With the bevy of online gurus, experts, coaches and inspirational bloggers who offer advice on how to achieve our dreams, be successful and quit our day jobs, I think it’s time we set a standard on whether or not these experts deserve our attention.
Here are my guidelines.
You are not a guru/expert/coach if…
1. You don’t listen to your own advice.
No matter how wonderful your blog is, if you haven’t published a book you are not an expert on publishing. I’m amazed at the number of self-publishing geniuses these days.
On the other hand this guy is a publishing expert and a durn good editor. (Todd, is “durn’ ok to use? Also, should I capitalize ‘ok’ or spell it okay?)
2. You walk doesn’t match your talkity-talk-talk.
Shakespeare said it best: “Words! Words! Words!” The old adage in writing is show, don’t tell. The same applies for my benchmark for the guru/expert/coach: if they show me by their actions, I will listen–otherwise, it’s just words.
Bryan Allain is one
3. You live in a van…down by the river.
This one is debatable because who doesn’t like a van by a river? But even Chris Farley would agree that just because you have a blog on “business success tips” doesn’t mean you’re a success. Anyone can be an entrepreneur from behind a WordPress blog, but it takes real guts to actually start a business and make it turn a profit.
This guy is an inspiration when it comes to really walking the walk–and he’s doing research on minivans, so there’s that too.
Now the real question…am I an expert on who is an expert?
[box options]Like this stuff? Subscribe to RSS or get new posts via e-mail.[/box]