Vince Samios

“Guru Marketing” – positioning oneself as a “Guru” in ones field.

Profit Driven

Guru Marketing is all about one thing… generating profits. Nothing else matters, not quality of content, not originality, not even truth. Sales funnels identify buyers from non-buyers, and push endless products on those buyers, regardless of the value being offered. And it gets taken to a complete extreme, like £24,000 weekends where the “Guru” doesn’t even personally contribute. A person of expertise doesn’t try to sell you things for the sake of selling you things.

Egotistical

“Guru’s” develop mammoth egos. You dare not question, disagree with, judge, contradict or discredit a Guru. Guru’s will only tolerate the groupies and approach resistance almost psychopathically. The holier than thou attitude displayed by the vast majority of “Guru’s” is frightening. They become unapproachable in their own self created celebrity. A person of expertise is not afraid of criticism and debate, and rather embraces it as a source of further development. “It’s through heated debate that we knowledge create”

Out of touch

Guru’s are simply making too much money being Guru’s and therefore lose touch with the subject matter they are supposedly experts in. I know of a Marketing Guru who has never had any business other than his self branding as a Guru teaching (regurgitating) marketing strategies which said Guru has never personally experienced. What is that about? I know of other Guru’s whose course content hasn’t changed for five years in rapidly evolving markets such as Internet Marketing. Guru’s who haven’t done any internet marketing for five years, save for marketing their internet marketing materials. A person of expertise should have continued experience and exposure to the subject matter they choose to teach, with proven success to back up relevant experience.

Rehashed

Because Guru’s are out of touch, and because Guru’s are so heavily profit driven, they end up Rehashing old content and re-selling it under a slightly different guise to the “buyers”. Guru’s also need to appear to be on the ball and fresh, so you often see a product with slight modifications being released as “Snakeoil 2!” or “Snakeoil Reloaded!” or “Snakeoil Supercharged!”.  A person of expertise doesn’t look to rehash old information, rather searches for new information.

Crowd Sourcing

A personal gripe of mine. Guru’s have a terrible habit of leeching from their following. If a celebrity asks you to do them a favour, many people would love to do that favour just to be associated with said celebrity. While the “Guru” is more than able to pay for the service (due to profits from rehashed crap) their overinflated ego’s make them believe they are doing somebody a favour by using that person. Egotistical reasoning being “Bob can do my dirty laundry because it’s a great boost for Bob to be in contact with me” – In crowd sourcing I’ve seen it all, from free road trips to free full time mundane secretarial work. A true expert expects to pay for every single service they require.

Bullshit

Guru’s are essentially bullshitters. If they say they are, and market themselves as such, the vast majority of people will believe it to be true. They fake their way to self declared Guru status. They are out of touch but declare themselves to be the number a cutting edge expert. Guru’s no longer practice what they preach. Rehashed products are sold as original unique material. Old information is sold as new. Using people who admire you via crowd sourcing is bullshit! A true expert can’t be accused of any of the above.

Conclusion

• A true expert doesn’t have to resort to professing to be a guru.
• A level of expertise is reached by peer review, not self promotion.
• An expert practices what they preach, and ceases to be an expert when they cease to exercise that expertise.
• A true expert is self assured enough in their expertise to welcome debate.
• A true expert only needs to release new material.
• A true expert pays for services rather than using groupies.