Here’s what we’ll cover
I want to talk to you about experts. Not all experts are created equally. I want to premise this by saying not all experts are bad! But not all experts are great and not all experts are even experts!
Who are these experts? They are the people we give our time and our money too to solve specific issues that we are not equipped to solve on our own. These are the people we take advice from to grow, scale and change-up our businesses.
The website expert, the branding expert, the copywriting expert, the mindset expert, the legal, accounting, coach, consultant, marketing, social media or technology and so many more different types of experts that we can place our trust in.
But first, why am I talking about this today? Because it’s incredibly important that we surround ourselves and take advice from the *right* people. The reason being that the *wrong* people can kinda lead us up the garden path. Slow us down, cost us money and waste our time. Now, you already know this. But I’m going to be brutally honest here and say that I’ve seen so many people become overnight experts in so many things that it’s starting to make my head spin and I think its a cause for – not concern but it gives us cause for caution.
Links and Resources
- Checkout the Simply Smarter Numbers website HERE
- Checkout the Podcast HERE
- Checkout the Instagram page HERE
Keep Listening!
Here’s the shownotes
I want to talk to you about experts. Not all experts are created equally. I want to premise this by saying not all experts are bad! But not all experts are great and not all experts are even experts!
Who are these experts? They are the people we give our time and our money too to solve specific issues that we are not equipped to solve on our own. These are the people we take advice from to grow, scale and change-up our businesses.
The website expert, the branding expert, the copywriting expert, the mindset expert, the legal, accounting, coach, consultant, marketing, social media or technology and so many more different types of experts that we can place our trust in.
But first, why am I talking about this today? Because it’s incredibly important that we surround ourselves and take advice from the *right* people. The reason being that the *wrong* people can kinda lead us up the garden path. Slow us down, cost us money and waste our time. Now, you already know this. But I’m going to be brutally honest here and say that I’ve seen so many people become overnight experts in so many things that it’s starting to make my head spin and I think its a cause for – not concern but it gives us cause for cautionPart of the problem is when experts believe their area of expertise trumps everything else and needs to be a priority in your business at the expense of other areas.
Some accountants may tell you you need the expensive forecasting or restructuring done as a matter of priority.
Some marketing people will bump marketing to the top of your list. Sales experts might believe nothing else is more important that getting the right sales strategy and so on and so on. I guess us experts all believe that our area of expertise is so essential, so critically important and it can be hard to hold back our enthusiasm for our area. But there are a couple of things that you as a business owner need to consider before engaging an expert to work with in your business. Is this expert taking an all encompassing, aerial view of your business and where you are right now or are they operating in a vacuum. There’s no point focusing on a sales strategy if your pricing is up the creek. There’s no point running a big marketing campaign if you don’t have the staff to do the work. You want to be involved with experts that take a holistic view of your business – that’s number one. Number 2 – Do they know enough about the complementary, equally important areas of your business?
For example, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors and insurers can all have areas that slightly overlap. Is your accountant suggesting you talk to your lawyer, your financial advisor, your insurer and vise versa. Are they willing and able to work as a team to help you achieve your goals? Another example, your branding expert, website designer, copywriter, photographer and marketing strategist all may have overlapping areas. Are they talking to each other, thinking about each other and willing to work as a team to help you achieve your goals? Number 3 – This is the part you play – you need to get clear on what you need and in what order you need it. Think about it logically. The catch 22 here is that sometimes we need an expert to help get us clear on what we need and in what order and if that you – then refer to Number 1.
Number 4 – Before you engage an ‘expert’ in anything, do your research. Don’t take the blind advice of a friend of a friend or sign up to the loudest expert on instagram. Look for testimonials and don’t be afraid to reach out to those that have provided testimonials.
Number 5 – Consider the experts level of expertise. I’m going to give you 3 levels of expertise to consider.
Is their knowledge gained from exposure;
Is their knowledge gained from education; or
Is their knowledge gained from experience
Possibly and ideally it might be a mix of all three of these. As for what I mean when i refer to exposure, education or experience;
Knowledge gained from exposure might be the expert who saw or heard about someone else having success in an area. For example, my Simply Smarter Numbers website is a wordpress website. I’ve had exposure to wordpress, I know a little about it but my knowledge on this is at the lower end of the expertise spectrum – so if i start advising you on website platforms – ignore me!
Knowledge gained from education is the next level up. For example I once did an online course on instagram and linkedin. But is that enough to make me an expert on social media marketing? Not really, so if I start preaching at you about what you should or shouldn’t be doing on socials, you need to ignore me.
Knowledge from experience is the highest level of expertise. Has the copywriter got experience working with your type of business in the past? Has the accountant got experience working with your type of business? Has the business coach who is going to shift your business to the $1m dollar mark actually done that themselves? Has the website designer you want to engage to build your new online store actually built other online stores before?
Ask the question, do the research and surround yourself with a great team of experts who can work together to help you achieve your goals.
