Getting People to Care About What You Share

Read time: 3.5 minutes

I know your goal isn't to be labelled as a "thought leader, expert, or influencer". But you have a message to share and you're driven by wanting to help others. And even if you have original and thought provoking ideas, it's noisy out there.

How the heck do you get people to care about what you share?

Today I'm going to show you three ways to greatly increase the likelihood that folks actually pay attention to what you have to say. Two of them require very little "expertise". Let's start by getting the most obvious one out of the way.

Create Undeniable Expertise

If you've already built a multi-million dollar company, worked with well-known professionals, or had your creative work featured somewhere impressive, people are more likely to listen to what you have to say. Period. It's the most obvious path.

It's also the hardest to achieve.

But what if you're not yet making custom art for Drake, rubbing elbows with Brené Brown, or being interviewed on The School of Greatness? You can talk about what is uniquely true. I've previously discussed the importance of building actual authority 

It means asking yourself....

• What unique claims can you make?

• What are things you've accomplished?

• What have you previously done or overcome that gives you the expertise you now have?

It's why I'll talk about having coached CEOs + leadership teams, mention having owned profitable businesses in three different industries, or that I've helped over 200 people in 13 different countries launch + grow their businesses. These things show experience and credibility.

And there's other things you can do to get people listening while you're still acquiring experience.

Become a Reporter + Curator

You don't need to be the expert.

The second way to get folks to pay attention to what you're saying, that works wonders when you're earlier in your journey, is to be the reporter or curator of valuable info. This allows you to leverage the knowledge of others while accelerating your own learning.

And those aren't the only benefits.

If you're interviewing experts, people subconsciously project expertise on you for simply being in company with them. It's why folks who get their picture taken backstage at a meet and greet with Oprah or Gary Vee will pimp out that photo at every chance. It's the opposite of guilt by association.

With that in mind, here's a picture of me and James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits.

We have the same barber.

Tim Ferris has done extremely well as both a reporter and curator. Here's the description of his now wildly popular podcast: "I deconstruct world-class performers from eclectic areas to extract the tactics, tools, and routines you can use."

He's also put out two books that compile the insights and advice of leaders.

But Tim's now at the point where he's interviewing billionaires and Hollywood stars. What about you? Here's three examples of things you could do right now without needing famous people in your contact list:

• I interviewed 10 leadership coaches and this was there top advice for leaders

• I analyzed 100 of (insert the name of your fave creator's) posts and these are the surprising things I've found

• I've studied the top 25 sales books and these are the common threads

For the last two, you don't even need anyone's permission. You just have to do the work.

Build in Public

The third and last approach to get people to give a damn about what you're putting out is by far my fave of the bunch: openly share your journey and what you're learning as you go. Build in public.

It's one that I've continually leveraged because of how powerful it is.

When you share what you're doing, the mistakes you're making, and what you're learning as you go, folks are happy to follow along. Not because you're pretending to be some expert, quite the opposite. In a world where so many project "perfection" and pretend to never smell up the loo after a number two, you sharing your journey is refreshing.

Plus, experience is the best teacher.

You don't get good at French kissing by reading about it, that only comes from doing it. The same can be said about coaching, sharing your message, enrolling clients, and just about every other skill that will help you impact more people.

You get better from doing.

So you might as well openly invite people to join you on your journey as you're learning. It not only builds trustworthiness, you'll inspire others as they witness your growth.

I recently got this comment on a post:

And this was part of a potential client application I received last week:

What are some examples of building in public?

I shared when I quit my job, what happened when my mom first read my book, what I learned as we sold our house, how I let myself burnout and what I'm doing to prevent it, when I was dragging my ass to practice for my talk for DisruptHR, and even what I was learning while I searched for a new mentor and a high-ticket mastermind to join.

I'm pretty much always inviting people in behind the scenes to what I'm doing and what I'm learning.

Now go share what's unique about your experience, curate and report on the expertise of others, and build in public so you can help more people.

See you next week.

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Do you live in the Denver area or...
Are you planning to attend the BeastX LinkedIn creator meet-up in Denver in the beginning of June? If so, I'd love to know. I'm planning a small event Tuesday June 6th in Denver.