Generative AI makes testimonial vital.

By testimonial, I don't mean glowing praise of you. I mean validation that you're for real at all.

Put aside Tilly Norwood for a moment. If you're considering hiring someone - as a speaker, a keynote, an influencer, even an employee - and they had a sizzle reel that looked like this, you'd be amazed, right?

Except it's all fake. Every one of those clips I made with OpenAI's Sora 2. I've gone ahead and marked them as such so there's no ambiguity. They contain all the symbols of power and influence - the right sets, the right tone, the right audio.

You can't trust what you see. Seeing is not believing. Which means that the gold standard for whether something is real or not, especially in a commercial context, is the word of other people you KNOW and TRUST.

One of the old saws in relationship marketing is "your network is your net worth", and while that's a bit of an exaggeration, today you NEED that network more than ever. The best job prospects come from people you know. The best sales opportunities come from referrals. And increasingly, the mere process of vetting that you're the real deal will come from your network. (Event planners will REALLY have to be cautious when dealing with unethical speakers who use this technology without disclosing it)

If I had only one chance to give advice to someone preparing their career for the next year, it would be to quadruple down on building a network of people who you trust and who trust you. Not just the superficial parasocial connections you have in mass social media, but deeper, stronger network connections.

Here's an easy test to determine how strong that network is: who do you text with regularly? Outside of social media, outside of performative places, who do you text, and who texts you? (texts = texts, private messaging apps, basically any place you talk to people privately)

If the answer is no one, or no one outside your family, that's a solid KPI for you to start with.

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