Steal Their Trust

Welcome back to Viral Examples.

Today (in 2 mins or less) we're diving into how to borrow credibility from people you've never met.

Borrowed Authority Makes You Instantly Believable

You make a claim. Crickets. 

Someone else makes the same claim and cites Naval, or Hormozi, or HBR. Instant engagement.

The difference has nothing to do with the idea. Everything to do with the anchor.

Your audience already has people and brands they trust without question. These are trust anchors. And you can use them to transfer credibility directly to your point.

Here's how the technique works. When a familiar name appears, brains shortcut the verification process. Readers stop evaluating and start accepting. The anchor did years of trust-building so you wouldn't have to.

The framework: 

Identify → Reference → Redirect.

First, find your audience's trust anchors. Scan comments on popular posts in your space. Look for repeated names, books, or brands people cite as proof. These are your anchors.

Second, reference strategically. Mention the anchor early in your point to activate that pre-built trust.

Third, redirect. Use their credibility as a launching pad for your unique take. You're extending their idea, adding a fresh angle they haven't explored.

One warning. Lazy borrowing backfires. If you only parrot what the anchor said, you look derivative. The redirect matters. You need your own insight attached to their credibility.

Borrow the trust. Add the twist. Make it yours.

Time to Grow

There’s two parts to getting results from posting content:

1. High quality content

2. Relevant distribution

Megaphone, the team behind Viral Examples, helps with both.

1. Our writing team works learns your voice and delivers weekly batches of content for you to post.

2. Our creator network helps get your posts in front of the right audience.

Grab time here or just reply to this email to learn more.