Redefining Authenticity, Trust, & Honesty (via The Try Guys Scandal) – Ep. 36

Welcome to Negronis with Nord. Today’s episode is about defining authenticity. Relationships are built on trust, and trust is built on honesty. What happens if you break your trust with your followers? You can submit your questions for future episodes here.

Below is a transcript of the full episode for your reading pleasure. Make sure to subscribe to the Fohr YouTube channel to get notified of new episodes.

New secret iPhone hack!

James: Welcome, Negronis with Nord. Episode number 36. I am back from Italy.

I got back last night. I dropped my phone into Lake Como, somehow <laugh>. I ended up fishing it out of the bottom of Lake Como phone still worked and then I, I got back home and I was walking my dog today and he knocked it out of my hand and I broke it. Other than that, things are going great.

I actually have a iPhone hack I'm gonna share with y'all. I've not seen this one anywhere and I only discovered it completely on accident. And that is, if you've got your phone open, you can double tap on the camera lens easy, and it opens your camera. We'll do it this way. Did it work? Yeah. Boom. Look at that. Isn't that amazing? Okay, now nobody share that TikTok yet, because we are gonna share it and it's gonna go viral. And everyone's gonna say, Why doesn't Apple give a, you know, a user guide for this phone?

So I feel like people are always finding these shortcuts and they blow up as these like huge TikTok videos and everyone is like, Oh my God, mind blown. I didn't know. Is it a useful feature? Not really, but there it is. It's yours. You can use it.

The Try Guys scandal, unpacked

James: We are unfortunately going to talk a little bit about the try guys today. These, these, these guys have, have unfortunately, you know, put themselves into all of our lives. It's pretty impressive the audience they've built. I am amazed they're this many people in the world that care about these guys. But you know, they do. And we were all forced to live through their little scandal over the last couple of weeks. You know, it has me thinking a little bit about authenticity, and I think we've seen a few instances over the last few years, you know, where something happens where somebody's like entire brand dissolves in front of your eyes in real time.

And it's, it's a kind of shocking and scary thing to watch. I think with the try guys, right? It, look, if you don't know the story, it's not really interesting or worth knowing what happened. Needless to say, there was one of these like wife guys, you know and if you're like very online, you'll know like what, what the wife guy is. And so his whole brand is, he loves his wife and his wife's amazing and all of this, and you know, then it comes out. He's cheating on his wife. Big ******* surprise, right? Everyone is shocked and upset and he gets kicked out of the try, guys, which I honestly, I can't believe I have almost a hundred employees and I'm sitting around talking about getting kicked outta the ******* try guys. But here we are. He gets kicked outta the try, guys.

His life has fallen apart. Few morals of the story, don't cheat on your spouse is probably one. If, if you don't wanna be in your relationship anymore, you should talk to your significant other and, and exit that relationship before you start sleeping with other people.

Lessons learned: What is authenticity on social?

James: Lesson two is that audiences have a really, really visceral reaction when a personality or an influencer, celebrity, whatever it is, they have built their brand around something and they do something that is, they do something that's antithetical to that brand that they have built, right? If your brand is, I love my wife, She's amazing. You cheat on her? Bad. You're Ellen and your brand is, I'm nice, and you turn out to actually be a ******* nightmare. Bad.

It brings me back to this idea of like, what is authenticity in social? Authenticity is a widely overused term that I think we talk about so much that we stop actually thinking about what it is and, and let's, like, let's step it back a few things, right?

What makes your following valuable is yes, the eyeballs, but what makes it more valuable? What makes you an influencer is that you have a relationship with that audience, right? Relationships, foundationally are often built on trust. That's a, a huge part of any relationship. Trust is built on honesty, erego authenticity at its core and root is honesty.

If you are saying that your whole brand is that you're nice and you're so nice and you're the world's nicest person, it comes out that you're not nice, then you have destroyed your authenticity in a way that is not reparable. That isn't how it happens to most people. For most people, their authenticity is like death by a thousand paper cuts, right? It's chipped away over time, your audience will have a breaking point. They will roll their eyes one too many times and hit the unfollow button.

"For most people, their authenticity is like death by a thousand paper cuts, right? It's chipped away over time, your audience will have a breaking point. They will roll their eyes one too many times and hit the unfollow button." - James Nord

Authenticity and honesty are rooted in your brand deals

James: Yes. At a macro level, it is really important that your content and you know, the person you present yourself as on the internet, while it is generally never exactly who we are in real life, that it is rooted in honesty and it's not a lie, but as we talk about being an influencer and how is this applicable more in your everyday life, It's about the brands that you cover. It's about the sponsored posts that you take.

And it's why I think it is so important. It's why we talk about real love, right? And we tell brands don't spend good money on fake love and that we should be working with influencers that, you know, really have an affinity for a product. They use it they enjoy it, they love it. They are asking their audience to spend money on it. They should be really sure it's good.

Let's say you're eyeing up a purchase of some sort. You wanna make, let's say it's a, it's a pair of Celine shoes that you, you're, you've been eyeing up and oh, all of a sudden somebody pops into your inbox with a $2,500 deal for a post and you are like, I don't really like that brand. You know, what I do like is Celine pumps and this deal is going to pay for those shoes and I'm just gonna take it. **** It. You know, you go and create the content and you tell your audience, I love this brand. I've been using it. I think it's so great. Obviously you're not being authentic, you're lying, right? And you're not good at creating content. You're not good at storytelling, You're good at lying. And I think that is so much of what we're trying to push back against in advertising for decades has been all about lying, right?

'Four out of five doctors, you know, recommend Salem cigarettes because they're lighter,' right? Michael Jordan eating McDonald's like brands have been relentlessly lying to us for decades. And I think what influencer marketing did so well is that all of a sudden we had recommendations from real people that we trusted while not completely unbiased, hopefully less biased and rooted in honesty. And again, if the content that you're creating is not rooted than honesty, then like, what the **** are you doing? Why are you doing it? You're just lying.

How you control authenticity

James: People talk about authenticity, like this thing that they can practice. And yes, brands can brief you in a way that makes your content feel less authentic. They can throw a bunch of, you know, KPIs and key messaging and all of that down your throat and, and it can make the content feel bulky and unnatural and, and ultimately come off in a way that you don't feel great about.

And maybe that doesn't feel super authentic. But the thing that you have control over is what brands you promote, what you talk about. And if you are having to make it up, right? If you are reading off of a script, if you don't believe what you're saying, you're doing a, a huge disservice to your audience. And while you're not gonna have the try, guys Ellen reaction where like, you had a career and then like all of a sudden you didn't, you might find three to five years from now that you're saying, Oh, where's my audience? Oh, it's the algorithm. It's all these things. And there's all of these reasons that my engagement used to be great. And it's not. But it might just be that, you know, your audience was didn't believe you anymore. And if they don't believe you and they don't trust you, then they can't have a relationship with you.

And if they don't have a relationship with you, you can't charge brands for access to that relationship. And if you can't charge brands for access to that relationship, you don't have a career anymore. Super simple episode. Don't lie and don't cheat on your spouse. So there you go. Join us next week as always ask questions. And we will see you soon. Cheers.

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Cheers, and thanks for watching.

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