3 Ways to Position Yourself as an Expert

Did you ever wonder how somebody becomes an expert? Is there a governing body with a magic wand that deems people as experts in their fields or is this something that the average business owner can do? These are questions that many business owners ask and the answer to all is that positioning yourself as an expert in your industry is much easier than most think.

By simply taking advantage of these three tips, you too can become an expert in your field.

Be Visible and Strut Your Stuff.

Experts are seen everywhere. They are master networkers and implementers and available to answer questions openly in their area of expertise. Be seen in social media forums and discussion boards, write articles, write a book and call into talk radio.


Strut Your Stuff by Educating Not Selling.

Experts have opinions, methods or a process that achieve results and they educate others. You can do this by providing classes, workshops, teleclass or guest lectures at your local universities or Chamber of Commerce. They never lead in for the sale, they understand that the business will come as a result of this action.


Use the Media to Get the Word Out.

Experts use PR as a valuable marketing strategy. They know how important it is to get their name and their personal brand out. They pitch to the media, get on talk radio, are guest on local and national TV programs and they are very visible outside of their space.

Once you successfully position yourself as an expert, you must follow the Rules of Engagement in order to sustain your image of an expert.

1. Experts are always “on” – They understand their reputation is on the line and that people depend upon and will act upon what they say. They own that responsibility.

2. Experts are busy – They are not hanging out on social media sites all day long. They are master implementers and time managers.

3. Experts are professional – They never talk down to people and position their opinions as an alternative point of view.

Master these simple three tips and abide by the rules of engagement every day and you too will become the expert in your field. With expert positioning, you are able to enhance your credibility, build trusting relationships with your target market and customers and attract new opportunities to you and your business. The goal isn’t to be seen as an expert once, but to build a reputation that lasts a lifetime.

Kellie D'Andrea , The Guru of Positioning, teaches small business how to attract and retain more customers. She is the creator of the BLAST Marketing System that teaches you how to position yourself and your business as the leading expert in your industry. To learn more and to sign up for her free 5 part mini course on becoming an empowered entrepreneur go to http://www.KellieDAndrea.com.

The $7 Report

It doesn't matter what stage of business you are in or what your business model is or what product or service you sell, we all have something in common - we all NEED new leads and a FULL funnel.

You are in luck! I have put together my top secret strategies to keep your prospect list growing so you never run out of leads in my new report. "How to Attract New Leads and Keep Your Funnel Full in Less than 30 Minutes a Day" Order Now

And the BEST news is....it is just $7 and immediately available for download... No Waiting No Shipping & Handeling No Paper (unless you want to print) Thats right!

We are going "green".... no waste!

ACT Now - $ 7 for 21 specific ways to attract more business and to keep your FUNNEL FULL! Think about it..... if you get just 1 or 2 qualified leads as a result of one of these strategies, this is MORE than worth the $7 investment!

https://www.mcssl.com/SecureCart/Checkout.aspx?sctoken=ba09ab01f54845929d72b69e4b6fb697&mid=EC03077E-6B25-4F39-9286-8CFFF93DF1C3&bhjs=1&bhqs=1

9 Marketing Strategies to Blast Your Profits

Every business owner, even the really successful ones have been guilty of making mistakes in their business. The difference between the truly successful ones and those that aren’t are that they learn from their mistakes and are not afraid to take the risks to deploy strategies to take their business to the next level. Here are nine strategies for you to start using in your business today.

1. Don’t Work Without A Plan You wouldn’t take a vacation without planning your days, activities and your budgets so why would you run your business without a plan. A solid marketing plan is the foundation to every successful business and if you want to achieve greatness, you must be thinking about how you are going to accomplish this each and every day.

2. Stay True to Your Mission and Be The Leader Every business has a brand identity. A reason they went into business and an impression that they want to leave with their customers. Do not sway from your mission. To be the leader in your market, you must be the first to try new things. Do not do what your competition is doing by mimicking their marketing and advertising. Stand apart from the masses and be unique.

3. Consistency is the KeyOnce you have a powerful message, shout it from the rooftops and shout it out often. Your message has to be repeated over and over again and in every communication the business sends out into the marketplace both internal and external – Your marketing material, your website, your employees and every client touch point should be screaming the same message every time.

4. Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up To really accelerate your business, you must build a business based upon referrals. To obtain referrals you must master the art of the follow up. You business will grow from your existing client base either engaging additional services or referring you to others. Keep in touch with them often.

5. Don’t Be A Super Hero Do not try to go at it alone. You are not a superhero and will eventually burn out quickly. Surround yourself with talented people and lead them to victory. You focus on what you do best and outsource other tasks to topic experts who can help advance your business.

6. Wow ‘Em The best activity you can focus on is to wow your customers. Create an experience that they will remember. The best customer experience is generated by the details. Those little things that make all the difference in the world and usually doesn’t cost the business owner much to do.

7. Leverage Your Systems From this point forward, you should be thinking about how you can leverage your business. Everything that you do should be able to support multiple efforts and activities. For example, if you are marketing, how can you use that same marketing in other venues. If you write an article, can you turn that content into other pieces like an ebook, a blog post or a white paper that you can give to your customers.

8. Network Every Day Business is built by the people you meet. Make a goal for yourself to network each and every day. A good system is to commit to reaching out to five new people a day to introduce yourself and to see how you can assist them with no expectation of a returned favor.

9. Build Alliances with Influencers Chances are there are other businesses that complement your offering. Align yourself with those other business owners and collaborate on how you can help each other’s business. This will give you an opportunity to reach a new market, offer new products and build your network within your industry.

Tips for Mastering Time Management

A common mistake business owners make is not managing their use of time effectively. Entrepreneurs fall into the superhero syndrome very quickly and think that have enormous super powers to do everything themselves. They slowly begin to focus on tasks just because they need to get done or perhaps it is just easier to do it yourself rather than take the time to train someone. This is the time trap and needs to be avoided. There are only so many hours in a day and you need to focus your time on the task s that will yield the greatest result and outsource or delegate the tasks that don’t provide a large return.

It is all in the math. If your hourly rate is $ 150/hr and you are not a strong bookkeeper and it takes you 10 hours to keep your books it cost you $1,500 for that task. If you outsourced your bookkeeping to a professional at $ 25/hr , chances are it will only take them 5 hours since this is their specialty, and cost you only $ 125. A big difference. Not to mention the other benefit—You now have 10 additional hours to work “on” your business rather than “in” it. The strategic planning that will BLAST your business to new heights, that next great idea that will bring in a muti -million dollar client or that creative marketing message that will brand you in a class by yourself. Your time is one of your most valuable asset, protect it wisely. Many entrepreneurs struggle with this concept because often cash is tight and they believe they can save a few bucks by doing it themselves. Unfortunately, this has the exact opposite effect and can impede success. Although you may save a few dollars in the short fun and ended up successful in the end, the question you need to ask yourself is would you have gotten there quicker? Would your business have reached its goals many years earlier? A good exercise to begin is to start planning your time…. Business is all about planning.

Follow these tips:

Develop the main areas of your focus: Sales, Marketing , HR, Operations ect..

Write down your “to do” list (tasks) — this will be an active list that you will add to each day

Categorize your task into the main areas and consolidate for easy review and delegation

Prioritize the importance of the tasks on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being most important)

Identify task that can easily be outsourced with a check mark

Review your list and outsource and delegate everything with a checkmark

Outsource all administrative tasks, bookkeeping and marketing

Develop expectations and manage by exception. If your teams are hitting their goals, trust them to continue.

Remember that at least 35% of your time must be working ON your business.

©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?
You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the BLAST 9O Day Coaching Program and teaches biz owners how to build the business of their dreams for a life of freedom, profits and fulfillment. Interesting in growing your business, sign up for her FREE mini course “The Empowered Entrepreneur” and learn how to take the journey to freedom, profits and fulfillment at www.kelliedandrea

ABC’s of the Perfect Elevator Pitch

One of the most important things a business owner can do is learn how to speak about their business to others. Being able to answer the “What do you do?” question and sum up the unique aspects of their business in a way that excites others to inquire more in a brief and concise manner. This is often called the elevator pitch for the intended time it takes you to ride an elevator. Can you answer the “what do you do?” question in 30 seconds or less and entice your audience to want to learn more? Sometimes going back to the basics is the best approach to learn a new technique. Just remember the ABC’s.

A. Audience Know your audience and the specific needs your product and/or service serve. You want to be able to drill down to your ideal customer (your niche) and be able to target their demands in your elevator pitch. Many business owners have no idea who their ideal customers are or how to drill down and target their demands, so one way to set you apart is to really understand your target audience.

B. Benefits What value or benefits are you bringing to your audience? Be concise and be specific. Many business owners are either too broad in this statement or confuse features with benefits. A benefit statement is always from the buyer’s point of view and what they receive from using your product or service. For example, increased profits by 22%, reduced risk, created 18% efficiency resulting in higher profits, etc.

C. Creative Offering Now, imagine searching for one exact fish in a very large pond and all you have is one “hook” to reel that fish in. Now next to your hook are thousands of other hooks that your competition has casted into the same pond. If you don’t know what will make that one fish bite on your hook, you will be landing your fish by luck rather than by skill. Being able to develop your marketing “hook”, specific to your fish, will require you to know exactly who your customer is and the benefits you bring to them. This will entice them to buy from you. Your creative offering should be why you are different. Many competitors are bringing the same benefits to your target market. So, why are you different?

You know your business better than anyone and you are the best suited to show your passion about what you do. Allow your passion to come through and speak from your heart. As long as you understand your audience, what specifically you do for them and in what unique way.

5 Proven Headline That Generate Response

In the world of marketing, you have less than 3 seconds to grab the attention of the reader for them to take the next step towards your product. The same holds true in article marketing. A great headline can lead to sales success and a poor headline can lead to failure, therefore your headline is a critical.

Your headline is the first thing your readers will see, so make sure you make a great first impression by choosing a headline that is appealing and attractive to your potential readers. Visualize yourself standing in front of a magazine rack trying to select the right magazine to read. You first will go to your favorite name brands because you trust those sources and are familiar with them, but chances are you do not make the decision to purchase before checking out the headlines on the cover. Even after you review them, you glance at the other magaiznes and will gravitate towards the headlines that appeal to your interests at that very moment. Article marketing involves the same psychology. Even though you have subscribers to your articles, you need to entice them to click on your article to read further and your headline is the tool to do that.

There are several techniques out there, but here are 5 of my favorite (and proven) headlines:

1. The Question: “Does the recession have you worried for your future?”
The question appeals to your readers who are looking for answers and who isn’t looking for answers these days? Find out what your audience searches for and create an article that provides them the answer.

2. The How To: “How to improve your golf swing in 10 days”
These work very well because people love to learn new things. The criticle element in these types of headlines is to focus on the benefits your readers will achieve by learning your new techqniue, system or strategy.

3. The Command: “Social Media Explained”
Command headlines are a great way to attach to a current trend and can also be a wonderful way to position you as an expert. Look for your most important benefit of an emerging trend and turn into a commanding headline.

4. The List: “7 Early Warning Signs of Teenager Angst”
People love lists and they are the easist to write. Turn your headline into a list message so your readers know they are going to be given tips in an easily digested format.

5. The Testimonial: “Kellie D’Andrea BLAST Secrets- Our Sales Grew by 40%”
Testimonials are great because your clients create the message including the headline. People relate to others they feel are independent and objective and a testimonial is a great way to provide that proof and demonstrate your successes.

Once your readers know that you are offering valuable information that they are interested in, they will want to read further. Your headline is like the shinny wrapping paper and the big bow on a wonderful present. Dress it up and excite your readers to open the package and be rewarded by your wonderful gift.

©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the Build a Better Ezine System and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. Interesting in starting your own business, sign up for a FREE mini course “The Empowered Entrepreneur” and learn how not to make the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at www.kelliedandrea.com.

3 Essential Elements to a Life of Fulfillment

Leading a life of fulfillment may sound easier than it is to achieve, but the truth is that every person has within them, the abilities to live a life of purpose and fulfilment. We each know what makes us happy and what we need to do to find our right path but we are often overwhelmened with fear and social conditioning that our actions are immobilized and we find ourselves doing the same things we have always done or just doing enough to get buy. Each leading to the same result – a life of medocrity.

Although there are numerous recommendations out there to help you create a fulfilling life, I believe that there are three essential elements that must exist in everyone’s life in order to truly be happy.

1. Willingness to Explore New Opportunities
It is human nature to be curious and to want more – it is the American Dream. Open yourself up to new opportunities and watch your life change. Don’t be afraid to dance to your own music and to try new things. These are the experiences that make up life; embrace them and you will be one step further to fulfillment.

2. Trusting and Meaningful Relationships
As human beings, we have a natural instinct to be social and to connect with others. Those that are happy and fulfilled surround themselves with friends, family and associates whom they have a relationship with. These relationships can only be formed by creating an environment of trust and integrity; a give and take balance that generates mutual interest, empathy and understanding. Reach out to belong and connect with others to create a large circle of people who inspire you and you will be one step further to fulfillment.

3. Doing Work You Love
How many times do you find yourself miserable or making comments about hating your work? Than you are not doing the work you are meant to be doing. When you are working in a career that you love, you know! You are energized, inspired and excited each and every day and you eventually get to the point where calling it work just seems wrong. Take a moment to reflect on when the last time you felt good – were you doing a specific task? Was there something you really, really enjoyed? That is the work you should be doing. Find a career that uses those skills and makes you feel great and you will be one step further to fulfillment.

Leading a life of fulfillment requires commitment and focus towards improvement. It requires the courage to overcome fears and to challanege yourself to take action. It is an ongoing process that will be tested often but by surrounding yourself with people who you love and trust, experieincing new things and finding work that inspires you, you will be well on your way to your destination.

©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the 94 Day Challenge, a Goal Coaching System designed to hold you accountable for results. She also publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. Learn about the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at www.kelliedandrea.com.