From the friendly caves of Pixie Hollow

I want to tell you a story about almost every conference I've been to as an expert speaker.

Speaking at conferences is a fabulous way to build a profile in an industry.

In Australia, many conferences are small. In many industries, the audience turnout is something like 200 - 900 people.

I'm talking about specific, specialised conferences.

I've spoken at law conferences, legal practice management conferences, content conferences, human resources conferences.

And at almost all of them, there is something interesting on display.

That is: Those who get most of the speaking spots are employees.

It isn't the business owner who is building a profile and standing in front of people.

It's their employees.

Much of the time, this results in attendees not getting the business understanding of whatever is being taught. It's content by employees for employees.

Which is why, when I talk about business strategy, it tends to fall on deaf ears.

The majority of employees aren't even interested enough in their own employers to get the nuts and bolts of the mission, vision, and intention of the business. Even marketers!

But there is a lesson in this for you if you're a business owner. And a lesson for you if you're an employee!

That lesson is: Profile building doesn't require ownership.

In fact, you can often build a better profile, more easily and more effectively, if you're employed.

Why?

Chiefly: Your employer pays for you to go to major events, you get salary for going, you get paid just for focusing on your area of mastery.

More to the point, if you're in a micro services business, it's critical to understand that you created the entity. If you're good at what you do, it doesn't matter if you jump out of it and into something else, as a friend of mine (with a major industry profile, by the way) has decided to do just this week.

She spent time building her profile. Not the business's profile. Her profile.

She will carry with her the profile she's created.

Her brand actually doesn't matter. Nobody is going to remember it! It was just another consulting business.

This is one of the reasons why sales trainers will say to you that you can have all the branding in the world, but what actually matters is YOU. People buy you, contrary to what you might think.

Remember my banging the drum about your personality? Yeah.

Here's the good news about all of this:

Your enterprise can leverage every individual who serves, as part of the bigger picture of the brand. All you have to do is know how to do it.

Hands-down, the best way is to appoint a ghostwriter to leverage your rising talent.

They don't have time to build a profile.

Some may only be interested in promotion.

But you can help them to shine like the stars they are by adding profile building as one of their employment perks. The more visibility they gain, the better it reflects on your enterprise. And the more likely they'll be to hang around.

Worth considering, in a tough market where great talent is being headhunted.

A simple, and central, way to kick start such a thing is with a case study for each one individual.

It'll help them to sell, it'll help showcase your amazing talent, and it'll increase your revenue.

More:
https://brutalpixie.com/case-studies

~ Leticia Mooney