✪ The Fastest Way To Increase 100% Your Credibility (and Your Potential to Sell) - #49
The overlooked strategy that a) builds authority fast and b) makes you trustable (without having to write more content).
From 2022 until this year, I have been assisting two clients, that operate in very similar niches. For ease of storytelling and to keep their privacy let’s call them Bryce and Joanna.
When they came to me, both already had a professional website, published a newsletter and shared many useful resources and tools on their social media channels.
Joanna also enjoyed writing interesting guides while Bryce felt he had a talent for brokering the newest and most relevant news in his sector.
But as the time went by, and nonetheless I gave them essentially the same advice, I started noticing a key difference between them.
While Bryce insisted in wanting to focus more on writing articles and curating the news and tools he found along the way, Joanna tried out the things she recommended, got her hands dirty and shared her personal discoveries and fails. She even attempted to build little tools (templates, checklists, frameworks and prompts) that could have been useful for her readers.
Joanna explored, experimented and documented the results, showed screenshots and short clips of how she did things, including when things didn’t work out as expected. Thus she ended up not just sharing interesting and relevant nuggets, but she actually took to her heart to go out and verify which things actually worked and which ones didn’t.
Guess who was the first one able to sell his know-how through small consultancies and a few low-cost digital guides?
Times Have Changed
And I must say for the better.
What was once sufficient to be visible, attract new readers, and build a loyal community of followers wanting to know more, has become totally inadequate for today’s expectations.
Why?
the quantity and quality of information resources has exploded
focus on what can be actually measured has surpassed empirical and intuition-based approaches
anyone today can easily test and verify his propositions, tactics and strategies online
people do not trust anymore well-written claims and persuasive landing pages. They want proof and actionable advice from credible experts.
Good Content Won’t Make You Credible. Proof Will.
The Problem
Today there are many independent experts, creators, coaches and consultants who are trying to monetize their knowledge.
They have passion and skills, but most struggle to turn their expertise into tangible revenue.
They do try here and there, but as they don’t see immediate results, they retreat and convince themselves there is something wrong with their audience, strategy or way of presenting their offers.
When I look at their work, no matter the niche they operate in, this is what I notice:
Their market is not what it used to be 10, 5 or even 3 years ago. The landscape has shifted dramatically, faster than most realize.
Their readers (and potential clients) have much less time than they had just 3-4 years ago, and one hundred times more relevant content they could be looking at.
Some of them, who have started many years ago, have kept on doing what they had been doing for years, without really questioning, reviewing or updating their communication and marketing strategy.
Their content is gradually blending into invisibility, not because it is shallow but because it has a low-trust level. Their readers no longer trust words alone.
The competitors in their niche are all saying the same things.
Their readers scroll past because they need high-trust proven solutions that don’t require them to go out and experiment because someone else has already done for them.
Even their existing subscribers lose interest because the content they offer requires more clicking, more reading and more time. It doesn’t bring in solutions to their immediate problems, but more interesting stuff to look into. And while that’s something they used to enjoy before, they cannot afford it anymore.
Overall, their audiences are not looking anymore for a bunch of interesting links and recommendations, or how-to guides. They want actionable solutions from someone they feel strong affinity with, and strong evidence / proof that these may work for their business too.
The Proof - Examples
If there’s one thing that separates those who are truly credible from those who remain just another voice in the crowd, it’s this: visible, repeated proof of what they claim.
Anyone can talk a good game, share big promises, or quote theories. But only a very few consistently show — openly, transparently, and over time — what they actually do, how they do it, and the results they get.
And since I’m the one insisting on this, I can’t simply ask you to take my word for it. I must also show you my own proof.
The simplest way to do this is by pointing to the very people I trust enough to recommend. I’ve seen their work, their experiments, their wins and their failures and I’ve seen them share all of it in public.
They are not hypothetical examples. They are living demonstrations of the very principle I’m writing about here.
Here are 10 examples of trustable entrepreneurs I subscribe to, who I have come to trust and from whom I bought or would not hesitate to buy products, because they have systematically shared their failures and discoveries.
- “Wondering About AI”
B2B content strategist and self-taught developer-builder documenting real-world AI experiments; lately shipping StackDigest, a very promising semantic search + digest tool for curators and newsletter readers. She explicitly shares “wins and messy failures” on a daily basis while building her app 100% in public. Top.
.- “Landon’s Letters”
Digital media advertising expert and indie advisor for creators wanting to build non-pushy profitable businesses online, has been steadily sharing his failures, discoveries and systems for reaching 8k+ subs and full economic independence through 9 complementary revenue channels. He even has a weekly post titled “What Actually Worked This Week”.
.- “Ideas To Income”
Writer helping solo-creators grow with content on Substack though frameworks and systems; positions himself as a “6-figure blogger” with playbooks. Shares concrete numbers.
.- “Escape the Cubicle”
Shows employees-turned-builders how to grow on Substack/LinkedIn and how to monetize with digital products. He routinely posts play-by-play tactics, receipts, specific revenue and growth data from his clients / projects.
.- “Write10x”
Founder, helping mission-driven creators who want authentic, AI-assisted thought leadership systems that deliver real-world impact, not just visibility. Stands out by openly documenting results, client transformations, detailed process posts and proof campaigns.
.- “Finn’s Sights”
Indie entrepreneur and developer, has been creating tools that were born by the problems he himself encountered as a Substack creator. He has been sharing and successfully documenting this journey, and the satisfaction in going from nothing to having hundreds of paying customers.
.Ana Calin - “How We Grow”
Helps creators build portfolio businesses and monetize newsletters. She shares specific growth/revenue figures and playbooks, and she likes to keep proof front-and-center. She openly shares her monthly revenue, what drives it and what her profit goals are.
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Bootstrapper publishing in-public playbooks for indie SaaS/directories while growing multiple products (UnicornPlatform, SEObot, etc.). Regularly discloses concrete metrics and experiments, plus tactical guides.
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Entrepreneur, mentoring creators to build sustainable, long-term businesses. Strongest in showing real business results and experiments from his companies, revenue snapshots and post-mortems on mistakes.
.- “Build To Launch”
Engineer/writer bridging AI, dev tooling, and personal systems for creators and builders. She publishes deep technical essays (e.g. “SEO for AI,” “vibe coding”) and reflects publicly on earnings, experiment failures, and growth metrics via her Substack/Medium.
.Karo Zieminski - “Product with Attitude”
AI product manager writing for builders, founders, and creator-makers about shipping in public, prompt engineering, vibecoding, and product systems.She publishes real code snippets, internal postmortems, decision frameworks, and playbooks for building AI tools in public.
Yes, good content can get you noticed, but one screenshot of a failed experiment does teach more (and builds more trust) than ten generic tips.
It’s as simple as that.
The Solution
Proof cuts through noise. It bypasses skepticism. You don’t have to convince anyone of something.
This is what I see.
Today - the fastest way to earn credibility and the willingness of people to buy from you is to show proof.
Not polished marketing claims, AI-generated rhetoric or promises, but actual, real evidence.
It can be your own proof, or it can also be proof generated by someone else that has been publicly documented.
Share the results you’ve achieved by applying your own methods.
Document what happened when you tried a tool, process, or strategy.
Highlight client transformations and case studies (even small ones).
Show failures and what you learned.
Doing this steadily shifts perception.
From being perceived as someone who shares interesting news or curates new tools and resources to being recognized as a “trusted explorer”, “a guide who’s actually been there.”
Why It Works (and Why It’s Underestimated)
When you have tangible proof, you do not need anymore to scare, persuade and motivate.
When you demonstrate results in the open, people can’t argue. They see the facts and trust your results.
That’s the unique, unreplicable advantage you have. Your lived experience, your receipts, your failures, your wins.
It may look simple, even too simple to be effective. But it’s precisely because most people skip it (that fear of exposing failures is exactly what makes proof so rare and so valuable.) that showing proof is so effective.
Trust isn’t earned by writing good content
It’s earned by showing you have gone out and solved that problem. Already.
What If I Don’t Have Any Proof (Yet)?
Now, I can imagine your big question and doubt:
“...but what if I don’t have yet any proof that shows that what I preach is effective? What if my past credentials do not apply - match perfectly - to the new activity I am trying now to build online?”
In other words: What if I do not have any proof yet?
Here’s what I would advise you to do if you were in such a situation.
Document your journey in detail: show what you try, what breaks, and what surprises you.
.Offer your free advice to a few selected ones, so that you can produce tangible results rapidly, and be able to show them as proof.
.Find the stories of those who - while matching perfectly your target audience - have already achieved some success and reveal their stories and their data.
If your most immediate goal is to be credible enough that people will buy your advice, then stop relying on curation and clever lists alone.
Instead, build trust at speed: show proof of what you teach.
Documenting openly your successes and failures will do more for your credibility than any amount of good writing, curation or clever interviews.
That’s how you become a trusted guide that people want to follow, and buy from.
How I Can Help You
a) Practical Ideas To Improve Your Editorial Strategy
Critical analysis (video) of your site/landing page/newsletter/blog (choose one) pointing out limits and weaknesses while suggesting improvements and opportunities to create great content while escaping the infinite content production hamster wheel.
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b) Positioning and Personal Branding
I help you question and verify how solid and effective your communication strategy is. How effectively you differentiate yourself from others. Do your readers understand instantly what you are about and why it would be so valuable for them?
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Interested?
Send me a direct message.
Follow a path with a heart.
From Koh Samui (TH)
Robin Good
Thank you so much for the kind mention! And I’m thrilled to be in such good company—I follow and admire everyone else on your list.
Thanks Robin for the kind mention.
Reminds me of copywriter Gary Bencivenga and his theory/mechanism of adding proof everywhere.
I'm still allergic to Stripe screenshots though – haha