Talking one way with your friends and another in an interview isn’t fake. It’s reading the room like a pro.

Adjusting how you speak is not a betrayal of yourself. Every setting has conventions, and matching them is a form of attention, much like lowering your voice in a library. What stays constant is what you say and whether it is true; what moves is the register. Treating that flexibility as fakeness mostly just costs you opportunities.

Notice the versions you already run without thinking: family, coaches, close friends, strangers. Add one more on purpose, for rooms where you want to be taken seriously. Practise it out loud so it is available when you need it rather than attempted under pressure.