"What's Wrong With Positioning Yourself As A Guru?"

You may think I've been on a posting strike until Paris Hilton is released from jail, but no, I've been busy. Besides, she's only in for 45 day which according to her is no big deal, because that's less than a month.

(Rim shot)

Actually I've been installing some new software and testing it. This includes Mozilla's email client -- Thunderbird, Microsoft's LiveWriter for blogging (if you decide to test this, there may be compatibility issues with outlook and other programs [hence Thunderbird]), and thanks to infoworld, who commented I should try it, Camtasia.

Too, I had to take care of a couple of consulting calls and a rush critique.

Plus, I took on a 'coaching' client. I wish I could say it is my passion for helping people that changed my mind from my aversion to coaching, but in truth, what swayed me was a check for $20K.

I made this existing client A LOT of money earlier this year, so my fee comes from pocket change and I'll make certain this too is a prudent investment for them.

Why do I have an apparent aversion to coaching? I don't, really. I have an aversion to line extension and commodity pricing.

Branding myself as a guru, or what's really at issue here, marketing myself into the pack of existing gurus, via line extension, invites commodity pricing for everything I do by putting me in direct competition with others. Don't like the price? Shop the other gurus.

True, there's no rule carved in stone that says I can't be both a guru to one market AND be a non-guru to another, but focusing on fewer high-dollar clients is simpler, and I think a more efficient use of my resources, than throwing myself into the middle of the fray is.

Further, a guru's clients tend to have a predictable, definable lifetime value, limited by, and in relation to, the guru's product and service offerings. And those additional offerings have a tendency to, ultimately, cause overall downward pricing pressure -- "I write, I teach, I do seminars...and I'm the best at whatever you want to talk about" tend to erode credibility past certain dollar amounts.

Please don't misunderstand that as knocking gurus. I'm discussing the tone of a commercial environment, not performance, the ability to deliver, or competence, here.

Another difficulty is differentiation. To the unacquainted ... to those looking in from the outside, differentiation pretty much comes down to personality.

And with so many time-wasting tire kickers running around looking for the free-stuff trough, and significance (emotional bottomless pit) instead of a serious business person, I find the required servile attitude necessary for commercial viability in that market, impossible to maintain.

Compare competing in that environment to clear, open sky with no competition and thoroughly enjoyable clients.

When I make someone a million dollars, or solve a problem with equally serious financial implications, money I ask for becomes somewhat irrelevant. Loyalty isn't at question, either.

You may have heard Dan Kennedy discuss price elasticity? This is it in action. It's a big deal and, in my opinion, merits consideration.

What's more, is developing a number of these price-elastic relationships.

I'm not suggesting it's what anyone else should pursue. I'm simply saying I prefer it over alternatives.

(Next)

The responses I received from posting about performing critiques are interesting for their positive intensity.

What's funny, is how elated I was announcing, in that same post, you --'the reader'-- can now double-click any word for a definition, freeing me from the experience of self-consciousness over using obscure words when I post. I swear, it's been like typing with intellectual mittens on, ya know.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you guys know what's shakin' on this end.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about my take on positioning myself, or your self, as a guru.

--Peter

Comments

[Copywriter, Kevin Francis]

Peter,

Had to laugh about the compatibility problem between MS Livewriter and their own products! How did these guys ever make so much money in the first place?

Ah, I wondered why you were so excited about the "Widget". Have to say, I do usually have my trusty Reader's Digest "WordPower Dictionary" at hand when I read your blog!

Re the "Guru" thing, well, it's a great business lesson in itself just reading this post. The "Copywriting" niche, it seems to me, is a pretty small one and that would tend to make the economics of being a "Guru" questionable, especially when you can make so much money from your regular business.

While I am eternally grateful for the programs that people like David Garfinkel, Michel Fortin, John Carlton and Clayton Makepeace et al provide, I do wonder whether it's really worth their while.

Does raise the question of how the "craft" is passed on to we rookies if there are no "Gurus" of course.

Love your comment about the "servile attitude" required for commercial viability. Perhaps you could corner the segment for "Non Servile Guru"? Doubt if that's a very big segment!

Kevin Francis

[Copywriter, Peter Stone]

Kevin,

RE: Your last comment among the several above...

To really drill down, my theory on the most significant psychological drive influencing the process of purchasing from the guru is hope.

Interaction with an open, accepting guru is a client's hopeful grasp at healing old wounds.

Hope that after I interact with 'my' guru, my life will be different ... better.

Attendant to that is the premise, that anywhere is better than here. That 'I' will turn into the person I want to be ... the person I could be ... the mega-star person I am.

And the guru will knight me, or betoken me with significance.

Further drilling down reveals the relationship with the guru as an attempted reiteration of the primary family system, or a portion of that system, based on the undefined premise that the relationship with the guru will cause resolve to old, unfinished family business.

And that's why the servile posturing and relentlessly affirming relationship takes on exaggerated importance to the client acting out their process.

The sale is, much like a tattoo often is, ritualistically commemorative of the client's new level of commitment to healing ... with the guru's help.

To conclude, in this model, the guru is a surrogate dad or mom ... buying marks an archetypal event whereby paradise (wholeness, completeness, wealth and a fairytale existence) once upon a time lost, can be partially regained (This last para is highly interpreted Jung).

To respond to another of your comments, my business model is my definition of the perfect business, not my client's definition of who I should be, or what's necessarily consistent with their preferences.

No, I don't disregard their preferences, but their preferences don't decide my business's policies, procedures, or anything else.

I do.

Usually in consideration of client preferences.

It's a hard enough business and the craft is mean to its practitioners. If there aren't enough payoffs for me, why would I do it. (Rhetorical, of course).

As I understand it, people are naturally social. We like doing things for others and enjoy ever-deepening relationships. It's a primary drive I choose to trust, not contrive.

--Peter

[Copywriter, Kevin Francis]

Peter,

Appreciate your long and thoughtful reply to my, somewhat, flippant comments.

Kevin Francis

[Copywriter, Peter Stone]

Kevin,

Sorry for talking your ear off.

--Peter