I’m An Expert. How About You?

I’m An Expert. How About You?

I tell consultants all the time to call themselves “experts.”

People want to hire expertise, not merely a consultant. People don’t buy drills to have drills, they buy them because they need holes.

In the speaking profession, the dumbest question in the history of the world is, “What do you speak on?” (I speak on a stage or a floor, how about you?) What you speak about is not terribly important as compared to: “How do you improve your audience and your client?” The second stupidest question, “What’s your message?” was last used correctly by a clerk in a Western Union Telegraph office in the late 19^th Century.

Whether you’re a coach, facilitator, trainer, consultant, speaker or combination thereof, no matter what you think you need on your business card (which is very little and NOT your photo), learn to refer to yourself as an expert on….

If you can’t fill in that space left by the ellipsis, you have a major problem, since apparently you’re speaking, coaching, and consulting on nothing at all (perhaps not even a floor).

How is your client better off once you walk away? Not because you’ve consulted or coached, but because you’ve somehow improved their condition. THAT’S your expertise.

And please don’t tell me your expertise is on “motivation,” since motivation is intrinsic, you can’t motivate me. But you can surely demotivate me if you begin delivering your message, soliciting applause, and waving your smile-sheet ratings in my face.

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.