Cement your knowledge and add value by these actions.
Who relies on you? Who needs you on your A game? Who needs you to show up and deliver? We will often do more for others than we will for ourselves. It is one of life’s ironies. We tend to perform better when we know someone else needs our performance to be good. We show up. We deliver. We make things happen on behalf of others. We’re doing it for them. There’s some magic behind our actions for others. It is like we are guided with special powers to overdeliver. People notice. And so we go about it thinking we’re needed here, now, to help, to add value, to solve problems. And deliver we do. Again and again.
If you don’t have someone in your life to keep you working hard, find someone. Mentor someone. Teach someone. It is through teaching that we develop true mastery. Doing is wonderful. Do all day long. But if you can wrap your doing with teaching, you will develop mastery of your topic. This is why mentoring is so important. You’re imparting knowledge and expertise onto someone else with little expectation of return. But you return is high because of the teaching you do, of giving back. You’re already there, ahead of the curve.
Teaching is a great way to add value to the lives of others. Teach your topic to them for free. Give them some of your best stuff. Formalize it into a course online or even teach it in person if you want to. Give a portion of the course away for free and then charge them for the rest of it. This is a great way to not only add value, but to get paid to do it. It is an awesome method of knowledge transfer. Plus, by teaching, you get to see where the holes are in your knowledge and fill them. You don’t know everything about your topic, but you know enough to teach it. You’re always learning by teaching. And it will motivate you to want to learn more. Further, teaching gets you known as the go-to guy for that topic. You become the personal development guy, the aviation guy, the guitar guy, the SEO guy. You’re only limited by the amount of teaching that you do. Nothing cements knowledge like teaching it.
Once you teach a few times, you develop a following. These are your students, your customers. They rely on you to show up, to do a good job for them, to be there for them. They now need you on your A game. How will you choose to show up for them? What will your teaching style be? How will you make things happen for them? How will you add value to their lives? What is your distinction? How will you help solve problems for them? What else do they need? How else have they tried to solve these problems? Get to know your students like you know yourself. As a teacher and expert, you’re always a student of the topic first. You never stop learning. So, keep going. Keep learning. Keep adding value.
Everyone has something they can teach. We are all an expert at something. Whether it is knitting, soccer, artistry, sales, starting a business or even aviation, we’re all experts at something. And the great news is that nearly every topic is salable. Just about every topic sells if that is your intention. You can make it happen if you know how and have the right marketing behind you. All it takes is some consistency and some tenacity to make a great business out of your topic.
Can you coach someone? When you coach someone, you’re teaching them in the best way. You’re helping someone to achieve a desired result or to move away from something undesirable. Further, you’re making a significant difference in their life. You are effectively changing their life for the better. You’re helping them to get a result that they feel they couldn’t get on their own. Therefore, they hired you. You are the key to their success. Of course, they’ll pay you for this! You’re helping them to get incredible results. You’re now a professional coach, someone paid to help others achieve great things.
Coaching is a very fulfilling career because you’re helping to move someone from point A, where they don’t want to be, to point B, where they desire to be. and you’re getting paid well to do it. You are the expert. You already have the desired results. You’ve already achieved. People seek you out because they want the same results you’ve got. Sometimes, they want it done for them. Of course, not everything can be done for them, like exercising or the work-out. But some things can, like marketing and design. But what they really want is for you to coach them through their difficulties and to guide them to success. What they want is their specific desired result. The key to business and entrepreneurship is to figure out what people want and then to give it to them over and over again. What do your people want? Can you or someone else give it to them? Do surveys. Ask questions. See what other entrepreneurs are offering the market. Find out what’s working now. See if you can offer something similar within your realm of expertise with your points of distinction. Everyone’s teaching style is different. Certain teachers resonate differently with people. Get your style down. Get your distinction down. Know you’re differentiation. Know your topic like the back of your hand. Set out to coach people to success and their desired results. Nothing pays like getting results for people. They become your best salesmen and evangelists.
