my experience with credibility

Why should you care about credibility?

If you aren’t credible, nobody will view your content.

• if a toddler was making videos on getting rich, nobody would watch

• if a skinny person made videos of getting jacked, nobody would watch

Having credibility in the hook and title makes you trustworthy. It gives people assurance viewing your content won't be a waste of time.

Credibility is a prerequisite if you want people to read.

My personal experience with credibility:

I had no clue how to gain credibility, so I thought I couldn’t become a creator. I had no experience, no expertise, no success. I thought nobody would care.

I hated this feeling because it meant even if I shared something that could help people, nobody would look because they didn't trust me.

For over 6 months, I didn't act because I had no clue how to gain trust, or if it was even possible. 6 months of time, I was stuck doubting myself. One month ago, I finally took action and saw progress.

I’ve learned a thing or two about making yourself credible.

Before we get into specifics, I want to touch on the difference between authority vs. credibility.

I like to think of credibility as someone who can have an opinion on the topic. For example, if you aren't a billionaire, you aren't credible to have an opinion on what it's like living as a billionaire.

Authority is being able to tell people to do things. For example, teachers have authority over students.

While there are minor differences, for the purpose of getting people to view your content, we will encompass both terms as the same thing.

There are 2 ways to be credible:

1. experience

2. leverage authority

Experience

Successful people are automatically credible because they can say "I achieved ____" Anyone who wants to achieve the same accomplishment is then drawn to them, because if they can do it, so can I.

Example:

Someone says they have grown from 0 to 10k followers, 10 high-paying clients, 1M+ impressions, in 3 months of being on Twitter.

If your goal is also to grow and make money on Twitter, you're thinking "how did they do that?" Their success automatically makes them credible.

Unfortunately, you and I aren't successful yet, so we have to rely on different experiences. Instead of achieving the end goal (getting jacked, making $1 million), we can share our experience of solving the problems we are facing.

Here are some examples:

• how you overcame not being able to get out of bed with a 5-second trick

• how you stayed consistent in the gym with a simple plan

• how you use your calendar to finish 2x the tasks

In these examples, you are sharing personal experience. I like to call this making things personal. When you make things personal you can never be wrong, because you are sharing what you have learned. Also, people will want to learn what you did if they are in similar situations.

Successful people are already living the vision (dream life), so people will listen to understand how they got there. You are not living the vision yet, but you have made some progress. You can help all the people a few steps behind you.

For example, part of my vision is to have time freedom—do whatever I want with my day. I haven't fully achieved that yet, but I have gotten very productive and work very few hours of the day. I started off, like many people, with a packed schedule and an unfinished to-do list.

Since I have overcome the problem of "being unproductive," I can share my solution with others who want to achieve the outcome I have achieved.

As another example, this newsletter you are reading is helping you solve the problem of not being credible. I have not become successful yet, but I have found a solution to become credible, and that is what I'm sharing here.

This is similar to what successful people are doing—they are just solving specific problems one at a time.

So the first method of being credible is sharing your progress. As long as you have solved a problem that others haven't, you have credibility.

2. leverage authority

Leveraging authority is sharing the work of someone who is already credible (an authority figure) with your audience.

This could look like reframing a successful person's advice or sharing what you learned from a video or book from a successful person.

The key here is you don't copy the successful person, and you make sure you credit them. You should credit them not only because it is the right thing to do, but because by crediting them, your audience knows this information is reliable.

This could look like: My top 10 takeaways from James Clear's Book Atomic Habits. (although this is not very specific)

Here is a better title: I just read James Clear's Book Atomic Habits, here is what I learned about building habits (this will attract people who want to build habits).

Compare that to How to build habits.

Not only is the title boring, but you have lost all credibility. In the first case, people read because they want a quick summary of the book Atomic Habits. In the latter, people are going to skip over your work because they think "what does this guy know about building habits?"

Science is authority. That is why you see so many "science-based tips". They are trying to seem more credible by stating their work is backed by science.

You can make your entire business off of science.

• Many people have fitness programs they sell: Jeff Nipard, AthleanX, THNX based on "science-based workouts."

• Similarly, many people have businesses revolving around healthy foods: Bobby Parrish, and Bryan Johnson.

These people use science as their source of credibility.

You can also combine the 2 ways of having credibility together, for multiplied power.

Let's say you are trying to grow on Twitter.

• You see someone who shares their experience in their post: "I gained 100 followers in a week"

• Another person uses authority: "I analyzed the largest accounts on Twitter, here is what I found."

Compare that to someone who uses both authority AND experience: "I gained 100 followers in 1 week by analyzing the largest Twitter accounts."

The last hook will attract the most people.

Thank you for reading, I hope this helps!