Tag Archives: subject matter expert

ProfitCenterCoach.com – Episode #459 – These Three Tips Improve Your Online Credibility, Today.

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“Don’t find yourself. Create yourself.”

Monday: Character

Do you wait for things to happen to you or do you make things happen?

Today’s inspiration is all about your answer to this question.  If you wait for things to happen, you are not in control.  When it comes to creating yourself… you must be in control.

Here are three tips to gaining control with the image you present online.

1)  Linked In.  – Go into your profile and update!  Make sure to be creative.  This is your chance to show people what you’re made of!  Honors and awards need to be included, this is a vital avenue to character and showcasing that you are a Subject Matter Expert.

Now…. if you don’t have “awards” or have a unique field without awards, you can still build expertise in your followers.  This is why McDonalds has “billions and billions” served!  When I worked in college admissions I served on a scholarship committee… but does it sound better to say, “I’ve read over 1,000 scholarship applications”… be creative.

2)  Website – About Me.  Use this space to share who you are!  It’s similar to the Linked In profile – but different in that you want to share your personality.   Include photos and add recent “coolness” – You’ll include awards/honors and leadership activities — but you’ll also want to show your story.

Your story is what makes you… YOU.  Include how you developed your talents that brought you to open a business.  Let your readers understand who you are.  I said, “personality” earlier… and it’s important to show that side.  But story are the words that got you where you are today.

3)  Write something!  If you’re not up to a blog… yet… then at least come up with your big list of questions.  Start with one giant list.  It’s going to be related to one profit center.   Remember profit centers are areas of your business that generate income.  For our marina we have a boat club, winter storage, and a store.  They interrelate but they also stand alone!

So… take the time to write down every question you’ve ever been asked by a prospective client.  The reason this builds credibility is that people reading online will have those exact questions.  When they find the person that can answer their questions, they’ve found an expert.

There you go.  Three things to immediately build your character… that are not difficult to do today!

Sounds like you’ve got some work to do!  But it will be worth it to build your character – the first C of the Infinity Marketing Machine.

#doinginfinity

Tomorrow… come back for my episode on “Content & Consistency”!
PS:  Like my vibe? I want you to join my tribe! start here! 

 

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!
Sunday – Week in Review

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ProfitCenterCoach.com – Episode 453 – A Trick To Help You Create Blog Posts

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“When you get, give. When you learn, teach.” – Maya Angelo

Monday: Character

The goal of turning our social media efforts into an Infinity Marketing Machine is accomplished by getting our audience to know, like, and trust us.

The question becomes, “How do we do this?”

When you convert your effort to creating an Infinity Marketing Machine All communication with your customers centers around this main goal.  You want all communications to build trust and get people to know us that’s how they will like us!

I’ve often said we do this through creating consistent content that is useful to our followers.  BUT, it’s a little more than just content.  It’s about the credibility of the person  creating the content!

Sure you can create a site where you constantly repost items from experts… but all that makes you is a good reposter-er… you want to be more than that!  You want to be one of the experts.

When you position yourself as an expert you will enhance your following.  This may seem daunting… but you can do this with something as simple as a Linked-In or Facebook Profile.

Use these two “ready to go” traffic generators.  Just build and enhance your profiles.  Include your talents/skills and honors/awards.  Also post your own creative content.

That’s a little tricky for some people.  I think it’s because we use the word “expert” and follow it with “create content” – that means you are blogging or vlogging information for potential customers to see!  That gets scary… until you think of this trick.

Reread today’s inspiration: “When you get, give. When you learn, teach.” – Maya Angelo

The second half… “When you learn, teach.”

If you can hold a conversation about your product, service, or industry then you can write or create a video about it.  Take what you have LEARNED and spin it into a TEACHING moment.

Just like this blog post… all I’m doing is sharing information I’ve learned.  I’m teaching you what I know!  I love learning more and more about being an Infinitypreneur but… it’s even better to teach you!

Instead of thinking of “positioning yourself as an expert” think of yourself as “Teaching what you know”!

#doinginfinity

Tomorrow… come back for my episode on “Content and Consistency”!
PS:  Like my vibe? I want you to join my tribe! start here! 

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!
Sunday – Week in Review

ProfitCenterCoach.com – Episode #447 – Is Snapchat a Fruit or Vegetable?

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“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”

Monday: Subject Matter Expert

Get up. Run business. Go to sleep. Repeat.

I’m willing to bet that there’s a lot of knowledge that happens between “get up” and “go to sleep”. haha

This knowledge is the information that you need to focus on for positioning yourself as a Subject Matter Expert.   And we need to be a Subject Matter Expert in our industry because being the thought leader for our customers transitions them to a tribe.  And when they become a tribe you will experience loyalty.

That’s why this is important!

But I found today’s inspiration and it made me laugh because we’d never put a tomato in a fruit salad… but how many times have you almost done something “dumb”… OR better yet, how many times has someone else nearly done something dumb but you stopped them?!?

The way you build trust with your tribe is to show them where the pitfalls are!  You want to prevent them from doing something dumb.  I like to mention this point because sometimes people feel funny about listing their credentials or starting a blog.  But… your ability to serve your tribe by preventing them from doing something incorrect (dumb) or your ability to shorten their learning curve is a great benefit to spending the time to be a thought leader.

Remember, this does take time.  You are working on your business, so taking the time to write web pages or a blog might seem irrelevant.  However, if you prevent someone from putting tomatoes on their fruit salad, isn’t it worth it?

Alright – maybe that’s not your number one concern… so if your knowledge brings more customers in your door… isn’t it worth it?

The reason I bring this up… I was talking about our crew with my parents (the owners of our family marina) – anyway, my dad was asking about how I recruited our crew this summer.  He knew about the open house event we hosted in April, but he wanted to know HOW we found the people that we invited to the open house.  My answer… “Snapchat”.

You see, I was able to share my knowledge with my dad and explain how powerful social media can be.  I used the real world example of our open house.  He still doesn’t completely understand what Snapchat is… but he does fully understand that using a newspaper ad to attract our high school crew is just like putting tomatoes on your fruit salad!

Tomorrow… come back for this week’s episode on “Content and Consistency”!
PS:  Like my vibe? I want you to join my tribe! start here! 

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!

ProfitCenterCoach.com – Episode 435 – Stay Current

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“What’s new today will be old tomorrow. The only constant is change”

Monday: Subject Matter Expert

What the heck is the purpose of “Subject Matter Expert” Day?

It’s simple. People want to do business with people.  They don’t want to do business with phones, websites, or pamphlets.  These are your tools.  But the key is YOU.

You must earn credibility for a person to work with you!

Now… sometimes this is ONLY done via the text on a webpage.  You can make an entire sale based on the information you provide.

But something magical happened when you provided that information.  The magical something is that you earned trust based on your words OR on another part of your site.

Maybe you included an “About Me” section that someone read and learned about you.  Or maybe they did a search for you on Linked In and found your profile.

Now… behind the scenes your credibility is based on your ability to keep up with the times.  What I mean by this is the message you provide.

For example, when you look at your site do you see a 10 year old car or a new car?  How about that photo you included to say “call us” and it’s a flip phone or worse… a BlackBerry!

It was funny my husband showed me a photo of an ad from Amtrak.  Great ad that conveyed their train engine is robust, but it’s the experience it provides the riders via memories that is the real benefit… but when I was shown the ad, which was cool, he said it’s got to be old it’s a 10 year old car in the ad!

Either they took the photo and didn’t notice the car OR it was a fancy car, 10 years ago…

That’s why it’s just as important to your Subject Matter Expertise to stay current with your visuals on your pamphlets or website as it is to keep up with your education and credentials.  If either is stale, it’s a reflection on YOU!

Just like our inspiration says, “What’s new today will be old tomorrow. The only constant is change.”

So take a moment today to do a reality check and see if you’re outdated!

Tomorrow come back for this week’s episode on “Content and Consistency”!
PS:  Like my vibe? Join my tribe! start here! 

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!

ProfitCenterCoach.com – Episode 429 – Live Excellence.

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“Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.” Ralph Marston

Monday: Subject Matter Expert

Today was a beautiful sunny day at the marina.  It was incredible!  It was also incredible because of what our crew was doing.  Mid-August brings a whole set of instability to the crew.

The reason I say instability is because my “new” crew needs to step up and fill the shoes of their “old” crew’s departure to college.  It’s always shaky.  But today we had a few short cuts that went against my belief.  The belief that when you live with excellence you’ll achieve it.

The example… ugh… I watched one of our guys drive the pontoon boat too close to the dock too fast.  Not only is it illegal… but it’s just dumb.  His skill set is perfectly capable to drive that fast, it wasn’t uncontrolled, it just has a very bad optic to our customers.  Did I mention it was dumb?

This is why you need to live according to excellence.

And that leads to positioning yourself as a Subject Matter Expert.  Excellence in what you do commands respect.  Respect gives you a voice.  That voice brings followers and followers elevate your status.

Be excellence and you will be viewed as excellent.

Here’s the deal… our boat runners have a talent level that is far superior to our customers.  This is amazing since they start at age 15 and our customers are in their 40’s! But because of their youth, they haven’t fully grasped the concept of  “perception” and they do something dumb like drive too fast too close to the dock.

Since our product is the care and handling of boats in addition to the promotion of safe boating, it’s bad for our brand when they drive “too fast”.

Perception affects your Subject Matter Expert status!  Therefore, if that one boat runner runners would just accept excellence as his attitude instead of merely operating as a boat driver with excellent skills, oh my… he’d skyrocket! But until he decides to be excellence, he’ll just have excellent skills.

Is this making sense?

When you decide that to live with excellence your Subject Matter Expert status will skyrocket, until then… you will just have excellent skills.

Live excellence, don’t just be excellent.

 

More tomorrow, make sure to come back for “Content and Consistency” — also join my vibe by subscribing to my tribe!  start here! 

 

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!

 

ProfitCenterCoach.com – Episode 422 – Showstopper!

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“Toot your own horn”

Saturday: Try This!

Ever used your computer and had the “blue screen of death” instantly appear?  How about you open your email and have 3,000 unread emails in 15 minutes?  Yeah… it’s no fun to have computer problems.

It’s one of those moments you bring your computer into the “fix it” shop and that gut wrenching feeling of handing over your laptop to the guy at the counter.  It’s intimidating!

Now imagine you’re the guy behind the counter, running a great business knowing that the person coming in the door is skeptical of you…  what do you do?

I love my computer “fix it” shop.  They are fast, reliable, and above all, trust worthy!

That’s why last Tuesday when I dropped off my computer I had zero worries.  When I went to pick it up, I noticed the coolest thing on the counter.  It was a simple plastic frame with a print out of all of their “Reader’s Choice” winning certificates.

The “Reader’s Choice” awards are hosted by our local newspaper.  It’s a local poll to find the winners of local business topics, this business won “best computer repair”.  We have these awards for best marina and they’re posted, but I’ve never seen them reduced in size and displayed right on the front counter!

It’s perfect.  It’s a great confidence and great trust builder.  It’s a real showstopper.

If you’ve won awards or have credentials in your industry, be sure to post them for your customers to see… you can do this online, too.

Try This!

If my blog is helping you… I love it! Come and join my group for more!  start here! 

 

ProfitCenterCoach.com – Episode 417 – Your Brain is Hungry!

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“If you’re not feeding your mind, you’re falling behind.”

Monday: Subject Matter Expert

Look at the colors in that photo!  I thought it was pretty and it works well with today’s inspiration I mean what’s better than playing with food…

So let’s talk about feeding our mind.

You need to regularly challenge your mind and expand your knowledge base.  It’s important, not just for your subject matter expert status, but also for your own personal growth!

As a part of the Infinity Marketing Machine you really need to concentrate on the “Character” aspect of your persona. People need to trust you, this is done best when you are a leader in your industry.  Trust builds character.

But how do you build this trust?

I say you can do this by sharing, whether its a blog or podcast – but you know what… you also have to feed your mind and constantly expand your comfort zone.  It might be by regularly reading trade magazines.  You could expand knowledge by attending conferences.  But you can also do it by taking an online course!

I did this last week and I completed a course.  Now I am a certified Business and Entrepreneurship Coach!

It was a great course full of lots and lots of lectures.  I learned so much that will help me in creating new content for this blog. I can’t wait to share it… and challenge you!  OH, there are a few exciting things coming up… stay tuned!

But seriously.  The business of education online is huge… and I’m not referring to college courses.  I’m talking about learning via your peers… I mean lots of people that have created educational programs.  You can learn almost anything!

Well, now it’s your turn!  I did it.

Oh wait… a good coach would ask this different… let’s see… “Imagine your life after completing that online course you want to take, how IS your life different from today?”

Seeeee…. knowledge helps!  Go feed your mind, your brain is hungry!

If my blog is helping you… that’s super cool, for sure join my group for more!  start here! 

 

ProfitCenterCoach.com – Episode #411 – The Best of All Worlds!

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“The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday.”

The past two days I’ve talked about tomorrow… meaning what you’re doing today impacts what’s going to happen tomorrow.

Now let’s look at today.

You are a Subject Matter Expert to your followers.  This might freak you out, especially if you don’t see yourself as an expert.

Well guess what… you need to start seeing yourself as an expert!

You already do this every day, after all, you work with customers.  They call or email… maybe you see them in person, regardless of the interaction, they ask questions and you answer.  This puts you as an expert in their eyes.

That’s why it’s OK to position yourself as a Subject Matter Expert.  When you do this you will gain authority in your industry and that’s when you build credibility.

Start with your Linked-In Profile!  Do it today.  Get on your profile and add exciting things you’ve done in the last six months… um… if you don’t have something exciting, it’s time to plan!

Look to awards/honors to achieve, articles to write, or public speaking activities to help boost your presence.

That’s your tip for today – go start now… it’s the way you can be better today than you were yesterday and plan for tomorrow!  It’s like the best of all worlds!

 

ProfitCenterCoach.com – Day 39 – Become the Expert You Are.

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“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Dr. Seuss

Thank you for being here!  I’m making an assumption that you were searching for a better way to create more social media traction for your business… well, yesterday I told you about the 5 C’s to the Infinity Marketing Machine.  I’m glad you came back to learn more.

The coolest part of the Infinity Marketing Machine is the ability to tailor it to your personal needs.   But it all revolves around the ability to share information that builds trust with your followers.

The first C is “Credibility”.  Have you ever had a gut feeling that someone is not trust worthy?  You don’t know exactly why… you just get a bad feeling.  Well, this is exactly why you work to elevate your credibility online.

The best way to elevate this credibility is to become a Subject Matter Expert by sharing your knowledge to position yourself as an industry leader.  For example, sharing knowledge in a blog, vlog, or podcast is an excellent way to accomplish this goal!

Now… the hard part of creating a blog, vlog, or podcast, outside of starting, is feeling that you are “worthy” enough to create such an outlet.  But here’s the deal, have you ever searched for information online and been thrilled to find the answer to your question?!!  When you start to create the information, it gives you the opportunity to share and give back to others!

You might not feel like you’re ready to be considered an “expert” but guess what… there’s always someone “newer” than you.  Your knowledge will be appreciated.  Again, the reason you are creating this type of information is to position yourself as the expert in your industry.  But sharing your knowledge you become the “go to” for knowledge and this builds trust.

Trust is extremely important to your Infinity Marketing Machine.  And with that, it’s time to create your blog, enhance your Linked In profile, and clean up your Facebook feed.

Come back tomorrow and we’ll talk about the second C of the Infinity Marketing Machine, “Content” — This is a great way to build trust with your customers!

Like what you’re reading?  Join my group!  start here

Episode #393 – Tell the Truth… Especially When it’s GOOD!

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“Leadership today is all about truth and trust.” JWelch

Do you remember when you used to visit a website… let’s say for a hotel… and the photos they used were not of their actual hotel rooms?  OMG… yes, this used to happen!

Then something funny happened.

People wanted “real” on the internet… flaws and all.  There used to be a time when you’d go to buy something (pre-internet), whether it was a car or some other “something” listed as a classified ad and make a visit to see the “something” in person only to find the description did not match the condition of the thing.  Now, a simple look on Craigs List shows photos of the damage or imperfections because the last thing you want to do is list your product and have it be different from reality.

Well, on the same level, you are your own best product!  The hard part is we often undersell our own credentials instead of shining a showcase on them!  We focus on the “bad” too much and simply convince ourselves that we have nothing to offer in terms of being a Subject Matter Expert.

This is just not the case.  You need to emphasize your good side by listing your honors/awards/credentials and even positioning yourself with original content such as a blog or podcast.

When you package yourself as a leader and share the truth about your expertise, others will follow you… it will help build strength in your tribe.  People like to follow confident leaders.

 

Big Money Small Change Success
Character + Content/Consistency + Goals/Motivation + Customers =
Infinity Marketing Machine

PS: thanks for reading!  I really appreciate you being here.  Make sure to “like” this post… and follow me! (and please do me a favor… if you want more great ideas like the one in this post, just fill out this form and I’ll send them to you…  start here

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Action Steps
1- Tell the world about your awesomeness!  It might seem strange… but it really needs to be shared to build trust among your tribe.  Do this by listing awards/recognition/credentials on your about me page!
2- Install my free app! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)

Podcast:
Listen to Episode #393 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast

 

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!