Stop Feeding The Gurus
Today I saw a video on Facebook from some guy who advocates to stop feeding the gurus. Now I’m glad I never proclaimed myself to be a guru, so no need to get defensive here. Look on page 13 of my travel book if you don’t believe me – I put it in writing right there: I’m NOT a guru of any sorts. I simply love sharing what I do.
The guy, and unlike him I won’t mention any names, carried on to elaborate on how gurus are bad. He named people like Brendon Bruchard, and others. I like all those guys, and have worked personally with some of them. Maybe I’m naive and bought in to their trickeries. Call me what you will, but I learned a lot from experience that those gurus have. It would have taken me much longer to learn on my own.
And that’s what it’s about, isn’t it? Learning something easier and faster than you would have done on your own. Because no doubt, you can figure things out yourself. Easy. There’s Google, Youtube, and many other free resources. Information is free and abundant. It’s all out there. And that’s exactly where the problem lies. For example, look at my author program, it’s called Write a Book in a Week. In the program, I teach, amongst other things, how you can (you guessed it) write a book in a week. Can you figure out how to do that on your own? Without a doubt. I did it. I also made a lot of mistakes along the way, costing me a lot of time and an even larger amount of money. My program is nothing more but an answer to the question “how did you do it”. I enjoy sharing my experience to the benefit of others. Today I’m fortunate to have worked with authors in more countries around the world than I’ve visited. They have been able to write and publish their book faster and better than they might have been able to do on their own. That’s where the value is: results.
My new internet-friend went on to say how all these gurus sell only a part of the puzzle. They give you a half-solution, and then up-sell you on a bigger and better program. And I have to agree, yes that does happen. Every once in a while I sign up for some of those free live training events. You know even before entering the conference room that it’ll become a high pressure sales pitch. They use the right music, choice of words, and emotional scare tactics. Presenters hypnotize you from the moment you enter. Raise your hand if you agree. That was a joke, by the way. But that’s how they operate. By the end of the event they get people to sign up for programs upwards of twenty – thirty thousand (!) dollars. Are you surprised? I’m not. Those hotel meeting rooms don’t come for free. Neither does the coffee they give you. Or, in the last one I attended, the “free” tablet computer. Thanks, by the way. It’s all part of the plan.
After listening to this guy’s talk about stopping to feed the gurus, I felt blessed. Blessed that I’m not a guru. Blessed that I don’t sell half-solutions. My Write a Book in a Week program contains it ALL, writing, publishing, selling – and much more. It’s awesome, or so people told me.
The kicker of the story? At the end of the stop-feeding-the-gurus-video of course he invited me to sign up for his program. All I had to do was give my email address. Funny, that’s exactly the tactic those gurus use. First they creating an emotional connection. Then they seal the deal quickly, before anyone changes their mind. Raise your hand if you agree.