To become a trusted and in-demand expert, it’s important to have the right partners on your side.
There are three types of partners that every successful business should have: mentors, collaborative partners, and worker bees.
Let’s start with mentors.
Get yourself a mentor.
You don’t have to navigate the path to success alone. Research shows that having a mentor can significantly accelerate your progress towards achieving your goals.
A mentor can be someone who has already accomplished what you want to achieve, and they can provide valuable guidance based on their own experiences.
Mentors can be paid or unpaid, and it’s important to choose them wisely.
Look for someone who has achieved the level of success you aspire to and whose values align with yours.
A good mentor can save you time and energy by helping you avoid common pitfalls and offering insights that you may not have considered.
In my coaching business, I have always had a coach since day one.
As my business and personal life have evolved, I’ve had different coaches at different stages.
You may need different mentors for different areas of your business or personal life.
For example, if you’re looking to build massive visibility online and become known as the go-to-person in your industry, I could be the right mentor for you.
But if you’re looking for guidance on the best way to write and publish a book, you may need to find a mentor with a different expertise.
Collaborating with others is the fast-track to credibility and expert status.
When you collaborate, you leverage the expertise of other people. It’s important to remember that there is no competition.
You want to choose partners that cater to the same market as you do, even if you both do the same thing.
The reason for this is that you’re not competitors because you’re each here to serve particular people.
Your clients will be drawn to you and want to work with you, and there will also be clients that work with both of you and with the other coach.
When you introduce your community to other experts in the field, it creates trust.
It makes people feel valued and respected.
When you collaborate with other experts, it gives the perception that you know what they do, which gives you instant credibility in the eyes of the other expert’s community.
This is how you can leverage the expertise of others.
For example, if you landed a guest spot on a hot podcast in your industry, you could share this forever to build trust and credibility in the eyes of people who trust that podcaster.
The same is true if you interview other experts.
You can partner with other experts for Facebook Live, Instagram, webinars, programs, services, and numerous other things. When you partner with other experts, they share what they’re doing with their community, which boosts your visibility and credibility.
Who are Your Collaborators and Worker Bees?
To become a trusted and in-demand expert, it’s important to have a team of partners to support you in different ways.
In addition to mentors who guide and teach you, you also need collaborators and worker bees to help you expand your reach and manage your workload.
Collaborators are other experts in your field who cater to the same market as you do.
Despite being in the same industry, they are not your competition because you are each here to serve particular people.
By collaborating with other experts, you can leverage their expertise and create trust among your audience.
You can partner with other experts for Facebook Live, Instagram, webinars, programs, services, and numerous other things.
When you partner with other experts, they share what they’re doing with their community, which boosts your visibility and credibility.
For instance, if you land a guest spot on a popular podcast, you can share this forever to build trust and credibility in the eyes of people who trust that podcaster.
The same is true if you interview other experts.
By interviewing attorneys as divorce coaches, for example, you can build your credibility in the eyes of your audience.
Worker bees, on the other hand, are people who can help you with the tasks that you don’t want to do. These can be actual employees or freelancers, depending on your budget and needs.
They can be hired for one-time projects or long-term, and can include graphic designers, social media managers, virtual assistants, accountants, writers, or countless other helpers.
Hiring people to take some of the load off you leaves you more time to do what you do best in your business and gives you more free time to do the things you love. To identify tasks that you can delegate or outsource, think about what you don’t know or tasks you dislike doing.
Then, consider who can help lessen these burdens and what it would take to hire someone to do these tasks. You can find people for just about anything on platforms like Upwork.
To put these ideas into action, consider the following:
- Who is your mentor, and what are they teaching you?
- What are five things that you’d like to have a mentor or coach teach you over the next year?
- List 10 people that you would like to collaborate with.
- List activities that you would like to delegate or outsource.
By building a team of partners, you can leverage the expertise of others and achieve your goals faster and more efficiently.
Next Up: Step 5
Congrats! At this point you’ve nailed your expertise focus, are behaving as the expert you want to become, and you have your website handled. Now, it’s time to move on and form some partnerships for fast growth.
