Establish Yourself as an Expert and Profit With Joan Stewart

My promise is to show people how to become an expert in their
niche, or their industry, or their topic.  Remember,
expertise doesn't have only one definition. 
Expertise is a ladder, and you're constantly climbing the ladder of
expertise.  So, if you're at the bottom, we're going to help
you get on the top couple of rungs and then show you how to keep on
climbing. The benefit of this is that experts get the
gigs!  Experts sell the books.  Experts get the
paid speaking engagements.  Experts get the paid consulting
assignments.  Experts get mentees; they get protégés. 
They get people in their coaching program.  They get the
moolah! Getting the Credentials to Become an Expert I always hear
people say, "I'd never try to pass myself as an expert.  I'm
not the person in the world who knows the most about my
topic."  You don't have to be.  You only have to
know more than most other people.  That's to be an
expert at the bottom rung of the ladder, and we're going to talk
about how to do that.  Then, you're going to learn how to keep
climbing to become even more of an expert. Overview of What it
Takes to Become an Expert You're going to want to identify
and study the top experts in your niche industry
area.  You're going to learn from all of the other
people who have already done it.  That's the first step.
You're going to read 10 recent books on your
topic.  Now, you might not find 10, and if you can't,
then find as many as you possibly can.  Don't say to yourself,
"Wow.  This niche is filled with a lot of experts.  I
can't possibly steal business from them."  There's enough
business out there for all of us. Attend conferences,
seminars, workshops, training events, either locally in your own
community, if that's all you can afford right now, and then branch
off and go to the national ones.  This is going to do
a lot of things for you.  We'll go into this in a little more
in-depth later. You're going to start applying your
knowledge by doing things that experts do.  In other
words, as you start to become an expert on the bottom rung, you're
going to start to do things with that expertise.  The most
important message that I have to deliver about expertise is, "It's
not only about what's in your head.  It's not only about
what's in your brain.  Expertise is about what you do with
that knowledge."  Experts do specific things, and we'll talk
about those in a minute. You're going to keep always
climbing the ladder of expertise, and don't stop at your comfort
zone.  When you're in your comfort zone (and I've
learned this from personal experience), that's when you get into
trouble, and that's when the money stops flowing in.  I'm
going to give you a good example of what I'm talking about,
something that happened to me earlier this year.  I got way
outside my comfort zone, but I learned how to do something really
cool, that I've always wanted to do. Step #1 - Identify and
Study the Top Experts in Your Niche Identify and study the
top experts in your niche, and the best way to do this is to just
use Google.  It's the best search tool on the planet,
and you can just go and type in, "Top 5 Internet Marketing
Experts," or "Top 10 Dog Breeding Experts," or "Best," or
whatever.  I promise you that you will find something. 
You will be amazed at how much stuff you find.  Follow
them on social media, subscribe to their blog posts, and if they
have a podcast, subscribe to it.  Get onto their
email lists.  If they're an expert, I'll bet you they're
building an email list, just like you should be if you want to be
an expert in your field. Pay attention to the topics they're
writing about.  Pay attention to the controversial issues
they're discussing.  These are all topics that you need to
learn more about and maybe you need to be discussing at some
point.  Snoop.  Snoop!  Who are their first-degree
connections on LinkedIn?  Now, I don't let people see my
first-degree connections on LinkedIn, but some people do because
they don't know how to configure the settings on LinkedIn.  Go
find out who their first degree connections are.  Who are
these people?  Then, go connect with them.  Go
snoop to see what industry groups they are in on
LinkedIn.  Go join those groups and see if those
groups are perfect for you. What Twitter lists are those experts
on, and if you don't know how to use Twitter lists, just Google
"How to use Twitter lists".  Anybody can create Twitter lists,
and usually experts are on a lot of Twitter lists that other people
create.  That's how to do #1, how to identify and study
experts in your niche.  And, I don't want you to view them as
your competitors.  I heard someone once say:[bctt tweet="
They're not competitors. They're simple joint venture partners who
don't know it yet." username="danielhall"] When I quit the
newspaper business two decades ago, there were a couple of people
who I thought were big mega-stars. One time I checked them out. I
was surprised at how little information there was about them
online.  I actually leapfrogged over several of them, and so
today, they view me as a big star.  A lot of it is that you've
got to do things with your expertise.  You can't only get a
PhD in whatever the topic happens to be.  You have to
keep learning and keep doing, doing, doing, doing. 
We'll get to that in a little bit. Step # 2 - Read 10 Recent
Books on Your Topic Read 10 fairly recent books on your
topic.  Again, use the best search tool on the planet,
Google.  Or, you go over to Amazon.  You type in, "Best
books on internet marketing," or "Best-selling books for real
estate sales," or "Top books in," or "Top 10 books in". 
When you go over to Amazon, the site is going to tell you
exactly what the best sellers are because they are going to appear
down at the bottom.  Some of those books are going to
be written by the experts who you've already identified in Step #1.
Experts write books! Do the books have a glossary in the back of
industry definitions?  That's a great way for you to learn a
lot about your industry really quickly, and good books usually do
have a glossary.  Make notes, again, of the
controversial topics they are writing about in the
book.  If they're telling stories, about people in
your niche, copy that down because maybe that's someone you can
interview later on for a podcast.  Also, look to see what
books they are recommending.  They're recommending books,
maybe on their LinkedIn profile, maybe they're reviewing
books.  Take a look at the books they're reading and the books
they're recommending. The aim of this activity is to get
smart as fast as you can from people who are already experts in
their field.  They are the experts; they've written
the book.  And, you may not like the book.  Some of the
books you may read, you may think they are crap, and they may be
crap because these people have done a really good job of promoting
themselves as experts.  So, make note if the book is
crap.  You're not going to come across all of this material
that is A+ and 5-Star.  It's just not going to happen, but I
want you to learn from it and expand your brain and expand your
expertise.  That's the best way to become an expert fairly
quickly. When you are interested in a particular marketplace, and
you see that something isn't first-rate, that should motivate you
in actuality.  That means that there's an aperture in
the marketplace that you can fill.  If you start
seeing that there's a lot of crap, that means you're in a really
great position.  That means you stand a great chance of
becoming the foremost expert in your field.  Learn from that
crap that you're seeing and do a job that's 10 times better. 
If you follow this advice, you will become the expert. Step #3 -
Attend Live Conferences, Seminars, Workshops and Training Events
Attend live conferences, seminars, workshops, and training
events.  Yeah, you can sit in front of your computer
in your PJs, like you might be right now, but you want to get out
there and go live for a whole bunch of different
reasons.  In the first place, this will give you the
chance to meet these hotshot speakers.  I speak at a lot of
events, and a lot of people are there because they want to talk
with me and the other speakers.  They want to pick our brains
and meet us.  They want to learn from us.  They want to
sit next to us at lunch.  You can't do that when you're only
listening to someone on a webinar or a podcast. This also
allows you to network with a lot of other people in your industry
or your niche.  I can't even begin to count the
number of people who have become my joint venture partners, which I
have met at Judith's Author U Extravaganza, for example, or
National Speakers Association conferences.  You can meet lots
and lots of people who you can joint venture with and make money
from down the line because your areas of expertise, they might
overlap.  Even if they don't, don't worry about it. 
They'll know stuff that you don't know, and you'll know stuff that
they don't know. [bctt tweet="Use live events to start building an
email list of people." username="danielhall"] I believe strongly in
email marketing.  Email is, by far, my most valuable
marketing tool, that's brought in the greatest amount of
money.  These are also events that you may want to
speak at someday. One of the things that experts do is they speak
from the stage, either for free or paid speaking engagements. 
Some experts won't touch free speaking engagements.  I love
them; because I can sell from the back of the room. I'd
much rather have your email address at a free speaking engagement
than to be paid a couple of grand from the stage and not be able to
collect email addresses.  I'll take the email address
any day, because that's my most valuable marketing tool.
Down the road, consider joining your industry trade
associations and also becoming certified in your particular
area.  For example, there are certified professional
speakers in the National Speakers Association.  There are
certified marketing consultants (CMCs) for consulting.  There
are certified ghostwriters.  Certification is really powerful
in your industry because certification is something that most other
people don't have.  Your industry or trade association will be
sponsoring a lot of these events. So, get out there and
attend live, hobnob, rub elbows.  Meet as many people as you
can.  Eventually, the good ones, you want to speak at
these events. The benefit of going to a lot of these live
events and seeing these big shot speakers, and rubbing elbows, you
get to see who the jerks are, who you do not want to have any kind
of relationship with at all.  Online, you can't tell that sort
of thing, or by talking to someone on the telephone either. 
If you see them on stage and they suck, and everybody hates them,
"Man, are they boring!  All they do is promote from the
stage," they are probably someone that you do not want to joint
venture with. Step #4 - Apply Your Knowledge by Doing Things That
Experts Do Start applying your knowledge by doing things that
experts do.  It's not about what's in your brain. It's
about what you do with your expertise.  Look at the
people who are billionaires in this country who never graduated
from college.  They don't have a PhD behind their name, but
they are successful at stuff. Here are some things that you
can start to do:

I want you to start writing articles and publishing them to
your LinkedIn profile.

Start a blog.

Start guest blogging for other experts.

Start a podcast.  Podcasting has been on my to-do list
for years, and I'm going to get around to it eventually.

Write an eBook on your topic for beginners.  If you're a
beginning expert, what did you learn that you can teach other
beginners how to do?  It doesn't even have to be an eBook if
you love videos.

Do a video series.  You can teach a class in your
community through the adult education program.

Go to the Small Business Administration's SCORE program and
teach a course for small business owners.

Start referring to yourself as an expert immediately. 
As soon as you start to build expertise, I want that word
"expert" to be everywhere.

I want it in your email signature, on your LinkedIn
headline.  I want it on your marketing materials, in your
eBook, in your author bios, on your speaker one-sheet, and I want
it in your newsletter, your blog, your podcast.  All over
the place.

[bctt tweet="When people are searching for a specific kind of
person to teach them, what word are they using?"
username="danielhall"] They're using the word "expert".
Don't use "authority," use "expert".  That's the word
that most journalists are searching for too, when they're looking
for people to interview. Step #5 - Keep Climbing the Ladder of
Expertise Keep climbing the ladder of expertise and never
stop.  I was really in my comfort zone for a couple of years,
and that's when I saw my revenue go down.  When I wasn't
doing, and when I wasn't challenging myself.  Somebody
approached me last you and said, "I want to bring you to my
conference, that I have down in Orlando, and I want you to sell a
high-ticket product from the stage."  Now, I've seen other
people do this, and I always swore that was something that I would
never do.  "I can't do it.  I don't want to do it. 
It feels sleazy.  It feels awful."  And he said, "How
about if I teach you how to do it?"  I said, "I can do that."
So, he taught me how to do it, and I created a $5,000
product.  I sold one from the stage, and he got half the
revenue.  So I walked out of there, all dejected.  I only
made $2,500.  Then I went back to him, and I said, "Wait a
second.  Let's sell this over at your website."  He said,
"That's a great idea," and we worked out a JV partnership, and he
sends me lots of affiliate commission.  All of these people on
his list are not people in my niche.  He has a completely
different section of people who we sell this too, but they all want
to learn how to get publicity.  So I don't do anything, and we
even have a fulfillment house fulfill the product.  I don't
have to touch anything.  The only thing I have to do is cash
the checks, and I love to cash checks.  Do you love to cash
checks?  Yeah, I love it, love it, love it. Okay, so that's an
example of getting outside your comfort zone.  If you've
joined a trade association, try to be an officer in the trade
association.  If you're the president of your association,
that has a real cache, assuming that it's a good association. 
Do you need formal training in your topic?  You might have to
get a bachelors degree or a masters, or go to tech school, or maybe
even a PhD.  Or, get that certification that I talked
about.  Are you ready to become a columnist for Inc., or for
Forbes, or for Huffington Post, or for Entrepreneur?  I was a
columnist for years for Entrepreneur, and I am still getting leads
from that.  I'm getting tons of leads from it. What
else do experts do?  They have copyrights. 
They have trademarks, and they have patents. 
What do you have that you can put a copyright on, a trademark, or a
patent?  Form relationships with other bloggers, podcasters,
experts, and other media people.  Start to build a
relationship, and always ask the question, how can I help
you?  You want them to help you, but the best way to get their
attention, especially if you're working with a journalist or a
joint venture partner, "How can I help you?"  That will be
music to their ears because most other people don't ask that
question. It's also very rare for people to take action on the
information that you provide. The people who buy my
products and take action, I call them my
"super-fans".  They are a tiny group, right in the
middle of my target market, but they can't stand to be without
anything I offer.  Not only do they implement my programs,
they give me a video testimonial that speaks to the value of my
product, that I can use on my sales page.  If I ask a person
for a video testimonial, I'm not going to get it because I don't
want to have to screw around with video and all of that.  So,
what I do is I use a program called SuperTinTin, like Rin Tin Tin,
the dog.  I think I paid $29 for it. You put it on your
computer, and you can see each other.  I just
interview them for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then I splice it
together. I give it to my editor, and I tell him exactly
which ones I want for a really nice, minute-long testimonial that
hones in exactly on what I want them to say.  It may take 10
minutes, during that interview for all of that stuff to come out,
and they would never sit down and give me a testimonial like that,
but since I'm talking to them for 10 minutes and I have the video
right on my computer, my editor can splice it together and it's
primo.   It's really easy to use this program.  I'm
a non-techie, so if I can use it, anyone can. How To Find Your
Target Market - From a Recent FB Live Interview [youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA_HEPUAJXM?rel=0&showinfo=0&w=853&h=480]
  Connecting with Joan I want you on my email list
because I email twice a week.  The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week.  I've been  doing this for more than 15
years.  I do it every Tuesday afternoon and every Saturday
morning.  If Christmas is on Tuesday afternoon, you get me in
your email box on Tuesday afternoon, and I do this... I think I've
missed six issues in 15 or 16 years.  That's because I've made
a promise that you're going to hear from me twice a week, and
dammit, I'm an expert and I deliver on my promise.  So, you're
going to see me in there. Three snack-sized tips every week, and
because I am the "Publicity Hound," you get a funny dog
video.  Some people read my tips just for the video, and
that's okay.  You can go over to
PublicityHound.com/tips/sample.  That's actually a sales
page.  Pay attention to it.  That's going to sell you on
all of the reasons that you should sign up onto my list for
free.  So that's how to stay in touch with me twice a week.
Joan's digital  reports are among her most popular
learning tools. Each of the 52 reports, on a super-narrow
publicity or marketing topic, is at least five pages, and chock
full of helpful advice. Joan sells the entire bundle for $247.
You can save $123 off that price if you go to
http://PublicityHound.com/go/daniel and use the coupon code REPORTS
at checkout.  These special reports are so popular
that you'll even find a special report on how and sell write
special reports--a perfect product for people who are learning how
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