I probably seemed a bit curmudgeonly in my disdain for the royal wedding yesterday but I wasn’t negative about the pleasure other people found in watching it. I am not even against the odd bit of pomp and circumstance. In fact I even watched some edited highlights and these included Parry’s wonderful anthem I Was Glad which brought back memories of the many times I sang it as part of St. Salvator’s Chapel choir in St. Andrews. I remembered taking part in the many formal occasions that the royal couple must similarly been involved in while they were there.

So what’s been bugging me. I think it centres around a couple of words used by the BBC anchor man for the day. I was out of the room at the time but overheard him commenting on the size and enthusiasm of the crowd and contrasting this with our “cynical society” and “lack of deference”. At this point I yelled “Oh fuck off” from the kitchen much to my wife’s annoyance!

Both of his assumptions bugged me. I don’t think we are a cynical society. I think people are generally healthier, happier and in a better state than they have ever been and I marvel at the many ways they show energy and enthusiasm for all sorts of things. I also appreciate the best in people and even reckon the Queen does a good job in a tough role.

But the other word is the one that really gets me – deferential. Dictionary definition “humble submission and respect”. Why should I be deferential simply because of the position someone holds? Why should I accord the decidedly weird group of people who have become our royal family through some pretty dodgy dealings throughout history “humble submission and respect”? There have been enough occasions when people in positions of authority have shown that they don’t deserve my deference to make insisting on it a form of madness.

Respect – fine. Acknowledgment of authority – fine. But deference – oh fuck off.

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Banning Facebook is like banning the telephone. What people in authority don’t realise is that it is just a tool. Any tool can be used or misused. What they should be focussed on is harnessing its potential not being paranoid about what people do with it.

Facebook, like so many social tools, is actually primarily about learning. Yes learning what people had for breakfast – but also learning news, learning what works, learning what books are best to read, learning where to find the right bit of information.

It is particularly ironic when schools ban Facebook as they are the very ones who should be teaching effective use of this technology – not keeping their pupils stuck in some industrial, factory model of learning.

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Tonight I attended a music competition at my daughter’s school. We were truly blown away by the standard of all of the acts which had been organised, choreographed and written by the pupils themselves. Genuinely talented, nice kids lifting the spirit with their energy and commitment.

Then came the adjudication. One of the most inappropriate responses I have seen in years. Every comment on every item had to have the obligatory “could try harder” element which of course ended up being delivered with more relish than the rest of the feedback.

Goodness knows what motivated the woman but her behaviour struck me as a classic case of being given authority and assuming that that means keeping things in check and being in a position of knowing better – even if you don’t. You can stack it up alongside the price of pomposity as one of those so, so damaging, and unnecessary, aspects of authority that we could well do without.

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It is interesting how we can read about someone else’s ideas and put our own spin on those ideas and make them uniquely our own.

One of the most worn out books I own is Robert Bly’s How To Become A Recognized Authority In Your Field In 60 Days Or Less. The cover is falling off this little paperback book of wisdom. I have highlighted, bookmarked and notated many of the pages in it. And I keep learning from it.

But I am also spinning out my own ideas using Bly’s work as a starting point.

The genius of Robert Bly’s strategy is that you become successful by giving your knowledge and information away in the form of booklets, ebooks, articles, speeches, workshops, seminars, CDs, DVDs and by writing books.

He says, “Volumes have been written about selling and marketing, especially for entrepreneurs, small businesses and self-employed professionals. But there is one marketing strategy that, if you master it, eliminates the need to do any other type of selling or marketing ever: becoming a guru.”

A “guru,” as Bly uses the term, is not a negative at all. It is what he refers to as a person who has become a recognized authority in his or her field. In other words, rainmaking is marketing your professional practice or business by becoming a known expert.

Here are 11 steps I have come up with, fully given Bob Bly credit for sparking my own ideas, that you can use to become a recognized authority in your own field:

1. Start a blog on your topic. Write at least 2-3 paragraphs a day. Soon you will find that your ideas flow and you will probably be writing much more, but discipline yourself to write at least 2-3 paragraphs a day.
2. Don’t let any perceived technical ignorance keep you from creating a blog. If you can send someone an email, you can start a blog in about 10 minutes if you use Blogger.com.
3. Don’t be embarrassed when the inevitable days come when you write nothing but junk. That’s not the point. Even your worst writing can be rewritten later after time has given you perspective on it. Your only goal at this stage is to be writing out your ideas about your field each day. It is a building process. Besides, at first no one will be reading your blog, so there is nothing to be embarrassed about.
4. For the time being, focus only on blogging every day for two months. Two or three paragraphs a day, every day. Then print out everything you have written. You will pleasantly surprise yourself that some of your material is very good. The rest may need revision and polishing, but it too will be useful.
5. Now take your accumulated writings and start writing articles using this material. Publish some of your articles online at some of the more than 400 article submission sites or article banks on the web. Just do a Google search for “article submission sites” and you will have more than enough places to submit your articles to.
6. Also write some larger articles for offline publications. Get a copy of the Writer’s Market, which is published by Writers Digest Books each year. Don’t attempt to send your articles to the larger publications (yet), for now target trade magazines that service your target clients.
7. These trade magazines are much more flexible and likely to accept articles from unknowns. Most will even pay you a small fee for your articles, so you can now start covering some of your costs.
8. Keep reprints of your articles for marketing purposes. They will make great inserts in your mailings and publicity kits.
9. Keep blogging while you do all this, never let yourself write less than your daily 2-3 paragraphs. Your blogging produces your raw material that can be reworked and recycled into other formats.
10. About the time you are basking in the glow of becoming a published writer, you will have written enough material that can be “morphed” into many useful formats. Your material might comprise a booklet you can send to prospective clients, or you might rework that booklet to be an ebook you can email to anyone who may help you build your business.
11. Within a year, you should have enough material to start thinking about a bigger project like an outline for a workshop or a full-length book. It has been said that a book is the ultimate sales literature. Imagine a client who is trying to choose between you and a competitor. If you are the professional who can give this person a book you have written &well I think we all know how the client will choose.

The real genius of marketing yourself by becoming a recognized authority is that clients will come to you. As an expert you will be able to charge higher fees than your competition and you will generally work with the best clients.

COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

Author: Charles Brown
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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