Dan Blank, Author at WeGrowMedia - Dan Blank

Experts: Perception vs Reality

I’ve been considering an often overused term: “expert.” My focus is on two areas:

Media & Journalism: Whether traditional media are full of experts and new media and social media are full of amateurs.
Online Education: With the proliferation of online courses, what differentiates someone who is knowledgeable vs someone who is an expert?

Valeria Maltoni linked to an interesting post yesterday: “In Defense of Experts,” in which they debate the value between crowdsourced reviews (of 200 non-experts) and a review by a single expert.

This got me to consider why we assume that people associated with a well-known brand are inherently ‘experts,’ and that their value could potentially be more authoritative than the opinions of others.

This relates to traditional media – newspapers and magazines in particular – where their is a halo effect around contributors and reporters. Part of this is clearly the institutional code of ethics of large established brands. The other depends on the individual. Some have a long history of experience, and have been on staff for years. Others are contributors or columnists – people who we assume are experts, since the newspaper or magazine has spent money to put their words into ink on paper.

I was chatting with someone recently who was surprised to learn that some journalists in niche B2B media brands are not topic experts. They cover a particular market, let’s say it’s chicken farming, but they have not experienced chicken farming or studied it. They are journalists, whose talent includes covering any topic in an objective manner. Their ability lies in finding stories and communicating them effectively.

The conversation had us discussing whether this was of more value, or hearing from an actual chicken farmer whose hands dirtied the keyboard as they typed because they were just wrangling chickens a moment earlier.

There’s no clear answer, especially not when generalizing in a made-up example. But it speaks to the changes that media is undergoing, and why some in traditional media are convinced that their industry will never experience the shift that the music industry has. That there will always be a future for reasonably paid full-time editorial staffers for niche publications.

But suddenly, Chicken Farmer Digest is competing with the very people they are serving. Their sources are now their competition. The question is: has the value of CFD editorial reporting decreased now that their sources are covering themselves?

Actual experts spend a lifetime building their experience, connections and credibility. Compare this to some online experts, who are no doubt knowledgeable, but whose experience is short, and focus on a topic fleeting.

Tim Ferris discussed this in The 4-Hour Workweek:

“Expert status can be created in less than four weeks if you understand basic credibility indicators.”

He makes the critical point that “being perceived as an expert and being an expert” are sometimes two different things. His four steps to being perceived as an expert:

Join two or three related trade organizations.
Read the three top-selling books on your topic.
Give one free one-to-three hour seminar at a the closest well-known university. Then do the same at branches of two well-known big companies.
Offer to write one or two articles for trade magazines related to your topic, citing what you have accomplished in steps 1 and 3 for credibility.
Join ProfNet, which is a service that journalists use to find experts to quote for articles. Use steps 1, 3, and 4 to demonstrate credibility.

Do you want to be an expert? Just do a Google search, there are lots of articles promising that you can become an expert on anything in no time. They aren’t saying you can learn about a topic, or become knowledgeable, but actually become an expert. An authority.

I am always fascinated with downloadable products such as eBooks and online courses. Are they filled with short-lived tips, or are they authored by someone with deep experience in a particular niche? Is their expertise based on perception, or reality?

This same thought-process applies to any form or online and offline content, including events.

I am thrilled at how the web has opened up a world of education, a world of learning, of sharing and connection. And I’m thrilled that people can access and become experts more easily. But I am cautious about throwing around words like ‘expert,’ because in order for it to mean something, it needs to be rare. It needs to be earned.

Thanks!

-Dan

Hustle. The Old-Fashioned Way to Thrive Online.

Gary Vaynerchuk is trying to scale himself. Scale caring. Scale connection. Scale what an individual can become.

He seems to have something to prove.

His mantra is ‘hustle.’ It took me awhile to realize what he meant by that. At first, I considered it a negative word, like, ‘he is hustling you.’ As if you are trying to take advantage of someone.

But THEN, I realized he meant ‘hustle’ like my dad used it on the soccer field when I was 8 years old. Hustle meant to give it that extra effort.

How does ‘hustle’ scale? I was surprised in Gary’s book that he promised no tricks, no shortcuts, and that the secret to winning, is the willingness to do way more than your competition. It meant working from 9pm-1pm after the kids went the sleep, then waking up at 5am to catch another hour of work before they wake up at 6am.

It’s old-fashioned advice, which is why I love it. Tricks are interesting, but they are momentary. Gary inspires a lot of people – I know he can convince 99% of an audience to agree with him because the things he preaches are so primal – they are about connection, building something of value and success.

But I also venture to guess that that 99% of those he’s converted, aren’t able to follow his advice of ‘hustle.’ It’s not that they don’t agree with him, but because they would prefer a shortcut. They want a lottery ticket. They don’t want to work all night, 7 days a week, regardless of the reward. And if even if they are willing to work 24/7, they want to know the specific reward they are working towards, and the specific time frame that reward will come in.

This creates an opportunity for that remaining 1% of people who walk away from meeting Gary. That’s the 1% that will work 24/7 year after year. The 1% that doesn’t get burnt out, that believes that if you connect with a single person, you are connecting with the entire world.

Many businesses are about scale – they don’t value a single customer, they value things that affect large segments of their customer base. There are companies out there that are doing interesting things – loose customer services policies, loose employee vacation policies. They are focused on the individual. But most companies have sweeping policies to limit what customers and employees can do. If you have an issue with that company, they give you the phone number to someone half a world away who has no power to help you, and zero stake in retaining you as a customer.

It’s efficient, sure. But it’s the opposite of valuing each customer. Not because they outsourced their phone operations, but because of the policies that limit what the representative can do.

Gary Vaynerchuk is about scale – about scaling what an individual with a heart can do. And he’s not out there saving baby seals from danger, he is a businessman – his goal is money, but not ONLY money. Gary is building something of meaning – something that gives more than it takes.

Gary is about things that can’t be automated. He is about changing the world one person at a time.

For me, that’s really inspiring. If that type of thing is important to you, I highly recommend you check him out:

Thanks!

-Dan

Media: Part of the Fabric of Our Lives

My wife and I have been getting ready for our first child, rearranging EVERYTHING at home – getting rid of a lot of stuff, and setting up a space that works for a family, not just specific tasks. It’s been a fascinating process, one that has me reflecting on the nature of media and it’s role in our lives.

Now, I come from a mindset that media – physical media – is beautiful. The idea of a wall lined with books, a stack of records next to the stereo, and a few magazines on the table is a welcome vision. And yet, I find myself disposing of, and packing away my physical media. Magazines I had been saving are now being recycled. My precious record collection is now in storage. Books have been whittled down to the few that I may actually want to reference in the next 12 months.

An inherent part of our rearrangement at home was to create a space that serves us ‘now.’ Not a space that is storage of things that we like, or want to use ‘someday.’

Instead of having physical media around, I find myself embracing digital media in greater ways. My high-end stereo with a turntable that used to take up an entire wall has been replaced by a set of small speakers, and a plug to link my iPhone to it. My phone is now my stereo.

Instead of having books and magazines all over the place, I ordered an iPad which arrives this week. I like the idea of leaving it on our living room table, something that is conversational, not isolating.

I’m thinking about getting rid of my iMac and replacing it with a notebook computer – something that can be used anywhere at home, and stored on a spare 2 inches on a shelf.

Digital takes up less room, that is part of my transition: making room for baby. But it also allows for fewer definitions of space, since their form is so small and mobile. The living room can be transformed for many uses, and media does not overwhelm the space – it simply enables activity.

Mostly, my wife and I are defining spaces by the experiences we hope to have there as a family, and I am simply expecting media to be available anytime, anywhere, to be integrated as we need it.

Media has become flexible.
Media has become mobile.
Media has becomes invisible.

And yet, media is a core part of our everyday existence. Music will be playing constantly – new videos and articles will be available at a moment’s notice – the world’s information is always present – and entertainment (be it games or movies or TV) are accessible, but not overwhelming.

So many people view the media itself as the goal – perhaps they are writing a ‘book,’ or creating a ‘magazine.’ But the experience is what they should be aiming for. All the massive transitions in the past decade have not lessened media’s value – it has simply become more integrated into the fabric of our lives in subtle ways.

A room doesn’t need books to be filled with them.
A room doesn’t need a screen on the wall in order to watch a movie.
A room doesn’t need a stereo system in order to have music.
A room doesn’t require a workstation in order to access the world’s information.

Thanks!

-Dan

Elders vs Gurus: Why Don’t We Listen to the Voice of Experience?

Gary Vaynerchuk recently made an interesting statement at a conference:

“I am addicted to old people.”

He elaborates:

“I switch seats on airplanes all the time – if somebody looks like Yoda, I am sitting next to them. The amount of conversations I’ve had with 80 and 90 year old strangers, I guarantee is the [most] in the world. You know why? They’ve played the game. And you know what they’ve told me – everyone of them – not one of them [cared] how much money they made. Whether they were rich or poor. Every one of them says the same thing: “Gary, I wish I spent more time with my family, and I wish I did something I loved.” And I don’t understand how we know this, and these are the people that have played our game – the REAL game – and how we don’t take that into account.”

(That rant is at minute 50 of the talk.)

What Gary is saying here is profound, and not talked about nearly enough in our culture. Personally, I have spent a lot of time in the past year and a half cataloging my family’s history – scanning in thousands of photos from the mid-20th century, and interviewing older family members about the most mundane aspects of their lives growing up. For instance, I think I have done 12 hours of interviews with my dad so far, and I have called distant family members that no one I know has talked to in the last 30 years. On a personal level, there is an incredible amount to learn from this perspective.

Gary’s point is in relation to business – about how we all rush to buy the latest business books who promise to give us some new magical ‘formula’ for increasing wealth. That we spent hundreds or thousands of dollars to see people speak and attend conferences. That all these gurus are popping up with online courses, some costing thousands of dollars.

And I wonder – why do we spend our precious resources listening to the young, and totally ignore the wisdom of our elders? Wisdom that has perspective, is free, and that they would love to share?

Perhaps these are some reasons why many don’t seek advice from your average 80 or 90 year old:

Their wisdom isn’t sexy.
They don’t promise to make you rich quickly.
They ignore trends.
They don’t feel ‘of the moment.’
They don’t have ironic humor, or reference Glee.
They require us to think deeply, not rush to solve a specific problem.
They give us perspective that runs counter to our culture’s call of ‘success=money.’

So instead, we listen to the young. Some of who are brilliant, and should be listened to. But some of these people have never owned a business. Never run a business. Or they’ve found one cool trick that worked a single time, and are trying to create a ‘system’ out of it. They create things that seem ‘of the moment,’ even though we are trying to create businesses that can sustain across the span of decades. They talk about theory instead of experience.

But when we talk to those who are older – those with decades and decades experience, their advice can be golden:

It is proven.
It is given without any remuneration.
It is shared with perspective of decades, not months.
It comes slower, and takes longer to implement.
It builds something with a legacy in mind.
It stops to smell the roses.

Thanks!

-Dan

Social Media Turns Every Connection Into a ‘Warm Call’

Is social media working for you? Don’t be so quick to judge. How we measure success in social media is not about numbers, it’s about the quality of connections.

Again and again, I find examples that it’s not quantity that counts, but quality. Maybe you have been developing a Facebook Page, Tweeting several times a day, commenting in a forum, and trying to keep up with your blog. It’s hard work, no doubt, and sometimes a stagnant follower count can seem like you aren’t making any progress.

But who are your followers? They aren’t just a number – some of those people actually exist, and love hearing from you. I’m not going to lie, sometimes I see someone who has 40,000 follower and think “Wow – what did they do to attract such an audience?”

But that is balanced by the many experiences I have where I am amazed at who is finding me online, be it my blog, Twitter feed, or newsletter. There have been several times where I approached someone I really respected and wanted to meet, only to find out that they already knew who I was because of my presence in social media.

It goes beyond being a conversation starter… it’s a relationship starter. Why? Because it just takes one person to reshape your life. If you engage in social media for personal reasons, it takes just one person to become an inspiring friend. If you engage in social media for more professional reasons, it takes just one person to catapult your career.

You know how sales people have ‘cold calls’ and ‘warm calls?’ Well, social media increases the number of warm calls in your life. It means that people are already familiar with who you are, and have established a foundation of trust before you ever say a word to each other.

So the question shouldn’t be “how many followers do I have?” but, “who am I connected to?” And then of course, “How can I help them?”

This is especially true when you consider how well suited social media is for niche markets. Likely, your potential audience isn’t hundreds of thousands of people to begin with. Likely, you are focused on one segment of one market. And even within that total population, there are some individuals in particular that you especially hope to connect with. Are those people already following you on Twitter? Have they read a blog post you wrote online? That follower count and page view number doesn’t indicate the quality of your connections.

It reminds me of the legendary story of the first ever Sex Pistols show. About 40 people showed up, and they mostly sat and stared at the stage. But within that tiny crowd were people who went on to form some of the biggest British bands of the 1980’s: Joy Division, The Smiths, The Fall, and The Buzzcocks. It’s heralded as one of the most influential gigs ever.

Is that your Twitter feed? Your blog? Tiny, but influential?

Thanks!

-Dan