Transforming Yourself from Expert to Guru - Mitchell Levy

3/29/2013

TRANSFORMING YOURSELF
FROM EXPERT TO GURU

Mitchell Levy, CEO,
Thought Leader Creator & Publisher,
g ,
THiNKaha

Mitchell Levy
mitchell.levy@thinkaha.com
Copyright© 2013 Mitchell Levy , All Rights Reserved.
(408) 257‐3000
http://mitchelllevy.com – page 1

Today’s Speaker

 Mitchell Levy

Copyright© 2013 Mitchell Levy , All Rights Reserved. http://mitchelllevy.com – page 2

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Mitchell Levy’s Background

Running the Consulted 100’s of Published over 225
e‐Commerce corporations, books under Turning Experts
component of Sun’s touched tens of multiple brands. into Thought
supply chain thousands of Have helped create Leaders.
($3.5b). people. numerous experts.

Phase 2: Phase 3: Phase 4:
Phase 1:
E‐Commerce Publisher / Thought Leader
Corporate (’84‐’97)
Guru(’97‐’04) Coach/Mentor (’05‐’12) Creator (’13‐?)


Our Agenda:

1 • Let’s define Expert and Guru

2 • How can you Transform into a Guru?

3 • What Steps can you Take to Start?


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1) Textbook Definitions:

What is an Expert? What is a Guru?
• Defined as a person who • A trusted counselor and
has a comprehensive and adviser; a mentor. *
authoritative knowledge of • A recognized leader in a
or skill in a particular area. field: the guru of high
(Oxford Dictionaries) finance. *
• Experts have a prolonged or • An acknowledged and
intense experience through
h h influential advocate, as of a
practice and education in a movement or idea.*
particular field. (Wikipedia) (*The Free Dictionary)


Mitchell Levy’s Definition

• You are a guru when others recognize you as an
expert in your space and seek you out for help…
expert in your space and seek you out for help
• You are one of the key “go‐to”
people in your space.


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2) Poll Question

• Assuming you are ok with that Definition, then how
can you be the go‐to person in your space?
can you be the “go to” person in your space?
a) Be a Thought Leader?
b) Heavy Social Media Activity?
c) Write Case Studies/White Papers?
d) Write a Book(s)?
e) Be Omnipresent?
Be Omnipresent?


Let’s start with what NOT to do!

• Doing one thing and expecting it to be all you have
to be known in your field.
to be known in your field
– Pay a publicist a hefty retainer of
$5‐$10K/mth to make you an expert.
– Writing a book and expecting
it to be a New York Times
Bestseller.
• Talking more about yourself
instead of the benefits you
bring to your clients.


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To Transform from Expert to Guru
You Need HELP

is for a Healthy following.

is about Execution, you need to Execute well.

is for Leadership.
i f L d hi

is Proven Platform.


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= Healthy Following

• You need to be an expert and have a following who
know that you are an expert and seek you out.
know that you are an expert and seek you out


= Executing Well

• Every time you interact, whether it is speaking or
delivering a promise, you need to execute well.
• Deliver on your promises and ensure you deliver on
the implied benefit of your brand.

Jason Alba


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= Leadership

• Grow and deliver your brand, then share that
wisdom with others.
• Think about becoming a book author, and exploring
media such as TV, radio, blogging, webinars, social
media, and more.

Pam Fox Rollin


= Proven Platform

• Need a robust platform – inside and outside your
organization to share your leadership, knowledge
organization – to share your leadership knowledge
and continuous learning.
• Stoke the fire and grow your network of followers.


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3) Getting Started Today (or Tomorrow)


What are Three Things You can do to
What are Three Things You can do to
Start your Journey?


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What are Three Things You can do to Start
Your Journey Today (or Tomorrow)?

Clearly define and articulate your market.
Know who is in it and what services you
can deliver to reach and affect that market.



Identify and start making friends with the
thought leaders in your space and try your best
to do favors for them. Comment on their blogs,
re‐tweet their tweets, introduce them, and
share their thought leadership with others.


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Define and put a plan in place to give yourself
p p p g y
month‐to‐month HELP. That plan should include:
a. Setting up media engagements.
b. Writing/ Crowdsourcing one or more books.
c. Allocating time each day to touch key folks
in your field.


How do You Pick the Topic To Write on?

• What are you expert in?
• What are you being hired for?
• What do you want to be hired for?


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Time Required to Author Your Book?

42 Rules / 42 Rules /
NY Happy About Happy About THiNKaha THiNKaha
Publisher Originate Crowdsource Originate Crowdsource
Time to
Time to 1,000 hrs
1 000 hrs 120 hrs
120 hrs 60 hrs
60 hrs 60 hrs
60 hrs 20 hrs
20 hrs
Write
Time to 9‐24 mths 2‐4 mths 2‐4 mths 1‐2 mths 3‐5 wks
Market

• Decide if you want to originate, aggregate or
curate the content.
• Answer the six questions at:
Answer the six questions at:
http://thinkaha.com/6questions
• Check out: http://www.thinkaha.com/write‐a‐
book/how‐to‐crowdsource‐your‐book/


What are Three Things You can do to Start the
Journey Today (or Tomorrow)?
1. Clearly define and articulate your market. Know who is
in it and what services you can deliver to reach and
affect that market.
2. Identify and start making friends with the thought
leaders in your space and try your best to do favors for
them. Comment on their blogs, re‐tweet their tweets,
introduce them, and share thought leadership with
others.
3. Define and put a plan in place to give yourself month‐
to‐month HELP. That plan should include:
a. S tti
Setting up media engagements.
di t
b. Writing/ Crowdsourcing one or more books.
c. Allocating time each day to touch key folks in
your field.


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Is This Journey for You?

• Do you want customers coming to you or do you
want to work hard to get them?
want to work hard to get them?
• Are you ready to put the time, energy and resources
necessary to be a “guru”?
• When you get there, do you want to grow your
organization or do you want to be a “solo”
practitioner?


Turning Experts into Gurus….

Wayne Turmel
Wayne Turmel


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Tools THiNKaha Offers to Help Experts
and Organizations with Their Transformation

• Thought Leadership Mentoring/Coaching
g p
• Thought Leadership Creation
– Quick & Easy Books (Series)
– Custom Books Created for Your Clients Needs
– Thought Leader (Content Curator) of a Subscription Service with lots of
relevant content
– Webinar Quality Enhancement/Production Service
– Training Course/Curriculum Development
• Getting Your Brand in the Market Place
– Social Media Support via Vetted Partners (www.socialcomplement.com)
– Getting Press through Gurus4Media (www.gurus4media.com)


Introducing Gurus4Media

• Free web‐based service to share your wisdom with
others: http://gurus4media.com
others: http://gurus4media com
• Use it to find media interested in you speaking on
the air or writing for their platform.
• Connect with other experts interested in writing in
your platform.
• P id f
Paid for services also available for radio tours, blog
i l il bl f di bl
writing, social media, webinar support, marketing
and strategic consulting.


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Case Study:
MarketingXLerator http://gurus4media.com

1. Natascha Thomson of 3. On the show, Natascha provided
MarketingXLerator.com, a B2B social media advice to Michael
Social Media Marketing Dresser, the show host.
Consultancy, and soon‐to‐be 4. After the show, Michael
published Happy About author provided Natascha with
was testing Gurus4Media. feedback on her radio
performance.
2. Natascha found a post recruiting 5. They agreed on a trade: Michael
guests for the “Dresser After would provide her with coaching
Dark” (now The Michael Dresser
Dark” (now The Michael Dresser & Natascha would help with the
Show) radio show social media strategy for the
radio show.


Our Gifts to You for Your Transformation...
• Three eBooks (at no charge)

http://happyabout.com/
42rules/books‐drive‐success.php
l /b k d h

To download: http://thinkaha.com/crowdsourcing‐
• Go to the book URLs and click tweet‐book01
on “Purchase eBook” http://thinkaha.com/creating‐
• I th d fi ld t i
In the coupon code field, type in thought leaders tweet book01/
thought‐leaders‐tweet‐book01/
“Author”.
• This will zero out the cost.
Or
• Go to:
http://mitchelllevy.com/books
• Click on Download Copies…

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OPEN DISCUSSION!
GOT QUESTIONS?

Mitchell Levy
mitchell levy@thinkaha com
(408) 257‐3000

Speaking/Mentoring/Coaching
www.mitchelllevy.com
www.thinkaha.com

Getting the Word Out
www.socialcomplement.com
www.gurus4media.com

Publishing Arms
www.42rules.com
www.happyabout.com


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THINKAHA PUBLISHING
HIGHLIGHTS
Reasons to play in our
p yg
playground


GOT QUESTIONS?

We turn Corporate Leaders and Experts
into Recognized Thought Leaders

Mitchell Levy
(408) 257‐3000


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3/29/2013

Some of our brands…

THiNKaha® www.thinkaha.com
Happy About® www.happyabout.com
H Ab t® h b t
42 Rules™ www.42rules.com

Your
Book


Is Our Brand Known?

• Depends on the circles. In many its very widely known, in
others, you'll need to let them know that we've published
over 225 books:
– Some of our authors are Marshall Goldsmith, Jason Alba, Kimberly
Wiefling, Judith Glaser, Pam Fox Rollin, Mindy Roberts, Chris
Edmonds, Ronnie Lott, Kevin Eikenberry, etc.
– Some of the companies we’ve worked with are Synopsys, Cisco,
Microsoft, HP, SAP, Kodak, Walmart.com, etc.
– Some of the folks that have written forewords include Paul
McCartney, Ken Blanchard, Guy Kawasaki, Steve Wozniak, Joe Pulizzi,
Mark Stelzner, Jeffrey Hayzlett, Sean Payton, Dan Schwabel, etc.


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Where We Distribute

• Please look at this url for a listing of what we do:
http://www.happyabout.com/distribution.php
– Amazon (US, Canada, UK, Germany, France and Japan)
– BN.com and Nook Book Store
– 50+ other eTailers, including, but not limited to (iBook Store, Amazon Inside,
Amazon Kindle, Ingram Digital, Google Books, Mobipocket, Sales Gravy, Kobo
and Books24x7)
– Up to 15,000 libraries through NetLibrary and Content Reserve
– Ingram and Baker & Taylor (the distributors to ~95% of bookstores in the US)
– The THiNKaha family of web sites including, but not limited to
(THiNkaha.com, HappyAbout.com, 42Rules.com, NowWhatBookSeries.com,
Quick2Publish.com, ListenersPress.com, ScrappyAbout.com, and
AuthorThoughtLeadership.com)


We Make it Easy to Publish Quality
Books, Webinars, etc.
Expert Thought Leader Services
We help our experts become thought leaders through a number
of different services, here’s detail on books and training.

Experts Experts
Publishing a Delivering
Book Training
Copy Edit Reviewing Content
Content Layout Polishing Style
Cover Design Coaching on Virtual Delivery
Distribution Delivering a Quality User Experience
Block and Tackle Marketing Following up After the Webinars
Managing Details and Logistics

All of our team is available to support and help our
experts become thought leaders…


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Create one or a Set of Books in the THiNKaha Actionable Business Summary Series

#SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING Book Series
Subtitle Co‐Author
You have questions, these books have answers!
On‐boarding that Works in Today's Environment Open
The books in the #SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING series focus on a
variety of components of corporate learning. Each book is comprised of 140 Sustainability of L&D Programs Open
bite‐sized ideas that will get you thinking about and remind you of things you
Successfully Using Coaching & Mentoring Programs Open
need to do. Please share other topics you’d like to work on.
Blended Learning Open

Subtitle Co‐Author
Co Author Compliance Training that’s Current, Fun & Useful
Compliance Training that’s Current Fun & Useful Open

• Profitable Training by Optimizing your Terry Lydon, VP, Effective Mobile Learning Open
Customer and Partner Education Organization Rainmaker Systems
Engineering Performance, Driving ROI and Orchest Open
* Critical Skills Learning Professionals Need Now Bill Cushard, Director of T&D, rating Corporate Sustainability
Allonhill
Video’s Role in Learning Open
* Instructional Design for Today’s Employees Vickey Halsey, Chris Edmonds,
The Ken Blanchard Company Testing to Drive Performance Open

* Career Transition Training and Services Barbara Safani, Career Solvers Buying the Right L&D Assets Open

* Knowledge Management Michael Prevou, Strategic Creating & Maintaining the Right L&D Assets Open
Knowledge Solutions
Maximizing Effectiveness of the Employee Lifecycle Open
Creating a Learning Culture Kevin Eikenberry
Train‐the‐Trainer Open
Communities of Practice
Communities of Practice Mike Hower, Strategic
Mike Hower Strategic Exploring Social & Informal Learning
Exploring Social & Informal Learning Open
Knowledge Solutinos
Using Social Media Tools Open
Creating Powerful High‐Quality Webinars Sharyn Fitzpatrick, THiNKaha
Search and Learn, the Google Effect on a Learning Open
Collaboration Tools and Techniques David Coleman, Collaborative Culture
Strategies

Making Training Stick John Moxley, Cricket
Communications

NOTE: All books in this series are written by corporate learning experts * Already Published
and co‐authored with Mitchell Levy, CEO of THiNKaha®.  In line with the
*** This represents an example of a series of
THiNKaha book series, the titles are all the same and the subtitle
books we can help you create!
describes the focus of the book.


Deliver Customized Versions of Your Book
to Key Customers or Partners
This examples shows Walmart.com’s CEO
customizing #POSITIVITY at WORK tweet. Insert your personalized letter inside the book
Make a statement that will be heard and
remembered inside your company
Enable “aha” moments for your employees

Prices for customized (starburst and/or logo on
jacket, letter inside) books:
S. Chris Edmonds
 51‐100*                     ‐ $15.96/book
 101‐200**                 ‐ $14.96/book
 201‐499                    ‐ $13.96/book
 500‐2,499                 ‐ $12.97/book
 2,500+                      ‐ $ 9.98/book
 10,000‐99,000          ‐ $ 6.99/book
 100,000‐999,999      ‐ $ 3.99/book
Lisa Zigarmi  1,000,000+               ‐ $ 1.1/book

eBooks:
Organizational psychologists, S. Chris Edmonds  1‐10*                          ‐ $11.95/book
and Lisa Zigarmi believe that work is a vital and  10‐999*                      ‐ $ 7.50/book
ready means to well‐being. In an age where  1,000+   ‐ $ 3.50/book
people live for the weekends, they show readers
that work can fulfill their individual needs for * $500 customization charge
autonomy, connection, and impact while helping ** $350 customization charge
their organizations thrive. Note: Will add shipping (and tax in CA)

www.thinkaha.com/positivity‐at‐work‐tweet‐book01

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Thought Leadership Mentoring

We turn your corporate
We turn your corporate
leaders and experts into
recognized thought leaders
in their “space”.
This
program
delivers

You get a customized
program consisting of
mentoring, coaching and
services designed to help
your experts be
successful.

Be the Thought Leader Powering a Subscription Service
to Larger Set of Your Client’s Employees

THiNKaha can make some or all of our books, plus other assets from yours
and other experts available to your audience. Great way to educate an
audience on a key topic.

Curation Expert: Now the great part. You
will be the recognized “Branded” thought
leader owning the selection and ongoing
addition of content to this service!


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Webinar Quality: We Transform Webinars from
Basic, Engaging or Expert into Guru
When it comes to Webinars, everyone would like to have a “Guru”
presentation. It is, however, not necessary for every presenter to spend the
time and money necessary to create such a Webinar.  In in order to measure Engaging Guru

Content Delivery
the perceived impact  of a Webinar, we look at both the quality of the content
presented and the way it was delivered.

 Content quality is the evaluation of the presenters understanding of the
subject for the audience they are presenting to.
 Content delivery involves the notion of delivering the content in the
form that the audience wants to process it: auditorilly, visually and Basic Expert
kinesthetically.

Focusing on both content quality and content delivery will allow the presenter
to bring their Webinars from “Basic” to “Guru”.

Content Quality
A “Basic” webinar has OK delivery and OK quality. A “talking head” presentation typically falls in this category. There is nothing
Basic wrong with a “Basic” Webinar as speed of delivery allows the message to be communicated quickly.

An “Engaging” webinar does all forms of content delivery well, but needs help fine‐tuning the quality of the content to the
Engaging audience. This is a webinar that really captures the attendee, but doesn’t deliver a strong content quality punch. For a typical
business audience, one can argue that an “Engaging” webinar is better than an “Expert” one.

An “Expert” webinar has great quality of content, but only uses one form of delivery well (e.g. a business audience may find it
Expert boring). For a technical audience, having “Expert” content quality is much better than an “Engaging” person that appears salesy.

Guru A “Guru” webinar utilizes all three forms of content delivery and great content quality. In short, an “Engaging” “Expert” delivers a
“Guru” performance.


We Help You be a Thought Leader
Offered by Patrick Reilly and Tony Deblauwe

• Managing Up Webinar
Cost: $75 per person

In this one hour webinar, you will learn the key concepts for managing up effectively. Managing up has
always been a critical business skill but is essential for today’s global and distributed workforce. Gallup
surveys repeatedly show that the relationship between employee and supervisor is the most important
relationship in the workplace and a key ingredient to successful communication.

• Take aways from the webinar include:

 Why connection and relationship is more important than completing tasks
 p y g y
How to partner with your boss to enhance alignment and efficiency

 Creating the mindset of stepping into your boss’ shoes
 Developing your leadership point of view

 Crafting accountability


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3/29/2013

Use Your Book/Webinar and Others to Customize a
Program for Your Clients/Audience
THiNKaha offers cost‐effective, ongoing employee development that is customizable
and flexible for the learner and the organization. The content needs to be engaging,
actionable and applicable to their job immediately. This program will continually
foster “aha” moments!

Leadership Training (Use as is or modify to meet your needs)

Mo. Guru Webinar (In‐Person) Sessions Complementary Book
1 Effective Relationship with Your Boss #MANAGING UP tweet

2 Engaging Your Staff 42 Rules of Employee Engagement

3 Effective Coaching #COACHING tweet

4 Effective Teamwork #TEAMWORK tweet

5 Effective Project Management #PROJECT MANAGEMENT tweet
Scrappy Project Management

6 Effective Leadership
Eff ti L d hi #LEADERSHIP tweet
#LEADERSHIP t t

7 Managing Millennials #MILLENNIAL tweet

8 Managing Sales People 42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness Management
Sales People

9 Managing Diversity #DIVERSITY tweet

10 ***Your Choice of Topic ‐‐You Suggest the Author




Show Your Thought Leadership Easily
Using an Aggregation Service
Use one of the aggregation tools to sort through and curate content for
reading or demonstrating thought leadership. THiNKaha can quickly
train you (or outsource) you to be a “curation expert.”


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Transforming Yourself from Expert to Guru - Mitchell Levy

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Transforming Yourself from Expert to Guru - Mitchell Levy