Self Proclaimation
Written by on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 – 4:16 pm -I was perusing the speaker list of a conference recently, and I noticed a distinct pattern with a lot of the speakers. Someone was an expert in this, and evangelist of that, creator of something exclusive, the list went on and on. It made me wonder, how did these people obtain these proclaimed titles? Their bios (some of them, not all of them) read like they were the end all be all of whatever field they were the proclaimed expert in. But upon further examination, it seems as if some of them perhaps had anointed themselves with said title.
I recall many years ago, Howard Stern proclaimed that he was the “King of All Media”. The title seemed somewhat fitting, he was breaking out of radio and into TV, print, the big screen. BUT, he gave himself this title. I believe he caught a bit of flack for it at first, but over time, he proved himself worthy of the title and the industry began to refer to him indeed as the “King of All Media”. The ascension into that title for him did not come over night and without years of hard work and paying his dues.
So when it comes time for you to write that bio for a conference you have been asked to speak at, or whatever the reason for a bio is, let your merits and hard work speak for themselves and have someone else proclaim you as the “expert” in whatever it is that you do. This will go along way in cementing your title as “expert” and you will garner a lot of respect as a result of it.
I was in a local deli recently and the owner took my order. His shirt read “Head Cook and Bottle Washer”, that is what I call modesty. For me, I am the self proclaimed expert in nothing, but I am pretty good at being a father, husband, friend and a decent product manager.
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Will Kern's take on business, startups, life and everything in between. This blog is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.
May 21st, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Expert is a word I try not to use when talking about myself. I always feel there is room for growth and improving. The minute you say you are an expert, it signals to me that you have stopped growing and are happy with where you are.
On the other side of that a sports psychologist once asked me a question, “who is the best putter in the world” and I responded “Ben Crenshaw?”, and he said, “if you can’t consider yourself the best, you will never be good at putting”.
May 21st, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Interesting thoughts on this, Will. Coming up with a title or writing a bio is challenging–you want to sound different than others in your field, but you also want to fit in with the mix. There are at least three points of the a bio/title: to lure folks to the event (marketing), to help get them to listen to you when you’re there (credibility), and to explain your past experiences (context).
I’m not saying that one can’t let their experiences speak for themselves to accomplish all of these objectives but it does become somewhat of a challenge…especially when you want to stay on par with other folks’ bios both in terms of depth and language.
I do agree that some bios seem like a load of BS and that many people aren’t as qualified as they sound…but I don’t know what the answer is when there are so many norms that are already in place.
I’ve changed my title on my card from President to Productivity Evangelist. I don’t know which is worse or more pretentious, but I do know that the latter gets attention and explains a little about what I want people to be aware of about me. Hopefully it hasn’t P’d off too many folks : ).
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:43 am
@Doug,
I agree, we all have room to grow, and when we say we are the “expert” then it does send a signal of sorts that we are finished learning. As for thinking of yourself as the best, you have to be realistic and understand your constraints. If you were on tour, I could understand that line of thought.
@Jared,
You are right, it is tough, you do want to sound different but not pretentious. I think that Productivity Evangelist does the trick perfectly. It is different, but not pretentious. It says that you are passionate about productivity and want to spread the good word. By doing so, you will get better and you have room to grow.
Thanks to both of you for the great comments.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 am
You left out being a darn good son.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:40 am
@Mom,
Ah, gee thanks
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 am
I think what you write is especially true in the tech field… unlike academia, which has a very specific, time-consuming and costly network built in to decide who is worthy of what titles, and with very specific, universal hurdles to overcome before attaining said title — tech doesn’t have, require or demand this. It requires only that you assert your authority, embrace the available technologies to champion yourself, and back up your skills to some extent. Sometimes people like Danah Boyd become these über-masters merely because they’re one of few critically and half-systematically examining a field lacking any hard knowledge, like social media. I think it’s both a blessing and a curse for our industry.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 am
@Matt,
Well put, I cannot follow that up with anything more insightful
June 19th, 2008 at 9:14 am
On my business cards, I don’t have any title printed. It really throws people because they have no idea what box to put me in. Is he important or isn’t he?
Re: conferences, I think the only title suitable for many of these people is “professional conference speaker”. I swear that a lot of them do nothing else.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:40 am
@Rock,
That is awesome about the business cards. If they knew you, they would know you are important
Yeah, I agree about the conf speakers, too funny!