164: The Gift of Going Second: How Social Proof Builds Trust
10 Sept 2024 · 7 min
In this episode of the Professional Creative Podcast, Bonnie Christine opens with a personal story about celebrating multiple family birthdays at Dollywood’s Splash Country water park. She describes her preference to "go second" on rides—letting someone else try a slide first—using the experience as a metaphor for how consumers prefer to see others’ experiences before they commit. Bonnie then shifts to marketing, explaining that social proof—reviews, testimonials, case studies, and even simple comments—acts as the "gift of going second" by building trust and reducing perceived risk. She emphasizes the importance of showcasing diverse success stories so prospects of different ages, races, and locations can see themselves reflected. The episode also includes a promotional segment for Amy Porterfield’s digital‑course bootcamp, highlighting its benefits, price, and a bonus six‑month pre‑launch roadmap Bonnie has created. Throughout, Bonnie blends narrative, instructional advice, and enthusiastic promotion to illustrate how strategic social proof can drive conversions.
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I don't know if this is the
case for you, but for me and my family, we have almost like all of the birthdays fall within almost two weeks, but definitely like a good 30 day window. And so we just closed out the last birthday celebration of about eight birthdays that we had in the span of 30 days. And it has been so fun and also a lot, a lot of gift wrapping and cake baking and school visits and all kinds of things. But one of the things that we did was take my son and his closest buddies to Dollywood's splash country. Yes, Dollywood Splash country. It is a water park. And I was thinking about my time there and I'm a bit of like a. I'm not a thrill seeker. I generally like, you know, I like a good lazy river. But I needed to get mom points for this birthday celebration and so I was up for just about any slide except for the drop. I don't do the drop. It's not my favorite. But I do the other ones, especially if it's one that I could do with my son. His name is Bear. But something that I really wanted was someone to go first. I wanted just someone else in our group to go ahead of me, do the slide and like, let me know how it was. Do you have any tips for me? Did you enjoy it? Was it worth it? Tell me what was what, what you liked about it. And this to me is the gift of going second.
I'm Bonnie Christine. And this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life.
But when I first set out to
become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.
Now what that has me thinking about is how in our marketing, social proof and reading reviews and testimonials and case studies and even something like Facebook comments on an ad really allows us to feel like we're receiving the gift of going second. Meaning I don't ever want to be the first person to enroll in a course, or the first person to buy a product, or the first person to leave a review, or the first person
to eat at a restaurant.
I want someone else to go ahead of me and even better if they. If I feel like I see myself in them.
Right?
So has someone like me gone before me and had success or enjoyed themselves or are happy with the results? I think that this is one of those ways where we can really work to build trust with someone. Even though it's online, even though we may not be seeing each other face to face or interacting in person, we can still build trust through the people who have gone before others and are willing to share. That would be in the form of comments on a post or reviews on a product or something more involved, like a testimonial or a case study or a story that has been written.
Written.
And so part of this that I mentioned that I think is so incredibly important is trying to allow any type of person that could benefit from your offer to see themselves in the success stories or the reviews that you are showcasing. So if you can help people from all over the world, it would be in your benefit to show people all over the world who has experienced success. If you can help people of all different age ranges, of all different races, of all different types of people, if you can truly help all of those different types of people, it would be great to show as many different types of people that you can on your, let's say, sales page or product page or review section. That way someone who's coming and they will kind of subconsciously scan for someone who represents themselves. Maybe it's a 19 year old and they're looking to see if a young person has been through this product or offer and had success. Or Maybe they're a 73 year old and they're looking for proof that it works for someone at their age as well.
Are you a creator who's been thinking about sharing what you know through teaching? If so, I'd love to invite you to join me in Amy Porterfield's exclusive
bootcamp where you'll learn how to create
your very own digital course. No need for any ideas to start with, any experience, or even an audience. Amy's got you covered. Amy has successfully launched eight digital courses, each generating millions in revenue. She's not just a pro, she's also one of the kindest and clearest teachers you'll ever meet. In this bootcamp, you'll work on your idea alongside an incredibly supportive community of like minded individuals who are eager to explore online education as a way to really escape the 9 to 5 grind and break free from the Time for Money model or one to one services. I'll be there too, sharing my own insights all along the way. Here's what you'll get inside the Bootcamp Ideas on what to teach in your own digital course, even if you're starting from scratch. Insights into pricing with examples from industries of all kinds of guidance on structuring your course content for the biggest impact and strategies to start building an audience right now so they're ready to enroll when you are ready to launch all of this for just $47. I honestly can't believe it. It's such an incredible opportunity. If you're in on digital courses or even if you're just a little bit curious, head over to BonnieCristine.com Amy to learn more. Plus, when you sign up, I've got an incredible bonus for you. I've developed a six month pre launch roadmap. It's exactly what we do before we go into our very own course launch and it is gold. It is so valuable and it's yours
if you come join us for the Bootcamp.
So go ahead and visit bonniecristine.com Amy and I'll see you inside the boot camp.
Another way to think about it is also different levels of success. So if you have a product or an offer that can provide a little bit of success for someone, let's say a hobby, or an immense amount of success, let's say an entire career change, it's best to show different testimonials, reviews and case studies that represent different levels of success. Because if someone is only coming to you to learn a hobby, but you're only showing the biggest success stories, which are people making multi six figures with what they learn from you, right then the hobbyist is going to feel like maybe this is not made for me. So obviously you want to be really full of integrity with this. If it's not made for the hobbyist, then don't show that. But if it truly is, it's best to show the wider range of all different types of success stories that you can. You're going to put these on your sales page, on your product page, in your weekly newsletter, in your sales emails, in your Instagram captions, in your Instagram stories, in your reels, on your podcast, in your YouTube channel, wherever you are, you want to be showcasing and celebrating the people who have interacted with your products or your offers or your services that have found success and give people the gift of going second. My friends, thanks for joining me on this episode of the Professional Creative. Create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world and remember, there's room for you.