Everybody on social media is an expert. But who should you actually be listening to? On the latest episode of On the Contrary, Rah Ali, Kash the Sexologist, Luis, Rico and Taz get into something the internet has made almost impossible to avoid: unsolicited advice, unqualified experts, and the courses, content and gurus that are everywhere you look.
Why Is Everyone Giving Advice Online?
The panel opens by calling out how easy it has become for people to position themselves as experts. From credit repair to LLCs to life coaching, advice is being sold and shared constantly, often with little proof that the person giving it has real results.
Luis comes in hard on the credit repair gurus and LLC builders. He breaks down why some of what they’re selling doesn’t hold up under real financial scrutiny and pushes a deeper question: Why are you valuable?
His point is that if someone is going to charge for advice or present themselves as an expert, they should be able to answer real questions with actual facts, not just confidence and content. When someone asks you something, you need to know the substance behind the answer, not just the talking points.
Why You Should Question Who You’re Taking Advice From
Rico brings a practical filter to the conversation. He says when someone claims they can build a brand or make millions for you, he always asks: “Have they built a brand for themselves?” His point is simple. If someone says they can build a brand and generate serious money, but they haven’t done it for themselves, that should raise questions. Why would you trust someone to do for you what they haven’t proven they can do for themselves?
Social media has made it easier than ever to build an audience around advice. A confident delivery, polished branding and a large following can make someone look like an authority before anyone stops to ask what qualifies them to give that advice.
Research backs up why those impressions can be powerful. A 2024 meta-analysis of 53 studies on social media influencers found that perceived credibility, trustworthiness and expertise play important roles in how audiences respond to influencers. In other words, the way someone presents their knowledge online can influence how much people trust what they are saying.
That becomes especially important when the advice involves money, business or major life decisions. The panel questions how much people should trust what they see online without first looking into the person behind the information.
Is Advice Ever Really Neutral?
Kash makes one of the strongest points of the episode: advice is never neutral. It always comes from someone’s experience, their biases and their agenda. Just because someone is loud, confident or popular doesn’t mean their advice is right for you.
She also calls out how often people skip the work: “People don’t do their due diligence. So you don’t get mad for taking their bad advice if you didn’t do the labor to make sure the advice was credible.” The conversation comes back to one point: if you took bad advice and acted on it without vetting it first, that’s on you. Information is free. Discernment is the real skill.
Should You Listen to Unsolicited Advice About Your Relationship?
A caller writes in with a situation that takes the conversation somewhere more personal. Her “work mom” of ten years doesn’t approve of her fiancé. The panel is divided. Some lean toward listening carefully and considering the perspective. Others say she needs to cut off the information flow and stop oversharing personal details at work. The deeper question becomes: Is the real problem the advice itself, or the fact that she’s been giving people at work too much access to her personal life?
Who Should You Actually Trust?
By the end of the episode, the panel comes back to a simple filter. Before you take advice from anyone, ask yourself if you’d trade lives with them. Look at their results, not just their content. Look at their consistency, not just their confidence.
Research on financial advice supports the importance of looking beyond where information comes from. A 2025 study comparing social-media financial advice with professional financial advice found that information quality, transparency and trust all play a role in whether people find financial advice useful and credible. The study also found that professional financial advisors were perceived as more credible, trustworthy and transparent than social-media sources among its participants.
That makes the panel’s larger point even more relevant: before taking advice, look at the person giving it, the quality of the information and whether there is anything behind the claims they are making. Information is everywhere. Discernment is rare.
Final Takeaway from On the Contrary
The internet gives everyone a platform, but having an audience does not automatically make someone an expert. Whether the advice is about money, business, relationships or life in general, knowing who to listen to requires more than following the loudest or most confident voice in the room. It means asking questions, doing your own research and paying attention to whether the person giving the advice has actually done what they claim they can help you do.
That’s the kind of question On the Contrary keeps bringing to the table, taking the everyday situations we all encounter and giving the panel room to challenge them from different perspectives. You cannot control how much advice is out there. You can control how much access you give it.
