Ep. 01: Labels, Identity & Finding Your People

Welcome to age, where four people from four different decades throw topics in a trash can and see what happens. This week: Labels. Reggie, Tim, Mary, and Dylan start with the obvious stuff—branding, logos, North Face knockoffs made with Sharpies—but it doesn't stay surface level for long. They get into identity, the pressure to scale, what it means to be ruthlessly authentic, and whether entrepreneurship is even the dream we think it is. There's talk of quiet luxury, YA dystopias, cancel culture, and why sometimes loving people at work feels like a radical act. They wrestle with whether labels trap us or help us find our people, and if brands could actually be the new form of protest. It's messy. It's honest. It doesn't land anywhere clean. But what if that's the point? Follow Reggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reggietidwell/ Follow Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timscroggs/ Follow Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-greene/ Follow Dylan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanngarciaa/ Produced by Mary Greene. age the podcast is edited and engineered by Will Canady. All episodes are filmed at the 40 Hearts Studio in Asheville, NC. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: What Is Age? 00:02:53 Pulling the Topic - Labels! 00:03:22 The Double-Edged Nature of Labels 00:06:34 Sharpies and Brand Dupes 00:08:22 Fashion, Branding, and Free Advertising 00:11:58 When Brands Lose Their Way 00:14:56 The Agency Model and Entrepreneurship 00:24:12 Corporate vs. Self-Employed: Finding the Middle Ground 00:44:09 YA Fiction and Manipulation 00:50:20 Ruthless Authenticity 00:53:31 What If? 01:00:52 Closing Thoughts and Credits