Howdy Reader!

I have a confession. When Lou Mongello came on Creator News Live this month, I asked our audience whether they'd ever met somebody whose work shaped them, and Lou accused ME of fishing for compliments (bless his heart...), live, in front of everybody.

Then we tried to remember how we met, and our stories don't match. One involves a golden throne. The other involves Lou as Snow White, and I've been trying to get that picture out of my head ever since.

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Gustave Flaubert warned about this in Madame Bovary back in 1857: "We must not touch our idols; the gilt sticks to our fingers." (That's the fancy French version of "never meet your heroes.")

Flaubert never went on a cruise with Lou. I have watched that man take on a plate of chicken fingers and honey mustard while the ship rolled through rough seas, and trust me, gilt was the least sticky thing at that table.

Sticky or not, Lou off stage is the same guy you hear on WDW Radio. That's a big reason we became friends.

So have you ever met one of your heroes? Did they live up to it, or did the gilt come off? Hit reply and tell me. (Name names. It'll just be between us...)

"Authenticity" has turned into the word people use right before they post something ChatGPT wrote for them. It's about to matter a lot more, though, because the stuff we used to trust by default is now easy to fake.

AI can fake the voice and even the video, but it can't fake a handshake or a hug.

Most people will know you through a screen long before they shake your hand, so give them proof. Here are four ways to do it.

Go live. There's no second take and no "regenerate" button. When the Wi-Fi drops, or you blank on a guest's name, people get to watch how you handle it, and that's the part they trust.

Be the same person in every room. On stage, on your podcast, in your DMs, and at the hotel breakfast buffet. Lou passes this test. If a subscriber bumped into you at the waffle maker, would they recognize you?

Show your outtakes. Share the flubs, the experiments that flopped, and the mess behind the scenes. (I've given my audience plenty, whether I meant to or not.)

Let AI do the busywork, not the talking. Hand it the transcripts, the scheduling, and the first pass at show notes. Keep your stories, your opinions, and your jokes (even the ones that don't land) for yourself.

And when you get the chance, go meet somebody in person. Worst case, they swat your hand away. Best case, you get a slightly sticky Lou Mongello.

See ya around the interwebs!

-Jeff

P.S. Want to meet Lou for yourself? He runs Momentum, a small workshop weekend for creators and entrepreneurs, October 15-18 at Walt Disney World. It's capped at 50 people, and I'll be there speaking. (Hugs are free. Napkins are on you.)