Posted by: Daniel Levis
September 17, 2008
Issue #505

Why the old rules of authority
no longer apply …

Dear Web Business-Builder,

Authority is a potent weapon in your persuasion arsenal when you’re creating info-products. There’s no doubt about it. The more you have, the easier it is to get people to buy stuff.

But what is it — really? And how do you get more of it?

That is the question we ponder this week. Buried somewhere in this article I, promise you an answer – really I do.

In the beginning …

… Once upon a time, it was the biggest, brawniest Neanderthal who had all of the authority. That much we know.

Nevermind he didn’t know a damn thing more than any of the other blockheads in the tribe. His physical prowess and temperament meant he made all the rules and you obeyed them or else.

But as civilization progressed, it became more and more difficult for one person to have all of the answers. And so the big galoot began to delegate some of his authority to others … grudgingly at first.

If someone had knowledge about when to plant crops or how to ensure the supply of wildlife remained plentiful, then he was useful.

A bright leader could easily see that by anointing a “shaman,” he could transfer some of his own responsibility for natural phenomena to someone else. Then if something went awry, it would be the shaman, not he, who’d get pelted with rocks by the rest of the tribe.

Thus the long evolution of power sharing and the ascendance of knowledge as the path to authority began to emerge.

Being able to make sense of the natural world meant the shaman understood and could interpret “the will of the gods.” And so with the leader’s endorsement, he became the authority on “all things holy.”

And as this endorsement took root, the shaman became a new kind of leader in his own right. When he had a solid base of believers, his need for the big galoot’s endorsement waned.

He began to build his own power structure by sharing knowledge and authority with others — selectively mind you. Apprentices were given just enough to do what was expected of them — like conduct a ritual sacrifice, for example — but no more.

Only those closest to the top of the hierarchy were given access to the most arcane knowledge. And they protected it with cryptic language, secret codes and rituals.

Understanding these enigmas was vital to being admitted to the inner sanctum of power and control.

For the longest time, keeping a lid on forbidden knowledge was relatively easy because it passed orally from one holy man to the next.

The only way you could advance was through elaborate rites of passage that forced you to stairstep your way gradually to the sacred halls of power.

You could leave the organization and attempt to form a competing power base, but why bother? The closer you came to the inner sanctum, the more rights and privileges you enjoyed.

Each initiate who moved through the hierarchy became privy to more secrets and received access to ever more powerful totems of authority — special clothing, wands, scepters, and assorted mystical paraphernalia.

The more intricate and unfathomable the sacred rituals, languages and rites, the more awe-stricken and malleable the common man became.

Imagine if you were a filthy peasant who couldn’t read or write, and you walked into a magnificent stone temple filled with dudes in spotless white robes speaking to God in a magical tongue. How much deference to authority would that generate?

Gradually the shaman class proliferated …

The Catholic Church in its heyday virtually controlled dozens of nation states and commanded absolute power and obedience from millions of people.

Religious institutions maintained authority through the appearance of knowledge. If you did what they said, you got to go to heaven when you died. If you didn’t, you burned in hell for all of eternity. By keeping people in fear, they maintained iron-fisted authority.

Should you be so bold to assert that perhaps it was the Earth that revolved around the sun, or question the existence of heaven and hell, you could be fairly certain they would hunt you down and burn you as a witch.

But alas, with the proliferation of the written word, it became increasingly difficult to stifle competing claims to knowledge and authority.

Shrewdly, others began to cultivate
their own hierarchies of experts …

Secular practitioners of medicine, law, and science began to flourish. And they used the same trappings of power as the holy men to assert their authority.

They devised their own intimidating costumes, bafflegab, and weird ceremonies to flummox and intimidate the common man.

They created elitist institutions that discouraged and discredited divergent thought. 

And they put in place a system of accreditations and certifications that only they could bestow to prevent outsiders from successfully laying claim to similar expertise and authority.

Eventually, as the masses became more educated, all manner of expertise became institutionalized. Craft guilds and trade unions took the certification model to the common people as capitalist societies grew.

And over time, many more citizens were able to enjoy the heady rush of authority over others in varying degrees based on their accredited level of expertise.

As capitalist societies became more successful, the level of specialization continued to grow and grow. More experts and authorities than ever were needed. It’s gotten so bad I now need one just to program my damn toaster.

This insatiable demand for experts, combined with the free flow of information on the Internet, has opened the door for all manner of rogue self-accredited experts to muscle their way in, free to manufacture their own authority. It need not be bestowed on them by anyone.

Today, the trappings of power no longer assure an expert will be recognized by the buying public. Given the massive choices people have for solving their problems online, they are less likely to be intimidated by credentials, technical mumbo-jumbo and weird clothes. 

Here’s where you come in, grasshopper …

People need to believe nearly as much as they need to belong, but now they have choices. And that means they need experts to make sense of the experts. More than ever, they crave simple explanations for complex things.

You instantly gain authority in the wired world when you make it your mission to take the gobbledygook of regular experts and make sense of it all. Yes! There is tremendous power waiting for those who can translate arcane mumbo jumbo into common sense language even a cave man can understand.

As that translator, you can enter a field you know nothing about, and quickly become authoritative, simply by regurgitating the relevant stuff in primal terms that are meaningful to people.

The average CPA knows all about tax rules, but has no idea how to relate that to the average guy’s primal desire for more food, more wives and more children. Make the connection, and you’re golden.

Regular experts think they are dealing with something more sophisticated than this. They’re not.

Most of the information you find online is raw. It’s useless to people. They can’t make hide nor hair of it. Why?

Cuz the stuff they need is locked up inside the stuff they don’t. You become authoritative simply by burning off the impurities that regular experts force people to wade through.

Just package the information for consumption. Relate it to basic primal human concerns like survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, fear of death, and so on — just like the shamans in days of old.

Put the useful stuff in nice neat baggies that stack well on the shelves of peoples’ minds.

True expertise and authority doesn’t come from accreditation. It comes from being able to make a human connection, and integrating the increasingly disintegrated information people are faced with in our over-specialized world.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE

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8 Comments »

1. Comment by Glen Kohlenberg — September 17, 2008 @ 4:09 pm

   Daniel great post and I have a question? How do you portray as being an expert in your field to your clients when you are new to the online world?

   I have been in the construction world for 25 years and starting a member only site but how do I come across to let them know I am an expert in my field? Thanks

2. Comment by Joey Atlas — September 17, 2008 @ 4:19 pm

   Good stuff - Daniel…

   VERY VERY good stuff -

   …for those who get this - it can be quite mighty.

   Thanks for that article,
   Joey

3. Comment by Larry Owen — September 17, 2008 @ 4:30 pm

   My father was a lifetime journalist and clever political cartoonist during World War II. One of his published cartoons pictured a row of monumental-looking buildings, each with inscriptions over the doorways. "School for Spies," said the first structure, then, "School for spies who spy on spies," marked the second building, and then, "School for spies who spy on spies who are spying on spies," … and so forth down the street.Experts can be accused of this same reality. A photographer friend of mine once told me, "anybody who charges money can refer to themselves as a professional!" Cheers!

4. Comment by Susan Connors — September 17, 2008 @ 4:46 pm

   Hi Daniel

   Daniel as always awesome!

   By putting words into a easy to read manner, that is why so many "how to" articles and sites are so popular. Look at the popular do-it-yourself lifestyle shows..

   Ok, the neanderthal thug turned civilized, this theme runs with my website..seriously.

   http://www.marketingforlife.com.au

   On the home page there is a cartoon of two cavemen. One is chiseling stone something that looks like a flower, the other guy is saying, we need a new product. As behind them are the unhappy relics of experiments gone wrong.

   I believe marketing has been around since those days and your post today captures some of that essence magically. For that I am very grateful.

   You see, I believe even today we are in the neanderthal stage. We appear more polished and refined, underneath it, we are still the same human - flesh and blood.

   We need to have information put into layman’s terms. Who really will stay at a site and have their brain fried and put into overdrive because they don’t get it? Simply, they need another source, like you say a expert as they see it is someone who can put the knowledge into terms they can understand.

   Anyway that is enough for me and my few cents worth,

   Thank you and I look forward to next weeks post and reading other readers comments.

   To all a wonderful week

   Sue in Aus
   http://www.marketingforlife.com.au

5. Comment by Susan Connors — September 17, 2008 @ 4:49 pm

   In response to Glens question:

   "How do you portray as being an expert in your field to your clients when you are new to the online world?"

   Glen, I find that by writing as you are talking to them, one on one, is a good place to start. That way it doesn’t matter what type of topic you discuss, you can throw in your experiences.

   Twenty five years is a wealth of knowledge. Stories, the more I get around the internet and read, if you put something of your own experiences in your writing, the more people will believe you as an expert.

   I did plumbing for three years and always relied on those who had something personal to chip in - in way of experiences. Plumbing is different from copywriting/marketing and in many ways the same.

   Hope this is of some help and wish you well in your online
   ventures!

   Sue in Aus
   http://www.marketingforlife.com.au

6. Comment by Sheryl Schuff, CPA — September 17, 2008 @ 5:17 pm

   Daniel,

   Fascinating article!

   Regarding your comment that "the average CPA knows all about tax rules, but has no idea how to relate that to the average guy’s primal desire for more food, more wives and more children. Make the connection, and you’re golden."

   I believe I’m not that average CPA.  I’ve written a book for home-based biz owners that explains quite clearly how they can keep more of the money they earn.

   By paying less tax, they can afford more food, more wives, more children.  Maybe even an extra tank of gas!

   So, connection is made, but I’m not quite golden yet.  Can you help me with that part?

   Thanks.

   Sheryl

7. Comment by Glen Kohlenberg — September 18, 2008 @ 12:15 pm

   Thanks Sue for your input and this is what I have been doing but just wasn’t to make sure I was right on. If you get a chance check my stories out thanks. contractorblabblog.com

8. Comment by Steve Lanning — September 22, 2008 @ 2:02 pm

   Thanks much, Daniel,
   Wow…can I relate to your article–and Sheryl, CPA, et al.  As the guy who created, and co-founded, the National Association of Business Coaches (and sold it to a Canadian group in 2002), this topic was at or close to the top hot-button topic in the first five years of NABC.
   We had our membership made up mostly of individuals, but CPA firms quickly discovered that this new-fangled intervention called business coaching could be very profitable for them. Business coaches, basically unlike the pedigree of those who engage in consulting, could easily positon themselves as the experts–without pedigree–especially if they had any kind of business battle scars–and especially if they went under the covering of the CPA firm’s banner.  We realized that all clients mostly wanted is, as you have well-stated, is someone who can identify with their pains–rather than someone who flaunted their education.

   Have any more on this type of topic, Daniel?

   Best regards,
   Steve