the 22 "proof weapons" I used to sell $100mm (steal all of them)

In this video, I'm going to talk about proof because here's the thing that most marketers get backwards. They think their job is to make the biggest promise possible, like lose 50 pounds in 30 days or make a hundred thousand dollars in the next 90 days or get abs like a Greek God by next Tuesday. And yes, big promises get attention. They're essential. But attention without belief is simply noise. And if you look at any of the best copy or best copywriters in the world, like Gary Benzavinga, they will all agree. Think about that. Gary Bensivenga, one of the best copywriters in the world, said proof is more important than promise and he spent most of his time going and looking for proof. So don't you think that you should do the same thing as well? The reason I'm making this video is because one of the hidden skills that I have used personally to make over $100 million for my clients using VSLs, and in fact just one VSL I did, did $100 million. So my real number is quite bigger than that, but it doesn't really matter. The reason I've been able to have such success with my copy and with my marketing is because I am an obsessive, insane, autistic level person when it comes to mining for proof. And that's what this video is for. When I step into companies to work with them, I just having this experience right now, I step in and I see that their proof is so flat. Nobody bothered to go and collect all these different types of proof. Nobody bothered to go and dive deep into the studies to figure out exactly how to frame this stuff. And it is a shame because massive proof creates massive results. I see it over and over and over again. So in this video, I'm going to show you how to get amazing proof and the 22 different types that you can use to be a master and a weapon for your own business or for your clients. You can choose to not watch this video, but I promise you that that will be a mistake. So let's go through and break this down so that you can understand how to get someone to really believe that this will work. Okay, now a quick little preface. There are four rules that you need to know before we get into the 22 types. Number one is that you need to match your promise to your proof. If you're claiming I can help someone make $1 million, you probably need to have strong evidence. And a screenshot of a $47 stripe payment probably isn't going to cut it. But if you're just saying I can save you two hours a week. You don't need a peer reviewed study from Harvard. A few testimonials will do fine. So match your promise to your proof. Rule number two, the harder your proof is to fake, the stronger it is. Self reported results are kind of like a meh third party verification. Like for example what Hormozi did with the Guinness World Record. That is something that is powerful. Anyone can photoshop a bank statement, but if you get an independent audit from a CPA firm, people are more likely to believe that that is real. So use that rule of thumb, the harder it is to fake, the stronger your proof is. Rule number three, let people experience it themselves when possible. This is the holy grail of proof. When someone can test your claims and or see a demonstration, you're not asking them to trust you. You're letting them trust their own eyes. This is why free trials work so well and why demonstration is always king. Rule number four, Psychological proof is the most underrated type of proof. See, most people think proof means data and testimonials. But sometimes, and pay attention to this, the best proof is just making people feel like it is true. We're going to dive into that in a second. But basically, if you create the emotional sensation of truth, you don't always need to make a logical argument. Okay, so let's break down these 22 types and we're going to start with, like I said, the most underrated category. Psychological proof. This is the stuff that makes people feel like you know what you're talking about, even if they can't exactly explain why. Proof type number one is technical jargon. If you use fancy words that sound sophisticated without going overboard, without confusing people, you can give the impression of expertise. Gary Halbert in his famous water sales letter used this technique and even admitted that this is what he was doing. Here's a couple examples. Our system uses quantum encrypted blockchain validation protocols that process at 50,000 TPS. Or example number two, we've engineered a proprietary neural network trained on 10 million data points to optimize your ad spend in real time. Or example number three, this formula utilizes bioavailable curcuminoids with enhanced absorption through liposomal delivery mechanisms. Does your prospect know what half of that means? Probably not, but it sounds credible. Now this goes against the beginner level advice of keep everything simple. And I agree, everything should mostly in your copy be caveman level. People make the mistake all the time of not writing simple enough, write it as dumb as humanly possible. But every now and then just do a quick flurry of this sort of highfalutin advanced terminology and it gives people the impression that one, they can consume your marketing message easily. But also, this guy is fucking smart. I should probably buy from him. Number two, candid communication. This one is one of my personal favorites because it's basically just being honest about your flaws while highlighting your strengths. It works because nobody expects you to admit weaknesses. So when you do, it makes everything else you say more believable. An example number one. Look, our app is not perfect yet. The Android version still crashes sometimes and we're working on that. But the core features that help you trade those have already made our users $12 million in verified profits. Here's another example. I'll be straight with you. Our customer support is not 24,7. We're a small team, but our product is generated more revenue for clients than any competitor charging 3x our price. Again, a great example of this is to go read a bunch of Joseph Sugarman ads. If you look at some of the old ads that he wrote for a bunch of tech products, there are always damaging emissions in those ads that that are really, really powerful. Forms of psychological proof. Number three, explanatory reasoning. This is simply where you explain the mechanism behind why something works. You're not just making a claim, you're walking them through the cause and effect relationship. And if people feel like what you're saying is logical, again, that creates the psychological feeling of proof. Example number one. This is exactly why traditional diets fail. They fight against your body's natural insulin response. But when you time your meals to work with your hormones instead of against them, fat loss becomes automatic. Example number two. Most skincare products can't penetrate past the top layer of your skin. They just sit on the surface. But our formula uses molecules small enough to actually reach the collagen layer where wrinkles form. Again, you're simply educating them on why, but that makes the what way more believable. You're not providing proof or data or statistics. Simply, the fact that what you're saying makes sense is a form of psychological proof. Number four, logical arguments. This is slightly different than explanatory reasonings, because with logical arguments, you're building a rational case using math, economics, or pure reason. Example number one, if you're spending two hours per day stuck in email, that's 730 hours per year. At $100 an hour, you're losing $100 an hour and $73,000 annually. Again, just by managing your inbox. Example number two. Your current conversion rate is 2%. If we can get you to 4%, that's literally double your revenue. If you same traffic, same ad spend, just better copy. So why wouldn't you test that? It's hard to argue with logic like that. Number five, Guarantees. Yes, a guarantee will help to reduce the fear, but it also operates as a form of psychological proof because you're putting your money where your mouth is. The stronger your guarantee, the more confident you appear. For example, if you don't close at least one $10,000 deal in your first 30 days, we'll coach you for free until you do. There's another one. Try it for 60 days. If you don't see results, we'll refund every penny and send you $100 for wasting your time. Strong guarantees remove the risk, and when there's no risk, objections disappear. Category number two, this is experiential proof where you let them see things for themselves. Proof point number six, testable proof. Give something to people that they can verify right now. Example number one. Pinch your skin and pull it up. Now count how long it takes to flatten back out. If it takes more than one second, you're dehydrated and that's slowing down your metabolism. Example number two. Go to Google right now and search best email marketing platform 2026. If you notice that we're ranked number one, then you'll see why companies choose us over our competitors. Example number three. Open your spam folder. I bet at least 30% of those emails are from your companies you actually bought from. That's why our deliverability system matters. Again, you're not asking them to trust you. You're asking them to check for themselves, which is insanely powerful. Number seven, Demonstration. This is simply where you show them your product or service in action. Example number one. Check this out. I'm going to show you a live trade that made my students $1,200 in profits in just 30 minutes or another one. I'm going to write a subject line for this email using our formula. Then we'll a b test it against their current one. Let's see what happens. Live demonstrations are powerful because people can see it working in real time. It is literally like magic for people. So use it. Number eight, Trials and samples. Let people try something before they buy. Pretty straightforward. We try our software for 30 days. You get full access, you get all the features, and if you don't love it, you. You simply cancel. Or here, download the first three modules completely free. You don't even need a credit card or commitment. Just see if this training is right for you. Give people the experience of the value. Then selling them becomes way easier. Number nine Challenges and contests. This is where you get people to participate. Take the seven Day Sleep Challenge. If you don't get the best sleep of your life, we'll buy you a brand new mattress or example number two Join our five day email challenge. You just send one email per day using our templates. If you don't get at least 50 new leads, we'll refund your money again. In this case, you're gamifying the proof and creating a timeline on which they can expect results. Number 10 comparisons. Put your products side by side with competitors. Here's our skincare formula with 92% active ingredients. And here's their so called premium cream that's mostly just water and fragrance. Or another one. Our protein powder has 30mg 0 sugar and grass fed whey. Their protein powder has 18 grams of protein, 12 grams of sugar and factory farmed whey from China. Again, simply just make it obvious why yours is better. And of course the granddaddy of proof points is the before and after. You simply show the transformation. Example number one. Look at Sarah's transformation. Here she was 2,247 pounds in March and here she is 90 days later at 182. Same person, same lighting, no filters. Again, visual demonstrations are powerful, especially in health, fitness, beauty or productivity niches. So simply ask yourself, how can I demonstrate the superiority of my product using any of these different points? Category number three this is empirical proof. Typically what most people think when they think of proof. This is where you're bringing out the data. Studies, statistics, science, all of that stuff. So proof point number 12 is simple studies and research. This is where you reference legitimate scientific research. In a double blind study from Stanford, this compound burned 300% more fat compared to placebo or another one. According to research published in the Journal of Marketing, personalized subject lines increase open rates by 26%. Or example number three, a Harvard business School study found that companies using this pricing strategy increased profit margins by 40% without losing customers. If you can back your claims with peer reviewed research, you should do it. And here's a quick pro tip. A lot of times people do not understand the value of the proof points you're providing. So it's very important to contextualize. Though, if you say Harvard or Stanford, people typically know what you're talking about. If you say Journal of Marketing, they may not Understand what that school means or why that's significant. So you could say Journal of Marketing, one of the most prestigious or the most prestigious marketing journal, et cetera, et cetera. Right? Or you could say double blind randomized control study, which is the gold standard when it comes to scientific studies. So if they understand the specific reference like a Harvard or a Nobel Prize, just use that credibility. But if there is strong credibility, but they may not be able to contextualize how strong it is or how powerful the results are, simply tell them that this result is powerful or tell them that this journal is prestigious or tell them that this researcher is famous and a genius. That alone is going to increase the value of your proof. Number 13 stats and evidence. This is where you simply throw out hard numbers. We analyze 1.7 million Instagram posts, posts with our templates got 312% more engagement or another one. We sent over 50 million emails through our system. The average open rate was 41% while the industry average is 18%. Number 14 infographics Never underestimate the power of a good visual. If you could turn complex data into something visual infrastructure and digestible, it is way more likely to be believed. People love to see this stuff. Especially now with tools like Nano Banana and any of these AI tools. It's so easy to create infographics. For example, as microplastics levels in drinking water increased and went up to 300% since 1990, tooth decay rates increased by the same amount. Here's the chart again. This is basic just correlation which does not equal causation. But it doesn't matter. We're creating a form of proof. Look at these numbers go up on the chart. Doesn't that seem interesting? There's another one. He mapped out the customer journey for 500 businesses. Here's where 80% of them are losing sales. People's brains Loves visuals. Category number four Credible proof. This is where you're borrowing authority from other people. You don't always have to build credibility from scratch. Sometimes you can just borrow it. 15 third party certifications. This is where you get verified by an independent organization. Our lab is FDA approved and Every batch is third party tested for purity by NSF International where SOC 2 type 2 certified which means our security has been independently audited and verified. Again you'll probably see examples of hey, we use 256 bit crypto technology to protect your information. This is the same technology that Google, Amazon and Walmart use to protect their checkout pages. So your information is always safe and secure. There are typically Always places, if you look hard enough, where you can borrow authority and credibility from other people. Right? If you're selling, for instance, a sauna, all you need to do is find instances of celebrities and athletes and other people who use some sort of sauna technology. Or let's take it a step further. Let's say you're selling a supplement and your supplement uses a mechanism similar to what Asana does. Well, you can just borrow the authority and credibility of all these people who use Asana and through some steps you can connect it back to the supplement or the ingredient that you're selling. There are so many ways to use these sort of third party certifications or other sort of case studies that I highly, highly, highly recommend it. Then there's the track record. Number 16. This is where you simply show your history of success. We've launched 47 products in the last three years. 43 of them crossed $1 million in revenue in year one. Or example number two, I've written copy for 200 plus clients. 89% of them became repeat customers. Typically I've seen ads where you literally just list your past successes, right? And maybe a couple failures with some damaging admissions. And that's a really, really powerful way to build trust. Number 17, expert endorsements. This is where you get someone credible to vouch for you. Example number one, Warren Buffett's former portfolio manager calls this the only trading system I trust my own money. Or example number two, featured in Tim Ferriss's newsletter as a productivity tool that actually works. They trust the expert, they'll trust you by association. These are really, really, really, really powerful things that you can use. Number 18, media and press coverage. All you have to do is get featured in reputable publications, featured in Forbes, featured in the Wall Street Journal. Our CEO was interviewed on CNBC about the future of AI marketing. This was seen in Entrepreneur Inc. Fast Company and Business Insider. If you go look at any of these high converting pages, I guarantee you're probably going to see at least dozen of these types of proof. And they're there for a reason. When you can embed these into any of the pages that you create, they become so much more powerful. Number 19. Awards and recognition win something. Example number one, winner of the most innovative AI application at TechCrunch Disrupt. Example number two, ranked number one, CRM for real estate by G2 for three consecutive years. Awards signal that other people think that you're credible. And finally, the last category, category number five, social proof. You simply show them that everyone else, humans are herd animals. So we look to others to figure out what's safe, smart and worth doing. Proof number 20 testimonials and reviews let your customers do the talking. Very, very simple. I've tried everything for my back pain like physical therapy and chiropractors and surgery. None of that worked. But simply on using your protocol, in 14 days I was playing basketball with my kids for the first time in five years. Again, you've seen ton of these testimonials and you should know more specific testimonials. Be vague ones so names, photos and details whenever possible. Work the best. 21 case studies this is where you go super deep on one success story. Case studies work because they're detailed enough to be believable and because it creates a feeling of inspiration in the prospect who's looking at them that they believe they can do this too. 22 finally, social media metrics. If you can simply show virality and engagement. For example, our anti aging protocol exploded on TikTok. We had 5 million views in three days with thousands of people sharing their results. This creates the feeling of there being momentum behind your product. Big numbers like that equal social validation. So that is all 22 types of proof that you can use. Number 1 Technical jargon Number 2 Candid communication Number 3 Explanatory reasoning Number 4 Logical argument Number 5 Guarantees Number 6 Testable proof Number 7 Demonstration Number 8 Trials and samples Number 9 Challenges and contests Number 10 Comparisons Number 11 before and after Number 12 Studies and research Number 13 Stats and evidence Number 14 Infographics Number 15 Third party certifications. Number 16 Track record Number 17 Expert endorsements. Number 18 Media and press coverage. Number 19 Awards and recognition. Number 20 Testimonials and reviews. Number 21 Case studies. Number 22 Social media metrics. And as we talked about those break down into five different categories. The first category is Psychological proof. The second category is experiential proof. The third category is empirical proof. The fourth category is credible proof. The fifth category is social proof. And what's amazing is for any page you're doing or email, if you simply want to increase your conversions, you can test me on this. You simply pause this video, you hit the transcript button, you take the transcript, you throw that into your favorite AI, ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude. Then you throw in your sales page, your email, your ad and you say break down all of these 22 types of proof and tell me how I can add this proof to my email, to my ad, or to my sales page. I guarantee if you do, it will help increase conversions. Assuming of course you don't make it overly long or overly complicated. A couple more final thoughts. Here's what most people miss about proof. You don't need to use all 22 types of proof in one campaign. That would be overkill. But you should be using a mix because different people are convinced by different things. Some people need data. Other people need testimonials. Some people just want to see it in action. So when you stack a few types together, you will cover most of your basis. And again, the best marketers don't just throw proof at people randomly. They use it strategically at the exact moments when doubt is creeping in right before a call to action. A great spot for a testimonial right after making a big claim. Back it up with a stat or a study. And one more thing. Proof is not convincing people to buy. It's about making people feel safe buying. Because at the end of the day, people want to believe you. They want your solution to work. Your job is simply to give them enough evidence that they feel confident taking the leap. If you do that, selling becomes a whole lot easier.