custom experience. They want a site that's so specific to them that it couldn't belong to anyone else.
But if you want your site to still look sick, be strategic, and be much cheaper and faster, template customisation is the move.
The issue is that poorly made templates are everywhere.
Sarah's seen it with Showit templates that don't have enough room for copy. I've seen it with Webflow templates where the actual structure is broken — like heading styles that aren't properly tagged, so changing settings does absolutely nothing.
A good template should work even if a designer isn't there to fix it. It should be self-explanatory. If you need a developer just to figure out how to add a section, the template isn't doing its job.
Template design is an art form in itself. It takes creative restraint to build something simple and minimal enough that any business could use it, but beautiful enough that people actually want to. Sarah's been thinking about discontinuing her own Showit templates because she keeps wanting to add more and more, which makes them less universal.
This is why Tonic templates work so well. They're simple, minimal, beautifully structured, and have tons of sections to choose from. You can move things around and make them yours without feeling like you're fighting the design.
What comes first, your offer or your brand?
Because there's this pressure to look "legit" and have the polished brand and professional website, before your offer is even solid. I had a client once who wanted to build a skincare brand but didn't even have the product yet. Or know what products they'd sell. But they were ready to invest in branding.
And I had to pump the brakes. Because how can we brand something that doesn't exist yet?
Sarah shared a story about Emelie from Pass the Queso, who waits until she's made $100,000 from a new offer before getting a sales page designed for it. That's her proof of concept.
Now, Sarah's threshold would be lower, and mine would be too. But the principle stands: you need some validation that your offer works before you invest heavily in the branding around it.
Especially in those first couple years of business, you're going to change. Your offers will evolve, your positioning will shift, your ideal client might do a complete 180. So spending thousands on a full rebrand in month two is probably not the move.
Get something solid enough to start. Test your offers. See what resonates. Then invest in the full branding treatment.
This is Sarah's hill to die on, and I'm joining her on it.
People design their websites based on how they experience websites. But they don't think about all the different buyer types out there.
Sarah sees people on Threads saying things like, "No one reads copy on websites. It should be extremely simple. No one reads anything."
And she wants to scream: "No, you don't read copy on websites."
Because here's the truth: some people will scroll through and only read headlines. Cool, fine, make your headlines strong. But someone else is going to read every single word. Multiple times. They'll close out, come back a month later, and read it again.
Both of these people exist. Both are valid. So your website needs to work for both.
This isn't about dumbing things down or making everything minimal. It's about accessibility and inclusion. It's about recognising that several people are going to have several different behaviors.
Also, it depends on your business. If you're offering something no one's ever heard of before, you need more copy to explain it. If you're a family photographer, maybe less. But even then, more copy helps you stand out from every other family photographer out there.
Your website isn't about you. It's about serving your audience — all of them, not just the ones who browse the same way you do.
Talking with Sarah reminded me why I love this work so much. Because at the end of the day, we're both in the business of helping people build their digital stages. We're helping them tell their stories in a way that connects, resonates, and — yes — performs.
Performance isn't fake. Authenticity isn't trauma dumping. And your brand isn't just a logo on a page — it's how people experience you across every single touchpoint.
So here's your permission slip to put on a show!
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✦ Listen to Sara's & Sarah’s episode in Point of the Story
✦ Follow Emelie Sanders, from Pass the Queso
✦ Monocle Productions
✦ Check out Tonic's Showit Templates
✦ Follow her Instagram
✦ Check out her Website
✦ Subscribe to the Act Break
✦ Say hey on Instagram
✦ Get my Uncaged emails
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This episode was co-produced with Adrienne Cruz.
ShowIt Designer & Multi-Medium Creative
Over the last 5 years as a Brand & Marketing Designer, I’ve helped freaks like us design their unconventional brands so they can step onto the main stage & own their weird. Because if you wanted to be, look or sound like everyone else, you wouldn’t be where you are today. Now it’s your turn.
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