How I Faked My Way Into Forbes 30 Under 30

It’s been a long enough time now that I can finally reveal how I faked my way into Forbes 30 Under 30

As much as I like to say I didn’t care about making the list, I really did care once I saw how much it meant to my family, legacy and closest loved ones. It put a little stamp on all the efforts of my 20’s, like a big cliffhanger at the end of a first chapter, full of lots of ups and downs, disappointments and triumphs.

But yes, I faked my way into it, and by reading this, if you’re under 30, maybe you’ll be able to fake your way into it as well.

This is how I faked my way into Forbes 30 Under 30

I developed a habit of faking it until I made it, over and over and over again. 

Wait! Before you feel like you just got click baited, keep reading, I am actually going to share a very real trick that helped me get it after I grandstand you here with some philosophical BS. I’ve got to lay down the foundation that enabled the trick to actually work. Even the best con man has to back up his con! 

The most common argument against “fake it until you make it,” is, a doctor can’t fake it til' they make it; they have to be qualified. Yes, this is true, but the very first time a doctor puts a scalpel in a living person, they are faking being a surgeon. The very first time they make a real diagnosis with real consequences, they’re faking it til' they make it.

See, doctors “practice,” medicine. “Practice” means they never actually master the art of medicine. And you will never fully master your chosen trade, you will merely practice it for a lifetime. 

So faking it until you make it is an immutable requirement for progress. In high school, I told everyone I was a state swimmer even though I was one of the slowest on the team, and eventually, I made it to state. When I got my first job that required 5 years full time experience and I had zero full time experience, I told myself (and them) I did have the experience anyways, and it worked out.

When I went to the creative agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, I told myself and everyone else that I was a hot shot social media guy, when in reality I had never even worked on a big brand campaign of any kind. Then I went to 20th Century Fox and faked it a little too hard and they found out I wasn’t as amazing as I said I was, but it's ok, you can't commit fakery without accepting some scrapes and bruises. Fakery has to be incremental, calculated, believable, taken step by step, stride by stride, and you will catch some scars.

I had my first child at 25, having never been a father before, but I told my wife I was a good Dad, and worked real hard trying to be that. Huge fakery on that one, can’t believe my wife believed me! 

Then I went and started an agency, Chamber.Media, making social videos and running Facebook/YouTube ads, and told myself and everyone else we were good, the best, and worthy of their work. I faked it all. I didn’t have an office, I didn’t have any employees, and yet the first deal we landed was a $60,000 contract, and the project actually turned out pretty well. And four years later, we’ve faked our way to $8M in revenue! In this last year we doubled the revenue of 5 multi-million dollar companies.

So what is the next step for you in your progression? Whatever it is, just start telling yourself and everyone else that you are that, and in doing so, you will become it. And who knows, maybe you’ll fake your way into the Forbes 30 Under 30 like I did, or fake your way into a dream job, or parenthood, or becoming a doctor, or whatever your thing is. 

So now that you’ve endured all my preachy, egotistical bullcrap, here is the juicy secret to how I got Forbes’s attention.

I knew I wasn’t a big enough deal for them to notice me or know who I was. So I asked the most influential person I knew to nominate me, and then I asked all the most influential people I knew to retweet that nomination tweet. And I never commented on those Tweets, just letting it look like I was a baller with all this “organic” support. I’m guessing it got the selection committees attention. Shady? Yeah, a little shady.... But....

They did their due diligence; I had to provide them with three years of tax returns to prove the revenue numbers I was claiming for my business, I had to provide references, and they didn’t give me a freebie, they really examined my career and work to determine if I was worthy of the nomination.

And ultimately they decided I was and a few months later I found my name on the 30 Under 30 list in a magazine on a news stand in an airport. 

My wife was proud of me, my parents were proud, my in laws were proud, my brother, my grandparents, my team, and that was far more rewarding than I thought it would be. No matter what happens my kids will know their Dad worked really hard for them and their Mom. 

And it was all a result of faking it until I made it, over and over and over and over and over again. 

Now I’ve faked my way into real estate with some properties, faked my way into crypto currency, faked my way into launching e-commerce companies. 

I feel like owning the "fake til' I make it" mentality helps you cognitively acknowledge your ineptitude, sparks some humility, and decreases entitlement and coasting. It helps you remember that maybe you're not as smart as you think you are, and that even though you tell everyone else you're good, that you've still got to prove it to yourself. I dunno, maybe it's unhealthy and weird, let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks to the Forbes 30 team for validating the principle of always reaching for that next rock, remembering how short life is, and that we can accomplish whatever we set our minds to.  

Fake on fakers!

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Who is Travis Chambers?

Founder, Chief Media Hacker at Chamber.media, an agency that makes scalable social videos; large production videos run as ads on Facebook and YouTube that drive millions in sales.  

 Travis led distribution and content strategy for "YouTube's #1 Ad of the Decade," Kobe vs. Messi with 140 million views. He's worked with brands like Yahoo, Kraft, Old Navy, Coca-Cola, and Amazon.

He's Forbes 30 Under 30 and speaks regularly at conferences.