The expert industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors right now.
And it’s not slowing down.
This is great news because that means being a coach, speaker or content creator will continue to become a ‘normal thing’ for consumers to utilize.
But here’s the bad news, if you don’t stay ahead of the curve, then you will be left behind…FAST!
I’ve been running a full-time expert business for over 11 years and made many millions in this industry.
So here is my opinion on what I think you need to be ahead of when it comes to building your expert business in 2020:
Full-Spectrum Experiences
No longer do people want an online course ONLY. If you want to be able to charge premium prices for your programs, you must give an immersive experience.
What that means is your online course will also have a community, live group coaching or even a live event.
I think this is exciting because it gives your students the opportunity to delve deeper into your methodology and truly get the results they deserve.
Think about it, most of the major influencers in this industry have all added live events to their online courses to create a more enriched and transformational experience.
When I was mainly a professional speaker, I added an online offering to my keynotes, this very quickly increased my fee with almost every engagement while not adding any extra work for me.
This is an example of a full-spectrum experience. They experience my content live as a keynote at the conference and then continued the online implementation afterward.
Another example is my Sell From Stage Academy™ which has an online course, community, group coaching, and a live event that all works towards helping you master the art of speaking and selling on stage and webinar.
Question – Have you created a full-spectrum experience yet? If not, are you ready to add that in 2020?
Premium Digital Products
Consumers’ expectations are increasing and will continue to in 2020. Because of this, I believe there will be a move towards building online products that have high production value.
Now, I’m not saying you have to spend ridiculous amounts of money on creating your course, but I do believe that your slide design, your video quality and the overall experience of your product needs to improve.
So often I speak to experts and they mention that they have an online product, but I can tell they are NOT proud of it.
I call this having “Course Rabies”. That’s where you as the course designer lack a deep enthusiasm or confidence in the quality of your online program.
When I recently created Sell From Stage Academy™, I was obsessed with the quality of the program, because I knew that if I had a deep congruence with how good it ACTUALLY was I would be able to offer it with so much more confidence.
Question – Is your online course giving you course rabies? If so, are you ready to upgrade it for 2020?
Increased Credibility Meter
With the expert industry becoming increasingly saturated, the “can I trust you” bar will increase.
Unsuccessful expert business owners in 2020 will assume that their audience trusts them. They won’t work hard to gather an immense amount of credibility touchpoints.
This will cost you dearly.
Robert Cialdini, in his recent book “Pre-suasion” talks in-depth about the power of social proof and how it is one of the most underutilized, yet most powerful persuasion strategies.
For me, when I learned this I became obsessed with gathering as many testimonials and success case studies as I could from Sell From Stage Academy™. If you had the chance to see my enrollment page (when it was open) I had testimonials from Amy Porterfield, James Wedmore, Stacy Tuschl, Sigrun, Jenn Casey, Plus about 25+ other experts who got results from my Sell From Stage Method.
Honestly, I would not have had these testimonials if I wasn’t intentional.
Don’t underestimate the power of your client’s testimonials.
Become obsessed with gathering social proof for your programs in 2020.
It will separate you from the sea of other experts, coaches, speakers and course creators.
Question – Where would you rate yourself, on a scale from 1 to 10, where you’ve gathered enough social proof, that a prospect would be convinced ‘beyond doubt’ that your methodology is credible?
Those are my future predictions for the expert industry in 2020.
I hope it was valuable.
And if you’re really serious about scaling up your expert business In 2020, I’ve started taking applications for our new Experts Inner Circle from TODAY!.
If you’re an expert who is ready to start scaling up your business, then I’d encourage you to check out the application page and apply if you feel it could be a good fit.
Here is the Experts Inner Circle Application page
I believe in you,
Colin Boyd
Creator of Sell From Stage Academy™
P.S. The Experts Inner Circle is specifically designed for coaches, speakers, and experts who love live delivery in their business but also a more scalable business model. Applications are currently open, but will be closing soon and there are only limited spots.
