When it comes to being an authority, you always want to be one step or one level ahead of your audience. What do I mean by that?

I mean, if your audience are newbies, you want to make sure that you are at least at the intermediate level. If your audience are intermediate, then you need to make sure that you are an expert in that niche.

The reason being is that you need to be several steps ahead to ensure that you answer their questions. In other words, you need to make sure that you can gain their trust by providing value. That way, they understand that you have been through what they are going through right now. Because if you’re going through what they’re going through right now, they might see you as the same level as them.

They don’t see you as the authority. They see you as somebody who is a friend or somebody who understands what they’re going through but not yet has encountered the future. See what I mean by that? You have encountered the future, and therefore, you can give them advice and tips to help them. People want to know essentially if you are ahead of them.

Because basically, the reality is, if you do not know what you’re talking about, people can see right through you. They won’t trust you and in the end, they will not buy from you. Because at the end of the day, people buy from people that they like and trust. So, trust is the bigger, major factor here. So, that’s really what this whole formula is all about, how can we get people to trust you? Ethically and rightfully so, if you know the niche, you know the advice and the tips and you’ve lived it. Then, you’re more likely to be able to connect and by connecting, you understand their struggles.

You see where if you find something that’s just profitable, and you’re relying purely on somebody to write the content for you – so, you’re missing that emotional connection. At the end of the day, if you think about it, people buy for emotion. They don’t buy for logic. They justify their purchases with logic, all right?

With that said, if you’re one step ahead of everybody else, great! If you’re not, it might be something to think about.

The post Let’s Be the Authority first appeared on Build Your Visibility and Authority.

So, here’s the quick and easy short test that you can utilize to figure out if you’re really passionate about the niche in the long term. Because you might be okay right now but you really want to know if it’s going to last for a decade or more.

In the previous post, you created many different topics and then you chose one. The fact that you’re passionate about this topic means that you are more likely to succeed in the long term. But we want to make sure that is the case.

Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to get a timer – whether it’s your phone, whether it’s your watch. From this topic, what I want you to do is try to jot down at least 10 to 15 different but very specific topics around this one topic. So in other words, let’s do half an hour and let’s see how fast you can create specific topics around this niche.

Say, for example, let’s take the example of kidney stones. We could think about kidney stones – they could be dieting, for example, certain foods that create kidney stones, and certain things/certain supplements can help pass the stone without surgery. Now, can you create 10 or more topics? So, I created two out of those.

Or let’s say, for example, lowering cholesterol. We have dieted, we have exercise, we have cardio-vascular exercise, we have aerobic exercise, and we have other different options as well. So, what we’re trying to do is figure out how many topics we can create. So, go ahead and do that now.

If you got 10 – great! If you got 15 – super! If you got 20 – awesome! But if you got at least 10 within less than half an hour, then that’s a good sign. That means that in your brain, you’re able to produce topics right away and that you’re passionate about this niche.

Now, are you stuck? Let’s say you tried it and you weren’t able to think of anything. If you’re stuck, then that kind of means that you need to move on to the next one. So, look back on the list of pains and hobbies – pick another one and go through this cycle again until you find one that works.

Here’s the final test. Let’s say you found something that you were able to write 10 for. Is this something that you will feel comfortable writing day in and day out? Is this something that you’re willing to get educated about and increase your knowledge about, read books about from other experts, talk to other people about, surround yourself with people who enjoy this topic, and would you be happy with all of that? If you said “yes” to all of these questions, then this might be a good topic of choice.

So, that brings us to the authority test next!

The post Let’s Do the Longetivity Test first appeared on Build Your Visibility and Authority.

As we are thinking about that, I want to ask you a question, which is –

What are you interested in?

What are you passionate about?

I want you to keep that question in your mind. The reason is because I want to address an issue. And the issue is that many people tend to choose niches based on profitability. That’s the wrong way.

Here’s what you should look for. You should look for something that you’re interested in because if you look at the profitability or the money first, you’ll fail eventually. Because you’ll eventually run into a roadblock and you’ll get overwhelmed, it will be boring, and you’ll have no interest in it to continue. Another thing is, you won’t look like you know what you’re talking about.

Start with your Passion

So, start with your passion. The great thing about that is that people will trust you. They will begin to see that you’re passionate about it. Have you ever been to maybe a blog or a webinar and you have noticed that the speaker is not passionate whatsoever? You just feel like they’re there because they’re there. Does that make you want to trust them if they are not passionate.  Also you can tell that they don’t really know what they’re talking about.  That probably turns you off, right?

Well, the same goes for you and your business. you don’t want to portray that in any way.

What I’m trying to get here is that you want to portray yourself as the expert. And to do that, you need to be passionate about the niche. So, over time, like I said, things will get boring and you will lose sight. And once you’ve lost sight, that is the beginning of failure.

What I’m trying to do is I’m trying to set you up for success.

Here’s an example here – a while ago, I considered a niche called scrapbooking. I had zero interest in it. But I did this because I was trying to follow the money. What happened is it flopped and It died. So, what I realized over the last decade was what gets you over the roadblock is being passionate about the niche.

So, here’s my recommendation to you and I want you to take this exercise and just go ahead.

Step 1

Just pull out a pen and paper.  Just sit down and just begin to jot down all of your hobbies, things that you’ve invested money into, things that you’ve been passionate about or maybe it’s something that your family is passionate about. Think about all the pains that you’ve been through or your loved ones have been through, and jot those down as well. Let’s be honest – if it’s a pain, you’ve probably done enough research about it to know the advantages and disadvantages and certain solutions and all that.

So, let’s say, for example, you have had a kidney stone. If that’s the case, and you passed it without needing surgery, then somebody else out there is probably going to want to learn from you, right? So, you have some sort of experience in it. You felt the pain, you felt the suffering, you’ve been through and done that. So, you can relate to the people that are going through it. So, think of things that you are passionate about.

Step 2

Out of these ideas that you have written down, I want you to pick and choose the ones that you are extremely passionate about. Hold on to this and we’re actually going to discuss how to ensure that you can make sure that you can do this for the long term and that this passes the longevity test in the next post.

The post Fuel your Passion first appeared on Build Your Visibility and Authority.