Truth: Over Robbins, Brogan, & Rutkowski, Julien Smith ROCKS
Julien Smith Rocks.
I’m not prone to gushing that way. I think Anthony Robbins is a fraud, I believe Chris Brogan, smart as he is, to have very little of any real importance to say, and in my eyes Ken Rutkowski, a great guy and former business partner, is incredibly charismatic but brings very little else to the table.
But Julien Smith Rocks.
You may not know Julien Smith. He’s the writing partner of the aforementioned Mr. Brogan, and author of a Blog called In Over Your Head. On New Year’s Eve, Julien wrote a post about dieting that anyone with an interest in business change, search engine optimization, or customer service needs to read. I’d rather you read his post, but the point is that in just four steps Julien Smith has made a subject that completely confounds most people as simple as can be:
- Cut Out Sugar and Flour
- Sleep The Same Eight Hours Every Night
- Try Intermittent Fasting
- Educate Yourself
Voilà! Lose Twenty Pounds in a Month. Julien Smith Rocks.
Here’s why Julien Smith belongs in a different category of “self-help expert” than Chris Brogan, Ken Rutkowski, and Anthony Robbins — and yes, I know that all four men would hate being put into that category — sorry guys; it is what it is:
You can’t change anything just by applying platitudes. Much in the same way that negative feedback becomes useful only when you also add ways to fix what’s broken, doing a big rah-rah-rah cheer-leading routine isn’t enough to create change. Just as cheerleaders on the sidelines of a football game may look nice and make you feel good but don’t improve the performance of the players, self-help types and coaches need to provide specific roadmaps to improvement, and the things they improve must be defined. Or no improvement will occur.
Julien Smith’s “four steps to lose twenty pounds quickly” post names a specific goal and tells you how to get there. I’m not a diet expert, but his steps make sense. Translated to Answer Guy speak, Julien is saying
- Cut the pollutants
- Be consistent
- Break up that consistency (monotony) — not for the sake of breaking it but because that’s how you shock your body into alertness
- Keep looking for new information, because he who has the best information wins
Over the next few days, I’ll show you how to apply this idea to the Answer Guy’s core principles of Business Change, Customer Service, and yes, even Search Engine Optimization.
Because, you know, what else would a self-help guru and business coach do?
I’ll say it again: Julien Smith Rocks.
