Attention is a powerful currency.
Social media and advertising are excellent ways to earn and amplify it.
But as you and I both know, attention doesn't pay the bills.
Just ask the millions of creators across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and elsewhere who fight every day to turn their love for their craft into actual income.
Most never do.
Because attention is one thing, but businesses—and revenue—are built on trust.
And that's something completely different.
The downside of attention
You'd be hard-pressed to find a single person making things online who doesn't get a little hit of dopamine when they see their numbers go up.
I certainly do, and my guess is you do too.
It's an entirely normal thing.
In fact, it's this very mechanism that lets platforms monetize our attention at scale.
But what's best for the platform isn't always what's best for you.
If your goal is to use your talents and passions to earn a living, attention will only get you so far.
Yes, you need attention to earn, but more than that, you need trust.
The people who find you have to believe you—or your product or service—are the answer they've been looking for.
They have to trust that you can deliver.
So once you have their attention, go to work earning their trust.
What trust actually requires
If you polled a hundred people and asked what it takes to earn someone's trust online, they'd probably say things like track record, value, or consistency.
All technically correct, but I believe trust is earned by something far more fundamental.
Integrity.
Doing what you say you'll do, and choosing to tell the truth no matter what.
The internet—and the world, really—is full of people fighting tooth and nail to hide the truth just to make themselves look better.
Renting a Lambo for a video. Posing in a fake private jet interior for photos. You name it, it happens.
The problem with people like that is that they're more interested in looking good than in actually solving a problem or using their skills to help someone.
If you want to build something of value, help people.
If you want to help people, be honest and maintain integrity at all times.
That's what I've done to build my business over the past five years, and it's worked out pretty well.
Putting it all together
Attention buys you a shot.
Trust buys you a business.
They're not the same currency, and you have to earn each separately.
One doesn't convert into the other automatically.
Earning attention is tough. So is earning trust. But earn both at once, and you might just end up with a business that scales and serves.
And that's something worth doing.