POSITION YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT: DISCOVER HOW TO MAKE MEANING AND MONEY BY SHARING INFORMATION

POSITION YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT: DISCOVER HOW TO MAKE MEANING AND MONEY BY SHARING INFORMATION

By Benjamin S C Ugoji

“If a person will spend one hour a day on the same subject for five years, that person will be an expert on that subject.”

- Earl Nightingale

…So I turned my knowledge and passion into a CD product.

Now I was helping people 24/7, without using my time!

David Wood. Best selling author of “Get Paid for who you are”

According to the dictionary1 definition of an expert, it could mean one of these:

1. Having a special skill at a task or knowledge in a subject

2. Involving or resulting from the above ( expert evidence, expert piece of work), and ,

3. person having special knowledge or skill

From the above definitions, it is clear that an expert should have a specialised skill or knowledge; as well as the ability to apply that skill or knowledge to do a useful work. Therefore, and expert has an identity as well as capability.

If you are not an expert already, you can take heart in the words of earl Nightingale: to train by becoming one by applying yourself to master a particular body of knowledge. It only requires focus and time on a particular knowledge.

Do you have a body of knowledge or skill which is unfamiliar to other people? Have you a proven track record of being able to using this skill or knowledge to solve problem? If so, you are an expert. If you have not been using your knowledge in this way, what is stopping you?

Experts are known by what they are able to ‘do’. Their output is measured by the result they generate. What are you able to do with your knowledge and what results do you hope to achieve in terms of benefits your information will provide, the problem you solve and the insight you may provide with the explanations you give?

Robert T Kiyosaki had this to say about knowledge and being rich:

“It is not the quest for money that makes me rich. It is the quest for knowledge. It is the desire to learn more, do more, accomplish more and help those who want to learn that drives me … and money is just the score, a measure to tell me how we are doing.”

From the above statement, it is clear that as an expert you have to be a continuous learner as soon as you fulfil that role; you have to create a platform to share this knowledge with people that need it. Then, you will profit from the experience as the expert is paid for the result – in terms of the value that they deliver to their customers.

This article will explain different roles an expert could play and will expound such roles to see how the expert could use it to create his ideas, products, services, or programs that could have monetary value and leverage both their time and productivity.

Your knowledge base as a ‘niche’

Experts are not born; they are made through share hard graft commitment to increase in knowledge, through training or through experience. The quote from the Earl Nightingale gives us a glimpse of how to become an expert. What it does not tell us is what to do with the knowledge or skills as you become an expert. You need to determine an area of expertise.

You must create a ‘niche’ product that you know people are searching for on the internet. Use this tool to see what people are searching for:

http://inventory.overture.com/serachinventory/suggestion/

Your product must solve a problem, serve a need or satisfy a desire. In this regard it is not what you want but the ability to create the value that your customers want by the application of your specialised skill or knowledge.

Make sure that your ‘target audience ‘ will pay for your product, so search www.Amazon.co.uk or www.ClickBank.com to see what other people are writing about and also to see if they are making any money. You can check this by looking at the size of the ‘gravity’ number. People will generally pay for the following information:

How to make money …

How to save time …

How to solve a problem…

How to save money …

How to set and achieve your goals …

People look for what they can achieve in terms of your program (benefit). You should be able to answer this simple question: What experience will my idea, product, service and program help my customer to create. This is simply … benefit!

Know the attributes of experts and use them to your advantage

Experts have a body of knowledge which is unfamiliar to the layman3. They have a proven track record of being able to use that knowledge.

Experts exhibit one or more of the following attributes:

Effective – they use their knowledge to solve problems, with an acceptable rate of success. Example, doctors make correct diagnosis in the bid to cure the patients of their ailments.

Efficient– experts do not only solve problems but they solve them quickly and efficiently. They deduce more probable solutions and quickly determine the most relevant information. Even when faced with a difficult problem the expert has the ability of developing insight into the cause of the problem.

Awareness of limitations – experts know what they know and are aware as per their limitations; and in adverse situation know where to seek for informed opinion. For example a teacher who does not pretend to know all the answers to questions in his/her subject area, but will seek for solution through further information seeking from peers or through research.

Versatile – experts can perform well in relatively unfamiliar situations. They can handle an amount of uncertainty and thereby guess suitable approaches for problems which are a little out of the ordinary. Even I these situations they remain aware of their capabilities and limitations and realize any risks they are taking. This is a mark of intelligence; after all, intelligence is associated with specialization of knowledge, and it involves the ability to learn, and to adapt to the environment. Furthermore, they are able to interpret results and modify their actions accordingly. This does not mean that the experts are exempt from error – being infallible is not a criterion for being an expert.

Other qualities - In his article on “How to become an expert: 7 Top Qualities”, Andriy Solovey4, listed 7 other attributes required by experts for peak performance (paraphrased). These are highly motivated and energetic, Hard Work, disciplined with great focus, Ability to think both critically and reflectively, ability to tap into the whole brain power- Use right brain (in addition to left),continuous learning and active Sharing of knowledge, Self-improvement. Know yourself, and big picture and Systems Thinker as well as Creative solutions.

From the above attributes of the experts it is clear that experts use their knowledge to solve problems so as to get results. They are aware of their limitations, but nonetheless have understanding of the appropriate channels to direct their problems. They are risk takers; and knowledge is beset with uncertainty and intelligence is often displayed when there is a high degree of uncertainty.

Roles experts play and how to monetise such roles

It is important to know the roles experts could play in their normal day to day work so as to ascertain how one can exploit such opportunities in the bid to position oneself as an expert s well as earn money. We use expert in one or more of the following roles:

As a provider of information

As a problem solver

As an explainer

As a self-promoter

As a provider of information

What information can you provide in your specialist knowledge area? How are you going to create, organise and distribute this information to make it available to your target audience? What type of platform or format will you use to share your information? Say for example, that you have an idea for information that you want to share. You have to decide the representation systems for the information based on the way we perceive information. How will I appeal to the various readers based on the way they take in information? With the answer to this question in mind, you could create an eBook format and subsequently produce an audio format using a podcast and a video format. You can also share this information face to face with your audience through a workshop or seminar as the case may be. You can write about this knowledge through a blog and get paid for the monetization of your site through ad sense from google. You can write articles on hubpages and RedGage. You can create a website to showcase your product or services. You can create a free site from Weebly.com or pay for a site to be ready and running at

As a problem solver

What problem can you solve with an expert knowledge? You are the only one who knows you ability and capability in your field of expertise. Try by rephrasing the solution through questioning. For example, you may choose one aspect of your area of expertise and answer an overarching question of an issue faced by your clients. As a teacher, I reasoned that most parent battle with the issue of helping their children to make progress in their academic pursuit as a result, I wrote an article: “How to improve your child’s academic intelligence” which was published in Hubpages.com and a local magazine.

The idea here is that you position yourself as a problem solver and seek for available platform to leverage your potential. Some of the ways you can create your ideas into products which are ‘viritual’ and downloadable were suggested by David Wood in his book – “Get Paid for whoyou are”

 Special report or article

 ebook (eworkbook, ejournal, emanual)

 Online assessment or quiz

 Paid ezine (internet magazine) subscription

 Members-only Website (or blog, forum or discussion board)

 MP3 audio file (for download or streaming)

 Interview or teleclass transcripts (pdf format)

 Online video

 ecourse (series of emails or online lessons, perhaps combined with audio and video)

 Access details for a teleclass, live or recorded

 Telecourse (series of teleclasses, live or recorded)

 Webinar (web-based seminar with audio and video)

 Other formats for tangible products to ship are:

Printed book (booklet, workbook, manual, journal)

 Magazine or newsletter subscription

 CD or CD set

 DVD

 CD-ROM (data a computer can read)

As an explainer

What questions do you think your clients will need answers to? Can you create a platform or work through an existing platform to share some of this information through seminar, workshop, and discussion group, explain, teach blog, speak or present. As you seek to help other people improve in their knowledge, you must grow also in your knowledge. However, you need to regularly improve your ability as an explainer by enabling your ideas to stick. An article on the topic by Andriy Solovey6 – “How to become an expert: making ideasstick” was based on excerpts from a book: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath7

Chip and Dave Heath defined 6 principles of sticky ideas in the book Made to stick: Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories (SUCCESs). For the ideas to stick it has to achieve the following based on the acronym (SUCCESs).

Simple – to understand

Unexpected – to pay attention

Concrete - to make sense

Credible - to believe

Emotional – to care

Stories - to remember

As a self-promoter

According to Brendon Burchard8 of the Experts Academy, and author of Life's Golden Ticket had this to say about experts - “experts synthesise, systematise, and sale information.” Since experts create reality and are able to model reality through the application of intuition, tacit and experiential knowledge, the expert is able to create platform to represent new patterns of information by understanding the information universe. The expert is able to associate with the overarching needs of his audience through sharing and relating the information to them through an appropriate medium or representational system. The idea of the expert being able to sale information brings us the concept of self-promotion. Jeffrie Story9 of Unleash Your Sales DNAR said that “self-promotion is merely making your skills and products visible to your target market. Her insight in the science of self-promotion was a result of the work of two behavioural scientists George Dudley and Shannon Goodson, who made their career of out of the science of self-promotion. For you to succeed in marketing yourself through self-promotion in order to make that sale you must learn the habit of self-promotion. For you to succeed in the science of self-promotion, the first behaviour you have to cultivate is:Position. As a self-promoter, you need to position yourself with people who can make a difference in your goals. You have to ask question that will direct and lead you to those who will help you to making your self more visible. For example, who can help you to meet my goals? It could be a customer, a company boss or a prospect. Either way, work on meeting one person who can have impact in your life. This requires you to learn new skills for example in networking, marketing, sale, communication and leadership.

The second behaviour of a natural self-promoter is: Style. How can you “differentiate “yourself from the crowd? What is it about you that that would remain indelible to your customer or potential customers? It could be in the way you do business, or example customer service or the flare you bring to your business; your business cards, your words or your personal attributes- how you groom your hair for your general appearance.

The third attribute of natural self-promoter is: Repetition. Natural self-promoters do not say it once; they say it many times. If you have been in affiliate marketing, you will observe that the advertisements for the product are fashioned in different formats as well as sizes. The reason for multiple design ‘impression’ is for the target markets to see those commercials repeatedly. As experts we need to make multiple impressions in order to achieve “brand awareness.”

Conclusions

In this article, I have tried to trace the attributes of an expert and the different areas an expert can use to profit from his /her area of expertise. However, making progress depends on the individual’s ability, determination, discipline and energy to move forward to peak performance where the outcome would attract interested players who are interested in your expertise. Experts solve problems and creation of reality for them is a reoccurring decimal such obstacles that would want to impinge are easily surmountable. This is because they have developed the intelligence to overcome such obstacles in the bid to achieve their goal. In order to succeed, expert must continue to develop skills, example the habits of natural self-promoters that will help them to relate, collaborate and share their expertise with their business partners, customer and prospects.

☺BSCUGOJI 2012