None of them are easy as such, but the fact is that there are more opportunities than ever before to demonstrate your expertise, without necessarily following the traditional path of years and years of experience and formal qualifications.
How about: writing a book, sharing your knowledge on social media, writing posts and articles in other publications, speaking at online or offline events, or being a guest on other people’s podcasts.
*Resources mentioned during the episode*
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Raising your profile
Transcript:
Hello there, and welcome back to the Reimagining Success Podcast, where we’re talking all things personal branding at the moment. So I hope you’ve been listening to the last few weeks and following along. It’s an important topic. It’s pillar four of my five pillars of how you can build a sustainable business that will allow you to escape the nine to five for good. It’s something that I really enjoy, and I really believe is important. So I hope you do too. I hope that’s why you’re here. Today, I wanted to give you five… I was going to say quick ways. I’m going to tell them to you quickly, but they will take a bit more work into actually putting them into action, but five ways in which you can raise your profile and boost your credibility. Boost your credibility in a new area perhaps, levelling up in your existing field, getting in front of a new audience.
There might be different objectives in that, as ever. I want you to really think about whichever one of these you choose. One of them, more of them. You think about why you’re doing this because it’s easy for someone to say, “Oh, I really want to write a book. I want to do a TED Talk.” Okay, but why? What is it about that? And it might be that that is the right thing for you. It might be that you just want to do it. So, hey, why not? It’s all about getting out of your comfort zone, having fun, challenging yourself and choosing something like that is going to be really interesting and challenging and fun, and who knows where it will lead? That’s absolutely fine. But just at least reflecting on, okay, is this the right thing? Do I understand what goes into this? Is this something I’m going to stick with? Is this something I’m actually going to achieve? Is it something I want to achieve?
So, as always, tying back, first of all, to why you want to do this, and of course, I’m assuming again that you know what you want to stand for. That you know why you’re credible, right? So you have to believe that you’re credible and you know why you’re raising your profile and you have whatever it is you need in order to get to where you want it to be. So authority, experience, it could be personal experience, it could be that you’ve gone through a particular process or particular journey and you want to share that. It could be years, decades of professional experience. It could be all sorts, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be the traditional kind of conventional things like, “Hey, I’ve got a degree in this subject and check me out.” So I’ve got this fancy job title and business card.
In fact, it’s not those things that we’re talking about today. So I’ll stop teasing you. Let’s look at these five ways to raise your profile. Now, the first one is, and I’m going big right away, is to write a book. If you haven’t written a book and you hear that someone’s written a book, what is your attitude? I first wrote a book, and I still go, “Wow, that’s incredible. I know what it takes to do that. I’m really impressed, And hey, you’re an author. You’ve written something.” Clearly, you must know what you’re talking about. You’re knowledgeable, you’re educated, you’re competent. Not just that, you’ve even, especially if you self-published, you’ve had the discipline to actually get through this process, to write all this, to do all the things around it, whether you’re doing it yourself or outsourcing it to get the book cover design, to do the editing, and so on, right? The whole marketing around it.
But having a book, it’s not necessarily going to bring in that massive income as it stands. Just that one book, if you’re selling something for 7.99 on Amazon, it’s going to take some time, at least for me to get to my millions that I’m trying to earn if I am trying to earn that amount, but it’s sort of a business card, right? It’s something that will open up, if you’d like it to, opportunities to speak on stage, to get clients. It could be used directly to feed into your funnel. My original book, Leaving the Corporate 9 to 5, feeds into my business incubator. It helps you then do just that. It takes you through the steps of leaving the nine to five. From having that initial idea through to working out, working through the fears, the concerns around money, getting clear on the business model, building your personal brand platform, of course, designing this business to work around your life.
So that flexible work-life integration, right through to getting those first few clients, and sailing off into sunset with your new business. So that book directly feeds into my ecosystem, as it were, of bringing people into my Facebook group, bringing them into my paid group programme and my coaching. That’s something that, people, you don’t have to be selling hundreds, thousands of copies of this. People might find this on Amazon. You can use it, by the way, as a sort of an entry point into your ecosystem, right? Because people might not be ready to spend 5,000 pounds with you, but they’re certainly ready to spend 5 pounds, 10 pounds, even 20 pounds. I’ve just recently launched my hard cover copy, and that’s 20 pounds, I believe. If they’re willing to spend that, I think that’s a pretty good indicator that they’re committed at least and taking this seriously.
So writing a book. Yes, I know it’s a big endeavour. It doesn’t have to be and probably shouldn’t be your magnum opus or whatever the expression is, it doesn’t have to be. This is everything I know about this topic. If anything, you want to write several books, right? So I would very much recommend that you break down your expertise and go as specific as possible. That helps, by the way, for SEO, for organic search. If it’s how to do, for example, or something that people are actually looking to do, that’s going to be much more powerful than having a sort of clever, fancy title that nobody’s ever going to search for, even understand what it’s about. If you’re a big famous coach or entrepreneur, whatever, then probably you can get around with something pretty crazy and creative and people will buy. But if you’re starting out, then you want it to be found, right? You want people to go, “Oh wow. Yeah, I get that. And I need that.”
So number one is writing a book. Number two, okay, if writing a book seems like a big step as a step too far right now, at least, you can start sharing your knowledge in social media. And I talked about building a personal brand on social media a couple of weeks ago. And of course, it’s a big part of what we do in my programmes, but you can start by… And I always encourage my clients to start by following people, connecting people who are in the right space, maybe potential clients, potential employers, people in your industry, right? So connect to the right people, allowing their content to come into your feed. And then you can begin by liking, commenting, engaging, sharing something important, and going, “Wow, this was really insightful,” and adding your perspective to it. That’s a really easy, I’d say, comfortable way and, by the way, probably most effective way of engaging with other people. They’ll see your name coming up in the feed. Maybe you, guys, will have some reason to then private message each other and you’ll connect if you’re not already connected, and that’s a great way to start.
Now, once you feel comfortable with commenting and liking, engaging, and sharing other people’s content, of course, it’s great if you can start posting your own original content. It doesn’t have to be massively long articles. In fact, I think shorter posts can be much more effective with the algorithm on LinkedIn, for example. Sharing your knowledge in posts, perhaps in articles in videos, if you want to get really crazy, right? But sharing your expertise on social media is an incredible way of hobnobbing with people, of getting in front of people, who you wouldn’t usually meet in your day to day. That’s the power of online, the power of the Internet, the power of social media, and in particular, the power of LinkedIn. I’d say, to get in front of these potential hiring managers, directors, high-level executives, potential clients who, otherwise, you wouldn’t or who wouldn’t know, rather, that you existed. So the second way to raise your profile and boost your credibility is sharing your knowledge on social media.
Number three is a little bit in between the book and the posting, I suppose, because it’s guest posting on, let’s say, a high-authority blog on another website, right? That used to be a massive industry. It used to be really important. It’s a bit harder now with so much content out there. But being published in the media, in fact, there are these opportunities, if you know, Help a Reporter Out, HARO, and #journorequest as well on Twitter. And there are, of course, PR agencies you can help you do this too. Beware, by the way. I’ve had about 10 different people messaging me on Instagram recently to ask me to pay for this, which is not very okay, I think, to be, “Hey, I’m going to feature you in my top 10 coaches if you pay me 500 bucks.” No, thank you.
But really, being on other platforms is a great way to get into in front of an audience, right? And you have to think about, again, what is it you’re trying to achieve? In this case, we’re talking credibility, authority. So you want it to get on the Forbes and get into Business Insider, you want to be in INK Magazine, Courts Magazine, which I hadn’t actually heard of at the time; but nonetheless, it’s a big publication and perhaps a big name that everybody recognises, but perhaps also it’s something that’s really well-known in your niche, in your industry. That’s probably going to be more effective than getting on Oprah, which is incredibly difficult to do, I think, as well. So don’t necessarily go, “I want to go this massive. I want it to be on BBC.” Okay, great. And that’s maybe possible, maybe not possible right now, but start with the smaller titles, publications, the more specific topics as well. Sharing your knowledge on social media, guest posting on a high-authority website.
Now, we’re getting into a different medium. So we talked about writing a book, writing on social media, guest posting, what about public speaking? Hopefully, things are opening up. Now, we can get back to live events. Speaking on a stage, and by the way, it doesn’t have to be in front of 2000, 3000, 10,000 people when you’re starting out. In fact, the mentor I’m working with at the moment said, “Hey, the first event I organised about 11 people showed up, and we sat and had a chat, and that was it.” Now he’s got hundreds and thousands of people who come to his events, right? So certainly, I luckily spoke on a big stage, one of my first assignments at P&G. In a job, we stood in front of thousand people, whatever it was, of all our local offices.
I love acting, as I may have shared before, and so I quite like a bit of the spotlight. It still gives me that nervous energy, but that kind of speaking, and of course, I do a lot of online workshops, master classes, teaching, and so on, so I feel very comfortable with that, but there was always a bit of a nervous energy as well as having some excitement. But public speaking, it could be smaller workshops and retreats. You could be partnering with other people. You don’t have to organise your own massive conference is what I’m saying, right? But getting in front of other people’s audiences again, and it could be unpaid, by the way, because if you see this as an avenue to getting potential clients or getting those opportunities to building your credibility, now it’s okay. We’re talking about earning income. They don’t necessarily have to be those big paid gigs.
And then finally, again, a sort of lighter version of the public speaking, I suppose, is getting onto other people’s podcasts. Absolutely, doing and sharing podcasts is going to be a lot of work. It’s going to be incredibly fun and rewarding and powerful for the longer term. It’s definitely for the long gain, but at the meantime, guesting on other complimentary podcasts, so not your competitors, but someone who has an audience that’s similar to yours and a topic that’s related and someone who could benefit from your expertise. There are specific. I was on a wedding industry podcast a while ago talking about resilience in business, right?
So in theory, I could go and talk about that topic on any podcast on for graphic designers, for plumbers, for property developers. So your expertise can absolutely be relevant for very specific niches. So really looking at podcasts that are relevant. Of course, make sure you listen to them, make sure you sort of engage with the host before. I get people, by the way, who applied to be on my podcast, and I do a solo podcast. It’s not super helpful. Doesn’t exactly reflect well on you that you haven’t even listened. You haven’t even seen that it’s only ever me on this podcast. Now, I have started doing my Building a Sustainable Business interviews on here but that’s very different to you coming on and blasting my audience with your sales pitch, which tends to be the kind of pitches I get. But getting on other people’s podcasts is my not-so-secret, but very, very powerful number five.
Okay. So those are my five quick ways to raise your profile and boost your credibility. Again, quick to tell you, not so quick to do, but certainly very feasible, very doable and very, very powerful. Number one is writing a book. You don’t have to, by the way, get that traditional publishing contract. It’s exciting. I’d love to have that one day too. But generally, they’re going to, anyway, rely on you to do the marketing for it. They want you to have that audience. You’re going to get less royalties. You’re going to have less control over how things go in terms of marketing your book, in terms of republishing, reprinting, if you want to, and so on. And in fact, self-publishing can then give you the credibility you need in order to get that traditional publishing contracts I think about that as well. Self- publishing a book and being that author. And remember, go specific and then write more books rather than trying to cram everything in that one. As someone once told me, “Your book is doing no one any good, just sitting in a draught folder on your computer.”
So write a book, share your knowledge on social media, begin to engage and share other people’s content. And then as you get more confident, start creating and sharing your own original content. Guest posting featuring in the media with your expertise, it could be a small quote in amongst larger article, it could be being the prominent featured experts on a high-authority blog or website. Public speaking, online or offline, and then getting onto other people’s podcasts. It gives you content to share. It gives you a platform. You can put those fancy logos on your site, saying, “Hey, look at all these podcasts I’ve been on, look at all these websites that have published me, these media outlets, and check out my book. It’s amazing. I’ve got this physical book.” Again, building credibility but also being something I can then maybe… I was going to say auction off, but at least raffle off maybe, as competitions is having the energy point into my business as well.
And again, I talked of course about having your own business, but even as an employee, again, being a thought leader, bit of an icky word, maybe being that expert, knowledgeable person in your industry, why not have your own book? That’s a fantastic ticket to getting speaking gigs as well, by the way, and a great talking point, then to perhaps open up opportunities as well to, yes, be on that TED stage, get those podcasts, opportunities, be featured in the media, get that promotion, whatever that looks like, get on that panel and so on.
So I’d love to hear from you. Which of these things have you done? Which are the things are you now interested in doing? Let me know. Podcast at onestepoutside.com or of course you can get in touch on any social channel. And if you’d like my help with raising your profile, boosting your credibility with any or all of these different ideas that I’ve given you, then you can get in touch and book a call, and we’ll look at how I can help you do just that. Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you back here next week. Bye for now.
If you’re ready to start to reimagine what success could look like for you, here are some of the ways in which Anna can support you:
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Join the One Step Outside the 9 to 5 Business Incubator – This is your roadmap to transitioning from a corporate job into setting up a meaningful business that will bring you more freedom, flexibility and fulfilment outside of the corporate 9 to 5. www.onestepoutside.com/9to5
One Response
And remember, go specific and then write more books rather than trying to cram everything in that one.