Wisdom from a 'Fake' Alan Watts TikTok

I was surfing TikTok recently and came upon a motivational video.

The speaker was Alan Watts, a spiritual teacher whose work I love. He was talking about how to get rich.

The experience was confusing, and here's why.

Alan Watts, as I knew him, never spoke about money, only philosophy and spirituality.

However, his words on the topic made sense to me.

You know the kind of advice you hear all your life, but never really pay attention to until it comes from a specific authority figure?

Yes, that.

The more he spoke, the more inspired I became. I loved this particular take on money.

Nonetheless, I could not shake off the nagging thought at the back of my mind.

Alan Watts never talks about money.

It was like Isaac's dilemma when being swindled by Jacob, where he said, "This is the skin of Esau, but the voice of Jacob."

I thought, "This is the voice of Alan Watts, but it's inconsistent with his typical genres."

When I looked into the comments section, my suspicions were confirmed.

The talk was originally done by Brian Tracy, but the voice was digitally altered by Artificial Intelligence to mimic Alan Watts.

I've done this multiple times as part of my fun AI experiments, but my thoughts now shifted elsewhere.

Why was I more willing to listen to this talk, simply because I thought it was coming from Alan Watts?

The answer is credibility.

It's not that Brian Tracy isn't credible, he is.

But Alan Watts was never commercial.

Most of his work is available for free.

I don't recommend doing that; however, because his work isn't commercial, he's less incentivized to lie or exaggerate the truth.

So, if he had an opinion on anything, it was taken very seriously.

For example, if you had never bothered to tithe and you suddenly heard Alan Watts speaking on the benefits of tithing, you were more likely to suspend your firmly held beliefs and hear him out.

Such was his brand - high trust.

I do not have an opinion on tithing, by the way.

So yes, this TikToker knew that if he put up the video with the original speaker (Brian Tracy), he wouldn't get as many views because we were used to seeing that, almost to the point of desensitization.

Featuring the same talk with the voice of Alan Watts made the video go viral, with many comments such as, "Wow! So powerful."

You see, I notice many catchy product titles that promise internet riches if you could just get the perfect formula for Facebook ads, YouTube script, copywriting swipe file, funnel template, or whatever the latest gizmo is.

Few realize that while these techniques work, none of them beats a sterling reputation in the marketplace.

Can your audience hear something you say and not have to fact-check because you've honed a reputation for only sharing verified facts?

Can your audience read your headline and quickly scroll down to click the buy button without bothering to read your pitch because you've honed a reputation for only selling products that knock it out of the park?

Can they hear you make a promise and dive right into your offer because they know you never exaggerate or sensationalize?

If yes, you've achieved saint status.

With a terrible sales page and a non-existent funnel, you will outsell everyone else.

Please don't cherry-pick your lessons here.

As much as you can, get the perfect system.

As much as you can, be the best practitioner and communicator of your craft.

But build your foundation on an unbeatable reputation.

Let people be able to quote you like the book of Proverbs.

It takes time, but such is a house built on the rock.

It will stand tall in spite of the wind and waves of the economy.

The house built on sand, simply will not.

Talk Soon,