The Difference between Content Expertise and Core Expertise

You have two kinds of expertise.

First, there’s your Content Expertise:

It’s topical. It’s a field of study. It comes from your head. It comes from what you KNOW.

And, you deepen your Content Expertise through learning, reading, writing and teaching.

Second, there’s your Core Expertise:

It’s a practice. It’s a way of being. It comes from your heart and soul. It comes from who you ARE.

And, you deepen your Core Expertise through being, living and practicing.

I’ll use my nametag – the symbol of my expertise – as an example…

The nametag is about approachability in its CONTENT – because that’s what I’ve learned and researched and experienced from wearing it 24-7.

But at its CORE, the nametag is about something bigger. I didn’t start to realize this until about five years into it, when it occurred to me that it’s not about the nametag.

It’s about discipline.
It’s about consistency.
It’s about unquestionable commitment.
It’s about sticking yourself out there.

It’s about sharing your truth with the world.
It’s about being yourself and honoring your truth.
It’s about asking questions most people don’t ask.

It’s about creativity and fun and childlike enthusiasm.
It’s about not asking HOW or WHY, but learning to just go.
It’s about getting out of your comfort zone on a daily basis.

It’s about becoming an expert at learning from your experiences.
It’s about excavating your passion and uncovering your uniqueness.
It’s about the difference between being having ideas and executing ideas.

It’s about leading with your person and not your profession or job title or label.
It’s about holding yourself personally accountable by painting yourself into a good corner.
It’s about choosing to make a name for yourself – to label yourself FIRST – before other people get a chance to.

It’s about the entrepreneurial leveraging of a simple idea into a saleable product, a adventurous career and a worldwide movement.

It’s about creating an product or idea that people can stumble upon, obsess over, fall in love with, become addicted to and tell their friends about.

It’s about being an advocate for comfort, diffusing defensiveness and reducing the threat in a fear-driven, fast paced, untrustworthy, unfriendly society.

That’s what the nametag is REALLY about.

Approachability? Sure. That’s huge. That’s the content.

At the CORE, however, there’s something deeper, stronger and more enduring.

What about you? What’s it about for you? What’s it NOT about for you?

I challenge you to think about the two dimensions of your expertise – your Content AND your Core.

Both what you know AND who you are.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How does your Content Expertise differ from your Core Expertise?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “31 Questions to Turn Your Expertise into Money,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you a list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
[email protected]

Who’s quoting YOU?

Check out Scott’s Online Quotation Database for a bite-sized education on success!

www.stuffscottsaid.com.

15 random thoughts and the people who inspired me think them

This week I’m back in good ol’ Cincinnati, working with my friends over at The Hyatt Regency.

It’s always good to be back. Reminds me of college. Things like Skyline and WEBN bring back fond memories. Sigh…

Anyway, today I wanted to try something a little different: a bunch of random thoughts PLUS the “thought inspiration” behind each one.

Just in case you were wondering where I come up with all this stuff.

Enjoy!

– – –

1. Always think on paper. (Inspired by reading a lot of Mihaly.)

2. Art comes through you, not from you. (Inspired by eating lunch with Bill Jenkins.)

3. Customers become comfortable when YOU are comfortable. (No idea where this one came from.)

4. Do everything creatively. (More Mihaly.)

5. Do experiments everywhere. (Sparks of Genius – really neat book.)

6. Everything communicates something. (It’s fun to look around at the world and ask yourself, “Now, what is THAT communicating?”)

7. Foster customer activity. (From reading Chip’s stuff.)

8. Help people get beyond their misconceptions. (Yep, more Chip.)

9. Let experiences change you. (No idea where I heard this one.)

10. Other people who do what you do have already miseducated your customers. (Doesn’t that suck?)

11. Premature organization stifles creative generation. (Ah, the wonderful world of Distributive Cognition!)

12. Recognize threats to your ownership. (Really fantastic book called Ordering Your Private World – all leaders MUST read this.)

13. The goal is to get them to learn it on their own. (Teaching really DOES sell.)

14. The listener controls. (Man, that’s really a neat thought. Thanks Mark!)

15. There’s never a perfect time. (Because, obviously, SFKA.)

OK, that’s it! See ya tomorrow.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What (or whom) inspires your thinking?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
Share five random thoughts, and how you were inspired to think them.

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
[email protected]

…only 13 more days until NametagTV.com goes ON AIR!

If you don’t quote yourself, nobody else will

So, you’re pretty smart.

And you’ve said some pretty smart things.

But you didn’t write them down, did you?

Which means you don’t (regularly) quote yourself, do you?

BIG mistake.

LESSON LEARNED: If want other people to quote YOU, you need to quote yourself first.

Because if you don’t quote yourself, nobody else will.

Don’t worry. It doesn’t make you an egomaniac.

It just means that, as a creative professional, as a thought leader, you’re taking ownership of (and protecting) your intellectual property.

Here are a few steps you can take to start quoting yourself today!

1. Pay attention. Sometimes you might say something smart and think, “Damn, that was pretty good!” Or a friend of yours might ask, “Hey, can I quote you on that?” When things like this happen, you MUST recognize them as cues to your brilliance. Because you ARE brilliant.

2. Write it down. The next step is to capture your thoughts. Remember, if you don’t write it down, it never happened! So, the moment you say something brilliant, grab your jotter, a piece of paper, a napkin or your laptop and WRITE IT DOWN. This is the most important step.

3. Verify it. Before you go taking credit for your (supposedly) original thought, be sure to validate it. Start by asking yourself three questions:

a. Is this thought (really) mine?
b. Has this thought passed through the test of my personal experience?
c. How can I discover whether or not this is my own thinking?

If yes, the next step is to google the full, exact phrase in quotations. You need to make sure someone hasn’t already said it, wrote it, claimed it or wrote a book with the title of it. This will help you avoid plagiarism and maintain your originality.

(NOTE: yes, I know, there’s nothing new under the sun. Whatever brilliant thought you’ve had, somebody has probably said it – or something like it – before. But that doesn’t mean they wrote it down. And if it doesn’t exist on google, it doesn’t exist! REMEMBER: Writers keepers, losers weepers.)

4. Store it. Keep a file on your computer or a folder on your desk called, “Smart Things I’ve Said” or “My Quotations” or “Dave’s One-Liners.” Update it regularly with your new quotations.

5. Share it. Now comes the fun part – physically quoting yourself! Here are a few suggestions:

*Create a special report, ebook, whitepaper blog post or video cliff notes that includes all of your quotations. Give it away for free to EVERYBODY. Especially customers, prospects and colleagues.

*Print a few thousand “philosophy cards” that include your ten best quotes. Hand them out to EVERYBODY. For more information on how to create a philosophy card, check this out.

*In your writings, don’t hesitate to quote yourself. Use ownership phrases like, “Like I always say,” “My philosophy is,” and “I like to tell my readers/audience members.”

*In your blog posts, create customized, trademarked images of your quotations that credit your name and URL. This will make it VERY easy for other to quote you. P.S., Take a look at the top of this blog post to see what I mean 😉

6. Monitor and Protect. Finally, get Google Alerts on your best, most frequently used quotations. Find out who’s talking about you, quoting you, and, possibly, who’s stealing your material. Consider buying URL’s, registering trademarks and taking other legal actions to officially protect and copyright your intellectual property. (IF someone DOES steal your material, relax and read this.)

– – –

Now, I know that initially, it might feel odd quoting yourself.

But let’s face it: Ben Franklin, William James, Shakespeare, Emerson and Mark Twain have been quoted enough. The world needs some fresh material.

It’s time for YOU to become the next great thinker.

So, just remember:

If you quote yourself, other people will quote you.

If other people quote you, your perception as an expert and a thought leader will grow.

If your perception as an expert and thought leader grows, you will become more attractive, more approachable and more desirable.

And THAT will galvanize more customers, more opportunities and more business.

REMEMBER: ideas are your major source of income.

If you don’t quote yourself, nobody else will.

And you can quote me on that.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What do you “always say”?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
Share your best personal quotation here!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
[email protected]

…only 19 more days until NametagTV.com goes ON AIR!

Subscribe

Tag: thought leader

The Difference between Content Expertise and Core Expertise

15 random thoughts and the people who inspired me think them

If you don’t quote yourself, nobody else will