A Screenplay on a Fake Financial Influencer

I considered opening this piece by acknowledging Halloween and saying “the spookiest thing is a fake financial influencer”. OOOOOOoooooooo, scary! Except I don’t want to make a joke about it, because dishonest financial “gurus” are a type of scum I particularly despise. Hard to make light of those I consider cartoon villains.

Those of us in the financial education community tend to run into many a fake financial influencer way more than we would like to. They’re the ones who light up your feeds explaining (via lies and/or logical fallacies) how known scams like MLMs or shady crypto schemes will make you rich within the next few years. It’s a guaranteed investment, guys!!! (There is no such thing as a guaranteed investment.) They hawk NFTs, day trading, and full life insurance with urgency, like you’re gonna lose out big time if you don’t buy in the next few minutes. Oh, and don’t forget showing off how amazing their life is since they’re so rich and successful… when they fail to show any proof of actual hard work or financial numbers.

This is what came to mind when I was writing a short film script. I’m currently taking a screenwriting course and submitted the below screenplay for my classmates to rip apart. Overall, they liked it and helped me improve it. My Twitter friends also helped me a lot, who all have my utmost gratitude. And now I’m showing the screenplay to you, my beautiful readers. I like to imagine many more folks will understand how to spot bad actors after watching something like this.

Screenplay: “You Can Too, If…”

FADE IN:

EXT. STREET OUTSIDE VENUE – NIGHT

City noises surround a small bar/venue space, as seen from the street. That is, until the cheering from inside swells and overwhelms any other sound.

INT. SMALL EVENT VENUE – NIGHT

A few dozen (mostly) white guys cheer and whoop and laugh at the guy up on the stage, their idol, JUSTIN. Justin, a self-proclaimed financial guru/influencer in his early 30s, is grinning at his audience. He’s dressed like most of them in a button-down shirt and expensive-looking khakis. He sweats from the hot overhead lights and takes a swig from his water bottle. It has a sticker with his grinning face.

JUSTIN: Thank you. This is why I love these fan events. You can’t think of your portfolio in terms of assets and liabilities. Leverage changes everything. It’s how I’m able to predict what the next big company is gonna be. Can you make some noise if you like the sound of a guaranteed investment return?

His audience obliges, some whistling and whooping. To the side of the audience, a bored woman sits at a table piled high with clothes, portable chargers, and tote bags. All the boxes and merch bear either Justin’s logo or his face.

JUSTIN: But seriously, everything is about faith about an investor. You always trust the smartest person in the room. You learn that from the, uh, “Rich Dad in Babylon” book. Amazing stuff for when you’re starting out. All I do is help you get more advanced. Now, let’s get one more question in before we wrap up here.

The last person in line for the audience mic steps up.

It’s LUIS, who is in his 20s. Polite. Humble. And very clearly from a different background. He’s dressed like a more subdued version of Justin and the rest of the fans. He beams a nervous smile at Justin and clears his throat.

LUIS: Wow, Justin. Hi. I’ve been following you on Instagram and YouTube for years now. The stuff you’ve done with day trading and flipping is just amazing.

The audience claps in brief agreement.

LUIS: But, I have to admit, following all of your advice has been a struggle for me. I’ve been working away and doing everything you talk about in your courses and workshops, but I just haven’t seen the results. I’m about to lose my apartment, I’m sorry to say. So my question, Justin, is what would you do if you, too, lost it all and had nowhere else to go?

There is a pause. Neither Justin nor the audience expected that question. Finally, Justin offers some forced laughs.

JUSTIN: Whew, what a question. Well, first of all I wouldn’t put the blame on others for my own shortcomings. Yeesh.

The audience titters as the atmosphere relaxes.

JUSTIN: Since I’ve overcome my shortcomings, I’ve made it impossible to ever face something like that. Say a hacker takes everything from me down to my last Bitcoin, or maybe JustCoin. Or, and here’s something more realistic—-

Justin winks at his fans.

JUSTIN: I give the wrong woman a wedding ring and she robs me blind in a divorce. Happens to the best of us, right? Regardless, those wouldn’t matter. I’d still have something to fall back on they can’t take away from me. My investment knowledge. My investment knowledge will always be there and I can always fall back on that and rebuild my wealth from that. Right?

LUIS: But in this scenario, Justin, you wouldn’t have any money to invest.

JUSTIN: I’ll get more. Again, I have my priceless investment knowledge at my disposal. I’ll put my nose to the grindstone and rebuild my business using that valuable skill set. Maybe even some side hustles for passive income. It’s enough to bring me $100,000 in my first year, all because I work hard enough and I work smart enough. See, privilege and luck have nothing to do with your wealth. Not when true wealth is measured by your discipline and motivation to see your work through.

He pauses for clapping, which quickly rises to a crescendo before he continues on.

JUSTIN: I know most of you got that. It’s one of the core tenets in my financial manifesto. For the rest of you, I’m happy to say you get a discount to access my writing and a peek into how I built the blockchain for my stable crypto, JustCoin. Just hop on my site and use the code FANLOVE. Thanks all!

LUIS: Thank you, Justin.

But Luis’s embarrassed thanks is drowned out by the noise of the audience, yes-men dispersing. Some go to the merch table and start gleefully perusing the swag; others mob Justin to the side of the stage for selfies and more fawning. 

The few remaining seated include a small handful of people – all are clearly outside of Justin’s established demographic. All of them share the same expression of mortified shame as they stare straight ahead at the now-empty stage.

FADE OUT

Feedback on the Writing

There’s a lot more to this screenplay I didn’t include in this piece, including a beat sheet, character bio, and script treatment. My classmates looked at all of this stuff, too. Some of their comments included:

“I felt like Justin wasn’t really trying to help Luis and was just trying to sell his business. The crowd wasn’t really helping Luis’s case either.”

and:

“It’s upsetting that Louis is still a fan who continues to admire Justin even though he practically laughed at him on stage while he was asking for real help. It goes to show who is real audience is.”

Which was phenomenal to hear from people outside of my financially-educated circles, because YES THAT IS IN FACT THE CASE IN REAL LIFE. Over 50% of Gen Z gets their financial advice from TikTok; with an algorithm that actively pushes down the good-but-boring advice, they’re in for some abysmal financial struggles.

I’m bringing this up here because I’d love to hear from you, too, on how this can be improved. If this was an actual short film, what would you change to make this bigger and better? Would our fake financial influencer be more unbelievably smarmy? Would Luis be more assertive in hopes of a better answer? There are so many more red flags I want to include if we can figure out how to add them.

Cover image credit: Avel Chuklanov via Unsplash