Heya Reader,

"Yeah this is a nice car, but honestly my Camry is the best"

This was back in 2013 or so. I'd just bought myself a shiny new VW Golf R as a reward for being so damn handsome and talented and humble. If you're not familiar with the car, it's absolutely fast AF, has pretty sick options, and isn't too attention grabby. And just right for me.

I took it home and parked in the driveway like normal, only to have my neighbour Anthony pop by to check it out.

For perspective, at the time Anthony had a 10 year old Toyota Camry. Not a bad car or anything, but it was a whole different type of vehicle. His car was an affordable family sedan, while mine was a "top of the line" splurge purchase. Very different.

Now, I wasn't comparing the cars (cause.. why?), but apparently he was.

Cause out of nowhere, he tells me his Camry was better and starts walking me through it's features.

Like, dude... what?

I know what you're thinking, and I swear on everything holy and unholy I wasn't standing around bragging about my new car. I was super uncomfortable cause he kept asking questions about it, so I answered his questions and that's it. Any competitiveness he felt was all his own doing.

It wasn't until much later that I figured out what the deal was.

And it's funny, cause it relates heavily to this email and why most reviews and testimonials are bullshit.

Okay tell me the point already mr story man

Have you heard of behavioural biases? They're patterns in how we think and act that make us say or do things that might not actually be right.

Well, in Anthony's case, he was suffering from the "mere ownership" effect. That's where people like and value things more just because it's theirs (ie. they own it). See, for Anthony, in his mind, he's the best. So if he buys something, it's obviously the best too. Duh.

Unfortunately, that makes it hard for him to be impartial and actually compare things fairly. Now imagine Anthony takes a course from a guru, and was asked to do a review.....

Yeah, that guru gets an amazing review, cause Anthony only buys from the best 🙄

Womp womp for everyone else who now thinks that guru is actually good.

Of course, not everyone is like Anthony. But there's also more behavioural biases out there ooOOOoooOOooOOooo

Fcuk buyer's remorse

You know after you buy something and you get that whole buyer's remorse thing where you think you're an idiot and made a huge mistake? Post purchase rationalisation is how loads of people deal with it.

This is where you focus on the good stuff about what you bought, downplay or ignore anything bad, and point out the problems with every other option.

That way, you don't have to feel guilty or stupid for making a bad buy.

The problem is it also leads to a whole lot of bullshit testimonials, cause if you don't do it, then you have to admit you're lying to yourself.

That's bad, so boom now we've got another bullshit testimonial.

It's easier to just say yes

Imagine you take a course from someone. You probably know them at least somewhat (otherwise we need to talk about your decision making process cause wtf). The course turns out okay, but nothing special. Maybe it's a bit basic. Or maybe you didn't even do the thing fully, you just checked it out a bit but didn't really go deep yet.

And then they ask you for a testimonial to help them promote it....

Acquiescence bias is when you say yes just cause it's too hard to say no.

I mean you could say no, but then you've gotta deal with explaining why. Ugh fuck that.

I've given testimonials before for things that were okay but not truly amazing, mostly cause I felt like it would be super dickish if I didn't do it. I wouldn't lie in the testimonial, but it's still a bullshit testimonial.

Pretty sure I'm not alone on this either.

Straight Up Inexperience

When I first started learning about marketing, I encountered content from heaps of people.

I had no idea what I was doing, so I thought people like Neil Patel were absolutely killer (I was going to write more names, but I couldn't actually remember them). If I'd taken their courses, I would have said they were amazing because I had nothing to compare it to.

Last year I sat in on an entry level marketing masterclass.

It was the equivalent of an entry level blog post, read out loud to the room, and people were lapping. it. up.

Were those people going to give an amazing testimonial after? Hell yeah! Did that testimonial match the actual quality of the masterclass at all? Hell no!

So we have another bullshit testimonial.

But Nick, that doesn't mean reviews and testimonials are all bullshit

Well of course not.

But it does mean you shouldn't blindly trust them.

Remember: people are idiots. We trick ourselves all the time. We do things we don't agree with all the time. We lie to avoid hurting people's feelings.

That means we will sometimes give testimonials when they aren't really deserved.

So if the testimonials were going to push you over the line to buy something you weren't sure about, don't do it.

Or do it if you want, I'm not your dad.

Cowabunga,
Nick Gulic

ps. Also, loads of influencer types give each other bullshit testimonials cause they're all part of a big circle jerk network and want to help each other out.