Published:
01/13/2014 03:08am
How to Become Everyone's Favorite Guest Expert
One of the best ways to create awareness of your coaching business and brand yourself as an expert is to have another coach "vouch" for you by inviting you to speak or write for their audience.
What an honor!
Obviously this is a great opportunity to strut your stuff, get in front of a new audience and win them over. But another important piece is winning over your fellow coach. If you make this a great experience for THEM and show them what a cool person you are to work with, then they will be more inclined to refer clients your way and/or collaborate on future projects with you.
So how do you make sure you are the best guest expert you can be?
Well you can start by deleting that pre-boxed speech or article that you have prepared for just such an occasion.
The way you are going to win over another coach is to show them how you totally "GET" what they're doing, and you understand their fan base.
So you can start with your pre-boxed content, but we need to make a few changes to it before it will be ready to go.
Identify Their Target Audience
The first step of any marketing activity is to define your target market and who you are trying to appeal to. The difference in this case is that the target market you're writing for is that of your fellow coach and may be slightly different than yours. So research their site to get intimate with who their audience is, or even ask them "What problems is your target market experiencing right now that you think my expertise will help?"
Re-Craft Your Content
When you understand who you're talking or writing to you can then re-purpose your topic to suit them better and give relevant examples. Take a moment and think about this perhaps unfamiliar target market and what specific problems they are having. How does your expertise fit into that? This is where the fact that your services can probably suit anyone will come in handy. (I throw that in because I know this was probably one of the biggest struggles you had when trying to figure out your target market
So now that you have a topic for your speech or article that is customized to your fellow coach's target audience and what they really need. Now it's time for the icing on the cake.
Be a Gracious Guest
Even though this is your time to shine and you want to be as impressive as possible. Make sure that everything you're saying isn't focused on YOU. Also reference how awesome your fellow coach is and reinforce how valuable of a resource they are to their target audience. This will not only give you brownie points with the coach, but it will help you really be self expressed and open which people will connect with. You won't come off as someone that is just trying to sell something, but as a valuable friend to your colleague that they already adore.
These three things will ensure that you are asked back over and over again and will build a reputation as a great guest expert. The most important thing to remember is that everything is about who you're talking to, if you aren't providing something of value to them specifically then all of your work isn't going to matter. The other most important thing (yes there are two most importants) is that guest speaking and blogging is also about building a relationship with your host that can blossom into friendship and/or partnership down the road.
Holly Chantal is the founder of The Land of Brand, a website design and branding company for coaches and solopreneurs. Go to http://www.thelandofbrand.com and download a free video training on how to use your personality to create a unique brand - because your mom was right when she said you were special.
