Building in Public and Showing Your Receipts: Differentiation in the Age of Grifters

Social media has been a boon and curse. We get a glimpse of worlds we never would have had access to in prior decades. So many new awesome people to learn from but also lots of frauds. I’d even include the influencers selling classes online but whose only business accomplishments are taking Instagram or videos of their fake luxurious lifestyles via rented villas, jets and expensive watches. 

I can’t tell you how many tech startup founders in the last decade I know who show up on big tech conference stages, on podcast interviews or who even have their own youtube channels bragging about being multiple exit founders. I would never rat them out but “MOFO, I was on your cap table a few times and those exits were non-existent or negative.”  I’m all for “fake it till you make it” but there is a very thin line between exaggeration and lying. 

The alternative. Build in public. Whatever you think of Iman Gadzhi, he has been at this for the last 10 years, hustling & building businesses. The crazy thing is he has also documented all of this on his various social media channels as well. He started his Youtube channel in 2015. He built an advertising agency business in his teens, then expanded to edtech, crypto and other software businesses as well as investing. He is credible because it’s all been documented online.

@Kp who was known for coining the term: “Building in Public” is a great success story. His definition: “the practice of creating content & sharing stories with openness and transparency in order to attract like-minded people and nurture those relationships.”

It helps you define your niche and act as a lighthouse for your tribe.

More importantly, not only are you documenting your journey, you have to show the results. As Justin Waller says, “show your receipts”. Actual proof. Both success but just as important are your failures too. No one trusts someone too perfect. It’s okay to show your warts and all. Humans are imperfect and we are naturally attracted to this. 

This is how you build a real brand and trust. Through authenticity. That and doing the hard work and backing up your claims. This will eventually distinguish you from all the fakers and noise out there.