August, 8, 1974… Richard Nixon resigns the presidency
…effective noon the next day.
After the “smoking gun” tape tied him to the Watergate cover-up.
We’ve been on a trust slide for 52 years since.
Iran-Contra.
The S&L Crisis.
Clinton-Lewinsky.
Enron.
Bear Stearns.
Media bias (in all directions).
COVID health deception.
Cancel culture.
And... and... and...
We’re now at the bottom of the 52-year trust collapse.
You may be perfectly trustworthy, but we’re all so impacted by the trust collapse around us that we apply ever-increasing skepticism to everyone and every business we interact with.
That’s a problem (and your opportunity...more on that later).
That’s trend #1 >> THE TRUST COLLAPSE.
That’s bad enough, by itself, but there are two more trends shaping our world right now.
Trend #2 is what I’m calling THE RISE OF UNCERTAINTY
It parallels the Trust Collapse.
Since 1992, we’ve been living in an increasingly uncertain world. It started with the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
The worldwide structures built during the 50 years following WWII…which kept the world mostly stable…ceased to be necessary.
The changes started slowly, as you would expect when dismantling a 50-year-old worldwide system.
Then they accelerated and became more dangerous.
The Dot-com Bust.
The 9/11 attacks.
The Internet Revolution.
The Great Recession.
Continually contested elections.
The COVID Pandemic.
The Culture Wars.
And now... AI.
Uncertainty went from an every-now-and-then thing to “Tuesday”.
Every year, then every quarter, then every month, then every week, now every day brings an acceleration of uncertainty.
Is your head spinning yet??
Mine is.
The problem with uncertainty is that we risk-averse humans tend to sit on our hands when we’re not sure which way the wind is blowing.
We delay decisions.
We put off purchases.
We take less risk.
Because we can’t process current conditions to predict what’s likely to happen tomorrow.
That’s a problem for you, too.
So, we have buyers who trust you less and can’t make sense of what’s happening in the world, so they won’t pull the trigger.
Not a good combo.
That brings me to trend #3: THE CONTENT EXPLOSION
AI just threw gasoline on the trust-and-uncertainty fire.
First, the AI doomsayers (many of whom are trying to sell you AI…)
Aside: I’ve yet to figure out the marketing strategy behind saying “Hey, I have this cool thing. It’s going to take your job and probably kill us all...want to buy it?”
They’re overhyping the doom.
And the “AI will unlock infinite productivity and abundance” cheerleaders are overhyping in the other direction.
Both are impacting your buyers. But what’s more important for you is The AI Content Explosion.
We’ve seen a steady rise in the volume of information published each year since Gutenberg and his little printing press invention.
And, yes, that accelerated through the 20th century.
It appeared to go exponential when the Internet gave us all the ability to publish to the world from the couch.
Then the robots joined the game.
And our exponential has now gone exponential.
I’m sure you’ve noticed…AI-generated content is everywhere. An analysis of 3,368 LinkedIn posts by Originality.ai found that 53.75% were “likely AI-generated.” A similar analysis by Pangram found that 40% of the tested content on LinkedIn was AI-generated.
It’s showing up everywhere, and it’s making it harder than ever to tell “is it real or Memorex?”
The Vermont “Ah-ha”
Last week, I was deep in Vermont Farm country at a mastermind led by Ryan Levesque (the Ask Method guy).
There were 20 entrepreneurs from different industries and different parts of the country. We spent two full days digging into these trends.
At one point in the discussion, Bill (my business partner) said something profound...
“Everyone’s walking around thinking, ‘With everything going on in the world...What’s going to happen to me?’”
And it hit me like a ton of bricks.
The three mega-trends...
The Trust Crisis
The Rise of Uncertainty
The Content Explosion
Have combined to create a perfect storm.
People can no longer find the signal in the noise.
And as bad as all of that sounds, I’m more excited and encouraged than I’ve been in a long time.
Where there is crisis, there is opportunity.
We’re entering…
THE AGE OF PROOF™.
The opportunity is to amplify your signal in the noise. To show receipts. To bring overwhelming proof.
Proof is the foundation for trust. Proof is the unmoving reality during uncertainty. Proof is the antidote to AI noise.
Until AI hit the scene, looking real was hard.
It took years of work, experience, and expertise to look and sound like (and become) an expert.
AI makes expertise look instant.
That colleague who couldn’t string three coherent sentences together can now publish polished LinkedIn posts 3 times a day.
Anyone... and I mean anyone, can wear the “I’m an expert” costume now.
And for the most part, nobody can tell the difference.
People are wising up.
Since they can’t tell by looking at the usual signs, they’re asking for proof.
Looking real is free. Being provable is rare.
Now, if you think any of this is new, it’s not. Yet another win for “there’s nothing new under the sun.”
King Edward I established gold and silver “hallmarking” in 1300.
In 1854, the gold karat system was instituted in Britain.
Underwriters’ Laboratory introduced the UL® Labeling system for electrical products in 1906.
Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act in 1990, establishing the USDA organic foods seal.
In 1992, the EPA launched the ENERGY STAR seal.
We’ve progressed through levels of proof...
Assay marks >> “Is this physically what it claims to be?”
Safety marks >> “Will this product hurt me?”
Process and provenance marks >> “Was this made according to a specified system?”
Performance marks >> “Does this achieve a defined measurable outcome?”
Whenever we experience a collapse of trust, we respond with trusted, third-party certification.
The formula is...standard + independent testing + a durable visible mark + penalties for counterfeiting.
And it’s coming to the content you use to get clients.
LinkedIn just rolled out the ability for users to mark content as “AI slop” (there are all kinds of problems with this, but it shows where we’re heading).
Substack integrated with Pangram, an AI writing detection tool, to allow users to click a button and get an “is it AI or is it real” analysis.
These are early attempts at helping separate the signal from the noise.
We even launched our own way back in 2023 with our Written By Human™ certification and mark for the books we publish for clients.
The question is: what should you do next to capture the growing opportunity in The Age of Proof?
I have some ideas.
I’ll be sharing them in a first-ever “State of the Industry” event on August 3rd.
I’ll be sharing:
The three moves to make now to get in a leadership position in The Age of Proof.
The #1 defense against AI commoditizing your business.
A new 9-part framework for standing out in the noisiest time in human history.
How to leverage human connection in interesting and fun ways in your business.
How to escape from the mind-virus caused by the Trust Collapse+Rise of Uncertainty+Content Explosion combination (and lead your clients out of it, too).
It’s happening September 3rd (Thursday) at 3pm ET. There WILL NOT be a recording.
Register here: https://milliondollarauthor.io/ageofproof
Steve “keeping it real since 1971” Gordon