Behind The Scenes Of A Guru 1

I recently read a heartfelt post by Grizzly Bears at his new blog.

I keep an ear ready for the Grizz because Jim Sansi has said good things about him. And I say good things about Jim, so that’s good enough for me.

The blog post was called

Careful… You May Become Popular

And the post seems to be a somewhat autobiographical, somewhat confessional story of his time as Internet marketing guru.

He also details HOW to become a guru. To those who have been around a while, the formula is nothing new. But for some, it can be a real eye opener. Take this excerpt for example…

Enter a popular forum that has all the experts in the niche. Zero in on the resident top dog expert – easy to find as they always have something to say on every topic. They have 15,000 posts in the forum – they know everything – because they have 15,000 posts in the forum. You know they never leave the forum and hence – don’t make a dime online – who has the time? You don’t get 15k posts on the forum if you are away working…

So. Swaddle right on up to the expert and calmly say… “you’re full of s#!t”. The expert goes ballistic… huffs, puffs, rants… and waits for the sycophants to come to the rescue. Those would be the experts in training – the people with only 10k posts on the forum. You laugh and leave while dropping a link back to your blog.

And wait…

James Brausch did this beautifully years ago causing ruckus on the Warrior Forum and linking back to posts like “Long Copy Sucks And Other Heresies.” (Google It.

He took a strong position on a hot topic (length of copy) and took no prisoners while making his point, which naturally created controversy.

He grew a following by backing up his position with tales of the scientific method and piles of data. But I’ll get back to the science in a minute.

Completely changing subjects, I was recently in a political argument on Twitter. My opponent put forth that “Empiricism isn’t fringe friendly,” an obvious attempt to swipe at some in the “tea party” movement.

Empiricism being the practice of forming ideas based on experience, evidence and the senses – fairly tangible stuff. And “fringe” being outside the mainstream.

Now, in terms of politics, I think he makes many mistakes in that statement. Including assuming that “fringe” has an inherent negative connotation all by itself.

But as a whole and completely removed from just politics, I think that statement is also completely backwards.

Relying on experience and evidence IS outside the mainstream. Empiricism IS fringe.

Too many people get their knowledge from “hearsay” that actually taking the time to get answers backed by data can be controversial.

So back to the discussion of becoming a guru.

If you want to gain a following and make some bucks while hopefully providing value, add some empiricism to your business and share your controversial results.

Do it hard, with no apology for your findings. No apology in your words or tone.

Have the discussion in an appropriate socialized setting, and your following grows.

The End.

Cheers,
Stephen Dean