Networking Insight: "Personal Branding – Establish Yourself As An Expert" by Guest Author Pat Roa-Perez

Pat Roa-Perez is a commercial mortgage specialist with JPR Funding Solutions. She focuses on the small balance commercial market. She is also a cash flow consultant and helps clients find alternate methods of business financing such as factoring and leasing.

Personal Branding – Establish Yourself As An Expert

Recently, Jason Jacobsohn, www.networkinginsight.com, was a speaker at my leads group and spoke about personal branding or becoming an expert. It reminded me that in previous articles, I had briefly touched on this topic, and I thought it was time to revisit it. (BTW, Jason is a relationship building expert and one of the “gurus” I often refer to.)

Why is it important to be known or perceived as an expert? Actually, it’s pretty simple. People want to do business with experts or specialists. They want to know that the business professional they are working with is an expert or specialist in his/her field. If you go to a mechanic, you expect them to know more about cars than you do. And you wouldn’t go to a divorce attorney if you needed help with a patent dispute. People want experts to help them solve their problems. Experts give us confidence.

So, how do you become an expert? You learn. Pick a subject you like in your field or industry or something that interests you, and then learn as much as you can about it. Let me share with you a simple method I use to expand my knowledge in a particular subject. I call it my PLWT method.

First, pick a topic about your field or something you feel passionate about. For example, I’m in commercial finance so I’m always learning about my industry. But, in addition to my industry, marketing is another subject that’s important to me so I spend time learning about it too. Next, set out to learn as much as you can about your subject. Nowadays there are so many resources available to learn just about anything (books, articles, and internet). Then, write about your topic. Write an article and share it with others. (Or do like I did in the beginning of my business career. I’d pretend I was writing a school “term paper.” It worked for me!) And finally, teach it to others. I believe teaching is the best way to retain the knowledge gained and establish oneself as an expert.

I use this simple method all the time with great results. For example, when I had just started my business a few years ago, I knew little about networking. So, I set out to learn as much as possible about the subject. I read anything I could get my hands on. I observed the “experts” and learned from them. I attended workshops and seminars. Then, I wrote articles about the subject and eventually taught it to others.

If you’re an expert already – great! But if you feel like you’re not quite there yet, this simple formula will get you going. Remember, pick a topic, learn, write an article, and teach it to others. In no time you’ll establish yourself as an expert!

To read articles from other guest bloggers, visit my Guest Bloggers Archive.