What’s on the iPod: Into the Mystic by Van Morrison
Before I forget, I have a post up over at About Freelance Writing. Please give Anne some comment love.
Let’s blame the fact that the weather yesterday was delicious. It was sunny, 85 degrees, and hardly a drop of humidity. I took that as a sign – get the roof down in the car and get the foot working that gas pedal. I grabbed lunch, a book, and a blanket and headed to the park. It was a short break – just under 30 minutes – but enough to add a layer of freckles and a bit of a burn.
That meant my article sat idle. It was probably a good thing – I’d taken the generic version of Zyrtec and by 3 pm my eyes were crossing. Wow. Do they make that in non-drowsy version? I was toast. I managed some marketing until about 4:30, then I had to get up and shake away the mothballs in my brain.
I was looking around the Internet a little last week and over the weekend. I’m seeing a lot of self-appointed “experts” and more than a few “gurus” popping up whose advice is followed like a thirsty crowd to tainted Kool-Aid. And I wonder – it’s great to have a mentor, someone to look up to, but what if they’re wrong?
Maybe it was the proliferation of tweets quoting the same marketing “guru” that bugged me. Because I know that particular expert from tweets alone, I saw each tweet by his followers as, well, DUH. The man has made a superb living off saying some pretty common-sense stuff. But everyone has a niche, and he’s doing no one any harm.
Yet there are pillars of various communities out there that are doing harm. Any time I see a respected writer suddenly do an about-face on a topic, I notch up the skepticism. Why the sudden turnaround? And why are followers just taking it on fact? It’s happened a few times, especially around the content farm issue. One expert in particular – someone I’d read before the Internet – was now saying it was okay to work for these rat holes. Bloggers of lesser importance (but with big followings) were starting to say the same things.
So maybe we need a checklist to measure our experts by.
What’s their motivation? In a few cases it was directly related to their affiliations and ad revenue from these places. In more than a few cases, it was to drive traffic. If we’re talking about something controversial, we could get more new readers! Right you will. But you’ll lose plenty of them the moment you switch teams again.
What’s new? I love that the one marketing expert is quoted so often. From the very little I know about him, he gets the tweets because he restates and reshapes his concepts. That’s pretty cool. But how many do that? The smart ones certainly do. But even then, is the material being repurposed still relevant? If so, great. If not, question if this is a relationship that still works for you.
Why do you follow? Do you like the camaraderie? Do you think everything your expert spouts is perfection vocalized? Do you think without that person, you’d never make it in your career? In other words, what’s your motivation and is it helping you or holding you back? Are you following because it’s the cool thing to do? Remember the words of your mother – if that person jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?
Is your expert coasting? If you’re reading a blog in which your expert is restating the same thing ad nauseum or has posted stuff that leads you to think he/she is simply showing up because a blog is something that must be done these days, you may be looking at someone who’s ridden the idea to death.
Are you getting actual content you can use? I saw one blog that used bold heads and subheads – that said nothing. The big build-up to the next great idea turned out to be a whole lot of fluff with no substance. “HOW YOU CAN BE FREELANCING TODAY!” stuff with the “useful” advice like “DECIDE YOU’RE A WRITER AND GO FOR IT!” Really? That’s all you’ve got?
Vet your experts. If they consider themselves A-listers, who gave them the title? If they tout awards, just what award did they receive? Look seriously at the content and decide if it’s useful info or just the same regurgitated ideas repackaged. If the repackaging works, stick with it. If not, it’s okay to leave your expert behind.
Have you had experiences with following popular gurus or experts that turned out to be less than satisfying? What matters to you in a relationship with a mentor, expert, or other industry leader?
18 responses to “Beware the Gurus and Experts”
Well, you know my feelings about Little Missy who did the content mill turnaround as soon as they flashed cash at her. Lost all respect and stopped following.
What drives me nuts is if I see the exact same articles by the same people pop up all over the place. It's one thing to sell reprints — but clearly state they've appeared elsewhere. It's quite another to just send out the same content over and over again for years. Come up with something new! We evolve.
Now, if someone genuinely changes his/her mind with a good reason and is willing to openly discuss that, I'll respect it, even if I don't agree. It's the about-face when money is involved and then being disingenuous about it that drives me nuts. And, as we all know, it's a pretty short drive!
Devon, I did think of that example, as well. But oddly, it wasn't the first one to come to mind. How sad that I had so many to choose from? I question highly those who use hot topics just to get traffic going. If you're saying something provacative just to drive traffic, I can't trust your voice and I'm no longer interested.
I agree if there's a genuine change of heart. I've had a number of them here. If people convince me to think differently, I say so. None of us have all the answers. If we're not growing, we're moldering.
Okay this is beginning to freak me out-not only do we talk about Gurus, but your comment to Devon about moldering popped into my head this AM for a blog top (a derivative of that -you'll see what I mean). 🙂
Quite a while back I wrote a post asking Have we run out of ideas? LOL-maybe, that's the problem.
😀
Having been a newbie to freelancing not so long ago (2008), you'd be surprised what is totally new to someone just starting out as a freelancer. I can't tell you the amount of money I threw away the first year on books, webinars or whatever because I didn't know any better.
By nature, we are like sponges and love to learn new things. It doesn't take long though (if you keep at this freelancing) for your radar to get fine-tuned.
Think about it, if these self-professed Gurus really knew their stuff, they'd be better at making us believe they had a change of heart instead of a change in the wallet.
Cathy, I swear our antennae are tuned into the same channel. 🙂
That's the problem, too. The wallet talks. When the focus turns solely to how much you can make from your "expertise" you lose your authenticity and credibility. I'm struggling with this. I've finally listened to everyone who's been telling me "Stop giving it away!" I can't not give it away because that's how I'm wired. But I decided a few courses to help those writers who ask the same questions privately is a smart idea. But is that "selling out"? I don't know. I hope not.
Not in my mind. It all comes down to the value. Although I am a big believer that you can find something of value in everything (even if it's don't do the same thing the seller did). 🙂
I have absolutely no problem with someone making gobs of money selling their help if they worked hard to get there and produce something of value. Lord knows you qualify on both ends.
I had the same experience as Cathy when I first started freelancing. I bought every "how to" info product I could and was usually disappointed to find no real actionable advice. These self-appointed "gurus" were not worth the investment.
I've heard that I could get vacations for free by becoming a travel writer! Is there a guru for that?
A self-proclaimed expert is usually nothing but a former drip under pressure (or exspurt as defined by the urban dictionary).
The only real expertise I can see, in those cases, are the shooting off of the big mouths.
Show us your knowledge, skills or degrees and let US decide if you're really an expert or not.
Exspurt. Wendy, that's priceless!
I'm an independent (and, well, cynical) enough soul that I'm not a good candidate for following anyone very long or very far. It's far more productive to idea-swap with peers.
And I definitely don't trust anyone who pretends to be the founder and CEO of Mistake-Makers Anonymous.
I'm glad I started freelancing in the dark ages, before the average soul had access to the Internet. I bought a few books and subscribed to Writer's Market for several years – until I realized I was reading new takes on the same topics. Thankfully I didn't have thousands of self-proclaimed experts vying to become my paid mentor. I sought out peers with whom I could exchange ideas and ask how they would handle whatever situation I was facing.
What matter most with relationships with mentors, experts, industry leaders – or peers – is honesty.
I love seeing people tout themselves as 'award-winning' this or that (do enough resumes and you're bound to run into someone claiming to be an award-winning professional because they were named employee of the month at a job they held in high school). Technically, I suppose I could call myself an award-winning writer, but the awards I won were in high school and college and in no way reflect professional achievements.
There is one person in particular who keeps flauting a recent award…but like Lori said, you have to look at where the award is from and who chose the recipients. Anyone can create an 'award' and nominate their friends. I'm not saying that's what the boaster I mentioned did, but I've never heard of the place the so-called award is from.
Thanks, Cathy. 🙂
Kim, I think because I was weaning during the "newgroup" phase of the Internet, I didn't buy into too many books and courses. I bought books, but usually from Writer's Digest Books. In a few cases only, I was disappointed.
Joseph, YOU could be the next travel guru! Wow. Just think – that trip to Poughkeepsie could launch your career as an expert! LOL
Drip under pressure – LOVE that! Wendy, you're our resident expert on exSpurts. 🙂
Jake, Mistake Makers Anonymous – I'm so stealing that phrase! LOL I'm with you. Sharing ideas is so much nicer than lording over the masses and tossing down crumbs of "wizzdom" on occasion.
Honesty – amen, Paula. And maybe less horn tooting from the exSpurt and more from those who have learned from said person. God, how boring it would be to hear from one soul over and over how SpEsHuL they are.
Sorry- that's "newsgroup."
And with the admission of that typo, Lori, you are officially out of the Mistake Makers Anonymous Club. 🙂
LOL! I blew my cover!
lordy, as most of you know, I should have started the Mistake Makers Anonymous Club – MMAC I assume?
Lori you're so far from selling out by doing courses I'm surprised you're asking the question.
This just in, for free from Molly Gordon, a woman I've come to trust
Chop Wood, Carry Water: Profit as Meditaiton http://shaboominc.com/blog/archives/chop_wood_carry_water_profit_as_meditation.html
I love it… susupect you will too.
hugs
Anne, it's perfect! I love how she places such value on vision and dedication – so true! And thanks for the kind words. 🙂
You know, Lori, this also makes me think of being an independent creative. Even when we find the right experts, we need to be discerning and analyze whether their information is relevant to our field and situation. As much as I respect the experts I look up toward, including you =D, we all have our own path.
Thanks for having me think about this. =)
Exactly, Samantha! Great point. Does it fit? If not, it's okay to just disregard that person's advice. It doesn't mean they don't know what they're talking about. It just means it's not right for your life and your situation.