Three Steps for Harnessing Opportunities to Increase Your Visibility as an Expert in Your Field
Every day we see, hear and read people who call themselves “experts” espousing their advice or touting their services on national talk shows, on the radio or in popular blogs. Who are these people, where did they come from and how did they get that coveted prime-time, drive-time or screen-time slot when, after all, you deserve it so much more than they do?
The answer is simple: these people have learned to celebritize themselves. Celebritizing yourself is about branding yourself as an expert. It doesn’t have the usual trappings of red carpet premieres and big, fancy awards ceremonies that traditional “celebrity” does, but the perks are many: increased visibility, more customers, an explosion of business, more clients and, frankly, more money.
The opportunity is out there, always, every day, for people to celebritize themselves by branding themselves as experts in every field imaginable; the secret is first deciding this is what you want for yourself and causatively pursuing every opportunity available (rather than waiting for opportunities to come to you). So here are three simple steps you can take, every day, to make sure you are always creating opportunity for yourself, your product, your service, your company or your vision:
Step 1: Find Your “Expertise” Niche
Nowadays everyone claims to be an expert on just about everything; and maybe they are. Your challenge is to take your expertise and apply it someplace no one else – or very few people – ever have. Be creative, thoughtful, practical and enthusiastic about finding a niche that you and you alone can fill. This often takes a filtering process to scope out the competition and distinguish yourself from them.
For instance, let’s say you run a handyman company that specializes in providing routine home maintenance to single women, widows, the elderly, etc. Kind of like Rent-a-Hubby, but that idea’s already been taken.
Okay, but you still want your company to stand out, still want to dominate that niche and fill it as only you can. What else can you do? Well, as you look around the office one day you notice that most of the guys are fairly young, in good shape and, frankly, most of them are single. Ahh; inspiration strikes! You’ll be the anti-Rent-a-Hubby; you’ll be Rent-a-STUD!
cforms contact form by delicious:days
So you run out and buy a few dozen of those tuxedo T-shirts for your guys to wear on the job, print up some flyers, business cards and redesign the website using a literal “stud” (isn’t that like some kind of nail???) as a new logo/emblem and, ta-da, you own a niche of your own. Filling this niche will give you a revived sense of enthusiasm to own this market and, as such, opportunities will naturally flow. Now you can be the expert on this topic and be available whenever the media writes about romance, dating, singlehood, breaking up… even Valentine’s Day!
Step 2: Own Your Positioning As An Expert
Filling a niche is one way to increase the amount of opportunity that comes your way but owning that niche – really sewing it up as your own, bar none – ensures that the opportunity pipeline will always be full.
The key is to become so well-known for what, exactly, it is that you do that even if it all goes south tomorrow people will still recognize you for that particular talent, which opens doors from here to eternity.
For instance, Paula Deen absolutely owns her “southern belle with sass” eatery, cookware, TV star and bestselling author niche; owns it! And if it all fell apart tomorrow she could still peddle that shtick from here to sundown and create opportunity after opportunity simply because of her absolute dominance of this very specific and unique niche.
Step 3: Make Yourself Well Known
This is the time to stop being shy and start being proud; being proud of who you are, what you do, the niche you own and how you own it. The common denominator to every single celebrity on this planet is an overriding belief in self that comes through in every conversation, interview, blog or pod-cast.
Don’t just be the guy who grows organic tomatoes as a way to feed the homeless; be the guy who grows organic tomatoes to feed the homeless AND blogs about each organic tomato he grows, each homeless person he feeds, each life he touches so that soon your tomatoes are synonymous with your cause of feeding the homeless and, by association, you become synonymous with your cause.
Write letters to the editor about your cause, about its simplicity, about a new program you’ve started called “the tomato seed” where anyone can come by your garden, get a kit to grow tomatoes – for free – if they promise to donate half of each crop to their local homeless shelter. Hold regular events to raise awareness, not just of your cause but of yourself. Celebritizing yourself isn’t always about making tons of money; to celebritize yourself is to celebritize your cause, be it personal, professional – or even charitable.
Summary
That’s it; three simple steps and opportunity can be yours – now, tomorrow and every day. So, what are you waiting for? Opportunity is out there; now is the time to go out and get some for yourself!
