The smell of the trade magazine was sharp and it reminded Dr. Reinhardt of a chemical fire. She held the glossy paper between her thumb and her forefinger and she watched the ink smear under the heat of her skin.
On page 43, Marcus was smiling. He wore a suit that fit him well and he leaned against a desk that did not belong to him. The headline called him a visionary and the sub-headline called him a disruptor. Dr. Reinhardt knew Marcus. She had seen him at three conferences and she had watched him speak for without citing a single primary source. He was a man of high-concept slides and he was a man of empty calories.
Dr. Reinhardt
Marcus
Dr. Reinhardt turned the page and her hand shook. She had spent in the lab and she had written 114 papers and she had verified her data until the numbers bled into her dreams. She was right and she was certain and she was entirely unknown. The journalist who wrote the article did not call her and the peers who read the article did not mention her name.
She sat in her office and the silence was heavy. She felt the weight of her own excellence and it felt like a stone in her chest. This is the great lie of the working world. We are told that the cream rises and we are told that merit is its own megaphone. We believe that if we do the work and we do it better than the rest then the world will find us. We think recognition is a reward for being good.
The Illegibility of Excellence
I sat in a boardroom last Tuesday and I yawned while a founder explained his revolutionary algorithm. I did not yawn because the math was bad and I did not yawn because I was bored of the tech. I yawned because he spoke to me as if the truth were enough to save him.
He believed his 98% accuracy rate would open the doors of the media and he believed his brilliance would act as a magnet. I looked at him and I saw Dr. Reinhardt. I saw a man who was hiding behind his own competence. He was excellent and he was illegible.
A journalist has to find a source and they have to write a lead. They do not look for the smartest person in the room and they do not look for the deepest thinker in the field. They look for the person who is findable and they look for the person who is quotable.
Total time from "Idea" to "Deadline" for most digital news pieces.
Marcus is findable. Marcus has a headshot and Marcus has a three-sentence bio that a child can understand. Marcus speaks in metaphors and he speaks in punchlines and he gives the journalist exactly what the journalist needs to finish the day.
The expert hides in nuance and the expert hides in complexity. They say that the answer is complicated and they say that the data is still coming in. This is honest but it is not useful to a man with a deadline. The expert treats their knowledge like a fortress and they expect the world to lay siege to it. But the world is busy and the world is tired and the world will simply walk around the fortress to find the man standing in the street with a sign.
The Vanity of Privacy
Being right in private is a form of vanity. It is a way of protecting the ego from the friction of the public square. If you are never heard then you are never criticized and if you are never seen then you are never wrong.
Dr. Reinhardt told herself that she was staying quiet because she had integrity but she was staying quiet because she was afraid. She was afraid that the world would not care about her data and she was afraid that she could not speak the language of the people.
""Visibility is a tax you pay for the right to be heard."
- Helen T.J., Financial Educator
Helen T.J. once looked at me after a long seminar and she spoke a truth that stayed with me. She did not like the tax and she did not like the noise of the market but she paid the tax because the work mattered more than her comfort. She knew that a truth that stays in a drawer is no better than a lie told on a stage.
The loud mediocrity understands the market. They understand that the human brain seeks patterns and it seeks simplicity. They provide the pattern and they provide the simplicity. They are not lying and they are not cheating. They are simply communicating in a frequency that the world can hear. The expert remains on a frequency of one and they wonder why the radio is silent.
We must stop pretending that marketing is a dirty word and we must stop pretending that PR is a mask. Without a vessel the substance sinks and it rests on the bottom of the ocean where it does no one any good.
Many people think that getting noticed is about luck or it is about knowing the right person at a cocktail party. They think it is about a viral post or a lucky break. But authority is a system and it is built with intent. It requires a person to look at their knowledge and to translate it into a shape that can be handled by others. It requires a person to stop being a cloud of gas and to start being a solid object.
The Digital Paperweight
I have seen experts spend $12,450 on a new website and then refuse to speak to a reporter because they were busy with a spreadsheet. They think the website is the work. The website is just a digital paperweight.
The work is the connection and the work is the narrative. If you cannot explain why your of research matters to a woman drinking coffee on a Tuesday morning then your research is a private hobby.
The frustration of the invisible expert is a real pain. It is the pain of being a ghost in your own industry. You see the awards go to the men who did not do the reading and you see the funding go to the women who did not do the math. You feel the injustice of it and you want to scream. But screaming does not change the map. You must learn to draw a new map and you must learn to put yourself on it.
Turning Clouds into Destinations
This is where a firm like We are SAVVY changes the equation for the person who is tired of being a ghost.
They do not look at visibility as a series of random acts. They look at it as a system of strategy that begins with the core of what the expert knows and then builds the channels to deliver that knowledge.
They connect the social media and they connect the PR and they connect the positioning until the expert is no longer a cloud but a destination.
Dr. Reinhardt finally closed the magazine and she set it on her desk. The face of Marcus was covered by a stack of ungraded papers. She looked at her phone and she realized she had not updated her profile in . She realized that she had been waiting for a call that she had never made it possible to receive.
She had the years and she had the data and she had the truth but she did not have a way for the world to find her.
The phone is black and it is silent and it will stay that way until the expert decides to become a character in the story. It is not enough to be the author of the data. You must be the face on the cover or the book will never be opened. You must decide if your pride is worth more than your impact. You must decide if you want to be right or if you want to be remembered.
The phone stayed black on the desk of Dr. Reinhardt and the ink dried on the name of Marcus.
Recognition is a skill and it can be learned. It requires a shift in the way we view our own value. We must stop seeing our expertise as a destination and start seeing it as a starting point. We must build the roads and we must build the bridges.
We make it easy for the world to find us and we must make it easy for the world to quote us. If we do not then we leave the stage to the loud amateurs and we leave the world to the people who have nothing to say but know how to say it.
I look at the clock and it is . The light in the office is fading and the shadows are long. I think of the experts who are sitting in the dark and I think of the noise that is filling the light.
The noise will continue until the experts find their voices and the noise will continue until the quiet geniuses learn to be loud. It is a long walk from the lab to the stage but it is a walk that must be made. The world is waiting for the truth and it is waiting for a reason to listen. Give them the truth and give them the reason. Stop hiding.