The Halo Effect
Host: Isaac Mashman · March 22, 2021 · Episode 49 · 15 minutes
Transcribed from the episode audio and edited for names and terms. Wording can differ slightly from what was said; the episode itself is the record.
Yo, yo, yo. What is going on? Isaac Mashman here. Thank you for tuning into another episode of your favorite podcast, Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman, the show that is all about helping you become a more capable individual. Through me sharing my experiences and knowledge, right? If you were able to cut time frames and learn from another person, then that means you are on the right track to success. I'm not one of those believers that, Hey, I have 20 years to wait. I'd rather cut time frames and make it, let's say five years, let's say 12 months, right? And so today I'm going to be starting off the topic by asking you a question, is everybody equal?
Now I'm not saying this in terms of race, color, creed, religion. I'm not saying that anybody is not a human and another person isn't a human. I'm not saying this in any way that is of controversy.
But the question is definitely something that is going to spark curiosity in your minds. Is everybody equal. Now, what do I mean by this? Well, it seems to me that in the age of social media, in the age of followers and fans, and in the age of celebrity and influence, not everybody seems to be equal. Now, although we are, we oftentimes treat other individuals in a way of looking to them almost like a god, looking at other people as these larger-than-life figures. Now, this has been going on since the early days of Hollywood, and I would argue this has been going on since the beginning of time where government came into play, we would view patriarchs and we would view monarchs and these kings of the old times as sons of God and like that they were better than everybody, that they were like pure, that they were holy, that's why people would keep marrying within the bloodline to maintain that purity in blood.
But now that we have social media and we are so globalized as a race of human beings on this planet, it's like Mankind has lost the ability to view everybody as man.
Now, there have been controversies for going back before written history, right? Controversies as viewing people because they are not the same race as less than human. And I disagree with all of those different things. I disagree that, you know, it's despicable to me to think that somebody would view another person as less than based off of race or religion or belief systems or even financial status, even. And that seems to be the thing at the forefront. Now, I'm not here to get into a political conversation. I'm not here to get into a controversial conversation, but I am here to make a point. Think about your favorite celebrity that you follow right now.
Think about the person that you are like looking up to as a role model, looking up as somebody who you can mimic their success or you can mimic what they do.
And now I want you to ask yourself, if they were in the same room as you, how would you feel if you had the opportunity to have a conversation with them, if you had the opportunity to ask them a question, to pick their brain, to pick their minds. Would you view them as your equal, or would you view them as this person who is not human? Now in the documentary with Justin Bieber, and I don't believe it was actually in the documentary, but it was an interview that Scooter Braun did. Scooter Braun is the man who discovered Justin Bieber when he was literally a boy singing in church.
And Scooter in this docu-series and some of these interviews said that Justin got so out of touch with reality because everybody viewed him some God and he was like, I'm just a, I'm a normal kid. I'm a normal young man. And mankind is not meant to be viewed as gods. Mankind is not meant to be worshiped by others. Theology exists for a reason. We are meant to worship a higher power if anything. We are not meant to worship one another, right? If all men are created equal, if all women are treated equal, then how is another person who has this level of success any better than us.
Now, notice what I just said there. I said that how are these people of success any better than any of us? Now, that's the thing success is equated with all of these attributes, with all of these characteristics, right? The more successful person is thought to be smarter, it's thought to be more attractive, it's thought to be better than everybody else because they have attained something of materialistic proportions or they have enough attention that they get this title as celebrity. There's no firm definition of celebrity, right? You could call somebody who has 30,000 followers who worship them a celebrity. You could call somebody who has going back to maybe a cultist viewpoint.
You could call somebody who has a hundred followers or even ten a celebrity in their own right. But I'm talking about A list celebrities. I'm talking B list celebrities, people who have a lot of influence.
They have obtained this level of success and therefore the general populace views them as these gods, as these people of massive larger than life attitudes. And this can be unhealthy. This can make people compare themselves. This can make people want to, you know, lead to anorexia because you're trying to look like this woman, look like this model. This can lead to depression with people comparing themselves to a level of financial status. Now, this is known as the halo effect, automatically looking at one trait to determine the person as a whole. It's like they're walking around with wings and a halo above their head like an angel.
It's like, oh my God, this is where the attention goes. This is where the energy is brought to. This is where I pay it. This is who I pay attention to.
Now how does this all correlate to business? How does this all correlate to your day to day life? And now I'm not saying that you should go out of your way to make fake relationships or fake friendships with people because of their results. However, if you are able to bring value to them in a sense of support, in a sense of follow, in a sense of work with, or being a supporter of, then by all means do it. I'm not saying to try to, you know, reap off of another person's success and drain them of what they have worked for because this is the other thing people misconcee if they think that just because somebody is more successful than them or has millions of dollars that all of a sudden they should pay for everybody else around them, that they should pay higher taxes or that they can feed everybody and that every single issue in the world is they're problem to fix.
That's like it's codependent by nature. It's codependent in a massive societal scale. And that in of itself is a topic that is rather, that's not something that I want to talk about in this, in this. But I will say when you are viewing somebody as you're equal, then that means that you have something to deliver and they have something to deliver so you can actually make a trade. You could have a conversation about this. You could have a general conversation about, hey, this is what I do. This is what you do. Is there a way for us to work together? Now, in a logical standpoint, in a way of actually looking at the facts, you might not be able to give nearly as much as they are.
But the way that you handle yourself directly affects the impression that you leave on another human being. They are your equal if you view them as your equal.
But if you view them greater than you based off of their success or status, their social status in life, you all of a sudden lose all of your power, all of your leverage, because this person automatically thinks that you are viewing them as somebody who is above yourself. Now, most people, most celebrities, most influencers, most people that I have personally had a conversation with and being able to talk to you, they think everybody is normal. They think everybody is, you know, they're normal, the fans are normal, that, you know, hey, they're a normal bro. You know, they can have a conversation with you. They can have a drink with you.
They can have, you know, sit down and play video games, right? But at the same time, they also understand the power of the halo effects and they understand the power of influence.
And that's why these influencers making million dollars a year. This is why, you know, Kylie Jenner was able to make a billion dollars off of her cosmetic brand. these influencers are able to come back from controversy and completely flip the script and the narrative because they understand how influence works. So in a networking sense, when you're approaching somebody, you always approach them with a level of equal respect, hey, I am building my own empire and I respect the empire that you have built and are continuing to build. However, I am your equal. So let me give you an application of this. LinkedIn is a fantastic tool to connect with other business owners and especially business owners that might seem to be out of reach.
People that might have a little bit more followers on Instagram, they might have millions of followers on Twitter that you would normally not be able to get in contact with simply because they're not going to see your message in the big old sea of thousands and thousands and thousands of other followers.
However, if you go to LinkedIn and oftentimes they have a smaller audience, that audience is not as active And you were able to shoot them a request to connect, right? You can connect with the person, but you can also give them a written connection request to where you're able to type in a quick sentence. It's almost like a postcard, right? You're sending them a postcard with a message of like, hey, this is me and I would love to connect with you. And so what I do is I say this to sentence phrase. I'm like, hey, Maria, it would be great to connect with you here on LinkedIn.
Much love and cheers to massive success in 2021. Or John, it would be an honor to connect with you here on LinkedIn, much love and cheers to massive success in 2021.
You're saying, hey, I would love to connect with you. It'd be an honor to. And I respect what you've done. And let's go ahead and build something in 2021. You're approaching them as an equal. But if you were to go in and shoot them a message and say, oh my God, Kim, I'm your biggest fan. I appreciate you so much. I value you so much. They're gonna be like, man, this person is going to connect with me and want to use me. And then they're going to just try to spam me anointee. That's not somebody who they want to be connected with. That's who they're connected with every single day through their social media pages.
An example of this would be, let's say Elena Cardone or Brad Lee or David Meltzer, Dan Fleischman. I've been able to connect with these individuals, even Manny Coshpin using LinkedIn simply by shooting them a message that, hey, I am somebody who is wanting to be in network with you. And those are the people who have accepted my requests. More times than not, I have more yeses than noes. People who are active, I've been able to connect with CEOs of top 100 PR firms, literally some of the biggest public relations firms in the entire world because that's the industry I'm in, right?
Mashman Ventures is a public relations firm, and so I want to, given naturally, connect with larger players in the field. Now, I haven't actually sent messages to any of these people, but this also means that if they're scrolling through LinkedIn, there is a chance that they will see my content. There is a chance that they will see Isaac Mashman, that name will, you know, go in their subconscious brain and be like a seed that germinates. And then all of a sudden I shoot them a message and they see my content and they register that, hey, this piece of content I saw came from this person who is messaging me now.
I like that piece of content. So let me give this person a chance. Based off of the way that LinkedIn works, this also means that I am one message away from being in contact with them, not popping up in the requests, but popping up in their inbox, a notification across the phone of the top CEO in the world.
of the top figures are one of these larger name influencers, these entrepreneurial mentors, these quote, gurus, I am one message away, which puts me in a much better position than a fan who is viewing them as some greater than thou God. These people who have success, their success should definitely be respected, but they should not be worshiped. You can study these people, but you should not sacrifice your power in an attempt to connect with them. lose your power the moment you come across to some fanboy, as some fan girl, as like, oh my God, I love this. You lose your power to give you a real life application.
My very first business trip was up to Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was when I was still in network marketing, episode 48, I talked about why I quit in network marketing, but I still to this day have massive respect for the vice president of the company I was a part of.
His name is Alex Martin. And he was speaking at this event. And I remember seeing him walk in the room and he had this energy about him that was like, you could tell that he was successful. Successful people vibrate at this level to where you just know. They walk in the room and everybody's attention goes to them. If you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about. Anyways, I went up to him and I started asking him questions. I shared my story. I didn't view him as some God. I viewed him as like an equal, but if somebody of status, and I was like asking him questions, I was picking his brain. I showed interest in him for who he was. I didn't show interest in what he had. That's the difference.
People were coming up to a my age at the time, or even older, and they were wanting pictures with his Rolex and admiring his shoes that had these crystal studs on the shoes, but they weren't paying the first damn thing about Alex Morton, the individual. And that's why I was able to get the entire team and find it out to dinner and sit two rows or two seats next to him at dinner and continue to pick his brain. Because I've viewed him as an equal, and that is a strategy that I've leveraged to get in contact with these influencers. Outside of the people I listed through LinkedIn, over the past couple of years, put myself in positions that I've never dreamed of being in because I didn't sacrifice my power. I viewed these people as equals no matter what.
That's why if you were to put me in a room right now with Warren Buffett, you were to put me in a room with, some of these highly successful billionaires, Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, I would be able to have a conversation with them. I might feel a little uncomfortable at first, but then I'll get in the groove and be like, these aren't my equals. These are, this is a man sitting across from me. This is a man who has success, but this is another human being. And so if I could wrap this up just by telling you that all men are equal, but the moment that you start worshiping another person is the moment you sacrifice your power. Use this to your advantage when you're networking. Use this to your advantage when you're trying to DM somebody.
When you're getting in contact with another person, don't come across like a fan. Come across as their equal and somebody who is on their level of playing. That's how the best conversations and relationships are started. Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you've got anything of value, make sure to share this. But please rate, review and subscribe. I need to go ahead and get my reviews on Apple Podcasts through the roof. So if you got any value, not even from this episode, any episode, take a couple seconds and write a five star review, a thoughtful review. Don't just hit five, but actually hit five stars and write out a sentence or two. You'll greatly appreciate it. love and be on the lookout for another episode coming very, very soon.