— A public speaking coach who says umm all the time.— A motivational speaker who has to pump themselves up every morning.— A social media marketer who relies upon spamming for business.— A dating coach who has insane relationship problems.— A business coach who has never run a business before. The coaching profession has absolutely exploded. Now everyone is an author, speaker, and coach. Take a weekend seminar and hire a ghostwriter– that’s all it takes. Then pay $500 to get yourself “featured” on Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, and Huffington Post. Pay $20 on Fiverr to get 5,000 followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Pay $3,000 to get a blue checkmark on Facebook and Twitter. People want “instant authority”, and the influence peddlers are happy to fill the need. Why put in the work to develop a real skill or a real business when you can be an “influencer” by checking the boxes above? I speak at a few dozen conferences a year. So I can tell you that behind the scenes is a lot of fraud by well-intentioned people. The time it takes to put together a solid presentation, coordinate logistics, travel all over the place, and so forth, means the time that used to be for hands-on execution disappears. Dunning-Kruger is alive and well- and knowing what that is will change your life. I’ve not put together a presentation in years. Instead, I open a web browser and start sharing, going where the audience has questions. And I’ve cut way back on travel since the team needs me, my body needs me to treat it with respect, and I need to focus on priorities. The concept of #LDT is Learn > Do > Teach. In other words, teach only from your direct, demonstrable, step-by-step experience. The flood of instant coaches will give way to mentors. ** Mentors share experiences and are motivated by love for their students. ** Fake coaches share vague aphorisms and are motivated by their self-promotion. ** Mentors have systems and clear processes to transparently guide people along the way. ** Fake coaches have speeches and videos that tease you, designed with escalating price tags. ** Mentors have successful students that are living proof of their mission and process. ** Fake coaches have pictures they took with famous people at events, where they stood in line to get their photos. Next time you hear someone say they are an influencer, replace it with the word “famous”. Then see how ridiculous this sounds by attempting to introduce yourself, with a straight face, to friends and colleagues as someone who is famous. Let your students and customers do your promotion for you. We screen all potential clients and specialists for their goals in what we call a 3×3 Goals Sheet. Most get rejected because their focus is only on themselves, instead of service to others. They want sales and Lamborghini’s (nothing wrong with having money, in itself), but not by creating even greater value for others. We’ve turned down a lot of really bright, hard-working people because we know their own values will disqualify them later. And we bring on the earnest, underprivileged unskilled folks who wouldn’t get hired elsewhere when we see potential and cultural fit. Your competitive advantage is your people, which stems from your culture. So your culture is not some inspirational poster on the wall from HR, but something you actively share and live. Because if you don’t, then you’ll attract the self-promoters in droves, unconsciously incompetent about the Dunning-Kruger that plagues them. Expect this problem to continue to grow in the future.