On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Mike Saunders who helps position his clients as an authority in their niche. Mike is the host of the Business Innovators Radio Show, holds an MBA and is an adjunct professor. He says if you give him 60 minutes and 60 days he’ll get your book done and you will be an Amazon bestseller!  During the show we discuss positioning yourself as an authority, why you should considering writing a book for Amazon, and how to publish and interview-style book.

   

Main Questions Asked

• What has your MBA brought you that other entrepreneurs who didn’t go to business school?
• Why is it important for entrepreneurs to position themselves as an authority?

 

Key Lessons Learned

Positioning

• This is one of the 4 P’s of marketing and how you are perceived in the mind of your target audience.
• Most people don’t proactively position themselves; however, if you create the positioning you win the battle.

 

Positioning Yourself As an Authority

• You need to systematically and rapidly positioning yourself as a celebrity to your clientele and target market.
• Get the media talking about you, this can be via local media or podcasting and doesn’t necessarily have to be national.
• Post your ‘humble brag’ on social media.
• By appearing on shows you are providing yourself with authority positioning.
• The ultimate focus is to be an educator and advocate for your prospect and clients’ success. 

 

Create your Authority Position

• Google indexes content that is reputable.
• 87% of the time a prospect will Google instead of calling.
• You don’t have to make a video to put it on YouTube you an convert an MP3 to an MP4.  It can be a YouTube video of the audio.
• The more backlinks you have the more your site will rank on Google.
• A lot of podcasters do show notes, which is where the guest link back lives on the site.
• Just because you have done one guest post or podcast interview doesn’t mean you have completed the task and can check it off the list. It has to be consistent.

 

Self-Publishing on Amazon

• Getting your content into written word offers another level of authority that podcasting, videos and blogs don’t.
• The benefits of being an author include being invited to speak at conferences events.
• Experts close three times as many deals as sales people.
• Sales people have brochures and experts have books.
• You won’t get paid for writing the book but because you wrote the book.
• Think of one problem and one solution for your target audience.
• People throw away business cards and brochures but not books as they have significant shelf life.
• Amazon allows you to self publish your own book and buy small numbers at a time. The cost of self-publishing can be $3-4 each so is affordable to hand out to potential clients.

 

Interview Style Book

• The audio from an interview is transcribed and edited to create an interview-style book.
• Mike says if you give him 60 minutes and 60 days he’ll get your book done and you will be an Amazon bestseller. 
• Once you publish the book you have to build the business behind it

 

Positioning Yourself as an Expert

• Make sure you know the FAQ as well as the ‘should ask’ questions.

 

Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!

The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic 

 

Links to Resources Mentioned

Business Innovators Radio Show

Rev

Marketing Huddle