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Establish Credibility + Authority When You’re New To An Industry

Are you looking to establish your expertise in a new industry?

Do you struggle with clients or customers questioning your knowledge and experience?

In this week’s episode of the Maverick Mompreneur Podcast, I dive into strategies for handling objections and positioning yourself as an authority, even as a newcomer.

In this episode, I’m sharing valuable insights and practical tips on how to overcome the perception of being a novice and showcase your expertise.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• The importance of focusing on adding value and demonstrating expertise through content creation
• Embracing your status as a newbie and continuous learning process
• The power of confidence in yourself and your existing skills and experiences
• How to highlight your unique qualities, problem-solving ability, and exceptional customer service
• Leveraging the expertise of credible mentors and professionals to build credibility
• Showcasing your commitment to professional development and willingness to seek answers
• The value of honesty, authenticity, and providing exceptional service to your clients

If you’re ready to elevate your brand, establish authority, and handle objections with confidence, this episode is a must-listen.

Resources and Programs Mentioned In The Episode:

1:1 Coaching Waitlist (August 2023 Opening)

https://www.elevatedwithashley.com/waitlist

The Maverick Society Membership:

https://www.elevatedwithashley.com/maverick

Self-paced Courses To Help You Develop Your Multiple Stream Of Revenue Personal Brand:

https://www.elevatedwithashley.com/courses

Personal Brand Toolkit:

www.elevatedwithashley.com/toolkit

• • Zero to six-figure personal brand case study
  • Personal Branding 101 workbook
  • Ideal client avatar worksheet and video training
  • Brand content brain dump strategy and worksheet
  • Editable Canva templates
  • Weekly To Do Planner
  • Worksheets that go along with many of my podcast episodes (Find Your Why, etc.)
  • and more!

Episode 88 Transcript: “How To Establish Credibility + Authority When You’re An Industry Newb”

(00:13):

Welcome back to the Maverick Mompreneur Podcast. I’m your host, Ashley, and I am so glad that you’re here. Thank you for tuning in. I am currently on vacation in South Carolina. Hopefully I am sitting on the beach working on my tan. As you’re listening to this, I recorded it earlier in July. I batched about four episodes, episodes, which I’ve said before. I don’t love doing because I like talking about content and topics as they come up, as they’re in real time and on my heart and on my mind. However, I asked my Facebook group members what they would love to hear podcast episodes about, and so I had a bunch of ideas all at once that were relevant to my target audience. And so I’ve been batch recording answers to those questions. And this one was actually a question from Nicole, and she was asking about how to handle being new to an industry and customers and clients thinking that you’re not an expert or knowledgeable on the topic.

(01:16):

And I’m really excited to chat with you about this today. So let’s get right into it. Before we get started, I wanted to mention from the outset, if you are someone who is looking to add systems to your business, you are looking to create a discoverable brand to get off of the hamster wheel of relying on solely social media to generate leads. I will have two one-on-one coaching and mentorship openings beginning in August, and I have a wait list going for that. So if you’re interested in being on that wait list, you do get entered into a drawing for a free monthly coaching call and business audit from me just for being part of the wait list, as well as some other exclusive goodies that will be sent to you via email. One-on-one coaching and mentorship with me involves a private zoom call, either weekly or biweekly depending on your needs, and which package is gonna fit you best, where I can get my eyes onto your brand and business, the assets that you have, the ones you would like to create as far as a website, email, marketing, sales funnels, and really to help you gain clarity on your brand and how you can monetize it with multiple streams of income, how you can continue to grow your target audience in a way that feels aligned to you mapping out your first offer or program, either a membership coaching consultation, a passive digital product, a course creating a launch plan for this product, building out your Evergreen brand marketing framework using SEO and so much more.

(02:40):

So if any of the above sounds good, definitely head over to elevated with ashley.com/waitlist or click the link in the show notes and get yourself on there. Okay, let’s get growing. So when it comes to handling objections or heading off at the pass, customers and clients or prospective customers and clients thinking that you’re not an expert about something or you’re not knowledgeable on the topic, number one, as always, I want to say to you, you need to not worry so much about how other people are perceiving you. It is your job as someone who is new to an industry to bring the heat, to show that you do know what you’re talking about through your content, that you do have expertise in this area. So as a content creator, your job is to focus on adding that value showing and demonstrating that you do have solutions to your target audience’s problem.

(03:35):

And it could be a product or it could be your own offers or services, but if you can demonstrate that you can be a solution to someone’s problem, then you are in business. And there’s always going to be those people that are just going to poo poo on everything that you do. But those are not your ideal clients. And secondly, I feel like I’ve been talking about this point a lot, but it’s so true. Keep in mind that so much more important than what you are doing or selling is who you are being or who you are becoming. And so having that confidence in your yourself as a person in the existing skillsets, experiences, et cetera that you bring to a new industry is really key. I think back on when I was transitioning from teaching, I had taught special education for eight years, and then I went into an interview for a program coordinator position, which was a district level administrator position.

(04:32):

I went into that interview completely new. I had never had experience doing that job, but I had to go into that interview with total confidence in what I did bring to the table and in my own self. And so I think a huge part of handling objections, if you will, or heading that off at the past, is the confidence that you bring to the table that’s going to help someone to feel confident in you. People buy from people and do business with people who they know, like, and trust. They don’t necessarily look for who is the expert, who is the number one top expert. But if you can demonstrate that you do have knowledge, you do have a lot to offer, and you are a trustworthy, likable person, you can still create a business and build upon that. Now, going back to my previous example about interviewing for that position, I was hired for that position having never had any experience, but obviously there was things in my background that I brought to the table that those who were on the hiring panel decided were worthy of giving a shot.

(05:39):

And then of course, I developed my, you know, subject matter expertise I developed in the skills in that specific job. I did not have that coming into it. And so you can’t expect yourself getting into a new industry to have as much expertise as you’ll have in a year, 2, 3, 4. But there are certainly things that you can showcase to your clients, to your customers that demonstrate your competency, that demonstrate your knowledge, and frankly demonstrate your willingness to learn more and share more with them based on what you’re learning. So I’m not sure what specific niche Nicole is in, but this is true across the board. So again, super essential to embrace your status as a newbie to the industry. It’s okay. It doesn’t mean that you lack value or that you lack expertise. In fact, you bringing a fresh take and your unique insights can be amazing that can bring new life, bring new creativity to your industry.

(06:34):

But just recognize that your journey as an entrepreneur, especially if you take a pivot and you’re in a new niche, it’s always gonna be a continuous learning process. And so being transparent, open and honest with where you are at, no aking it until you make it, and just showing how much you value growth can actually build trust with your audience. It can build that trust with your prospective clients and customers are those who do purchase from you. Okay, so let me give you some practical tips as always on how you can position yourself as someone who is a great resource, who is a dedicated learner, who can be trusted to do business with. So we always wanna be honest about our experience. So again, when I started in online business coaching, I didn’t say, oh, I’m the number one online business coach. What I highlighted were the assets and the experience that I brought to the table.

(07:27):

So my unique selling points, things like being a 13 year educator, not an online business, but I highlighted the things that made me a credible resource before I had built the success that I now have. And so now I can talk about those things, but you want to be honest about your experience. You wanna emphasize your willingness to go above and beyond to get the answers that they want, even if you don’t yet know them. And that kind of authenticity is really gonna build a strong foundation of trust with your customers. And they’re going to those who are for you and you’re meant to work with. They’re going to understand that and they’re going to respect and appreciate that and love to take this journey with you doing business with you all along the way. And if someone is a total hater and they feel like you are just not the, you know, primo resource in your niche, then they can go elsewhere.

(08:21):

But honestly, people buy from people who they like. And so you have to keep that in mind. You don’t have to be the number one authority in your space, but people do have to like and trust you. Okay, so I’m gonna expand a little bit on the example that I gave about when I started as an online business coach focusing on your unique value proposition. So instead of just leaning on your niche experience, your industry experience, you need to highlight the qualities and the skills that you bring to the table. Things like your ability to solve problems, your creativity, your dedication to going way above and beyond with customer service, your that Nordstrom level of customer service versus Walmart customer service or however you want to think of it. And so by honing in and really highlighting those aspects to your clients and to your customers, you can show that expertise, quote unquote, can go beyond just years of service in the industry that you’re in.

(09:23):

So make a list of all those unique qualities and skills you bring to the table and make sure that those are in your marketing and in your messaging to your clients and your customers. The other thing that you can do if you’re new in an industry, so say you are getting into coaching, aligning yourself with mentors and contacts who do have authority lends to your actual credibility. So if you’re aligned with credible people and professionals, you can not only leverage their experience and their knowledge and their insight, but you can take that and you can share that with your customers. So if you are being poured into, whether that’s through books that you’re reading to develop professionally, whether that’s through hiring a mentor, whether that’s being in a membership or a mastermind, you can leverage those things and share those with your audience. And that’s going to be huge.

(10:12):

That’s going to elevate and escalate your efforts to establish that authority to demonstrate expertise and knowledge and all those things that it is your job to do, but you don’t necessarily have that out the gate. And related to that, any type of professional development that you do, whether that’s reading books or going to seminars, or you have a mentor or a coach, or you’re going through a program showing your audience that you are committed to being this knowledgeable resource and investing in yourselves so that you can elevate your service to them, that’s huge. So definitely highlight that in your marketing, in your content. And remember, it’s okay if you don’t know something. It’s okay if you don’t know a lot of things and just say, Hey, I am not sure, but I will find out and I will get back to you as fast as humanly possible.

(11:04):

That kind of honesty and authenticity should be valued by the types of customers and clients that you actually want to work with. You’re gonna make an impression on them by your willingness to actually serve them and seek out answers and provide value to them even when it’s not something that you immediately know. And then that’s how you are going to know that for the future. So I just finished, uh, wrapping up a project with a local business, not local to me, but a local to them business who wanted my services and helping them to develop a website that would drive traffic to their store. And so I used my skillset in SEO, in search engine optimization to help optimize their website. But did I have total expertise in local seo? No, but I told them up front, I’m going to learn how to tweak what it is that I know and we are going to do this dang thing.

(12:00):

So I bought courses, I read books, and lo and behold, that website, within two weeks of launching for, I think we had 12 different service areas. It is on Google Page one for all service areas. So if anyone is in those cities and types in this type of business in their city, it pops up on the first page, and most of them it’s with, it’s either post one, post two, post three or four, and that is bomb. So I say that not to brag, but I say that because this client hired me based on who I am as a leader, based on the way that I teach, the way that I interact, not necessarily because I am the number one local s e o guru. However, because I was given that opportunity and because I was so willing to go above and beyond, now that opens up more opportunities and it increases my skillset.

(12:53):

So I just always want you to remember that you don’t have to handle objections or manage people’s perceptions of your expertise when you’re new to an industry. It’s up to you to keep going, keep growing, and demonstrate the skill sets that you bring to the table while also highlighting that you are standing out as a learner for life. You are willing to go above and beyond for your clients and customers, and those are really going to be the things that create that customer loyalty over you being the expert, unless you want a bunch of like very high uh, maintenance clients and customers, I guess. All right. I think that about wraps up that question. I hope that was helpful. Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Maverick Mod Printer podcast. As always, if you have questions or topics that you would love to hear in future episodes, aka getting a little bit of free coaching, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram at Ashley r Latimer or in our Facebook community Elevate Academy.

(13:49):

All of the above is linked in the show notes. And until next time, keep embracing that growth and cheers to your impact. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. My goal is to help as many women in business online as possible to build strong, powerful, aligned and profitable personal brands. The best way to show you appreciate this content is to screenshot and share on your social media or share with your team. Actually even better would be to also leave a review for the podcast on whichever platform you’re listening on. If you are looking for any additional support, you can always reach me via email at hello elevated with ashley.com. You can DM me on Instagram at Ashley r Latimer, or join us in the Free Elevate Academy for brand building maverick marketers and mompreneurs Facebook community. Can’t wait to chat with you next week.