Authority is What Drives the Algorithm

We’re going to talk about authority versus fakery, and the reason why I wanted to share this is that I’ve been seeing so many of these fake influencers, and it just drives me nuts.

When you look at the flow of social media feeds, you’ll notice how it’s driven by algorithms. 

I see this as a continuum that will increasingly become more stretched because the more social media there is, the more of this fakery you’re going to see.

The apartment that I’m in was once occupied by these two broke girls. 

All they did was go around posting on Instagram about how you can be famous on social media to make a living as an influencer. You have to give them credit because if you look at the pictures and videos, they look like they live an absolutely fantastic and fabulous kind of life.

Other teenagers would see this, and they would be amazed, wanting to be like them too. For that reason, they sell a course for $500 on how you can make money as a social media influencer which then makes them money. Yes, that’s right. As we all know, selling courses on how to make money is the fastest way to make money on the internet.

Literally, just get a toilet seat to fake your private jet picture.

There’s also one where people like to take pictures out of the airplane window.

You can rent a photo shoot on a fake private jet, and you pay a couple of hundred dollars to have done this as well. 

But there’s also this hack where you can take a picture of yourself through a toilet seat and then have a TV behind it. You can put whatever you want on it, and it looks just the same! I’ve seen people do it instead of a toilet seat. They have a deck chair, and then they have the blow dryer coming in, pretending they’re in a helicopter.

I’m renting a Lamborghini just to make fun of these people.

Why is it that people will go to such efforts to set up these fake scenarios?

Possibly, because they’re young. They do what they want to do, and they believe that the only way to be valid or accepted is to have this fake lifestyle. 

My friend went around and rented a Lambo just to show you how it is. Later on, he makes his videos and promotes his courses.

We also made some videos too, just to be educational. I’m literally making fun of people that do this by doing the very thing that they’re doing.

The key to authority is to actually teach what you know, and that’s why you need to have a course. This is mostly why people struggle when they make their one-minute videos – they don’t know what to say. 

It simply has three steps:

1. You start with the hook. It captures the viewers’ attention.
2. Feed lots of details through the body. Teach something, and talk about your stories that will keep them engaged with your content.
3. End it with a call to action. Let the audience know what action you want them to take – if you want them to join you on your course, tell them. The best way to authenticity is to call people out on the things they’re doing.

I spoke on stage with authority, and I was able to launch courses.

I was able to speak on stage at these other places because I had the authority that came from experiences that allowed me to launch a course or create jobs. 

The reason why you should be a speaker is not that you want to be on stage and be famous. It’s because it gives you access to the other speakers which makes them respect you.

I’m a really good digital marketer, and I have a really good product. It’s not about why you should buy my stuff but who I want to serve and what I care about, and having an authentic, believable, and credible mission.

Oh, here’s the bonus. I had pictures with celebrities.

With great authority comes great bonuses – when you’re good at what you do, this definitely counts as an extra!

When you do that, you get to take pictures with celebrities, because when you’re a speaker…

You can short-circuit authority through mission-driven non-profits.

I thought there’s a continuum of real authority versus fake authority. 

The highest authority is speaking your mission. What is your passion? How do you want to give back? How do you want to serve?

If you want to short-circuit this whole authority model and be able to network with people who are the most successful, then hang out with people who are running these kinds of non-profit organizations because the other people that are the big donors or whatnot are probably very successful in business.

The easiest way to get access to the highest authority people is through having a mission-driven non-profit or being part of one.

What’s behind all of this?

Here goes the question, why are people doing this, and what does that mean for us as professionals who sell services or products? Well, I think the psychology behind this is that it’s about authority, and authority is validation and acceptance.

Yes, authority is important, but a lot of us are maybe that humble and we’re not outgoing. We don’t want to share who we are because we don’t want to be loud. 

You can share your own stories that other people can share which will then make your story authentic and automatically build a funnel based on everyone else’s audiences that are out there. 

Convey your authority in a way that still gets attention. Instill the hook that people are looking for. Demonstrate that you have authority, that you know what you’re doing, but in a classy way. Check in places that are going to show that you are successful. Hang around cool people.

But the main point is you need to have more authority to be able to stick out when there’s more and more content.