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Fake It Til You Make It
By Kimberly Bock | April 29, 2008
I’m expanding upon this article by Jonathan Fields. (Jonathan Fields - awake@thewheel) which I saw submitted in Sphinn.
His intent was to give us some tell tale signs of how to separate the experts from all the others.
One of the lines that stuck out like a sore thumb was when he said,
“There’s an old saying in personal-development and even in business…fake it until you make it. And, there are times where that’s appropriate.Problem is, there are other times where the substantial volume of direct, indirect and social proof strongly contradict your claims, undermine your credibility and, rather than bolstering your authority and appeal, make you look downright silly and untrustworthy. They reveal you as a fake.”
Hmmm..Fake it til you make it, doesn’ t have to mean you are a liar, a cheat, or otherwise deceitful. If this is true..well, you’re not faking it. You just ARE.
His further suggestions on how to note the success vs failure of the blogosphere is somewhat misguided. Especially considering the still yet evolving avenues that social media has begun.
True, what he suggests can be useful to some degree, but he overlooked quite a bit as times are changing.
For example, in addiction recovery environments, the ‘fake it til you make it‘ motto is meant to be an an admonishment that healthy habits can become second nature if they keep on keeping on. This motto is a tool that enables one to discard old habits and inhibitions until the ‘expert’ can step in and show it’s true colors.
Unfamiliar territory to them? Yes. Impossible, irrelevant, unsuccessful, or invalid? No.
Once this thought process is put into action, it is not only possible to overcome challenges that once evaded them, but also creates a platform for mastery and innovation in whatever they chose to build upon.
This new second skin allows one to grow in confidence, build upon their observations, and expand upon various concepts that once kept them tightly bound to ‘box’ thinking. Many are experts and innovators of skills and talents, yet were unable to express them until they developed through the ‘fake it til you make it’ motto.
A lot like an addict exchanging unhealthy habits for productive ones, so is the way of the ‘expert’ blogger. Once they remove old rituals and begin restructuring their routines, their confidence becomes apparent and they begin to run with it. In fact, they are also most likely not only to excel, but have a tendency to exceed expectations. They know they have to prove themselves and seem to thrive on making up for lost time.
Don’t believe me? Ask Aaron Wall. (SEO Book) He can tell you all about overcoming obstacles and running with it. He also didn’t begin the journey of proving himself at the top of the stats, in thousands of RSS feed readers, having immediate high traffic results, and all that jazz.
An expert doesn’t begin with the expert label. Simple analytics don’t always provide proof of who knows what or who’s who. How we observe and our abilities to expand on what we observe is proof of expertise.
A name is a name. A blog is a blog. 5 paragraphs of crap content from an ‘experts’ blog equals the same 5 paragraphs of crap content on a beginners blog. (as you stick around, you’ll see plenty of crap coming from both directions.) But it’s also only fair to say that each side can offer expertise. One of the first thing in SEO that even an expert will tell you is that organic SEO takes time to show results in the search engines. Does this mean that they are not doing an expert job? No. It means that it’s just the natural flow of things.
It is the same with blogging in any niche.
There are plenty of terrific foods I’ve only just begun to experiment with. Some of them are foreign dishes that I had never heard of. Nevertheless, they are still terrific.
There are no real ‘experts’ in this ever evolving generation of social media strategies. Social Media is still very new.
We observe as it occurs, we take notes, and we flow from there. Don’t let anyone fool you, we are all still upgrading.
If you are new to blogging and are fearful of how others may respond to you, hang on tight, follow those who are tasting the blogosphere as if it were their first meal and are willing to share, grow and expand. And by all means..
Fake it til you make it.
Side note: I found this when I was looking for an image to use. I thought you might like it as much as I do..
Copyright © 2006 by Terri Mauro
Tags: blogging, social media
Topics: Social Media |
April 29th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
I was a server at Red Lobster before I got my current job. I didn’t start in their SEO dept, but got there quick and had to do some fakin’ for the first few months.
Nothing wrong with faking it, as long as you learn to fly on your own. QUICKLY
ZaK Nicola’s last blog post..Google AdBloopers
April 29th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Very well put.
ckoehler’s last blog post..I Rediscovered Last.fm Today
April 29th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Kim, the thought that I took from Jonathan’s article had a lot to do with effort. His point, I think, was the the so-called “marketing expert” wasn’t even trying to fake it, or else doing a crappy job at faking. The “marketing expert” was either stupid enough to believe that no one would look for proof of expertise; naive enough to believe that by putting up a sign made him an expert; or both. There’s no way a person like that would ever “make it”; they weren’t even putting in any effort at “faking”!
I understand and agree with your comments on how “fake it ’til you make it” is a valid strategy in a number of situations, particularly in therapy, behavior modification, or training of virtually any kind. To be honest, I think Jonathan would agree as well.
Mark Dykeman’s last blog post..How to say the unsayable
April 29th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
“You just ARE” <– Lol
Kimberly - Do you find a lot of the “so called experts” are often talk themselves up by trying to put others down? - “Bow down in my glorious splendor for I am much greater than thou..”
It really bugs me - I haven’t met any of those so called seo celebrities and a lot of them seem so bloody full of themselves. (Not all of course - have a lot of respect for Aaron as he gives so much back to the community and is really humble about it all)
Nothing wrong with faking it till you make it.
This was my motto for the last year or so - and I fully back up what you say. In the beginning I had to do fake it and made mistakes. If fact - a LOT of mistakes, but this is how you learn. Using this approach and just a overwhelming desire to succeed worked out quite well.
Now when I wake up in the morning - I absolutely look forward to going to my job and wouldn’t be in the industry I love if I didn’t take the risk. If you don’t first believe in yourself you will find quite often others too will doubt your abilities.
Really enjoyed this post.
Cheers
April 29th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Sorry Kimberly - not faking it very well today :/
April 30th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Zak: Yes, certainly a sign of an expert is one that learns to fly quickly.
Mark: I am, by no means, lunging at Jonathan. Whoever he had initially targeted became irrelevant when he designed the list of factors to determine supposed expertise:
RSS/Feedcount
Traffic
Google Page Rank
Google organic search
Comment volume & quality
Design
Testimonials
Press/Media/Big Bloggers
Content quality
Technorati rank/backlinks
Claim-specific validators
Notice that ‘quality content’ is at #9 out of a list of 11. cmon..
Every expert began somewhere. It didn’t mean they weren’t experts before they were noticed. Also, to note that PR is no longer useful for much of anything, the dawn of microblogging is now considered terrific resources but lack comments etc since it refers people AWAY from your site, and analytics of old do not always apply as it used to. (depending upon whats in question. multiple variables)
Aidan: No apologies are necessary. I feel strongly about this myself. Yes, there’s a lot of haughtiness in certain environments isn’t there? This is only encouraged and reciprocated by others as they also feel this is appropriate in order to fit in or gain attention. Of course, not everyone is like this and I don’t think that Jonathan’s intentions were anywhere near selfish or negative.
What I DO think is that he has also been misled by those who have taught these viewpoints before him in order to establish their following. Making it sound like these guidelines are what it takes to show proof of being an expert. Let’s go easy on him.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Corey: Thanks for the compliment. Sry this reply is late, Akismet got ya. booo!
Hey, I noticed your post title says you rediscovered Last.fm today. I’m getting ready to venture over there and see what ya wrote.
**for anyone that wants to hook up with me at Last.fm, I go by SpostareDuro (as usual)**
April 30th, 2008 at 9:21 am
‘The only thing worse than making a mistake is not making an effort’ … think that might just be my new motto
April 30th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Great debate Kim. I had a similar take to Mark whereby I think Jonathon was attacking the ‘expert’ rather than the fake it till you make it concept. Hell… every blogger has to do that to begin with (including Jonathon). I know I am…
James Duthie’s last blog post..7 sure fire signs you’re addicted to blogging
April 30th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Good site success!
April 30th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Your title got me to thinking about other ways to fake it before you make it as a blogger, especially when it comes to traffic building. Using things like entrecard, signing up for hundreds of digg friends a day, so on and so forth. In a couple of hours you can turn your unvisited blog into some sort of traffic machine. They may not all stay or read but some of them will and if you continue to put out something interesting they will take care of the buzz for you.
Brad Hart’s last blog post..Songs of The Week 4/21 - 4/25
May 6th, 2008 at 12:41 am
I think at some point, you have to have some level of transparency that you are in a learning process… We’re all in a constant learning process, even the experts. With the ever-evolving Internet, it’s impossible to not be on a learning curve.
My problem is the “fakers” that profit directly from mis-leading people about their expertise. Great post and super, duper analysis of that previous article.
Maria Reyes-McDavis
Web Success Diva’s last blog post..Other SEO Plugins for Firefox
May 11th, 2008 at 2:05 am
Just make sure you don’t fake it too long. I work for one of the higher ranking SEO Services firms called Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning. I find that of all the leads I talk to on the phone 40% or so have had bad experiences with SEOs. Some have even had to take legal action. So know your limits, and always strive to evolve your skill set. Cheers.