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Challenging a well known person within your industry isn't a great marketing move



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Challenging a well known person within your industry isn't a great marketing move

When you start working in any industry, you'll start to see who the big players are, and you might see some holes in their methods that you might want to point out.  The downside about this is that those holes are usually for other systems or methods they're talking about elsewhere, which make everything run smoothly, and now you just look like someone that likes to complain or call people out without doing any of your own research lol.

We get it, calling out someone that is already an authority is a way to get noticed in your industry, but it's not a great thing to do because even if you win the argument you can be seen as a difficult person.  Remember, everything you say on an open forum or blog will likely be there for the rest of that websites life.  Each word you decided to type and then publish will be there for hundreds or thousands of people to read each and every day, so you'll need to either be extremely careful of what you're typing or not type anything at all before doing research.  Yes, you may have a chip on your shoulder and a little cocky, but you need to step aside and look at the story from both sides.

No matter what you do, you won't win, even if you're right lol.  In this discussion, I'm going to go over why you shouldn't call out the "big dog" in your industry because it's never really a good thing to do, and those reasons are:

The well known person likely has a following
When someone has been working online for years to build their following, those people tend to be loyal to the industry expert because they have a track record.  That expert may have helped thousands of people with a problem, which boosts their authority in the eyes of everyone, and now you're trying to call them out for one little thing they said within the sea of content they've published or the vast amount of videos they have for anyone to learn from.

Confronting a powerful person within your industry just to get yourself noticed is something that lesser people will think of doing.  Instead, strive to be the best you can be and let others screw up within your industry on their own, don't confront them if you think they're wrong just to get into the light.  You likely will lose the argument because you didn't do any research to see why that person had a specific point of view, and that will just hurt your own credibility for the life time of your website/business.

If you lose the argument you'll be an outcast
When you confront someone in an open forum or blog, you're essentially at battle but using words instead of guns and swords, so you better be sure you're 1,000% right when you do decide to start typing. 

If you lose, and you likely will, you're going to be seen as an outcast who is not as intelligent you think you may be.  People will avoid contact with you because you just want to make waves, and not in a good way.

You're burning many bridges you can't see
Think about how many people are seeing your unjustified argument and not responding to you.  You could have hundreds or even thousands of potential customers reading what you're typing, and they will label you as a sort of "know it all" and that's never a good thing.  Human error is always something that needs to be factored into anything we do, and if you jump on someone for slightly messing up just one sentence within a 5,000 word article, you're going to look petty and those potential customers won't work with you.

You'll be seen as a difficult person
When someone wants to hire a service, freelancer, business, consultant, etc. they want to know they are dealing with someone that is willing to work with them.  If they come across just one post where you're confronting someone for what they said, and that confrontation turned into a big argument, you're essentially losing much more than your credibility. 

Being dedicated and intelligent about your industry or niche is much different than being difficult because you think you know everything.  Don't be difficult and your sales will increase.

You'll lose sales
We all want to make money online and challenging a well known person within your industry isn't the best thing for this.  The term "all advertising is good advertising" or "all press is good press" doesn't apply to this.  Think of what would happen if you were to go viral on Reddit because of your argument not having any information actually backing up the words you say or type, you'll just get eaten alive. 

Not only will you lose credibility, you'll lose plenty of sales due to people seeing you as a little guy who hasn't put in the time and effort to get where the "big dog" has gotten, and now you're the outcast no one wants to work with.


In conclusion
If you're going to challenge someone with authority within your niche or industry, understand you'll likely lose.  You're not just losing a few sales here and there because of it, you're actually going to lose credibility for the lifetime of your website or your career because those words you publicised are going to be available for anyone to read for the lifetime of the website or blog you just posted on.  Even if you win the argument it's not going to boost your success much, so why try it at all?  The risks far outweigh the benefits of starting an argument for no reason, so just focus on your own business and make it better without being a whistle blower or name caller.


Remember to follow me!
https://www.seoclerks.com/user/TommyCarey


Thanks!

Tommy Carey

Comments

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Judas2018
This is actually partially correct and incorrect. Calling them out on their 'stuff' (knowledge) is not a good idea. Debating? Sure. Questioning or delivering an alternative viewpoint? Sure. But not attacking or trying to 1-up them. Now on the other hand, if this well-known person has verbally abused someone or is being looked at for a serious crime, then challenging them is actually the decent thing to do.



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Corzhens
I am also in disagreement with the challenge to a well known person because it is like David against Goliath. We have to understand that the Biblical example is not always true in real life because it is actually the exception rather than the rule. My point is a collision course of an ant with an elephant is suicide. Maybe the best approach is to be friends with the competitor or with the known person.



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Martinsx1
One book that I read which taught me a lot of things that I apply in my daily life today is - The 48 Laws of Power. I think the first rule in the book is try and copy the master but don't try to outshine the master when you are still under his authority. Failing in the process would make you an outcast in the organization because it would be seen as challenging an authority which would go down well in the company.



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kgord
I think business accumen is learned over time, but there are some industry experts that have important information that you need to know. This is one of the many things that you might be looking for. It is an important part of being successful in business. I think those who want to be successful need to know how to be.



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cmoneyspinner
Who challenges a person when they can't win the argument? (O.o) Perhaps one could apply a more subtle approach and phrase the challenge as a question.



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treecko142
Yeah, you usually don't want to challenge someone who is well-respected in the industry you're working in, because almost all of the time, other people in your industry will support the more prominent guy, no matter how right you are. Only cases where this could work is if that person does something truly controversial, like racism etc. and you were the one to call him out for it.



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Martinsx1
Someone with such level of respect in an organization almost represents some sort of an authority in such organizations because most times, even the Chairman of the organization would even consult such individual first in most decision making situations and putting oneself in a position to be locking heads with one who commands much authority is a bad move.



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treecko142
Yeah, you're essentially going up against the whole organization rather than just one person, and you're just going to ruin your own career in the industry.



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albino
I think it depends on the situation and the kind of company or industry, if you have the guts to fight for what is right and you know that you did nothing wrong with them you can challenge or argue with them, but in accordance to the standard or rules of the company or industry you are in that you think or proven with evidence that your higher member or leader violated that rules that affect the most of you or even you. I think going with the flow is not the right thing to do, because some people with bad intentions will take advantage your silence and later on will cause chaos in business and you will also become affected by their dirty works because you are working in the same industry. There are so many companies that offers a job if you will become jobless but there's no other person who can help you fight for your rights and help you stand for what is true but only yourself.



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overcast
I think many people have attacked the established norms and the people and build their career. I think many people have managed to do this successfully. But not all industries would be welcoming that form of change. It is going to make things a bit different in their case. I can tell you that some of the time such type of the stunts would lead to more or less an issue in that case. I personally don't see much value out of such case as that strategy makes one more anti social than another.



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fishbate
That's great information and very much noted. Although challenging could be made friendly in some aspects, but i'd rather go for a more cooperative approach. I think it's much wiser specially with a well known person, a cooperative approach could give you much more benefits.



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amelia88
I've been told in many lines of work about the importance of not burning bridges, so it's something I do try and conduct business by to this day. I think it's just a principle of overall respect - you don't have to love what someone is doing, but there are ways of dealing with people that don't involve being rude or offensive.



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Corzhens
It is a big gamble if you argue with a well-known person in the industry. Just like in show business, they say that you should not quarrel with the director, much more with the producer. In any industry, I’d say that arguing should be limited to the minor issues that wouldn’t bring forth an emotional outburst. In other words, arguing is different from criticizing especially if it is a constructive criticism.



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tom554
I don't think so that will be a good ides until or unless you got extraordinary skills.



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