121 | Masking to Fit. What It Costs You Over Time with Bruno Wozniak

In this episode of the Brilliantly Branded Podcast, we talk about something many professionals recognise but rarely name. Masking to fit.

Bruno Wozniak, digital innovation consultant and now author of The Reinvention Playbook, shares how years of adapting to corporate expectations slowly muted his real self.

From reading the room and softening opinions, to constantly changing his behaviour to match what others wanted, he built a solid career but felt his energy and curiosity fade over time.

Our conversation starts with a simple question. What happens when we stop managing appearances and start showing up as real in our work, our leadership and our life.

Bruno explains how the concept of “masking” entered his vocabulary through a course on neurodiversity, and how he suddenly realised that he had been doing the same thing for years.

Not lying, but letting situations decide who he was.

We talk about.
• The difference between healthy adaptation and losing yourself to please the room.
• The subtle signals that you are disappearing behind a professional mask, even if your career looks good from outside.
• How authenticity changed his teaching style, his consulting work and the level of trust he builds with clients.
• Why saying “I don’t know, let us figure it out together” can create more authority and connection, not less.
• How a period without a job became the starting point for his book The Reinvention Playbook, and the five part process he developed to rebuild identity, direction and confidence after a job ends.

If you feel you are performing a version of yourself at work, if you are in a transition after leaving a role, or if you want to lead with more humanity without losing respect, this episode will speak to you.

Listen in to explore how to use masks intentionally when you need them, how to stop wearing them all the time, and how to reconnect with the parts of you that bring real energy, creativity and impact to your work.

You can get Bruno’s book through the link.:

https://a.co/d/cWnNiFK