“Expert Secrets” is a comprehensive guide by Russell Brunson that teaches us how to become really good at something and share it with others. It encourages you to make friends with lots of people who like what you do. And to turn those friends into happy customers.
What you’ll find inside:
It is a great a blueprint that guides you step-by-step on this journey. While it primarily addresses entrepreneurs and business owners a loyal following is valuable for any professional and is an important aspect of personal growth.
Key concepts outlined
I highly recommend reading through this book end-to-end. To my surprise it starts off actionable steps without further ado. Brunson starts with the thesis that everyone of us has some kind of expert knowledge. It is based on your core beliefs and passions. He gives the example that he sold DVDs on how to build a potato gun, because this is something he did for himself.
Once you identified your area of expertise, you need to define your ideal customer and understand their needs, desires and challenges. From there it is about developing your persona that resonates with the audience of customers and tell your story.
Share your origin story, which highlights your struggles, breakthroughs and successes. This is the foundation for a community where your followers can connect, engage and support each other.
Consistency and authenticity with your audience is the key, but also the hard part. Similar to what every blogger tries to achieve as well.
Habits to derive from Expert Secrets
Based on the content of “Expert Secrets” by Russell Brunson, I derived three habits that you can cultivate to build your expertise, grow an audience, and drive business but also personal growth:
1. Regularly share your story, experience and insights with your audience
This habit is about cultivating your story telling skills. By regularly sharing your story you will reinforce your message and you authority for a topic. This will help to build a stronger connection to your followers and position you as an authentic and relatable expert. But continuously refining and updating your origin story as you evolve and grow.
I am not there yet, as you can see from the activities on my social media accounts. My story is to share all I read, learn and apply to thrive for success and a fulfilled live. But when it comes to regular updates I mostly overthink what is worthwhile to share. This makes me feel like I missed the spontaneous moment.
But it is on my list for this year – simply because I want to improve my story telling skills but also connect more with you.
2. Continuous learning is a must for every expert
This habit helps you stay informed about the latest trends, identify opportunities for improvement, and create innovative strategies for your endeavour.
Subscribing to industry publications, blogs, and podcasts. While I love to read primary literature about topics because it gives me the unfiltered facts, I understand that this is not for everyone. I see podcasts as alternative to this, as most of the podcast content creators pick up more recent topics and you don’t have the risk of being exposed to GPT generated content (for now). Hard Fork is one of my favourites when it comes to technology trends.
Joining online communities and forums to discuss your expert topics is also a good way to stay up-to-date. This will allow you to also contribute and proof your experts knowledge. Because you only have truly understood a topic, if you can teach it to someone.
In case you can’t find any good resources, it might be a good idea to be the one who starts it.
3. Engage with your community and other experts
Proactively engage with your audience and foster a sense of community around you is one of the goals Brunson suggested in his book.
This is a no-brainer, if you already have followers. For those of you, who are at the beginning I’d suggest to do what Dale Carnegie suggests in his book “how to win friends and influence people“: pace. Find someone on social media who is in the context of your expert knowledge and comments a lot. Follow his or her lead and comment the posts with what you have in mind.
Do it consistently every day and maybe you’ll find new friends. At least this will establish your habit of engaging with others online regularly. From there you could go further of creating a forum or group for your followers to connect and engage on a more “exclusive” channel.
Conclusion
- Each of us is an expert in something. This knowledge is of worth for others.
- Examine if your expert knowledge is already in a niche. The more specific you are able to describe your knowledge, the easier it will be to find and address your audience.
- Selling your expert knowledge for a living take some marketing efforts – therefore share your story and connect with friends over social media, a meal, or a shared hobby.
Further readings
- “Seth Godin’s Startup School” – a live recording during a workshop for entrepreneurs.
- “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to drive your career and create a remarkable future” by Seth Godin
- See also our books section for further inspiration.
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