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Are you an Expert?

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By Karen D. Swim

Last week I found myself thinking about expertise. My thoughts began with my frustration with self-proclaimed experts who are effective marketers that simply package old ideas with flashy packaging and high price tags. However, as often happens my internal questions often converge with the external world to provide me with not only answers but also more questions.

As I was grappling with the question of expertise, someone in my LinkedIn network posted a question asking, “How do you know when you are an expert?” It was a different perspective but one that aligned with my own thoughts during the week. I read the answers and while many were interesting and thought provoking, none seemed to satisfy by increasing need to know “Who is an Expert?”

The answer that brought the greatest amount of satisfaction appeared on, of all places, my daily Freakonomics calendar “When someone is very good at a given thing, what is it that actually makes him good? According to K. Anders Ericsson a psychology professor who studies expert performance, what we think of as ‘talent’ is vastly overrated. It is ‘deliberate practice,’ Ericsson argues, that is the real key.”

Ericsson’s book Toward A General Theory of Expertise: Prospects and Limits offers a fascinating insight into expertise. Ericsson writes, “Expert performance is primarily a reflection of acquired skill resulting from the accumulation of domain-specific knowledge and methods during many years of training and practice rather than special innate talent. Confronted with universal limits of human information processing concerning memory capacity and speed of processing, expert performers are found to be able to acquire similar types of skills to circumvent these limits.”

Experts are able to perform at higher levels. While that may have some element of innate talent, the deliberate practice is what elevates them from merely talented to expert. I would add that passion is likely the driving force that leads to deliberate practice.

In marketing, we may be quick to use the “expert” label. After all, billing someone as the “industry’s leading expert” sounds better than “cool guy or girl who knows a lot.” However, I would argue that you do not have to be an expert to be successful or even credible to your audience.

We have become enamored with expert status. The internet has certainly leveled the playing field by making information accessible to everyone. When you do a thing enough times in cyberspace you’re elevated to “expert.”

I would rather purchase services from someone who was passionately pursuing excellence in their profession than someone who simply labeled himself or herself an expert because it sounds good in marketing copy.

The passionate pursuit of excellence… hmm sounds suspiciously like the “deliberate practice” that Ericsson writes about in his discussion of expertise. My search was borne out of frustration but the journey to the truth was enlightening. From now on, I will measure an expert by their actions and not their words. What about you? Are you an expert in your niche? Do you desire to be? What is your standard for measuring expertise? I am interested in hearing your perspective.

Billy Crystal Swings Away With Yankees

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There’s so much negative news that this is a story I really enjoyed. Billy Crystal, famous actor and comedian had the opportunity to suit up and play with the Yankees for his 60th birthday. For the lifelong Yankees fan it was a dream come true. Whether you are a baseball fan or not, we can all relate to having a dream and the exuberance of being able to realize it. As children we dream big and often believing it all to be possible. Only a small percentage of adults hold on to that and relentlessly turn their dreams into reality. We smile as we listen to children dream big, adoring their innocence while we internally tune into “reality.” Today, let go of the limitations you’ve placed on your adult self. Dream big without self-censure. By failing to dream big, you may just be missing your turn at bat!

Karen

read more | digg story

Finding Your Rhythm, Determining Your Height

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By Karen D. Swim

I was not much of a daredevil as a kid but I loved to swing. I would place my hands at just the right height and slowly move backwards as I prepared to take flight. I can remember the effort and determination it took to propel myself higher. Once you had momentum, the effort was not as hard. To remain high you simply had to keep moving at the right rhythm and force.

As I soared higher, my belly would clinch in fear but the joy of soaring through the air was too good to pass up even if I was scared of falling. I felt the most comfortable when I swung back and forth in a straight line. If the swing began to swerve a little to one side, it made me nervous and I would slow down to align myself.

Business has many parallels to swinging. When you first begin, you have to push a little harder to get to your desired altitude. When you’ve reached a goal (and there will be many) you may need to slow down a bit and check your alignment. Have you gone off course? Are you swinging to the left or right? Are you in danger of falling?

The higher you go the scarier it can be but you learn to push past the fear so that you can soar higher. And you can always go higher. Your height is as infinite as the sky and only limited by how much you can thrust forward. You control your motion.

You can also go higher, faster with a little help. As a child, my mom or an older cousin would push me until I soared higher than I would have dared alone. The initial result was thrilling but if they pushed too hard, I would be annoyed and make them stop. I would then quickly slow my speed until I was once again comfortable. However, I would inevitably climb higher on my own because their push had shown me I could reach that height.

You may find that you have become comfortable swinging at a certain height. You’re coasting along enjoying the view, secure in your position. Alternatively, maybe you want to soar higher but you can’t pump hard enough to get to the next level. You need a push. A push can come in the form of inspiration from someone we admire, or a word of encouragement from a coach or mentor. And yes, sometimes a push really is a hard push that jolts us from our comfortable height and forces us to find our balance while swinging.

I am at a time in my own life when I feel that nudge to go just a little higher. My belly clinches with a mixture of fear but excitement too wondering, “How high can I go?” I hope that you will stay with me as I propel myself backward, thrust my legs out and prepare to go just a little higher. How about you? Do you need a push or are you soaring at the right altitude?

Karen

Photo credit: Higher and Higher – mathteacher on Flickr

Lying Authors and their Tales of Woe

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Another author has been outed as a liar. Margaret Seltzer is the latest author to pass off fiction as a memoir. In the language of the ‘hood she professed to have lived, her own sister “dropped a dime on her” (translation, her sister told). Seltzer’s book “Love and Consequences” was supposedly a memoir detailing her violent and drug running childhood in South Central. Writing as Margaret B. Jones the critically acclaimed novel enjoyed a week as a literary darling before the lies were exposed.

Seltzer/Jones now joins James Frey and Stephen Glass in the growing list of writers who lie their way to fame. Lying authors make it harder to gain the reading public’s trust. The internet and “reality” TV have already taught us to be leery of what is spun as truth but there was a time you could trust a memoir to be true.

Seltzer’s story is both tragic and laughable. A news reporter checked one part of Seltzer’s story, her college education, in 5 minutes, something her publisher never bothered to do. Uncovering the lie before publishing certainly would have raised red flags and prevented the now humiliating venture.

Other clues were obvious. To begin with, “South Central” is a media term. No one who actually knows Watts, Compton, Inglewood or LA actually uses the misnomer. Insiders also would have never fallen for her half white / half Native American drug runner for the bloods. I am from Southern California and know these neighborhoods well including Seltzer’s real hood – The Valley! But I digress….

What really bugs me is why authors feel the need to pass off fiction as fact? Why not just write a good story and call it what it is – fiction? Readers do still love a good story, don’t they? In fiction, you have the freedom to pull in bits and pieces of reality and twist and shape them into a good tale.

Thanks to Seltzer and others the book public has once again been duped, and the writing community stung by the shame they bring to the profession. May their pens melt at the touch!

Karen

Photo: © John Weise | Dreamstime.com

The Importance Of Managing Relationships In Sales

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I always enjoy Online Spin but this post (click read more below for full post) really resonated with me. I have written on the topic of authenticity in the past and I am passionate about spreading the message. Shifting our thinking from “what can I get” to “what can I give” has the power to transform the way we do business. Stop for a moment and consider how would your marketing message change if your sole goal was to give something to your customers with nothing to be gained in return? One of the reasons that “sales” has such negative connotations is because it is viewed as a one way attempt to manipulate you into a purchase decision. Authentic sales is creating a relationship, uncovering needs and providing solutions. If you’re in business you obviously beleive that you have something valuable to offer. Why not market from that perspective? What do you have to give and why it is important?

read more | digg story

Twitter Dee, Twitter Dum

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A few weeks ago I blogged about my foray into social media marketing and the experiences have been surprising. One site that I have found particularly interesting is Twitter. Twitter has been described as Instant Messaging on steroids. Each message is limited to 140 characters and unlike IM you are talking to no one and everyone at the same time. The messages are called Tweets and those who Twitter are fondly referred to as Twits.

On Twitter, you build a network by “following” others. They in turn can choose to follow you too but it is not required.

Each day when I power up and greet my virtual work world, it is Twitter that I most look forward to reading. Throughout the day the stream of messages from across the globe weave together forming a story that is uniquely mine. The conversation threads range from the weather in Scotland, the anniversary in the Bay Area, the job openings in the Silicon Valley to a running commentary on politics, news and the economy.

I love the ability to follow multiple conversations at once. The eclectic mix of topics and global voices freely flowing throughout the day broadens my worldview. Twitter, for me is a like an international coffee shop. You can ease into your chair in the corner, sip your latte and delight in the myriad of conversations and interactions. The only difference is that you are free to join in rather than quietly observe.

Is Twitter good for business? Yes, but not in the ways expected. I am enriched by Twitter and the fleeting conversations. I have picked up resources, tips, and tricks that I would not have found on my own. All of these things allow me to be of greater value to my clients. However, the best benefit (in my opinion) is the opportunity to meet and interact with a diverse group of people. You learn what others are doing, thinking, reading, watching and what/who they value, all in 140 characters or less.

Do you twitter? What are your experiences? I’d love to hear from you. Comment or send a tweet, I’ll be listening. 😉

Karen

twitter.com/karenswim