How I Learned to Command Authority in a Niche WITH ZERO Experience
đ„BONUS: If you enjoy todayâs entry, there is a free content prompt template packed with 32 different prompts to get you started using the framework weâre discussing today. đ
This dude walked up to me in the gym the other day and said these forbidden wordsâŠ
âYouâre doing that wrong.â
âThanks for the unsolicited advice you a$$hole.â I thought to myselfâŠ
Instead, I reply, âOh yeah? How so?â.
He immediately jumps into this monologue (while Iâm still finishing my set) about how I need to pinch my shoulder blades more. Blah blah blah⊠and then tries to sell me on a personal training program with him.
First off, he wasnât entirely wrong in that my form wasnât picture-perfect - but I damn well knew what I was doing⊠I used to be a very complimented personal trainer and competed in menâs physique shows.
There are a lot of lessons to extract from this, but as a new personal trainer, this dude could potentially be selling way more training packages if he did one thing differentlyâŠ
The Problem: New one-person businesses often struggle to be taken seriously due to a lack of social proof or backlog of work to validate their expertise in the eyes of their target audience. And with an increasing number of posers on the internet, we as people have become incredibly selective about who we follow and buy from online.
A Solution: Consider making content yourself from a stance of âHow Iâ more than âHow toâ.
Hereâs what I mean and why this will garner immediate interest from your target audienceâŠ
âFaking itâ Wonât Help You âMake itâ
Iâve faked it so many times in my life, that it was second nature for me when I chose to freelance my way into a marketing career instead of going the formal education route.
I sent a couple emails out of mailchimp for a buddy that had a small online retail business - boom.
NaturallyâŠ. I am now an email marketer! đ€Ž
I had lots of ambition, but very little skill in this arena. So what did I do?
Created an Upwork profile and put my email marketing services up for sale at $40/hr.
And believe it or not⊠I got a few gigs!
I slowly began to develop my skillset.
Little did I realize that even though I thought I knew a lot, the people on the internet werenât so convincedâŠ
Newsflash: It takes years of experience to become an authority on a subject matter. And âfaking thisâ online wonât work.
There are just too many phonies on the internet claiming to have the secrets you need.
Weâve all seen it. And so weâve all become really good at spotting the BS early.
đ Lesson: With a client, you can learn on the fly and apply brand-new skills to the task at hand. But in the world of social media content marketing, if you try to fake it, youâll face-plant⊠publicly.
You seeâŠ
In a 1:1 environment with a client you can build rapport, clarify their needs, and sell them on your ability to provide a solution. Then you learn what you need to on the fly to make it happen.
But in a 1-to-many environment like on social media, itâs very hard to claim and be seen as an expert if you havenât yet demonstrated this enough to validate your claims.
This is hard if youâre trying to make a living through your new one-person business in an industry that youâre also new to - especially if you have no audience yet, which is often the case.
The cards are not stacked in your favorâŠ
Letâs look at a very simple tweak to the positioning of your content to build trust and rapport with your target audience, even when youâre not yet an expert.
Using âHow Iâ Verbiage to Grow Your Following
Instead of telling people âhow toâ do somethingâŠ
Show them âhow youâ did something, and what the result was.
People donât usually like being told what to do.
And they definitely donât want to hear advice from someone that isnât either a millionaire or has less than 50k followersâŠ
They may read your post or watch your video, but theyâre probably sizing you up the whole time - sniffing out whether youâre full of BS or not. In most cases, theyâll write you off cause thereâs just no proof that your opinions or advice are valid.
BUT!âŠ
If you instead rework that same content into a âhow Iâ framework all of those hurdles vanish completely.
For instance:
No one can argue or refute your story on âhow I learned piano in 1 hourâ.
But they might write you off if you said âhow to learn piano in 1 hourâ.
People canât argue with your experiences and what you learned from it.
People canât call you a phony when youâre working in public.
People will pay attention to what youâre doing to see if it works, and then they might try it too.
People are quick to acknowledge and support your journey, yet slow to take your advice.
Position your content accordingly so that you can build your following and grow your business.
The Benefits of Using the âHow Iâ Content Framework
Beyond not looking like a poser, reframing your content away from the âHow toâ language and instead using the âHow Iâ approach has a handful of benefits.
Youâll have more content: When you document your journey, sharing what youâre doing and how⊠It becomes much easier to generate more content due to the nature of documentation as opposed to education. Yes, they can often weave together nonetheless
Respect Leads to Trust: People respect honesty. When you share âHow Iâ content, youâre not spewing advice⊠Youâre sharing your process of creating your future self. In a world riddled with anxiety, fear, and every self-limiting belief you can think of, documenting and sharing your journey breeds a lot of respect - which leads to trust and support.
Itâs Entertaining: As humans, we love a good story. Especially when itâs one that compliments our own interests and aspirations. Sharing your stories makes for a popcorn-worthy moment with every piece of content you put out. The trick is to get good at story-based writing⊠Youâll probably outpace me on this one⊠đ
When youâre starting out, you canât promise the world that you have the secrets to success. You havenât done it! Period.
But with this adjusted approach, you havenât made a promise of success⊠âHow toâ.
Youâre sharing an experience that may lead to success though⊠âHow Iâ.
Donât tell ppl what to do.
Show people what you are doing, and what you are learning.
Itâs way more magnetic and genuine.
People will connect with it and relate to it.
đ„Steal These Prompts to Begin
How I did _____ to succeed
I did _____ and learned that it doesnât work
Iâm currently doing ______ bc of ______. Iâll share what I learn
My goal is _____, so Iâm doing _______
I tried _____ but not sure how to make it work. Thoughts?
My current routine for ______
I quit doing _______ because _______