I lit a candle for a colleague’s launch today. Not because I endorse her work – because it doesn’t cost me anything to wish her well, and mean it. Her success means that people are awake and showing up, asking for more. Thinking about this made me realize just how much I’ve been dying to say:
The Expert Era is dead. Make way for the Luminary.
Watching wanna-be experts position themselves like warlords is a little… silly. Time to stop selling information in the dark ages.
Whether it’s acknowledged or not, we’re moving out of our medieval expert fiefdoms, and into a dialogue across brands. Instead of navigating by fences along adolescent territories, consumers are finding their way by the Luminary businesses that light up the landscape. (Not satellites masquerading as stars, but brands grounded firm in their foundations. That’s a distinction worth making, don’t ya think?)
We haven’t actually sold “information” for a long time, and no crash cart is going to resuscitate that style of business. We may as well call time-of-death for the expert brand, and move on to Luminary territory:
Instead of selling the right info, teaching the right questions to ask. Instead of hawking a heap of benefits, marketing the ultimate impact of an investment.
This shift requires different style of leadership, altogether. An expert has cultivated information on a narrow topic, and is able to regurgitate it at will. A Luminary is a leader of people and progress. An expert sells info, a Luminary provides inspiration and resources for their community.
An expert can’t wait to talk. A Luminary listens deep, and starts a dialogue.
When it’s made, the shift from expert to Luminary is immediately apparent. It feels expansive… Customer-centric, yet more respectful of your own gifts. Generous, yet more independent.
But there’s a problem.
When you soften your fake warlord stance, drop the pirate flag, and dump the crap trappings of an expert, things get mushy. As you embrace your inner Luminary, two issues instantly reveal themselves:
1. Your incomplete branding is immediately obvious, because your hard work looks generic.
2. Your audience doesn’t get what the hell you’re talking about, much less want to BUY it, until you finish branding it.
So your natural authority doesn’t carry. The richness of your inner work doesn’t translate. It may even look beautiful, but it’s still unclear… People are thinking, “It looks so nice, but what the hell is it?”
Unless you win them over one by one, people aren’t getting “it” the way they should. At all. So not only is your message not scalable yet, your incomplete branding means you’re missing out on profits, too.
To be the Luminary you were meant to be, you’ve gotta light up the landscape with a world-class brand to match.
Change-makers, messengers, expert entrepreneurs, I’m calling your name. Babe, they can’t see the big picture you’ve captured, until you bring it into sharper focus for them. Simply put, they need it branded to get it.
The Luminary’s time has come. Let’s leave behind expert-warlord-dress up, take your biz beyond the basics, and build a branded conversation.
For the next few weeks, we’re going to do just that: 1. get real about how to develop and share the Luminary within, and 2. build your world-class brand.
I hope you’ll join the conversation, and spread it far and wide. Can’t wait to share the first piece.
Big love,
Your turn… what’s your take?
Take a good look at your biz conversation, and share: What about your message is clear, and what about your message has yet to translate?
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