How to become an expert in your industry
Short answer: If you’re wanting to become an expert or authority in your industry to attract more dream clients, don’t bother.
Long answer? Let’s dive in ⤵️
Being an "expert" is both subjective and irrelevant.
There are certainly incredible go-getters, 7-figure businesses, executives, and thought-leaders who are at the top of their industries who are solely looking to hire other TRUE experts with 20+ years of experience.
But this is not the norm, and unless you have that exact audience, it’s not necessary to have a successful business.
Trying to be an authority or expert in your industry will keep you stuck
While being good at craft and getting your clients results is important, focusing all your energy into being a perfect expert isn’t necessary.
Whether you like it or not, you signed up to run your business and growing a business has a lot more to do with brand strategy and positioning than it does being in the top 1% of your industry.
You can spend all your time and energy focusing on your craft, but if you aren’t able to clearly articulate why those skills should matter to your dream clients, it’s all for nothing,
Plus, if you’re anything like the entrepreneurs I’ve been working with for the past decade, most of you will spend countless hours doing mental gymnastics just trying to get your brain onboard with the idea of calling yourself an “expert” when that energy would be better spent doing pretty much anything else.
Touting your expertise can turn off your dream clients
Ever sign into LinkedIn, only to be inundated by a bunch of mediocre white men bragging about how great they are?
Yeah, it’s not a good look, and it’s also not an effective strategy for finding and signing dream clients either.
Why? Because bragging about yourself and your credentials centers YOU in your copy rather than your dream clients and why they should even care about what you have to say.
No one enjoys a conversation with someone who only talks about themselves, and when you focus solely on your expertise rather than what your dream clients are experiencing and how you can support them, they’re going to instantly check out.
Your dream clients need to know that you understand what they’re going through and that you have experience helping others like them solve their problems in a way that aligns with how they like to work and what they value.
If expertise isn’t the goal, what is?
Most people make purchase decisions based on whether or not someone:
Can solve our problem(s)
Values similar things (voting with their dollar)
Are a great personality match
In order for someone to know if you check all those boxes, you need to be able to clearly articulate what makes you the obvious solution for solving their most pressing problems.
That’s exactly what great branding helps you do. Need help taking the first steps toward building your values-led brand? Sign up below and get access to a tool I’ve been using with my high-level branding clients for 10 years.
