Marketing Podcast Chapter 2: Acquiring the Necessary Expertise
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Hello and welcome to Tactical Execution, an information series exploring innovative marketing and strategic business positioning for entrepreneurs and small businesses in an increasingly competitive world. My name is Patrick and I’m your host. You can find written versions of these podcasts at TacticalExecution.com and I encourage your candid feedback at the same location. Today, we’ll be looking at exactly HOW to acquire the necessary expertise so let’s get started.
Acquiring knowledge is extremely easy for some and almost impossible for others. What I can do here is explain my approach in identifying the knowledge I want and then acquiring it as quickly as possible. Everyone will have their own approach, I’m sure, but the important thing is to follow through on the effort and get the expertise you need. Again, the best way to become a recognized expert in your field is to acquire expertise and give it away for free, and acquiring the knowledge is step one.
Here are a few sobering statistics. According to Para Publishing, 58% of the
Now, these are statistics and we all know how deceptive statistics can be. Even worse, I found them on the internet, casting them even further into doubt. But whether or not they’re exactly accurate, we all get the point. People don’t read books any more and there’s ample evidence behind the statement that someone who thoroughly reads just three books, cover to cover, on a particular topic could reasonably be considered an expert. Well, guess where I’m going with this?
Fact is; every “expert” starts out NOT an expert. People aren’t born experts. People BECOME experts and they do so by having an unending desire to learn more and more about a particular topic. I’m going to make a statement here in a second and I know many of you will think its absurd and disagree with me. That’s okay. I’m going to say it anyway because I truly believe it’s possible. I’m not saying it’s easy but it’s possible.
You could look out into the world and select a particular topic – maybe a topic you believe is gaining in importance or one you see a big demand for – and you could go to Amazon.com and buy 3 to 5 books on the topic, read them all cover to cover, take notes, summarize your new-found knowledge and market yourself as an expert, perhaps holding workshops or selling information products or doing consulting jobs, within 6 months. I’m talking about a complete cradle-to-grave career shift; start to finish in 6 months.
Now again, you may disagree with that and if so, I encourage you to share your thoughts on the Contact page of the Tactical Execution website. But it gives you some idea where I stand on the topic of what’s possible. With the right dedication and discipline, I truly think almost anything is possible. And frankly, this information series could easily be used as a roadmap for that effort. Looking back, the tactics I’m describing in this series have guided my own career development for the past 5 years.
There’s no question Amazon.com has played the single largest role in my personal education process. Back in 2000, I spent over $900 on books about the stock market and technical analysis – one order! I’ve bought books about direct mail, online marketing, search engine optimization and e-commerce. I’ve bought books about oil, China and the Middle East. I’ve bought books about the mortgage industry and commercial real estate. I’ve bought books about business valuation techniques and global trend analysis. Indeed, I buy books faster than I can read them but I maintain it’s the cheapest and most efficient way for me to educate myself.
Of course, reading books isn’t the only way to acquire knowledge. And given the fact that most people really don’t LIKE reading books and that they really don’t have TIME to read books, let’s take a look at some other options. Well, for starters, a lot of books are now available in audio format. If you go to Amazon.com and find a book you like, search for it in audio format – not necessarily on Amazon but on the internet in general. Just put the title into a Google search along with the word “audio”. One good site to check is Audible.com – maybe THEY have it. In many cases, the price isn’t that different. And because you’re listening to this podcast on your MP3 player, I know you’re well equipped to listen to these books once purchased.
Listen to them at the gym or in your car on the way to work in the morning. Think about this: if you commute 40 minutes each way for work, you’re in your car almost 7 hours per week. If the average person speaks at a rate of 140 words per minute, that’s 56,000 words per week. And at an average of 300 words per page, that’s 186 pages of content in a single week. I don’t mean to get mired in the math but that’s an enormous amount of content to consumer in a single week. Believe me; you’ll be an expert overnight.
For me, I go to the gym 4 times each week and I’m usually there for an hour and 45 minutes each time. If you work it out, it’s the same 7 hours we just discussed and I try to use that time effectively by listening to books and podcasts, even motivational stuff from time to time, every morning. In fact, I plan to buy some comedy tracks as well because it puts me in spirits for the rest of the day. Anyway, you get the point. We all have to look at our own lives and see where we can insert the to-do items we need to accomplish our goals.
Obviously, there’s always Google. Check around. Most likely, there’s already a bunch of content out there you can take advantage of. Do a search with the file extension PDF in the search string. It’ll bring up all the PDF files about your topic. You can open these, print them out or save them to your own computer. In most cases, you can even copy and paste the content into a new consolidated document and review it later.
Think about this for a second. You’re listening to a free podcast with some great information on it, if I do say so myself. Fact is; stuff exists. Go to iTunes and do an Advanced Search for your topic. Sort the results by “most popular”. You’ll find stuff. And that’s a GREAT place to start because not only will you educate yourself on the topic but you’ll also see what your competitors are doing and how they’re positioning themselves. I’m telling you; you just have to get a bit creative in today’s internet world and you’ll end up with more information than you can handle.
Did you know there are free guitar lessons on YouTube? We’ll be talking about that in a future chapter but hopefully, you get the point. There are a lot of people out there providing good quality information. Go get it. Get as much as you can. Learn. Grow. Feed your brain and become an expert.
At this point, we’re done with the inexpensive options. There are other great ways to learn about a topic but it’ll cost you. In all likelihood, there are people out there selling e-Books on your topic but these will likely cost more than a real book at Amazon.com. The websites selling these products do an excellent job selling the product, complete with exciting graphics and convincing testimonials. Admittedly, I’ve bought a bunch of them myself over the years. They’re immediately available and often provide great information.
Here’s another option: you could go to a seminar. Here’s where it gets expensive. Depending on your topic, there may be seminars that cost anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand to attend. They’re often 2 or 3-day events and can inject you with a ton of information in a hurry. Are they worth it? That’s up to you. Yes, I’ve gone to a couple myself but I’ve usually left thinking I could’ve gotten more information for less money by just reading a few books. But that’s me. I like to read. You may feel differently.
Workshops are another option and some of these can be quite inexpensive. Workshops are usually 2 to 4 hours long and the prices are a lot lower than a 2 or 3-day seminar. Check online. Quite often, your local municipality will have a Parks & Recreation department that offers adult education classes and you might find a class on your particular topic. You can also check larger companies like the Learning Annex. They provide classes on almost everything and the prices are quite reasonable. I usually go to at least 2 or 3 Learning Annex classes each year. They don’t cost that much – maybe $30 or $40 – and I usually feel like I got some really good information, quickly.
Of course, all this stuff is tax deductible and you should keep your receipts for that reason.
Let’s talk for a moment about identifying the correct material; the material you need to accomplish your goal. You need to think about the market you’re looking to serve. Who’s your customer and what are their needs? A lot of times, the answer lies beneath the surface. In other words, it’s usually NOT the obvious answer. For example, consider the promotional products company I’m working with. The obvious answer is that they need creative promotional products at good prices. But look further. Who are we really talking about here? The large company using these promotional products? Or the young marketing employees charged with arranging those purchases?
When thinking about your customers’ needs, always look at it from the human perspective. What can you provide to those human beings that will make their lives easier or better? As a Mortgage Broker, my competitive opportunity is NOT to get lowest rate (because anyone can do that) but to take the intimidation and suspicion out of the process for my clients. Their biggest problem is the fact that the mortgage business can be intimidating and confusing and that a lot of mortgage professionals can be sleazy in their approach. If I can resolve those issues for my clients, my competitive advantage increases dramatically.
So who is your audience? Who is your target market? What do they complain about when they leave work in the evening? What makes their day challenging? How can you resolve one of their problems? If you can find a way to make a material improvement in your customer’s working life, you will build loyalty and trust. Now, does that mean you can charge ridiculous prices for your products and services? No, of course not. We still live in a competitive world and a competitive pricing structure is part of the deal. But it’s a lot cheaper to keep an existing customer than find a new one. It’s also a lot cheaper to sell MORE to your existing customer than find a new one. And the loyalty and trust you build with your customers will end up adding more to your bottom line than anything else.
Once you have identified the information you need and you’ve gone out there to get it, what’s next? Well, we’ll talk about that throughout this series. That’s what marketing is all about. It’s about communicating with your audience. So we’ll look at a variety of tactical approaches. But there’s something you should really keep in mind as you do your research and build your expertise and that’s how the information will eventually be presented. It’s important because an awareness of the final delivery can help you isolate the right information along the way.
Why is it that some facts are really boring while others are fascinating and thought-provoking? Let’s take a quick example. If you told me the population of Germany is 82 million and the land area is about 350K square kilometers, I would probably want to take a nap. But if you told me that Germany has more than ¼ of America’s total population in an area only about 1/26th the SIZE of America, I would be much more interested. Think about it. That’s an amazing comparison. That means Germany is more than 7 times as densely populated as the United States.
I have always found that isolated facts are boring while related facts and comparisons are interesting. Here’s another example. Some people estimate the population of cats in this country is about 40MM. Well, I guess that’s pretty interesting. But it’s far MORE interesting to say there are more cats in the United States than there are people in Canada. Now THERE’S an interesting factoid. I call this type of interesting information “juicy nuggets”. Juicy Nuggets are those thought-provoking tidbits that spark an “ah-ha” from your audience. Juicy Nuggets are the things most people remember.
We discussed in the last chapter that becoming a recognized expert in your field can be accomplished by acquiring expertise and giving it away for free. In fact, whether you give it all away for free or not, the objective behind delivering information is always to do so in the most interesting way possible. At the end of the day, you want your audience to REMEMBER what you tell them. You want it to make a difference. You want it to perhaps inspire a new way of thinking about something. And in order to do so, you want to pack your marketing with as many juicy nuggets as you can.
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Okay, thank you very much for listening. If you like what you hear on these podcasts, please tell a friend about them. Modern technology like podcasting can help elevate new and innovative thinkers but we all have to play our part to help spread the word for those who deserve our endorsements. If I am deserving of yours, my thanks.
I DO offer workshops, seminars and keynote speeches as well as consulting services so please email me at Patrick [at] TacticalExecution.com for more information. I’m also doing an extensive podcast series on stock market investing, real estate finance and the economy. It’s called Financial Audio and you can find it on iTunes.
Stay tuned. There is a lot more to come. In the meantime, think big, take action and market strategically. Bye for now.
