The expert business is the business of the speaker and the coach, the seminar leader and the online trainer, the yoga instructor and the business mentor, the consultant and the thought leader. This multi-billion dollar industry involves you offering your expertise in the form of products or services to others in exchange for payment. The competition are other experts who claim to be able to do what you do but better.
In most cases, it is tough to prove either way. Everyone can get impressive testimonials that make big claims. Everyone can create books or products. Everyone can be ‘the best’ simply because their marketing says this. Furthermore, you can position yourself at the top of the industry by outspending the rest on ads. The very best don’t always rise to the top. Those that do tend to be the ones who focus on building a successful expert business.
Over the years of working in this field since I was a teenager in the 1990’s, I have learned a massive amount about how things work. I believe there are 4 universal laws of succeeding in the expert business.
The Law of the Few
The law of the few is relevant in many industries, not just the expert industry. It is also referred to by terms like the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule. Basically, it suggests that there are a few areas of your business that tend to yield the most amount of profit and benefit for you. If you focus on what those few areas are and you spend more time on them, you will get a much better result by doing so.
The key here is to look at all the things you do in your business and how much time you spend on them. Then examine what they deliver. And spend more time on the things that deliver the most.
The Law of the Many
The law of the many suggests that it’s not how many things you are good at; it’s how many know you’re good at one thing. I fell into this trap before. I prided myself in being able to do a lot of different things in the field of psychology. I can speak on a number of different topics in the area and can field all sorts of questions effectively. This is good for my ego but not for my business. It is better for you to focus on being amazing at one thing and spend all that extra time you would have spent on becoming knowledgeable about other things instead in letting the world know about your expertise in this one thing. This is very powerful. Many of the most successful people out there are known for one thing and they are extremely popular as a result.
The Law of Three
The law of three is that you always have 3 jobs: Be an expert. Use your expertise to help people. Build your business. It really is that simple. Being an expert is usually the first thing you do. Once you master a topic, you might need to keep up to date with that topic through regular training, reading or practicing. The problem comes when this is all you do. This is just one of the three things you need to do. The second thing is finding ways to leverage your expertise to help people. This is not about doing this in one way. It is about finding a multitude of ways to apply your expertise. Perhaps you are a coach and you deliver online courses and you consult. The more ways you can help people with what you know, the better. Lastly, we have another crucial part of succeeding. This involves building the expert business. This is a whole world in and of itself and requires you to learn the ropes and watch what and how others are doing.
The Law of Execution
Finally, the law of execution states that a million ideas are not as powerful as one idea executed. I come across a lot of people who tell me the podcast they are thinking of building or the book they are thinking of writing. The truth is, however, so much time is wasted by people who procrastinate over whether or not to push the button and write accordingly. I believe that execution is so, so important to succeed as an expert. There are so many things you can do, but you don’t get paid for what you can do. You get paid for what you do.
To me, these four laws are important to remember if we are to survive and thrive as experts in the world today. Many will struggle to make a living as the volatile world impacts us regularly. Reminding yourself of these four ideas can help you keep the main things, the main things.
