This is something that I've been thinking about a good amount. Let's go back to what I just said in the intro. Something that's interesting with influencers is that oftentimes you get compared to journalists. The difference is I almost never see influencers say something negative about any brand because they don't want to jeopardize their ability to potentially work with that brand.

I'm not saying you should be putting brands on blast, but if you only blow sunshine and flowers up the ass of every brand in the world, how am I ever going to believe anything that you say? I think that there is room to have an honest conversation about some brands to say, "This was awesome. I didn't love this or it worked really well for this, it wouldn't work as well for this specific thing."

I'm not saying you should be doing that on the sponsored post because that's an advertisement someone buys, that is not organic earned media that is paid media. Whatever they want you to say is essentially what you're going to say. In your organic posts, in your day-to-day, as you talk about brands, try and be honest with your audience. Try and tell them your actual honest opinion. Could it jeopardize your ability to work with that brand in the future? Yes and no, in the short term, it might.

It would depend on your tone. If you're like, "This is the worst product I've ever seen in my life. Nobody should ever buy it." Then in what world would you want to work with that brand anyway. Now, I wouldn't suggest that's the way to frame the conversation about a brand, but saying, "Hey, I bought this moisturizer, my skin felt better. I didn't feel like it was $50 and it didn't feel twice as good as my $20 moisturizer so I'm not sure that I would suggest it. It was nice and I did like this about it." That to me feels honest without saying this product is a waste of money.

The other thing is just like, even if it's an overwhelmingly positive review and you love the product, you can't love everything about it. I love this suit but it is terribly uncomfortable and it is so hot. The end it is gratuitously expensive and you cannot justify its cost in any way, shape or form and you look like a child. You look like you're wearing a child's suit. There are cons with wearing a Thom Browne suit. It is not perfect, it is definitely not for everyone.

I think that, as you think about that with the brands that you're talking about, even if you love something, the ability to say, "Yes, but this is annoying or like this was a little frustrating or this is something to think about." I think that can build trust with your audience. Because they're saying, "Oh, okay. You said something a little bit negative or it seems like you talked about this product as a normal human does, which is not, "Oh, my god I love it so much. Guys, I have to tell you. I found this new moisturizer. I love it, I am obsessed. I love it, it's my favorite."" It's like cool, you said that last week about another moisturizer and you could say that next week about another one.

How do you build trust? You can still do that and say, I'm obsessed but what are some things you don't love? I'm a car guy, I love cars. There's this guy who's a YouTuber, Chris Harris, who reviews cars. He says some shit about Ferrari years ago and called them out in a big way. They blocked him not only from reviewing their cars but from purchasing them. He wanted to buy a Ferrari and they literally would not sell him one. He had to buy it used because Ferrari refused to sell him a car.

Now, he has eventually repaired his relationship, part of that being that he's gotten so popular. He's so respected that Ferrari could no longer avoid him or ignore him. Also, it's just like old news, I think they just got over it. What I'm saying is that, even if you hurt brands feelings a little bit in the short-term, it's not to say that in the future you can't work with them. It's also not to say that your goal in doing this, is not to make every single brand in the world love you, it is to build an audience that trusts you and respects you.

Have that trust and respect to be so important that brands are clamoring to work with you. That's the goal. If in the process of doing that, you piss a few brands off, do you really care? Again, I think that there's a respectful way to do it but you have to be honest. I know all of you could sit here and watch this and be like, "I am honest." It's like, "Right, you're not because I literally never hear anything, not even negative. I never hear like a "This is good."" I'd encourage you to try and integrate some of that, try and be a little bit more honest, see where it takes you. That was a long tangent and let me just rattle off a few other points.

Influencers I trust are generally because they are like thought leaders or they have an incredible amount of knowledge. Going back to this guy, Chris Harris, who I love, who's just a charming interesting dude, he's also an incredible driver. He races, he wins races, he's just an amateur, he's never been pro. Put him in a car, the guy can drive. He can do things in a car that I could never do. He understands cars in a way that I would never understand them.

He has my trust there because he is an expert in that very specific field, generally, sports cars. I think influencers that have that level of passion, I'd look at Mariana in the beauty space. She really does seem as someone who's more of a lifestyle influencer than the hardcore beauty people. She does seem to have obviously, quite a passion for skincare. It's something she's always talked about and she's talked about intelligently and she does a good job of reviewing products, I'm obviously not buying the same things as Mariana. I rented a Leica when I was in Italy, a big part of it is that reason is I've been following Joe Greer who's Maddie's husband, he's Maddie Greer's husband.

Also a photographer, he's great, he shoots a lot of film like her. I love his work, I wanted to try and emulate it. Again, he is someone that I would trust to talk about shooting film Leicas because he does it and he does it really well, it's something he consistently talks about. Obviously, understanding your vertical and understanding the niche you're speaking to is the a good way to build trust.