Here's the latest Edition of 'The Authority', helping consultants grow their revenue by sharing intriguing educational stories.
It’s my ultimate aspiration to create a bubble of calmness with this bi-weekly ‘think piece’, a place of stillness in the face of everyday stress. A chance to reflect on what really matters in your consulting work.
The Big Question
Questions I get from consultants. And my answers.
Question #9: I received this question from a reader (thanks!):
'I work in a large consultancy firm and would like to get more support from marketing to improve my external visibility. How can I best collaborate with marketing?'
Contrary to popular belief, marketing is not merely about selling stuff. Marketing in consulting is all about building long-term visibility and trust.
As I’ve seen time and time again, consultants don’t like marketing and sales. Many of the consultants I’ve met in the past believe that marketing is somehow ‘beneath them’.
This type of thinking is just plain wrong. Marketing is not separate from you, as a consultant. Whether you like it or not, you are marketing yourself all the time. A good consultant is a good marketer of his/her expertise.
While there are a number of reasons behind this fact, the important thing is that you move past these beliefs and embrace marketing as a critical trust-building, visibility-improving activity.
Unfortunately, many of the marketing departments in larger consulting firms are not really focused a lot on supporting the senior people with structurally developing and maintaining their external visibility and to help them with building trust in their markets/industry.
An interesting question for the next edition: I received this question from a reader (thanks!):
'Could you give us a few ‘secrets’ how you are able to produce such a large volume of content? '
Would you like to send a question for one of the following newsletter editions?Please send it to me here.
The Disturbing Truth
Unsettling revelations from experts I admire. And from myself.
Every Monday morning, I am sharing a consulting-related advice on Linkedin to start the new week.
These advices reflect years of my passionate thinking about the consulting profession and span one year of writing. I've mixed my own quotes with carefully selected quotes from experts I admire and you may never have heard of.
Here are the quotes from the past 2 weeks. Let the inspiration be with you (if you let it).
Topic 28-09-2020: Deep expertise vs. wide expertise
Narrow down microscopically to grow your authority (and your consulting business). This seems like a huge contradiction for many consultants. They ask me: how am I supposed to grow by doing less? My answer: saying ‘No’ to 95% of things will empower you to say ‘Yes’ to only the right things and, as a result, massively deepen your expertise and carve out time to strive for smart visibility in the market. (Luk Smeyers)
Singularity of purpose, of mind, and of heart, will lead to success. (Scott Monty)
Topic 05-10-2020: Repetition is key
Start loving the boredom of consistency and repeatability. It’s the backbone of your authority — and your consulting business. The repeatability of your work will transform you into an unquestionable expert and visible authority. Through the (sometimes boring) repetition, you will learn the deeper patterns, challenges, risks, trends, and solutions that 99% of your competition will never know because they weren’t willing to put in the work. (Luk Smeyers)
The Irresistible Content
I write a lot. Here's the update from the past weeks.
In this book, James Clear teaches how to create a system that will support the development of good habits, while eradicating the bad ones. It’s a complex topic, yet, Clear manages to explain it in such an organized and straight-forward fashion that it will reshape how you think about your daily life. Clear’s style is very relatable and easy-to-follow. An excellent read.
The 3 main things I learned from this book:
1. Framework: James Clear is one of the few authors who introduce a framework you can use in daily life. His four-step model for human behavior (cue, crave, response, reward) not only teaches us how to create new habits but also reveals some interesting insights about human behavior.
2. Little lessons: At the end of the book, James Clear compiled lessons that are confirmed by the framework. I really loved these little lessons as they clarify just how useful and wide-ranging this framework is when it comes to human behavior. Clear: ‘Once you understand the framework, you’ll see examples of it everywhere’.
3. Not a sprint: If you want to make a positive change in your life, you should recognize that it’s definitely possible. However, it will always require patience as well as the confidence that your habits are keeping you on the right path, even if you don’t see immediate results.
Here is a video, where James Clear explains how to get 1% better every day.
The Inconvenient Number
Visible Authorities have a better pipeline. The evidence.
Not all content is created equal. With so much information posted on a daily basis, the decision makers often are struggling with cutting through the noise. I continuously point out that content should be original, authentic, and provide real value. The data backs it up.
58% of C-level executives believe that thought leadership content fails when it offers unsubstantiated opinions. 45% are turned off by the lack of original insights or ideas. 43% do not appreciate it when thought leadership content is too conceptual and offers no practical recommendations.
Now, there is nothing wrong with explaining theoretical and conceptual information when putting together a thought leadership article. However, the readers’ needs must come first. How do you apply this theory in practice?
Displaying your expertise on a subject that really matters to your audience is, at the end of the day, the winning strategy with C-level executives.
A sneak peek behind the curtains of my business. Luk's lab.
Do you know the biggest blunder that consultants can make? That blunder is thinking that somehow potential clients will find them. Nothing could be further from reality.
I have been and still am devoting a considerable amount of time to develop and plan my content. It has been and still is a key driver of trust and credibility building and, as a result, of course, of business growth.
Content-driven visibility is the only thing that is going to make you stand out in a crowded and very competitive consulting world. Now even more than before!
Google’s EAT algorithm searches for Expertise, Authority, and Trust. Hence why it is so important to check your progress with organic traffic in a data-driven way.
As I’ve explained in The Authority #8, I spent a lot of time analyzing my progress. Here’s another chart of the state of my organic traffic to my website. After 8 months of hard content work (it’s not a sprint), Google’s EAT is rewarding me with more than ⅓ of my website traffic. An amazing result which helps me to motivate my clients.
The Inevitable Learning
The programs I am teaching. To become a better consultant.
My brand new 30-Day Program: In the 30-Days Group Program, you will learn the behind-the-scenes strategies and powerful tactics that I've used to launch and grow my own consulting business. And they can work for you too. It'll be a virtual GROUP PROGRAM, starting monthly, 4x online 2-hour training sessions, life-long access to the recordings, and exclusive Q&A access to myself for 4 weeks. First group starts in November. Here's the link to the info page.
My Accelerator Program: I have A LIMITED NUMBER OF SLOTS in 2020 for senior consultants eager to attract their ideal customers and grow their consulting business consistently. The Accelerator Program starts with a full audit of your market positioning and covers the necessary long-term improvements and quick wins. The number of participants for this 1-2-1 virtual training is limited. Access on a first-come-first-served basis. Here's the link to the info page with the program content. You can book a call on this info page to discuss your participation.
My Mastermind Retreat: Due to Corona, all 2020 Mastermind Retreats are on hold right now. I got several questions from candidates to join. Please get on the list and I will keep you informed as soon as I can go ahead again. Here's the link to the program content with the button to the waiting list. Thanks for your patience!
