Good morning. Thank you very much for getting here on time. My name is Rick mcmunn. And today we're going to be doing a course on how to become an expert in your niche. Okay, which is quite an interesting topic. I really enjoyed creating the slides for this course, because it enabled me to look back on my journey.

So I've been in business for nearly 14 years now in total, which is quite a long time. And it enabled me to explore the kind of things that I've done over the years and look at what other people have done that have enabled them to stay in business for quite a long time. So if you are an expert, there are a number of advantages to that. Would you agree? Can you make more money from being an expert? Absolutely, you can make a lot more So the aim of today is that when you walk out of this room, and I know there are some people in this room already, who are experts is that you all have the self belief to either walk out of here and be an expert straightaway, start calling yourself an expert, or you know, the steps you need to take to achieve that goal.

So I've got a couple of exercises that we'll cover later today. So you know exactly what it is you're going to be an expert in. If you're just here to find out the different steps it takes, but you don't actually want to be an expert. That's absolutely fine. I'm sure that you will get a lot from the course. The whole internet is changing, would you agree?

Changes all the time. And one thing that was consistent when I was doing my research over the last month into this course, was I thought to myself, I've changed so many times. Sometimes it's been subtle. When I look back through my first speaking event, when I turned up and I didn't really have much of a product and I forgot my laptop was so nervous to becoming What I would say a proficient speaker and being at being able to get people in a room, I've had to change lots of times. And it's having that desire to always be up for the challenge and always be up for the change. Now, some of those changes are quite big, for example, at the moment, what's the big change, we're all going through as Internet entrepreneurs, GDPR, it's quite a big thing.

But in a couple of years time, we'll look back at that, and it won't be a problem, but it's quite a big thing at the moment. So you always have to be on the lookout for things that are changing, which can be stressful at times. So how do you get over that you get other people to do it for you. Okay, and I'll also talk later on today about outsourcing a little bit, finding other people to help you maybe get an assistant on board with you. Even though that will cost some money or not a lot of money. It will allow you to focus on what you're good at, which is of course, being an expert.

So let's get straight into it. What makes you think I am an expert? Why have you come here? Why would you come and see me? Give me some reasons why. Number one best selling author.

Thank you very much. True. Okay, good one. What did you say Rebecca? track record. Good and is that based on years experience or from what you've heard, or reputation?

Track record past experience. See me speak on videos and I'm not too bad. See me speak in public on a few occasions anymore. If you go and go into success of my business, so how is that defined? If I if I came here today say I've been running the business for six months. Does that add to my credibility depends on how successful it is in that period of time.

Time perception. So how long have I been going nearly 14 years? That's a long time. Not many businesses last that long do they? So you could be forgiven for thinking, well, he must be doing something right. He must be doing something right.

Hi, I've sat at home in the past, in a position that I'm sure a lot of you have been in where you think I want to change my job. I don't know what to do. I've been in that position. So I've started from scratch. And I've been fortunate in a small number of ways. And I'll talk about that later on.

And that's based upon on association with other people being in the right place at the right time. But I've also put in a huge amount of work. Those people who have started a business been successful sold it like, for example, Matt Chapman over there, sold his business. He knows how much work has been involved in that how much hard work is involved. So it's about going through that journey, and doing it for a long period of time, but staying in business for that length of time. is not the Okay, you have to be doing something special to persevere and get through it.

So the reason why you guys are here today to see me is a combination of reasons. One of them is the length of time. One is the track record perception, what you've heard about me and what you've seen with regards to how I present and how I teach. So I would like to think that I always come across as quite enthusiastic, want to teach you give you as much as I can. So there's a whole combination of reasons. And I think that's important because if I was running free training courses, for example, and I wanted to sell you something, that's not easy to do, is it?

Because when you buy when you make a buying decision, what's that based on? And I'm trying to get out of you this one word. emotion. belief, trust, perfect. So write that down in big letters trust. Trust is actually absolutely paramount in any kind of business.

If you're going to make money, if people are going to spend money with you, they have to trust you. And it's not just about seeing you as a person, like you guys trust me, because I've got a good reputation. I am not going to rip you off. I'm going to deliver on what I promise. That is important. The trust if you're going to spend all of that money with me, okay?

It's really important. We'll focus on that today. It's about reputation. It's about trust, and it's also about doing a good job for people would you agree? So if you think about all of the kind of companies that you've shopped with in the past, and they let you down, sometimes things go wrong, but it's about how they deal with that situation. So even though I'm going to teach you something today, and I'm going to go quite in detail about the kind of funnel that I use to get people in rooms, I'll talk about my sales technique, what's working for me?

Unless people trust me, I'm never going to sell it. Anything, could you agree? And I have to be able to deal with situations come back really quickly when people get in touch. That's another really important thing. So it's not just about visual seeing me in a room, it's about the website, isn't it? What does your website look like?

Can we build trust with a website? Can we build trust with online presence? And I would encourage you today to think about how you shop. How do you shop online? When you go to Amazon to buy something, why don't you go there? Because it's trusted.

Because you know, it's a good brand, you know, that they're going to deliver. And you also know that they're going to have in stock what it is you want. So think about your buying decisions, because that's important when you're an expert. We want people to come to you and you to be the go to person that people will go to for your particular niche or product. What about competition? What about competition?

Are there lots of book coaches? I'm a book coach. Are there lots of book coaches out They're Yes. Could I tell you who they are? Not many. Why not?

Should I know who they are? Why should I? I focus on me on what I'm doing? So I focus on my own thing. Yes, if there's a book coach, I see us doing something great. I might have a look at what they're doing and think, oh, could I do something similar or my own version of that, but more importantly, I focus on myself.

And it's very easy in this kind of industry to go, Well, there's so much competition out there. I can't do this. It's saturated. That's not true. Be the best that you can be, do a really, really good job and you will just come up to the fore you will rise above everybody else. But you have to have the self belief, though you, you have to believe in yourself.

And competence is a really important aspect of this. And it was great when I said how many of you are already experts and people putting their hands up in the room. Good. You should have that self belief because you're putting yourself out there online. Absolutely self belief. That's what you need.

You're putting yourself out there online. You're putting yourself in the firing line that people are going to ask you questions or criticize you, you have to be prepared for that. But always look to continually improve. So this is an important question to ask straight from the get go, what makes you think I am an expert, there was a variety of different things. One of the most important things is trust. Okay, and there's loads of different things that qualify people as an expert, but it's all about what your customers believe.

It's about what customers believe now they think and how they feel. And a lot of this happens subconsciously, might be your brand, how you present yourself, how long you've been in business, the qualifications you've got, but it's also about how you deliver your service. Really important you deliver a good service so you won't get anywhere. Do you think there are people out there who deliver a service sorry, who sell a service, but it doesn't live up to the hype? Absolutely. And this is your opportunity to shine in that area.

Because people come on courses, and they want to know, how do I get people in a room? How do I sell? Very rarely do people say how do I deliver a really, really good service or a great product? I very rarely hear that. But that is also what will make you an expert. Because then people will come back to you time and time again to buy more products.

So who is this course for business or website owners who want to dominate their industry or sector in order to increase sales because once you become an expert or no sorry, an expert or known as the go to person or business, then your sales will certainly increase. coaches and mentors who want to generate more leads and convert those leads into paying customers. So I'm using a certain funnel right now which is working well. It's working really well and we'll go into detail into it this afternoon. show you the kind of thing that I'm doing. And we can explore that model.

And then if you want to, you can copy it. It's based on running your own training courses and then upselling at the end. Anyone who has an underlying interest in what it takes to get to the top of an industry, including the key steps that you need to follow so when you allow to start calling yourself an expert when you've got the self belief anytime you should have the mindset is there a time frame? Depends on the field. So can we start calling our experts straight ourselves experts straight away? Surely not.

Depends on the niche. I pretty much started calling myself an expert from day one. Right from the beginning. Rebecca's right whenever you want to. It's up to you when you start calling yourself an expert. And take a note of this.

It's about the key message that you put out the message that you put out there consistently, time and time again, whether it's on your website, whether it's on social media channels, that message has to be consistent. And if you think about all of the top entrepreneurs, the coaches, they have a key message. So if you think about what does Simon corson do, he runs the Internet Business School, you know exactly what he does. What do I do, I'm renowned for being a book coach, a number one best selling author, a book coach, I create books, career guides, and I stick on that I'm not a jack of all trades. I just do a couple of things. But I call myself an expert.

So anybody can do that, can't they? Anybody can say I'm an expert, where lies the problem? backing it up. And that's basically what we're gonna cover today anyone could go, yeah, I'm an expert. But how would you back it up? Nobody has ever come to me.

And during my 14 years in business and said, Well, why are you an expert? No one's ever said that. Never. Because I can back it up in certain ways. And people just feel Yeah, you're an expert. Because of some of the things you've done some of the testimonials, you've got some of the awards that you've been nominated for.

So it just happens naturally, but have the self belief to call yourself an expert straightaway, as of today, and some of you obviously already have stated you're experts. So I'll be asking later on. How do we define that? What classifies you as an expert? So if you're going to wait for someone else to appoint you, as an expert, you're going to be waiting for a very long time. And someone said to me before I do a little bit of business coaching on the side, and I said, when when can I call myself an expert or do it now?

Don't wait for other people. No one's gonna say to you, oh, you're an expert. You start selling You start wearing the suit, start wearing the title straightaway. So the day I started calling myself an expert, my life started changing. And you could say it was a little bit courageous but a little bit ballsy to go out there and say I'm an expert, I did it on my website straightaway. And I wrote my first book, my first book or my first guide, and said that I was an expert author straightaway.

Nothing wrong with that is there is nothing wrong with doing that at all. Because the content that I had made me an expert I need to change the batteries on this. During this course, I'm gonna teach you how to back up your claim of expert status. And these are the things that we need to cover. So who I am and how I achieved expert status from scratch sitting down in my cellar getting ready to start my own business. I'm going to be an expert in this particular area.

And you should have a goal a clearly defined goal of what you're going to do and by when so we you started your business, did you have an end goal? Or did it progress as you went along and change? Yeah. So you start off and you get into something that you really like. And then after a while, it starts to grow a little bit, you start to run into problems, you have a bit of success, and then your goals will change. So the goals are always going to be moving.

I have my goal with my business, I've always had it. And it's been like that from the beginning. But the length of time it's taken to get to that end goal is taking a little bit longer than I thought it would, but that's fine, because that goal is adapting and changing all of the time. So we'll have a look at the kind of things that I've done over the time. We'll define the status expert and what it actually means, what it actually means to dominate your market. We'll have a look at the different steps, what it takes to become an expert.

And also I've created an action plan which I think you should follow. To get to expert status and also a little bit of goal setting, so we'll set our plan. What are we going to call ourselves? What are we going to define ourselves as? And then we'll start to implement the action plan. Do you think you need certain key qualities and attributes to get to the top of your game?

Give me a couple of them. mindset. resilience, persistence, thick skin consistency. Why thick skin? Yes, so once you put your head above the parapet people might start to shoot at you. It will happen.

You put yourself in the firing line. There will be a small percentage of people out there who will look to knock you down. How many of you have had that already? A couple of people in the room how'd you deal with it? Do you just So it lingers at the back of the mind makes you a little bit upset. It's annoying.

Have you ever had any good feedback? So isn't it interesting that when we get good feedback, and now I would suggest that the majority of your feedback will be good? Do we put more focus on the negative? Yes. And that's one thing we've got to learn to do is to focus on all the good stuff. And I've been through it before where you'll get people online with reviews.

And I think, yeah, I get some great reviews really, really good. And then you get a one star review. And it breaks your heart. And you focus on it, I can't believe it. So what you got to do over time, is learn to deal with those and have a positive mindset about all the great stuff and focus on all of the good stuff and it's being prepared for the fact that because you're putting yourself out there as this expert, you're going to get people who are looking to knock you down and if you look at some of the bigger players out there some of the big market leaders, there are some websites set up that are deliberately trying to knock down certain experts, but they just ignore it. They just ignore it and just carry on that's what you have to do is just carry on and look at it this way, the more success you have, the more negativity that you will get.

So you have to look at it in a positive way. When I set up my career vids YouTube channel, it started to do well, I started to get some negative comments. And it was a real learning point for me, because I was looking at that and you know, it's quite negative. It's quite upsetting, but just ignore it. Now I actually respond to it with the deliberate plan to improve increased engagement on the page. So I think every time I respond to that, it's given me more engagement.

So it's having the right mindset. So we'll look at all of the key qualities and attributes and the traits of entrepreneurs who dominate their market. Also lead generator What is it Something that generates leads, but in what way? Break it down for me. So it's a system whereby we're getting people who are interested in our product or service. Okay, so we create them, are they going to be paid or leads paid?

Some are some are. What's the best way nowadays to get leads? Do you think? free ones, free ones. So we'll look at what a free lead is how do you generate them? There's loads of different ways you can.

And I want to try and get you to not saying change your mindset, but a lot of entrepreneurs want to get people in the room and they want people to pay for things. Which is fine, isn't it from the get go? But is it easier to get people to pay for things sorry to get people to common things for free. If you give people something for free, straight away and then Later on in the funnel to get them to pay for things. That is a great model, but it takes some getting used to. And you'll see a lot of people don't do this.

How many of you go to the business show? How many of you have been given a free book or free product or service at the business show? Would you take it up? Absolutely. How many of you are given business cards of the business show? What do you do with the business cards?

Yeah, you don't know what to do with them. But you will always remember that free tangible product that someone's given you, which is a great leads. We'll talk a little bit about that as well. So we'll look at lead generators what these are and how to use them in your business. constructing your expert status plan, a walkthrough and description of the plan you need to follow on your journey to becoming an expert. Developing your brand should you have a good brand?

Yes, who's got a good brand in the room is worth wearing his brand right now. Really good, strong brand that you can use identify with people. So we'll look at the different types of things that you should brand, and what your customers and clients will expect from you. What about awards and testimonials? are they important? Do you think this can have a significant impact on your business?

How many of you have put in for awards before? Nobody one person you need to start putting in for these. There's lots of awards out there. Let's say you've been going for some time in your business, and you've got a real focus niche. But there isn't any awards out there to enter, what could you do? Make your own award, make your own award and get people to enter into it?

Have you seen people do this before entrepreneurs where they create their own award ceremonies? Absolutely. Why not? Why not do that? So awards, testimonials and maintaining credibility, how to reaffirm your expert status by using other people Developing trust triggers what's the trust trigger? Anything that causes your customers or leads to actually take action.

And we do this subconsciously, you go onto a website, you look around it, sometimes you'll leave straightaway. And then other times, you'll have a look around on the page and something will happen when you think, yeah, I will make a purchase. And these are, these are fundamental, they're really important. So in our business, we always talk about trust triggers. Let's create some more trust triggers. Because you might get 100 people come to your website, but how many of those are going to convert either into paying customers or into leads and you have to develop trust triggers, both on your website but also in your presentations, in your talks, and also on social media?

Are many of you active now on social media for your business, promoting yourself all the time? Okay, and you can build trust triggers into the posts that you put up online, becoming a featured expert, what this means and how to get featured within your niche industry or market guest blogging or any of your guest blogging right now or have you done it? Nobody. So we'll do a section on guest blogging what this is, and how to piggyback the traffic of other websites. Now, we're not just going to go on any kind of website whatsoever, it has to be a good strong solid website. And if you get featured on a great website, then this can help your expert status.

And then we'll have a look at the sales funnel what the sales funnel is and a tutorial on how to create your own sales funnel. What's working right now for the current experts who dominate their market, price setting, price setting, how to confidently charge what it is you or your products worth. What do you think about this with prices? Give me your initial feelings on prices for products or services. Shouldn't be cheap, raised. So Rebecca's saying should be reasonably priced, shouldn't be cheap.

Fair to both parties, how many of you have paid a huge amount for something in the past, probably off the room have paid a large amount for something. So we need to we need to analyze that only and look at it. Because you might decide, and this is a strategy is to go, I'm gonna work with fewer people and charge a lot more money. And the only way that you come up with the right price is to do what? test, market research test and try. So I know the price point for everything that I sell, not because I've plucked it out of thin air, but because I've tried it, I've tried it.

So I I just finished coaching someone to do their book. And I got a text message yesterday saying, I can't believe I've reached number two bestseller in one, category number three and another and number five and another one. How did we get the book to that level? What do we do with the price? I already have split tests in the past, so I know the price. But what price Do you think we did?

We put it out. We put it up. It was 1499 and got to three top 10 bestseller ranks. So that sort of knocks out the part the fact that you have to drop the price you don't have to, because it's also about perceived value. Let's say I was offering for you to come and work with me for 12 months. Okay, a full on 12 month program.

And I said it's 297 pounds. How would you feel? You're going to sign up. Sorry. Oh, I love it. How would you feel I was See for that length of time?

I know you do, or do you feel? expectations go down? What about if I was charging 5000 pounds, expectations go up? Absolutely. And you have to deliver as a coach, you would have to deliver. But it's about what people expect from you.

But the price I think is really important you have to get, and you're right, it has to be reasonable. And it has to be fair. But you can also charge a lot more if you want to, and work with fewer people. Now there are of course, some products where you would sell at a certain price like entry level products, online courses, books, consumable goods, they would get a lower price about what people would expect to pay for them. But even in those realms, I see some books which are published online, and they're being sold at one pound 99 for a printed copy. And if I look at that, it makes me think does the author actually have any self worth?

You know, put the value up of things. So we'll look at how you can split test your prices and charge confidently for your product or service, the tipping point achieve an expert status and how to stay at the top of your game. And that's a tricky one, isn't it? Once you get there to where you want to be, you have to maintain it. Would you agree? You got to maintain that and you got to work hard to keep it in my view is that it's harder to maintain it than actually get there.

It is harder, because you can have like a figure in your mind of how much you want to wear net per year. And some people have said to me, how come you don't like really, really, really go for it with your business? And I said, Well, I think I do from my perspective, but I'm more focused on staying in business and staying at that level forever. That's what I want to do is to stay at that level. I know how much I earn every month and I want to maintain that and that's the minimum amount that I want to earn net. So focus on working on that.

Looking after it, okay, so you look after that status once you get to it. So first off, let's take a look at the key qualities and attributes you're going to need to succeed. a can do attitude and someone who takes action consistently. Does anyone struggle with taking action? Be truthful Hands up. Okay?

And what are the reasons why you struggle? lack of confidence. So, lack of confidence, how can you get over the lack of confidence? Put yourself out in out of your comfort zone. put yourself out there. If you struggle to record videos, you don't like it.

Just do it in a comfortable setting where no one's looking, and just keep practicing. What's another way that she could do it. outsource get other people to do things. What about having someone to help her? It's about who you associate yourself with. So having somebody with you to guide you Coaching and to push you into doing things.

Other reasons why people struggle to get things done. Lack of direction, how do we overcome that a lack of direction, setting goals, and being focused, setting goals. And I talked about this on my book writing courses, but like if you work for somebody else, and they say to you, you've got to be in a meeting on this day. I, myself and Carolyn, were talking about this earlier on about, you're getting bombarded on your phone all the time. And you have to be at a certain place in certain time. And you would be there.

Because work says you have to be there. So you'd put it in your phone, you'd put it in your diary, but a lot of us we don't treat our business the same doing. We don't tend to put it in our phones. But I do if I'm going to write content, I'll put it in my phone, when I'm going to do it and I make myself I force myself to do it. So you have to develop that mindset and attitude that you're going to get things done on a certain day and you will start to feel good about yourself once you start doing things and I have that in me I've that can do attitude you love that for sure being in your, your previous job you will have that when you get things done and you're achieving you tick them off, and it becomes a habit.

Other reasons why people don't get things done because they don't need to perhaps they're in a comfortable situation. There's another one organizational skills, poor time management, I'm gonna do a section on time management quickly later on, which will help you and poor organizational skills, and that's when you can get other people to do things for you. So Matt and I were talking quickly about outsourcing earlier on. So if these things you don't want to do, get other people to do it for you or do lots of that. We were also talking about staff, you know, managing staff. We've got 10 in our business now, and they're all fantastic.

They're all great. We need them, but I can guarantee you that I would not have them if I didn't have to. I will Be outsourcing because managing staff can be quite difficult. Any other reasons? There's one main other one and that's not doing something you love. It's about passion.

Having a passion for your subject. I love doing what I do. I love getting up speaking I love coaching people, it's really good. Because otherwise I just wouldn't do it doesn't matter how much money you make. I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it. So you have to be passionate.

It's about finding your thing. Finding the thing that you're really good at and you enjoy doing. How many of you here are either doing something you love, or are planning to do something you love? How many of you are doing something right now that you hate and detest? Want to get out of it? You're not enjoying it.

So you will we spoke earlier on about you getting into a different direction. You're certainly doing it so you're taking the steps to get out and do something that you love. So don't just go into a market where you think, Oh, this will bring me the money. Money, I'm not really into it, but it will bring the most money because it won't last and you won't do a great job of it ever. You want to be able to do a great job but have a passion for things. We've already spoke a little bit about a positive mindset.

If you're negative, then that's what you attract. Are you a big believer in that? And it's also about who you surround yourself with positive people. Okay, so surround yourself with positive people. If there's people in your network right now, that are negative, whether it's family, friends, is anyone in that situation where they got negative people around them? Try and look to like, move away and spend less time with them.

I know it's easy for me to say it. But I only really realized this when I left my old job, great job, but there was a lot of negativity, a lot of moaning and complaining. And that becomes your mindset, isn't it? You just happens by norm that the norm, that's what you end up doing. And then when I started mixing with entrepreneurs, and business people, things changed, because there was none of this. All this has happened.

You know, we can't do it the suppliers haven't turned up really bad, it was all positive because you're always looking for a solution. And you'll become really good at that. So make sure you have develop a positive mindset. What's another way that you can start to develop more of a positive mindset in your life? What can you stop doing? Well, can you stop consuming alcohol?

You laugh but I do actually do a quick slide on that later on. is true. The News, the news, absolutely the news. And what I do in the morning to set up a positive mindset is I go walking really early, I get up about five o'clock I go for a two mile walk with my dog. And I get back in our turn on what MTV most people will turn on the news or good morning Britain, but it's always negative. It's always negative.

So I don't read newspapers anymore. I just have music on and it lifts up your mood. And it will help you just try little things like that. problem solving skills. You've got to be good at problem solving skills or be a good project manager, somebody who manages outsources, so you get emails from outsources, and then you just manage them, okay, and get them to solve the problems for you. What about getting someone in your organization to do all of this for you the problem solving bit.

I have a managing director in my publishing company. He started from scratch. He started as an admin assistant, packing Jiffy bags, and I taught him everything I know, I would never have gone out there and searched for somebody in the publishing industry who had experience of being a managing director. Why? What do they come with? baggage, bad habits.

I could have got somebody who was great and it was really good and had a great reputation. There are lots of men and women in the publishing industry who are highly talented. But in my view, I wish they would have come with a set of values in the way they do things. And I didn't want that baggage. I wanted somebody to come in who I could coach and train in my way and do what I wanted them to do. And there's another word for this, which we I bet we're all like this in our businesses is control is having control.

Even though I have to let go of control and get someone to run my business. I still want them to do the kind of things that I want go in the direction that I want them to see you might decide to take someone to help you to coach them and apprentice, if you like. How many of you plan to do that as your business grows? Get someone under your wing to come along with you. Yeah, absolutely. is one of the best things I did.

And I did this at the time. When I felt I was getting a little bit tired of my business and it was round about the 10 year mark where I thought working really hard, doing a lot of solo work, it's now time to look to step away and add a two or three year plan, where I'd get somebody in to help me and I'd teach them the ropes. But there's a danger of that isn't there in our businesses when we get somebody in, who might not end up staying with us, and they might go, but that's fine. I think it's a risk worth taking, train them up, you know, tell them everything, train them up. And then when you get to the point where you trust them, what do you do? incentivize them, maybe give them a little bit of a share in your business?

Or based on the fact that they're going to stay with you and if they go, then you get the shares back. Okay, certain things that you can do an ability to think outside the box perseverance, how long does it take to get where we want to be in business as long or as short as it takes, depends how much you want to earn a year. Depends on the status that you want to get to. But you will need to persevere and this is what I love. When you see Some of the entrepreneurs out there, it's anyone follow Gary Vaynerchuk. You may see him Yeah, we quite like him.

And you could be forgiven for looking at him and thinking, Wow, he's got there really quickly, but he hasn't. And he does a lot of videos online. And you look at some of the really old stuff, where he's just sat there and he's this young lad, and he's hustling and he's doing his videos. He's done that for years and years. And he has also been taken out of this. He's like, documented his journey.

So if you want to be a coach or a mentor, think about documenting your journey, filming. You know, you could go out at lunchtime and do some videos and then start posting them online. document your journey as you go along. Because people like what it begins with s stories brilliant. What were you gonna say? stellar they do like stellar.

People like stellar and people like stories. Is storytelling an important aspect of being an expert? Yes. is we'll cover a little section on that later on. So a plan a flexible plan with a definitive end goal because things will change while they things are gonna change as you go along on your entrepreneurial journey, a willingness to invest and reinvest. Now, I don't mean thousands and thousands of pounds.

But I mean, investing some of your money back into your business, why would you need to do that? Because things become outdated quickly. You have to change and update. So again, sorry. You have to grow your business, you have to put some money in. You have to advertise, do a bit of advertising.

But things change all the time and you should also invest in what else what you're doing today. Absolutely yourself. Invest in yourself. Be careful how you invest your money, and you will make mistakes you will waste some money, but it doesn't matter. It's just a little blip. So you might go and work with someone it might not work out.

That's fine. It doesn't matter. Just move on, move on to the next thing and persevere but always look, to invest, reinvest, and have a desire to continually learn and improve. Someone who listens more than they speak. tricky one tricky one. So when I do my consultations with people, yeah, I do a lot of talking, but I do it in the latter parts of the consultation.

So when you come and work with me, I'll say to you, right, tell me about you. Tell me about you your journey, and where you want to get to. And then I'll listen. Because everybody you work with will have different goals and different desires, and they will have been on a different journey. So let's say you finish your book, and you do your great maths book and then you want to start coaching people and working with parents to get their kids through, everybody will have a different desire and they will have been on a different journey. And that would then allow you to hatch a plan of how you're going to get them to pass their exam.

For example, everybody has a different journey and everyone's been in different places. But we all assume certain things, don't we, when we're dealing with people, we assume it but you have to be able to listen as to where people want to get to and that will help you to get them to their end goal. So understanding what it takes to become an expert dominating your niche. People skills. How many of you have got good people skills? available?

His hands are coming up. Yeah, I'm great with people. What do I mean by this people skills? communication, how you communicate. Give me an example of that. How will you listen?

Yeah. Getting to a win win situation. What about email communication? Do you deal with People who are like bad on email. It's difficult, isn't it? The reason why I mentioned email is because especially as a culture in your business, if you get someone who's a little bit feisty in their emails, or they're complaining or something like that wasn't very easy to do.

Reply in the same manner, but you have to remember, like you're running this weekend, every day, you know how to become a business owner for sure. If I showed you some of the emails, you'd be astounded and we've had to learn over the years to have a proper strategy in place and we've got somebody who deals with the emails specifically, because they've got good people skills, and they don't take things personally. Because it's not personal. But this is another thing with your business. Remember with email and communication skills, is people will go and tell other people about how you've been and what your life We want to get repeat customers don't we want people to come back? So always think about how you communicate with emails.

And I think what you were alluding to Rebecca was like with an email, it's really easy just to like, send off an email, you know, or take an email in a certain way. So we have to have a strategy for dealing with that. And always, like when I'm dealing with my clients, I'll always try as hard as I can to be polite. It's important, isn't it? You have to be polite and friendly. What else wants to come on in a second?

What else whilst we're on communication by email. Count of emotions. If somebody comes with you show the level of empathy, not taking it personally. Sometimes ignoring some of the points as well. They are not relevant. The reason why I mentioned this about the people skills is a real big important part of like being an expert, and getting to the top of your game.

And you might get someone else to deal with them for you. Like I do get other people to deal with emails, but make sure you brief them. Make sure you brief them. And this is another thing, how many of you want to be coaches and do training courses? Okay, a few of you. So this taken out of this, whenever I run a training course, at the beginning before the course, what do I do?

I go around and talk to people before so if you come on a book writing course with me, I get there early and everybody who comes in that door as far as I can. I talk to them. Why? Why would you do that? It breaks the ice. It builds trust.

And also another thing you're doing well Thought, which is called research. So even though I like doing it anyway, and I like to be friendly with people, I will say, Oh, nice to meet you. How's your journey here today? Tell me about you. What's your plan with your book? whereabouts are you with your book?

And then during my course, that enables me to pick on certain people. And I can then make that connection with them and say, okay, so I was just talking to you, and you would tell me at this point with your book, and then I can relate to that during the talk. What impact does that have on my conversion rate? At the end? Yeah, big improvement, a big improvement. So when we get onto later on about filling up rooms and getting people on training courses, you could be in a position where you want to get 100 people in the room, because you think, well, I'm probably going to convert at 10%.

So I might convert 10 people to come on a course or something. Don't be fooled into thinking the more people you'll get in the room, the more you'll sell, because it's usually the other way around. The less people you have in the room enables you to do what? Focus on them. Make it more personal for that. So I'll give you a quick example.

So I run these courses, which I'll show you what I do later on. I get people in the room, it's a free event. If I get 70 people in the room, I'll usually convert about 10%. If I get 30 in the room, it goes up to about 30%. So I get more for less people. Why is that?

Because I can speak to I can speak to those people, fewer people in the room, I can speak to them more. Because it's that trust and connection. I can find out more about you. Okay, really important knowledge of your subject matter, you obviously need to know that you know how to get the knowledge of a subject and ability to outsource when appropriate. confidence and resilience, marketing and sales skills, which a lot of you How many of you got diplomas from the Internet Business School. But she all of you, and would you ever use those?

Yes, absolutely. I'll be using them all the time. And an inquisitive mind always asking questions about what goes on, or what I mean by this as well. If any of you ever been to any events or any courses, not to learn about the subject that's been taught, but to learn about how the presenter presents and how they sell me to. And this is a good thing is to deliberately go to an event where someone's really good at what they do, and they sell in a certain way and just watch what they do. And pick off certain skills about how they do things.

What I say and take notes, and that's what an inquisitive mind is also an inquisitive mind. Have you ever had a website that doesn't convert very well? You put a website, it doesn't do anything. How can you get a website template that does really well have a look at what other people do are successful and have a look at the format. Now I'm not saying to copy the text on the page. But when I started out with my first business, and Simon was helping me, I looked at his landing page, and I put in the subtitles where they were on his page on mine, where there was an image of the product, I put my image there.

So I thought to myself, What if he's working? Mine's gonna work too. So have an inquisitive mind and have a look around what other people are doing because as the saying goes, success leaves clues, a genuine desire to help people and provide an exceptional level of service. How many of you are good at giving Great service. How many of you find it hard to do to give great service? Do you think it's time consuming?

It is, isn't it? It's hard work. It's not easy, giving great service all the time. It's not. And but you have to be able to do because that will give you repeat customers. Okay, who am I quickly?

What am I an expert in? This is what I do. I'm a best selling author, and award winning publisher and a book coach and I use that all the time. I use that strap line in virtually everything I do. When you see me post online when you see my boring videos on social media. Hi, I'm Richard Amman, best selling author, award winning publisher.

Why do I keep saying that? Because I'm hammering home a message. And I'm sending out the scene that I'm an expert. That's what I am. And it builds that trust and confidence because my aim is to get to meet people in person because when I meet them, I'm confident then I can convert and do the things that I do. So So the message, make sure your message is consistent.

We're going to do a little bit of an exercise in a little while that will define your tagline and what it is exactly that you do. So let's take a quick look at my journey and how I managed to dominate my market. Most people know you know, I worked in the fire service, I left school with just three GCSEs. Is does this help me? The 3g CNCS? Why shouldn't do should it?

Lots of people perfect, good. So that's where lots of people are at how many of you have got degrees or qualifications and you're going to use them in your business? Hands up? Yes, yours should be right up. Yes, you're going to use them. Because that helps you to achieve expert status.

Well, what qualifies you to teach in that subject? Well, I have a degree doesn't mean say you're a great teacher. But it does mean to say that you've gone through the knowledge you've learnt it, then you understand it. But I use this My advantage, I do use this in my storytelling. Okay, I'll use that because of exactly what you say, I'm able to relate to people. I joined the Royal Navy, as an aircraft engineer would have loved to join the Royal Marines wasn't good enough.

So I joined as an aircraft engineer, I then left after four years during the fire service serve 17 years in there, I got bored and decided to start my own business from my cell and I was going to be a career person. I was going to stay in there for 30 years. And then I met Simon, and things really changed for me. And the reason why they changed for me I mentioned earlier on about the qualities and traits that you need. And one of them is about being passionate about what you do. And I wasn't passionate about this job anymore.

Being in the fire service, it was changing a lot. I was in a very similar position to yourself Carolyn, and got a bit fed up with it. And I was looking for something else. When I first started I was going to do the whole 30 year term. But I got fed up and ideally enough time, and I started doing my own business. Now what I was doing here was being creative, feeding that passion.

And that's one of the reasons why I've been in business so long. It's because it feeds my soul. I love being creative. I love making things. When I'm making things. I'm at my happiest.

So if you're starting from scratch, it can seem daunting. However, there are now far more tools and resources at your disposal than when I started. So obviously, you need to work hard, persevere, and more importantly, enjoy the journey. Being in business should be about enjoying the journey. And I hear this all the time people complaining about smartphones and social media are ruining our society. Do you hear that all the time?

Yeah. A lot of people say it. It's not like it used to be in the good old days. I hear that. We say there wasn't any good old days. You know, a lot of that's true because we were complaining about something back And here's the deal with smartphones and social media.

It's no different when we used to read newspapers all the time, it's just in a different format. And you have to get with it. You have to move with the times. I'm not saying this to you guys, because you are with it. But when I hear people saying this, I just said, well, you're going to get left behind. This is what it's like.

And I'll guarantee in 20 years time will be going. Do you remember when we used to consume data on smartphones, jammed on smartphones, we used to have crazy that were really old and outdated now, because it will keep changing. And if you remember what it used to be like when you order something online, and it takes three days to get there, and it was like, Wow, I've got this delivered. It's been three days. How quick is that? Now we're at the point where it's 24 hour delivery, and even that seems a little bit too long.

So a little bit too long to wait 24 hours to get something I don't want to I'll guarantee you'll be getting things within an hour. Yeah. And that's why if you look at Amazon, what is Amazon just bought out for a million a billion dollars ring.com. You said it's those adverts where someone comes up and they press the doorbell, and you're remote on your phone and you can answer it. Amazon has just bought out that company, because it's going to enhance deliveries, it's going to speed up deliveries. And these are the kind of things that's happening.

Another big thing that is changing, or coming to the fore now with regards to search is what? voice, voice search and voice purchase. So in a few years time, you'll go find me a black wallet, buy this make, it'll show it up and you go buy it, and you'll do and that'll be it. That's all you'll do. There'll be no pushing buttons. And this is the changes that are coming through now.

And we need to stay ahead of that, don't we? We've got to stay ahead of that and understand it as well. So to be an expert or industry leader, you have to keep abreast and accept more importantly accept the changes that are coming, because these changes aren't going to wait for you. They're just going to keep happening. Continue to how people search and how people shop online. And the reason why I mentioned it, you guys have the positive mindset.

But it's also keeping abreast of how people shop. And what happens online because we can all get a website, which is great. But how are we going to rank how are we going to get traffic. And at the moment, things like Facebook and Instagram are still working well, they're working great for me. And I'll show you the kind of things that I'm doing. But in the back of my mind, I'm thinking these are going to change, they're going to change at some point.

And I'm looking on the horizon to see what it is that's going to change. So then in a position to be able to take it on board and one of them is the voice search. If you don't stay ahead of the game, you'll get left behind and it's as simple as that. So when I started out my aim was to dominate my niche as soon as possible. And I started using the tagline expert, pretty much from day one. Put up my ex put up my website so you know I am an expert on even put it on, put on my website or remember a testimonial From me for Yes, sounds okay.

So I'd written a guide. And then I wrote my own testimonial with my own name on it. This is one of the first websites that I have. So everybody knows I own the How to Become brand, how to become calm. And this was one of my first websites and I was really pleased with this. Do you like the look of it?

So this was around about 2005 2006. So I'm not doing any books. I'm just doing CDs, but I absolutely love this. And at the time, it was, it was a great website. This was doing for my seller, and I was turning over about 300,000 pounds a year from that seller using that particular website, but I had these landing pages that look like this. One thing you'll notice about this kind of branding is it's clear and simple, isn't it?

There is a clear message. Where did I get this template from using my inquisitive mind I'm talking about the layout, the banner, the title, the images, where did you get it from? copied Simon. I copied his layout or went on his page and thought to myself, if he's making money using this layout of the sales page, why not just copy it, put my own text in there. And I'd encourage you to do that. Those people who want to be coaches, have a look at other coaches websites, go on there, take some notes, and see where they put their video, see the functionality on the website, and also see things like and it's the first time I've mentioned this today, and you'll hear a lot more social proof.

What kind of social proof do they have on their website? So we'll look in to the social proofing and social proof has changed since I started. It's changed a lot more now. Because people are expecting this as consumers. As consumers, we want to see social proof. And those are the trigger points.

They get us to make a purchase and we can include them on our website. So My web page designs were very simple. The majority of things I do are simple, because with respect, my customers are simple. And I don't mean that derogatory. It's about their behaviors, how they shop, everybody shops in a simple manner, we have to meet a need. So it's not about you your website, you should build it around your customers.

So there's my testimonial. This 300 page guide is essential for anyone who wants to become a firefighter or have been in the fire service 12 years. It's a must have guide. So I backed up my expert status, we've statements like this, with things like that I would put up these kind of things to prove that I was an expert in my niche. Now I've lost count the number of times I've redesigned and improved my website. How often do you think I do it?

About every two years for my main one every couple of years, even with our book cover designs they need upgrading every one year or two or three The most, because something that looks great now will not look great in 12 months time. And that's why you see cars, they'll bring out a new model every now and again, they'll always bring out a new model. And you have to have that in your strategy to update your brand and update your website on a periodic basis, if you want to stay ahead of the game, and it will cost a little bit of money. But you have to do it you've got to always reinvest. So I believe this to be an important part of your strategy for not just dominating your market, but also meeting your maintaining your status. Now the problem that some of you will have is once your business grows, and your website gets bigger, there's more work involved.

So our our How to become calm website. We started planning, we've literally launched the new one in March. But we started planning in June last year. It's taken a long time to get it to do it because the website is so big with the amount of content on there on all of the different things that you have to plan for as your business grows, it gets harder to do and it takes a lot longer. But if you choose an outsourcer, to create a website for you, or to develop it, make sure you choose a good one. Okay, a good one, I'm going to give you an example of a couple of people that you can use if you want to who are really cheap.

And I'll also give you examples of people who are really expensive, so that you have the options of people that you can use. This was actually my very first website. That was my very first design. What do you think of it? Great. I loved it.

What about my logo? You like it? Take a look at this now and it looks awful. But back in the day, this was great. Why do you think I had the red diamonds was the purpose of that. I had an idea at the time.

So these are sort of like signifying excellence. diamonds and they were slanting slightly to the right to signify progress. I was learning. I was learning, you know, my strapline was be what you want. That was it how to become be what you want, how much to pay for that logo. 20 pounds is loads of pages that you can go on to get a logo created.

How many of you have already got your own logo? Just a couple of people, how many were going to get their own logo created and design? Good. Okay. That was the second one I already showed you. That was the second design.

This was the third one when we're starting to get a little bit more, I would say not corporate but a bit more branded picture or more in command there at the top and going even more corporate. And now this one here, which is a lot more corporate. It looks a lot more public sector now. Great for mobile, we totally now get in this redesign was done for mobile, not just on searches, but also from the shopping cart. Got a brilliant shop. cart, the shopping cart we now use which a lot of you will have heard of is WooCommerce ww e commerce WooCommerce really good allows us to upsell as well so I generally update rebrand and or fresh refresh every two years my how to become.com business and every year for my personal coaching, so I'm always planning ahead and getting them updated.

Always invest a percentage of your monthly takings back into your business. Do you think you can become an expert on your own without the help of other people? You can can you? Is it easier or should you be with people? It's harder and it can take longer. Is it better to surround yourself with people who can help you?

For sure? Yeah. What about getting someone paying someone like having a mentor? Is that a good thing? It can be it can be a good thing. Surround yourself with like minded like minded positive people who are further ahead than you.

When I was young, I was trying to get into squash and I played squash. tough game days, isn't it? Nice to have to play with someone who was a lot better than me I gave up in the end. But that was the best thing to do is to always play with somebody who is better than you always. And this is what you should do in business is surround yourself with people who are far ahead of you. Far more add on always ask questions all the time.

Obviously, I'm good friends with Simon. He helped me get to where I wanted to be. Yes, I was the one who put in all the work, but I was in a position and I listened and asked loads of questions. When we used to go along to gigs, I would ask loads of questions all the time about how to do things because I was hungry. So make sure you surround yourself with people who will help you get to where you want to be a lot quicker. This is my very first speaking event.

So even though I feel confident up here now speaking, when I started out, I wasn't This is my very first speaking event. Does anyone know a gentleman called Steve Foley? Steve follies just passed away blessing lovely, lovely man, lovely man. And I spoke at his internet marketers ball and this was on May the 14th 2010. So I've been creating guides, not thought about any kind of public speaking. I was running my own training courses for career stuff.

And then Simon rang me up and he said, I'm supposed to be speaking tomorrow. at London, I can't make it. Can you go up and do an hour's talk? Really, what about well, I don't know. It's up to you. And this was the start of my speaking journey if you like.

I remember thinking to myself, I'm not prepared. I don't know what I'm going to do. I've got 24 hours. But having a can do attitude or so. Okay, I'll do it. Let's change our plans and it was the best thing I ever did.

Because it got me going. Was it a good talk? Not really. Did I sell anything? Yes, I sold one thing, which I was I created a bundle together a quick product of how to write and publish guides. Very quick product, sold it for 250 pounds or sold one thing and I was over the moon.

Somebody in the room bought something from me. Was Simon pleased. So what you sold one said about what have done really well. It should be selling more than that says about moving forward. But I was really pleased. It was my first opportunity to see if you ever get the chance to speak somewhere, do it.

But the other side of it is ask. If you don't ask you don't get asked people to go Can I go and talk at your event. learn the ropes, get used to it. Put yourself under pressure and practice. Practice your speech. So the opportunity arose to me to speak at one of these events.

I've never done this type of speaking gig before, never done it and presented on courses. But I've not done anything like that before. And I had nothing to sell about to cobble together something really quickly. I was nervous, really nervous about it. And I also forgot my laptop. Nobody told me to take my laptop with me.

Which you would think well, you would take it but I just took my presentation on a little stick. I didn't know to take my laptop, which made it even worse. But I did love every minute of it. I really enjoyed it. And I sold something. So now I'm filling out my own events, but I've started from scratch.

So a lot of you who want to get into like doing your own courses. Just do it. Just try it, start running them, and you'll get better as you go along. How many of you have been running courses? So what do you When? When you did your first one?

What was it like? pretty nervous. So pretty small, pretty quiet and fairly nervous. Do you think it helps that there were not that many people there? Yeah. So my first book writing course in London, I had two people turn up to people turn up, I had more people booked, but two turned up.

And I'll talk a little bit more about that later on, because he was actually really good, and actually got two people to convert to actually sold to the two people in the room, but I made a mistake. And I'll share that with you a little bit later on. Now, from that day on, I looked to continually improve my speaking and presentation skills. I read books, I also attended various entrepreneurial events with the sole purpose of looking out looking at our presenters presented and also how they up sold at the end. Now, this is important. I think when you go to events, the way that I sell at the end of an event might not be the way that you sell, and it might not be the way that you sell.

Don't think that just because selling selling a certain way that you have to copy that. What's the important thing with selling at the end of an event? is you are comfortable. Okay that you're comfortable with it, of how you present. You go to some events and you'll see some entrepreneurs who are, you know, putting pressure on a lot of scarcity. That doesn't work for me.

It doesn't work. I've tried it, it doesn't work for me. That's great if you can do that. But find your own way. And present in your own way. Yeah, have a look at what other people do and see how they pitch their services.

I remember one time and talking about price setting, which we've done a little bit earlier on how much you can charge. I remember going to see an entrepreneur in London, roundabout 2010 when I started to think I'd really like to get into this. Anyone heard of Chris Cordell? Chris Cornell does some business kind of stuff. He teaches business owners. In my view, it's very basic stuff.

Okay, but I went along to An event and I paid. I think it was 495 pounds for a two day event. I got there, there was about 500 people in the room. So I started looking around and thought, That's quite a lot. I had my phone out like doing the sums. This is cool.

This is good. Respect. Great. Okay. So then he did his presentation on the second day, he did something which just blew me away and open my mind to one thing, which is how much some people are prepared to spend. So he said, For the next year, I'm just going to work with 100 people.

Okay, on a like a VIP thing. It's an inner circle, you get to come and work with me. I only have 100 places, and it's 10,000 pounds per place. And he was turning people away. Which just proves how much some people are prepared. So how much has he made in one event, million pounds one event, and I left there now I don't do that, but it just opened my mind.

How much people are prepared to spend on what? personal development on personal development. So a quick summary have a goal and stick to it. Don't let anyone deter you from your goals. Have a plan and a timeframe for achieving your goal. Surround yourself with positive people.

Surround yourself with people who are ahead of you. Grab every opportunity that comes your way. Always look to improve yourself reinvest a portion of your money back into your business, have a plan to refresh and rebrand or redesign your website and focus on what you're good at doing and always enjoy being in business.