 New details that we're learning this morning about that epic fire music festival going viral with the hashtag dumpster fire a luxury getaway Quickly spiraling into chaos in case you've been living under a rock fire festival is the infamous 2017 music festival in the Bahamas that never happened what made this so crazy was that it was a Drama-fueled spectacle with attendees posting the disaster on social media publicizing the event in real time attendees Expected luxury villas private yachts gourmet meals made by world-renowned chefs in the experience of a lifetime instead They arrived at a FEMA themed tent city with bread slices of cheese salad dressing a whole lot of tequila and Complete and total chaos the creator of the firefest Billy McFarlane is currently serving prison time for fraud since then Netflix and Hulu came out with their own dueling documentaries Revisiting the timeline of one of the biggest fails in the social media marketing world These documentaries were able to capture a snapshot of our current FOMO culture that will be relevant for decades to come I'm Christian Martin and today we'll be examining the impact of the fire festival documentaries on today's culture The dark side of social media marketing in the four lessons that you can take away and use in your own entrepreneurial journey Number one is celebrity Worship I've talked about this in my last video But celebrity and influencer endorsements have always been a part of marketing Just think Nike's Air Jordans with the age of social media using influencers to promote products has become more accessible To everyone than ever before it's one of the best ways to get your brand Quality reach and engagement now that anyone with an Instagram following is an influencer You don't have to get Michael Jordan to promote you to take advantage of this tactic now coming back to the fire festival The founders of firefest took influencer marketing to the extreme If you take some of the most beautiful and in-demand supermodels in the entire world like Bella Hadid Emily Ratatowski Kendall Jenner Elsa Haas and Giselle just to name a few and put them in one video You're guaranteed to get millions of eyes on that video now when those millions of eyes find out that They've essentially been scammed by household names. You've got the attention of mainstream culture This is one of the most fascinating things about the fire documentaries how people we know like and trust We're in on it anytime a celebrity is involved with a scam or something illegal unethical or even downright evil The public is going to perk up just think OJ Simpson committing murder Neil Armstrong's doping scandal Now these models didn't know that they were involved with a scam, but it still gets us interested How could somebody that we know like and trust a household name like Kendall Jenner be involved with something so dubious Now celebrities don't have to be involved in crimes for influencer marketing to get people interested If you're marketing a product or service, you don't have to hit up Kylie Jenner for your next endorsement But instead find smaller influencers in your niche and build a business relationship with them Most of these smaller influencers are more than happy to promote your product or service in Exchange for some free product the number two reason we're so obsessed with these documentaries as a culture is because of the feeling of superiority watching these documentaries gives us a sense of superiority because you're witnessing wealthy festival goers get Bambuzled you think to yourself. Thank God that I didn't fall for that these people expected massive fully furnished villas instead What they got was uninhabitable dome homes or maybe you had FOMO because you would have loved to have gone to the festival Only to feel relief that it end up being a dumpster fire and you didn't get duped The feeling is a guilty pleasure Millions of us enjoy the emotional spikes you get from watching these documentaries are similar to watching reality television or daytime soaps Unmarketing fact they're called soap operas because soap used to be the only advertisers on TV We get a peek into the lives of the ultra-wealthy and we often feel envious of their lavish and overindulgent lifestyle The exclusive beach parties private yachts beautiful women successful men We love to watch when their luxurious life is shattered with catfights. Oh my god Sorry guys terrible business ideas that ruin reputations or petty drama between family members I mean just look at the Kardashians sometimes the disconnect from real-world problems that the wealthy experience gives us a sense of superiority towards the ultra-wealthy Especially when the wealthy get duped it turns out that they're no better than us peasants They were all the same and that's part of the feeling that we get from these now The recent Bud Light ads are a fun example of this concept the ads make fun of snobby craft beer drinkers in position Bud Light as the every man beer is that this is a spiced honeymeat wine that I have really been into lately Another term for this is called punching up It's a way to feel superior at the expense of making fun of the ultra-wealthy or people who are ahead of you Just consider how Apple positioned their product during the Mac versus PC campaign during this time the PC was Dominating and it was the go-to for every businessman and pencil pusher out there Where's the Mac was the fun artists driven underdog people love the underdog Apple poked fun of PC users And they essentially punched up at their competition when society watches the fire documentaries It makes us all feel a little better about ourselves having not been involved and we get to punch up The number three reason we're so obsessed with these is because charisma equals trust most of the time But what do Bernie Madoff Jordan Belfort and Ted Bundy all have in common? No, they did not throw failed music festivals They also use their charisma as a weapon to seem competent and trustworthy and seduce people in With dubious reasons in the documentary we hear authentic accounts from the people that were involved with Bill and McFarland and firefest About how smart charismatic and determined Billy was now here's the problem Charisma does not equal competence as much as we think that it does convincing a client to take you on as great But you have to follow through with that commitment and deliver the results Charisma is important to build connections in network with people and it will take you very far in the business world But it can only take you so far these documentaries reveal how incompetent Billy really was he ignored expert advice The number of tickets they had sold they just couldn't physically fit that many people on the island let alone build out some sort of insane Infrastructure that could support them from a bio waste standpoint He over promised an underdelivered and in the process he risks many people's livelihoods It also tricks some really smart people investors kept pouring in money And people heralded this guy as achieving the entrepreneurial dream We see him mingling with elites having guest appearances on major news networks like Bloomberg living in penthouses and driving Maserati's the media flaunted the success of this guy in his previous ventures And he even partnered with jaw rule if he can fool jaw rule we can all be fooled So when somebody sounds too good to be true They probably are when you're jumping into any project venture or especially working with a business partner It is always a good idea to look at the actual data Unfortunately, it's not always enough to take somebody for their word. You have to look at the existing market check out testimonials buying third-party references, etc Firefest was an extreme case because Billy forged and falsified his numbers to appear successful even under due diligence Not only that but he received so much media attention before announcing firefest It was hard to believe that he might not pull it off And I think even the people involved didn't know if he would or not up until the last minute and that is one of the things That makes it so compelling We all kind of feel like if we were there if we were in the position of that caterer or that restaurant owner Or anyone else on his team We might have believed that Billy was gonna pull it off too So in summary watch out for the seductive power of charisma because it is seductive And remember that sociopaths are some of the most charismatic people alive Just because somebody's charismatic does not mean that they are legit The number four reason that we're so obsessed with these documentaries is because they're indicative of the cultural zeitgeist In a lot of ways these documentaries capture the times perfectly We have more information in our hands than ever before with technology getting better and cheaper by the day Soon we're gonna have computer chips implanted in our brain. We're almost there carrying around our smartphones all the time But psychologically we're worse off in many ways. The information age is messing with people's brains It's polarizing people to an extent that has never been possible before and oftentimes a sense of community has been replaced With a handheld device people are alienated from one another more than ever before and we often turn to the lives of Influencers who are more well off than us We admire their lifestyle and freedom through social media as an escape from our own lives This FOMO in comparison creates real anxiety and even depression in people's lives. In conclusion while these were fun to watch These documentaries don't necessarily leave you feeling better about yourself Instead they give us a sobering look at the dark side of social media Sure Billy is going to jail But many hard-working people are left in debt or out of work because of the fire festival Not to mention all the attendees who may have had an even traumatizing time being left out there sometimes with no shelter or food Billy might even have a Wolf of Wall Street style resurrection like Jordan Belford did and start selling your sales and Christmas techniques To those naive enough to buy into them. Who knows? So let's flip the switch what good can you take away from watching these documentaries The number one thing is influencer marketing It can be used for good and evil the power of word of mouth from the right influencers Can position your business in front of the right audience and build trust I recommend starting a relationship with influencers with five to ten thousand followers If you're smaller brand as they often don't mind posting for free products instead of you having to pay for a post The number two thing you can do is use punching up in your marketing So find competitors who are larger than you in your space and identify what makes your business different How will you stand out? How will your customer stand out when they do business with you like funnels the software company does a great job of this They often call infusion soft confusion soft, but now that they've gotten bigger. It's not quite punching up It's a little bit like bullying so you have to make sure you do this to people who are bigger than you The number three takeaway is do your due diligence Another way of saying this is do your research if you're going to work with anybody make sure they're actually successful and profitable Check them out look at reviews and don't go into business with people without Investigating starting a business partnership is more intense than getting married so be careful out there in number four build a sense of Urgency with FOMO we've seen how strongly people react to FOMO and we see FOMO used in advertising all the time We call it urgency so flash sales early bird specials limited availability in creating a sense of urgency Which is real is very powerful when used correctly Now just remember that these are very powerful techniques They do work and they can be used for good or evil always delivered on your promises So what did you think about the fire festival documentaries? Did you take some good away from it? Were you just laughing at the people? Let us know in the comments below what you thought and can you believe that Billy was still scamming people? Even after he was headed to court for fraud this guy is sick in the head So be careful of those charismatic characters out there. They're not always healthy and they will take advantage of you if you let them Thanks for watching for more breakdowns like this subscribe to the channel. Just do it now I'm gonna bring you awesome videos and you'll be happy that you did if you only use the power of marketing to Ethically build a life that you don't need a vacation from check out my podcast at Christian Martin.org backslash podcast I'm Christian Martin. I'll see you next time