I'm Not Your Guru

// The Frustration

We all have the same amount of time in a day - this phrase is trotted out so often, it would be suitable to add it to everyone's Linkedin bio but there is a rare breed of human who seems to be able to get more done than the rest of us.

There are those business leaders who become 'superstars' or 'known' - they get to the top of their industry by leveraging social media and build their profile enough so that they become a part of a throng of business leaders who get known for being successful - it started with the Richard Bransons and Alan Sugars in this country, but you could throw Donald Trump or Warren Buffet into that mix too - these business leaders became the pinnacle of what success looks like and so a new breed of 'famous' business leaders continued.

It's continued into the modern world with rising moguls like Gary Vee and Tai Lopez - these are the people that headline business conferences and they draw big crowds - all to somehow coach, educate or inspire another level of business leaders to greater success.

The by-product of having 'big' names headline business conferences is that the fees become greater, the availability dwindles and the next level of entrepreneurial business leaders have to make up the numbers - and so the cycle continues.. more business leaders become known, they learn that Youtube and Instagram elevate them further than they've been before, they start to believe their own hype and so they create a course or accelerator to be just like them.

And again, the cycle continues - more and more business leaders become 'thought leaders' and in the end, the audience gets diluted albeit for a few hundred dedicated followers who listen, believe and try to implement everything they hear.

It's often ends up resembling a pyramid scheme, the ground-breaking famous leaders - Bill Gates/Richard Branson all write books and give interviews which then in turn means their followers dissect that into a way that they can distill to 'be the next 'Bill Gates' - when these efforts fail to attract real-world clients they end up pivoting to selling "business-in-a-box" formulas to other aspiring coaches which ends up leaving the market saturated with people selling air.

Success is personal, success isn't learnt. You have to put in the work, you have to learn the way as you go and, the biggest thing that's never talked about is that most of the biggest business leaders were very lucky - they were in the right place, at the right time and they leveraged what they had.

// The Leaders?

This article is titled 'I'm Not Your Guru' and a good few years back, Tony Robbins released a Netflix special using the exact same title with the whole premise being that you do all the work, he doesn't do anything. He coaches you, he asks you the questions to get you to a place where you can easily see the answer and you apply the newly found knowledge in the way that you decide - not in a prescriptive 'do this and then this' way, but more of a 'try something and see if it works' way.

It's how coaches are supposed to operate.

About 3 years ago, I had an impromptu coaching session with a good friend of mine, Christophe Stourton and we spent a good hour or so (probably longer but it flew by) drawing up what I wanted to achieve in my life in the next few years (a lot of it, I have achieved or I'm on the way to achieving) but what Christophe didn't do in that hour is that he didn't give me a way to achieve it.

He allowed me to picture it, we drew it up and then he allowed me to visualise it. I think that's way more powerful as it's down to me to find out the way to create that picture for myself.

That is my problem with these lower level business coaches - they all want to tell you how to achieve something which resembles their dream using their method - they all want to give you advice based on their experience and they all want you to implement their way of working because well, it worked for them.

I am growing increasingly frustrated with all of these business mentors/gurus - they are pushing their methods onto business leaders who are so desperate for answers and to grow that they are willing to listen to any form of advice just to get there.

These leaders may run successful businesses, they may know how to leverage Youtube or Instagram to build a social following (both are needed in this modern world) but they don't know your business - unless you pay them a sizeable sum and even then, they can't guarantee you success as they have the caveat that if you don't put in the work, it'll be your fault.

// The Courses

As I said at the start - this all started with business leaders crossing over into the mainstream by leveraging media channels to share their knowledge, show off their wealth and create followers - the natural next step was to share the methods on how to get there - it's another revenue stream after all.

But as with music, there are only so many chords available - there are only so many methods available to grow.

These business leaders just mixed them up in a different order, in a different industry and they've found success - then they want to emulate their heroes (Branson and Gates) and they create their own courses.

But it's a plain ol' case of the Emperors New Clothes - everything is the same, everything is badged up differently but you're getting the watered down version because there are only so many billionaire level business owners, so the success becomes diluted and the methods get weaker.

The courses are badged up in the same way - whether thats a time driven goal, a revenue goal or a (newly created) metric of social following - all these coaches promise very similar outcomes with the same caveats in them. The courses all follow a similar method - sprints, accelerators, plug and play models to implement in your business and in the most expensive of cases, 1-2-1 coaching support.

They all want to share the successes that others have found using their methods and they all preach that it was their method which gave those business leaders that success.

And the courses have a high level of attrition - I know because I've been on them. I've been on Instagram growth courses (and not finished the course) - I've been on DIY (Do-It-Yourself), DIT (Do-It-Together) and DFY (Done For You) courses and none have created 'success' - but don't let that sway you, I'm sure (based on the course reviews and the guru themselves) - there is a high level of success for these courses... promise guv'.

// The Problem

The business gurus you're buying have already had their business success before they became the coach you're looking up to - they built their businesses and now, they're trying to sell you their method but they've already built their businesses to get the platform they're preaching from.

You're listening to someone tell you how to grow a business in the way they did it, using a blanket approach to any industry because it offers them a platform to continue to be involved with businesses - the cyclical nature of this is that they build a business, they get to the top of their tree, they become 'known' and famous and that offers them more opportunities so they get involved with another business, leveraging their notoriety to grow said business and then the cycle continues.

If you've bought a course, an accelerator or you're following the method they're selling you - you don't have the social following, you don't have an email marketing database and you can't leverage your limited network to complete those final two steps.

It's a fundamental flaw in the business coaching model which is traded by these gurus - you're not famous, you're don't have a team behind you which is able to consistently post or create on social media and you can't gain the traction that these business leaders want you to have.

But - these coaches aren't perfect either - most gurus also fail so they fall back a level and they end up being coached by another coach who is telling them how to coach others - because that's their business model..

Madness.

Coaches who are coaching coaches to coach other business leaders who in turn want to become coaches themselves..

// The Solution

Do it yourself.

Be the cocktail waiter who wants to create a new drink for his patrons, take the best parts of what you know works in a drink and then mix it up.

Do what you think is best, not what some guru tells you and follow what you think will work for your business.

As Christophe got me to do, map out what you want your business to look like in the future and then you work out how to get there - not a guru you've found on the internet - you.

You built your business, you got it to the position it's in now so do what got you there - refined.

I'm not your guru and I can't tell you how to grow your business - I can only tell you what I would do but that's not any use is it because thats your business.

I am just tired of hearing from business leaders who have had some level of success, have gotten some level of notoriety because they've been successful in one way or another and now, they see themselves as the bible or font of all business knowledge.

Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day and everyone is winging it - including those gurus you're trying to learn and grow from.