Then focus on personal branding, selling courses, and mentorship.
But with everyone now being an author, speaker, and coach, anyone who doesn’t have proven experience, social proof, and a network is going to get pummelled in growing their business.
I see a lot of young, eager professionals starting their agencies, laptop lifestyle companies, and speaking careers.
They are failing like moths to a flame because:
++ Taking on a bunch of small clients doesn’t prepare you for handling an enterprise client.
++ The advice peddled by self-help people is often oversimplified and wrong unless your goal is to be a self-help guru selling courses on how to be a self-help guru.
++ Their expectations of 6-figure and 7-figure incomes in 30 days via this “secret” are ridiculous– people who have money as their primary motivation will fail.
So how do you stand out among all these narcissistic, chest-beating, self-proclaimed experts?
++ Talk about others instead of yourself all day– let them lift you because you lifted them first. That’s why I write LinkedIn recommendations all day.
++ Teach through your direct example– building up detailed, repeatable checklists as you go.
++ Nich down to a super specific customer you serve until you dominate as THE recognized authority with a rabid community.
Just because you call yourself a CEO doesn’t mean you are one.
Most people see through this, so why pretend? If you have a team and resources, then you can act like a big company– otherwise, focus on what you as one person can do and go kill it!
For young adults– listen, listen, listen, before opening your mouth to try to share your knowledge.
Find a mentor– honor him or her, and you’ll avoid years of pain and dead ends. Do you (yes, YOU) have one or two mentors?
Build their personal brand by doing the grunt work (like you’re their PR agency) and they will build yours.