How to Be Known (& Hired!) as the Go-To Expert for Your Culture-Shifting Work
THE ERA OF THE THOUGHT LEADER: HOW TO STOP SWEATING THE ALGORITHM & BE KNOWN (& HIRED) AS THE GO-TO EXPERT FOR YOUR CULTURE-SHIFTING WORK
Exploring why it’s time to be seen as an authority in your field & how your innovative approach to your work can be leveraged for sustainable success.
Anyone who’s been running an online business the past several years has experienced countless changes across the landscape. Especially the dramatic shifts that occurred in 2022 when the rapid growth of 2020 & 2021 slowed down to what felt like a crawl. This caused a lot of people to pivot and many to leave the industry completely.
Since nothing stays the same for very long, especially in the online space, things are shifting again. The rise of AI tools like ChatGPT is prompting a lot of interesting discussions and also understandably making some folks nervous about how that might change the needs and wants of potential clients. Especially when it comes to creating various forms of content and even digital courses.
In an era where you can potentially have a robot write your content, sales pages, and even program modules for you…how does that shift things even more? Pair that with ever shifting algorithms and exhaustion with social media…what does this mean for the way we market?
How can experienced entrepreneurs with a proven track record of success and satisfied clients ensure continued success in a crowded marketplace with rapidly shifting conditions?
Enter— The Era of the Thought Leader
Those of us who’ve been in business for a minute have pretty much seen and heard it all. The grandiose promises, the shiny sales trends, the same motivational quotes on the pinky-beige backgrounds shared again and again as part of content plans.
We are over it and so are consumers.
Buyers are savvy! Especially the ones who’ve been here for a while. These are the folks who still invest but they want quality. They’re happy to spend more if it means they actually get what they came for. They’ve seen enough trends and have enough lackluster investments under their belt to be understandably skeptical. They’re taking a beat to make sure they really trust someone, and that they’re legit, before they pull out their Amex.
This is fantastic news for the service providers, consultants, and coaches who have an innovative approach to their industry.
If you’re excellent at what you do and have an approach that’s looking to shift the culture in different and better ways, you’re in luck!
The catch is…you’ve gotta turn that thought leadership into a clear and compelling message so you can leverage it to stand out amidst the noise. While “thought leadership” can feel heavy, it really boils down to the fact that you have a unique approach to your work born out of your experiences and beliefs. It’s essentially why you do what you do in the specific way you do it, and why you feel it’s the better way.
You have to talk about what you do in a way that’s unforgettable. When you pair that with sales-focused visibility strategy and self-sustaining offers you increase your odds of continued success dramatically.
In order to leverage your experience to become a sought-after industry leader who’s also well-compensated without being overbooked, you need three things:
A strong Mission Message for better brand awareness
An Activated Audience that resonates with your message
A suite of Self-Sustaining Offers that allows you to hit your sales goals without spreading yourself thin
Since I want you to be as well-equipped as possible to thrive in this Era of Thought Leadership, I want to dive deeper into each one.
You are NOT a $1 Burger:
How to Structure Your Offers So You Don’t Exploit Yourself
The thing about cheap products isn’t just a lack of quality, but the chain of exploitation that makes it possible to sell something so cheaply in the first place.
Using the example of a $1 fast food burger–in order to make that a reality the company needs to:
Exploit the animals needed for the meat
Exploit the land used to raise the animals, vegetables & grain
Exploit the workers that work in the fields and their stores
Sure, as a consumer it can feel like a relief to be able to feed ourselves for less, especially while food prices soar, but there’s so much negative trade off in that system.
However, we often do this to ourselves as microbusiness owners. Especially if you’ve got a changemaking approach. It’s so easy to approach offers and pricing through the lens of, “I want to make this as price-accessible as possible.” While the intent there is good, the impact to ourselves often isn’t.
The question we should ask ourselves instead is: “How much time, energy and/or money do I have to market this offer? What’s my overall revenue goal? How much time does delivery take? How many are available?”
Once you can see that more clearly, it’s no wonder you feel resentful if it takes you 10 hours worth of work to sell one $500 offer, especially if your monthly revenue goal is $10,000. That math leads you straight to self-exploitation and a horrifying level of impending burnout.
What you really need are a combination of offers that are self-sustaining for themselves, your business needs, personal needs, and desires too. This way, your growth can be sustainable and also significantly more enjoyable.
The Days of Vanilla Marketing are Over:
How to Stand Out from the Masses as an Authority in Your Field
It used to be that you could have a beautiful Instagram feed with a “deep thoughts” style caption and your notifications would be poppin’ off. No more.
Unless you’re an influencer who genuinely needs tens or hundreds of thousands of followers, quality still beats quantity whether we’re talking follower count, or content itself, for making sales.
If you want to grab a slice of people’s fractured attention you need to give them something that makes them go… “Wait, what? Tell me more.”
That’s where your innovative approach comes in handy. When you can turn it into a compelling way of looking at a common problem, frustration, or misconception, it’ll get people to pay attention. It’ll position you as the expert you truly are, and will help you stand out from the sea of sameness online.
This is what I call: crafting your Mission Message.
Your Mission Message encapsulates how you do things differently and why it’s better. It’s where your positioning and messaging team up with how you’re shifting culture to create a clear and compelling point of view that hooks the right audience and makes them excited to share organically.
It’s the thing that’s going to get your name spoken in rooms you aren’t in, and make you a must-have on podcasts, panels, speaking in people’s programs, and more!
It’s going to help you grow an audience of folks excited to pay attention, share you with others, and hire you. Which leads me to the third, and final, thing to know about the Era of Thought Leadership and its benefits.
The Power of Raving Fans:
Why Growing an Activated Audience around Your Mission Message is your ticket to Consistent Sales & Growth Opportunities
Word-of-mouth marketing is still the most powerful marketing type. Having raving fans that happily spread the word about you on a regular basis, simply because they believe in your message, will lead to consistent and persistent sales far more than aiming for virality.
Here’s why:
92% of consumers believe suggestions from friends and family more than advertising. (Nielsen Media Research)
74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision. (Ogilvy Canne)
Beyond friends and family, 88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts. (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Study)
When you think about your clients and any visibility opportunities you’ve already gotten (podcasts, summits, etc), where did they come from? Often it’s through some personal connection. You either connected with someone in an online or offline community first and then later they reached out, or someone they were already connected with recommended you.
The reason this works so well is because there’s so much trust already built in. They either already trust that you’re legit because they know you well enough or they trust the person who recommended you.
Now imagine when you’re known as the go-to person for what you do, how much that will shorten the timeline of trust-building that’s needed before people buy. Plus, when you get quality visibility opportunities because people want to showcase your thought leadership to their audiences, how your audience will be able to expand continuously with aligned folks.
And since your offers will be self-sustaining and structured to support your goals and capacity, you won’t need your audience growing by thousands each month in order to succeed. Instead, you’ll be able to consistently and predictably grow your revenue from a small percentage of your audience, at any given time.
You can jump start this process right now by leveraging your thought leadership and existing networks to be a featured expert for their communities. The first step is crafting a clear and compelling Mission Message and turning it into a powerful pitch you can begin to shop around.
If you want guidance and support around crafting your Mission Message, making sure your offer suite is fully optimized and self-sustaining, and coming up with a pitch and ideas on communities to begin to bring it to, let’s connect. This is what I do with my clients in as little as two hours.
You’ve already got the expertise, the satisfied clients, and the innovative approach…now it’s time to truly step into The Era of the Thought Leader and thrive as the authority you are.
If you'd like to explore options of getting my support with your business growth click here to book a call.
