Who’s more powerful: the smartest man in the world or the one who convinces everyone he’s the smartest man in the world? Leveraging what you already know, you have the qualities to become an expert in any field. By the time you finish reading this post you will know exactly what you need to do to position yourself as an expert in three simple steps.
Step 1: Determine your target audience
The first step to positioning yourself as an expert in any field is to understand who your target audience truly are.
There are, essentially, three main categories of people:
- The experts – these are the people that know it all; they are the pros at what they do. Everyone looks toward the experts to gain the inside knowledge about any particular topic. Of course, it’s taken years to eventually learn everything so it’s their just rewards.
- The fanatics – these are the people that are die-hard for a particular topics; they can’t stop talking about it, they buy products and regularly tell their friends about how wonderful X is.
- The average joe – the average joe is someone who enjoys a topic but doesn’t have the time to dedicate their lives to it. They occasionally dabble in it, try out a few new things, pay attention to the experts and are primed to learn more.
Which one of these people would you go after? If you said the fanatics you’d be wrong.
You see, fanatics already know a large majority of the information but often times they simply don’t take the initiative to position themselves as an expert. Think of the fanatic as the die-hard movie buff; they regularly invests in new equipment, has a vast movie collection and talk about it on forums but they don’t necessarily know every little detail about the movie industry.
Your target audience is the average Joe. The average Joe is ready to learn more but just needs a little guidance from an expert – this is where you come in.
Step 2: Understanding the 10% difference
There is a great expression that goes “they won it by the skin of their nose”. It’s that split second which can determine the results and can be as small as being a fraction of an inch closer ( in our case, a little more knowledgeable) .
What does this have to do with positioning yourself as an expert? Everything.
You don’t need to know every element of a particular topic to become an expert; you just need to know more than what the average Joe knows.
If you were to learn just 10% more of a particular topic over the average person you’re already setting yourself up to stand out and become a “go-to” individual.
Perception is everything. You aren’t deceiving others by knowing just a fraction more because they have found that your additional knowledge is exactly what they want!
Think of it this way:
- You know a few additional tricks to gain even more traffic to your website.
- You know, from experience, the one line that helps close a sale nearly twice as often.
- You found a secret way to shave nearly 25% off travel costs by making just one super simply phone call.
To the average Joe this is the information is exactly what they’re looking for – they want bite size nuggets of information that gives them the competitive edge as well.
Step 3: Learning your competitive edge
What’s the best way to learn the 10% difference? C’mon, you know this. I know you’ve got it in you…
Knowledge!
And how do you learn more? Read and study from those that have already established themselves as experts.
What’s in front of your right now? A computer. A connection to an infinite amount of information freely available to you due to the web – 100% of the time, if you take the time, you can learn it online.
This is what you need to do:
- Figure out what the average joe already knows; do this by reading blogs, forums, chat and discussion boards to gauge what the average topic details.
- Find the influential people within the industry and seek out valuable information that’s buried on the web; hint: Google is your friend.
- Read and absorb as much information as possible, take notes and start to implement what experts teach into your daily life.
- Develop your own strategy to convey this 10% additional information, perfect your message and use your real-world experience as social proof.
- Go back to where the average Joe hangs out, publications they read or social networks they participate in and begin telling everyone that actively listens what you know; give away what you’ve learned for free.
The most important element of becoming an expert comes down to one word: free.
Everyone loves free; I don’t know anyone that would reject getting stuff for free (especially knowledge). Free is the instant hook that makes people perk up and take notice. Use free to your advantage, your way of becoming the expert.
Now What?
Have you been thinking about starting your own business, begin making money online or wanted to be well known for your work? Start immediately with these three steps to position yourself as the expert; don’t restrict yourself from standing out because you’re afraid to tell others that liiiiiittle bit of additional knowledge they don’t know – this is what will make all the difference in the world, you can do it.
Do you have any tips on becoming an expert in your field? Share it with others in the comments below and maybe you too can stand out from the rest.
Murlu…
This is really a thought provoking post.
I see time and time again, a lot of bloggers giving a great emphasis on leveraging what they already know and using that to their advantage. This is indeed an essential step in order to succeed online or offline.
Yeah…everybody like free stuffs and you are absolutely right about using ‘free info’ to ones advantage.
By the way, I see a lot of bloggers using “fake it till you make it” method online…especially in blogs…What do you think about that….
Thanks for the great post Murlu.
There’s pros and cons with the ‘fake it til you make it’ although it can be very helpful. When starting out, faking it can actually help you because it could put you into the right mindset but if you don’t actually follow up than, of course, you’ll always come across as a fake.
Social proof is one of those ways that you can really show off your talents. Until you can (by faking it), you could always give your theory but it’s just that, theory. If you could show how you actually use it you’ll develop a devote following because they know you’re the real deal – ya know?
The little edge you gain over the average person could be all that you need to “make it” in the eyes of your followers – give them something they never knew, explain it well, show it off and you’re setting yourself up to be an expert.
Murray,
Great post. I like your thinking on the expert only needing a 10% advantage.All you have to do is make sure that you keep that 10% advantage as you dole out information, that means keep learning.
Thanks Steve,
I’ve had a similar discussion which relates perfectly with this post, it went a little something like this:
Everyone that has an interest will jump on board a new idea and learn as much as they can up-front but the people that become well known for it (or eventually experts) are those that stick through it until they gain real-world experience. My friend and I talk about the 30% up-front (what you learn when you first jump in) but to truly set yourself apart you have to get over the curve and continue learning.
Bring that to others and you’ll help get them over the curve as well – people love you for this and will be ready to reward you on a great job.
What a great post, the problem that people often end up doing is that they are the “average joe” and they try to look like something better but you can tell that they aren’t anything special. Awesome tips. But an average joe helping an average joe. Sometimes we need to step back and learn from people before we become the expert.
That is very true. I hate it when you see people earning pennies online claiming to be an expert or a guru.
Totally Agreed .
Guru is one of those words that sends chills up my spine because you have to think “how is it ever possible to know-it-all”? You can find experts in a field but to go to the extent of calling someone a guru as if they knew everything – even over the experts – is just silly.
Become good at what you do, don’t push labels and people will enjoy what you have to say – ya know?
Exactly Peter – knowledge is what gives us power (as cheesy as that sounds these days). In terms of business, you’ll work for others for years and through that knowledge you learned as an employee you can begin doing your own business. Likewise, if you found a niche that you become very passionate about and keep learning and pick up mentors, you’ll eventually get into a new level and even surpass those that you used to follow.
Hey Murray,
From a bigger perspective, companies are always trying to reach out to average joes everyday because that’s where they find inspiration to try to convert them into fanatics. However, those few who will understand the marketing process will rise above that and bridge the connection towards expertise.
It can be awhile, I’ve been in the fanatic route but that seems to serve me no more so I’ve fallen towards the average joe looking for inspiration from the blogosphere from experts. Yet I’m beginning to see flaws I haven’t seen before as a fanatic. Thus, the blindness was costly.
Hopefully, in documenting the journey online this time through blogging, I can share my thoughts and build my true expertise. Thanks for the great post Murray!
Great words Thu!
It’s going to take time but you’ve already made such a mark online that you’re setting yourself apart from the average joe
One thing about not striving to be an expert is that you can often get caught in this rut where you’re just “okay” with what you’re doing or blindly go after the next best thing. There’s no way you can become an expert unless you take that extra time to work toward learning more so the more you can do each thing every day while simultaneously learning as you go – you’re on the path to expertise!
Awesome
the way you explained with a comparison. i love it totally 
worth sharing.
Cheers.
Murray, great post. Especially the bit about 10% more knowledge. In reality anyone who knows more than you is an expert. In increasingly competitive times, people will pay big bucks to gain even a small % advantage.
Especially in today’s technological world that 10% is more than enough sometimes like you said Matthew. Everyone, with enough time, can figure out the facts but if you can be the one that goes above-and-beyond you’ll have a perfect opportunity to position yourself as an expert.
Great post Murray. And I agree with you. You just need to have more knowledge than the average person to set yourself apart. Once you find the people that could become your audience then start commenting on their blogs. That way you will expose your blogs to the right people and eventually will gain a bigger following.
Great words of advice Julius and quite the challenge – as a blogger, it seems common to bring in other bloggers that are already within your niche which has its merits in terms of networking but these are the people that are already enthusiastic and well versed in the niche – aka. not really people that are going to buy.
On the other hand, if you can find the group of people that have a demand for knowledge but simply don’t have the time as we do (as bloggers) to research, you’re setting yourself up for a rabid community which you could later sell to if you release products or affiliate.
Great post Murray. I think most people think they need to be complete experts on a topic before they can offer anything, where in reality they just need to know a little more than the average Joe, like you said.
Fear of rejection is also something that stops people offering what they know.
That little edge that puts you ahead of the game; really, just look around everywhere and when people tell their stories of how they get started it’s almost jaw dropping how simple the idea or edge ended up being – they’ve built authority just from taking a bit more action than the others which catapulted them into the spotlight.
Murray,
Living in skin country I see this all of the time. The average joe shows up to ski a few weekends a month. They take a few lessons and get to the point they can enjoy themselves. They still spend on ski equipment and some even have a desire to get a little better and will get more lessons. Their instructors are usually someone just above their ski lever. Or the expert trying to make an extra buck so they can spend more time on the slopes.
Then there are those that are the Fanatics they show up with the top equipment but usually ski like the average joe.
Then there are the experts…they usually live here and can’t wait for ski season to begin and cry when it ends. These guys just learned a little more each time. They’ve learned what equipment works best for them and they like to push the limits.
I am amazed at the different areas of expertise people have taken. For example Ana over at Traffic Generation Cafe has become an expert in blog audits.
That’s a truly amazing example of expertise Sheila; love the differences you pulled out between the ski players.
The experts, from the ones I generally run into (many different fields) are so wrapped up in what they’re doing that they often pass over a lot of opportunities to create their own business – since it’s such a lifestyle thing instead. The “middle” people generally are the ones that will take the step toward building a business while listening to the experts. And then the newbies are the ones that make up the majority of the market so it makes perfect sense to cater to them.
As long as you deliver great value to the person it’s all good; it sucks when people try to fake it and take advantage of others but that usually doesn’t go on too long because the experts come out of the woodwork to put them in their place
Thanks again for the wonderful comment!
You nailed it, Murray. Too many people believe that have to be the best at what they do in order to be considered an expert. As the dictionaries state, an expert is someone who has sufficient knowledge of a particular subject. This, of course, is a moving target. The key is to encourage those with sufficient knowledge to position themselves as experts, possibly thru speaking, writing, etc. Once they do this, they will be thrilled with the results being a recognized expert brings.
Exactly right Peter.
I’ve been noticing this lately. I often take my technical skills for granted and often think “this isn’t special, everyone knows this” – - – but they don’t! We over guess ourselves in what we know. After talking to a few clients and wizzing through a few tech items, their jaws were dropped, I thought it was just commonplace to know what I did. They immediately treated me like the expert because I had that edge. I’m not wizard when it comes to the tech items I know because there’s always someone smarter than you but yeah, you can’t undermine the information you know especially if you’re in a position to become an expert – even if it’s for a small crowd.