Process or Perspective Gurus

Published by Matt Church – Founder on 13 September 2023

What do you know that you could become professionally famous for knowing?

No time to read the blog? You can listen to it here.

I use the term Guru lightly here.

Cracking the ceiling commercially as a thought leader requires a few particular things for everyone and the occasional specific thing for someone. One important distinction for most people I meet is to make the move from being process-focused and instead to becoming perspective-focused.

Here is a snippet from Susan Jaques, one of our Black Belt graduates (earns $720,000 or more a year) as she talks to that.

When we start out, we often deliver what we know as a process, very ‘how to’ based. We offer step-by-step explanations and walk people through ideas using some kind of scaffold or framework. Often, the framework you are working with is drawn from someone else’s model. Coaches, facilitators, and trainers are often delivering someone else’s insights and doing so through a process. My Leadership Landscape Certification is an example of exactly this. Leadership coaches and facilitators can become certified in my leadership frameworks. It’s a great way for new thought leaders to generate their first $10,000-$20,000 a month. It’s hard however to make $15,000 days delivering someone else’s ideas.

Over time, we encourage thought leaders to dig deep into what they know, have done, and who they are and unearth some insights that they can publish and build a commercial practice around.

This requires you to answer a series of questions (ironically a process!).

Ask yourself:

Have I found a way to collate a list of all the things I know?

Of all the things I know, what are not mine to own? Whose ideas am I borrowing?

Of all the things that are left, have I spent time expanding my thinking around these?

Is my thinking well-rounded or is it skewed by my preferences?

Am I unpacking what I know in a way that means I can use them again and again by adjusting what part of the idea I share in what situation?

Then once you have done some of this initial meta-thinking around your thinking, you want to compare what you know against what is being currently said in your field of expertise. Read books and research that are current and classic best sellers on your topic. As you read these, ask yourself what do I agree with here and what don’t I agree with? And then go further and ask yourself what can I add to what is being said here?

These questions will help you start to get a sense of what you know. Once you capture what you know, we can then go about packaging that up in a way that has high value for your clients.

The big question this week is: What do you know that you could become professionally famous for knowing?