How To Be A Leader In Your Industry

OK, I think we're good. Yeah, we're live. OK, great. So welcome, welcome. It's Wednesday. And despite it being holiday season, we're still barreling ahead. Every Wednesday at 3:00 PM Eastern, I do a free live training and Q&A session. So glad that you're all here to join me today to talk about being seen as a leader. And Susan, to your point before we started the livestream, you said, how do we be seen as a leader if we don't feel like we're a leader? And that's exactly what we're going to broach today. I don't always feel like a leader, but I try my best. So I'm going to give you some strategies today, I think, that will help you, some tools, some thoughts about how you can go about doing that. A little bit of housekeeping before we start. It is December 30th, after all. The January Go Live Challenge is open for registration. Anne, I know you're going to join. Susan's going to be in it as well. I think some of you— I can't see everybody on the screen right now because I'm in a specific view. Some of you are joining us for the January Challenge. What it is is 30 days of live streaming for 1 minute a day consecutively for 30 days. We provide you with prompts to do that, so you're never stuck with what to talk about. They're literally fill-in-the-blank prompts. You can use them or go with your own topics, but we provide them to you. We've just upped the number. From 30 to 180 prompts, and you'll get the entire list. That's 6 months worth of prompts. So if you're interested, you know, DM me, send me a note in the chat, get in, get in touch with me. You can even email our community email, community@sherylplouffe.com, and we'll hook you up. Okay, so it's starting in 2 days from now, and you have time to register. Another thing that I wanted to mention, we are live right now here on Zoom, and you are all part of the interactive training we've been doing since the mid-part of 2020. You're watching on YouTube, if you're watching on LinkedIn Live, welcome. If you're watching on Facebook right now, the way that I'm able to take this broadcast and put it out to all of those platforms at the same time is through Restream, restream.io. So if you want to try Restream, and here's the great thing about it, I sent an email the other day, they have a 30% off lifetime deal going on right now. I think it ends It's either today or tomorrow. So if this idea of doing a live video and streaming it out to all— you can do it up to 30 platforms at the same time— is of interest to you, I'll put in the chat the link. It's, it's going to be here. It's going to be restream.io. Re-stream.com/join/cioc, CIOC for Cash In On Camera. Okay, so that's the link that you can go to, and how you, you, you just get a free account. So you start with a free account, and then if you want to take advantage of this Christmas 30% off lifetime deal, um, then do so, right? So it's just a great opportunity right now to get in with Restream at a discounted rate if that's of interest to you. OK, so today we're talking about how to be seen as a leader. Type your questions for me in the chat about this. I'd love to know what is it that you really would love answered here in the next 25 minutes of our time together. What is the pressing question for you that if I could answer that today, this would have been a good use of your time? OK, so I just really want this to be a conversation around what— how to be seen as a leader, but also the Q&A portion of this. I believe is one of the most valuable parts of our time together, is just getting some free coaching, some free training, some free ideas on how you can be seen as a leader. So let's start with that. Why? Why bother? Why should we be seen as leaders? Because when you're seen as a leader, people gravitate toward you. You become a magnet when you're seen as a leader. And by leader, I mean authority. Expert. Name your, name your noun, right? An authority, a leader, an expert, and really a resource in your industry. So I really want you to put on your thinking cap right now and think about, are you being seen as a leader right now in your industry? Do you think you are? If the answer to that question is yes, then yay, keep course, keep going, keep doing what you're doing. If it's working for you, then that's awesome. You want to continue to do the things that are working and stop doing the things that are not. If the answer to the question of am I being seen as a leader right now in my industry, and if you're being honest with yourself and the answer is no, then these are some ideas for you to help you to start being seen as a leader. Okay, so thing number 1 is to— well, one, this is more of a tool, uh, it's called Google Alerts. I know if you've ever heard of Google Alerts, but if you just go to Google Alerts, you can set up an alert. I have mine set up. Let me just see if I've got mine up here. I can even show you here. Let me share my screen. So Google Alerts From the standpoint of— here, I'm gonna open this up. Also, I'm hearing just a bit of noise. If you would kindly mute yourself, um, unless you have a question, that would be great. So Google Alerts, let's just see what the URL is actually here. So it's just, um, no, that's Trends. Trends is also pretty cool.

Google Alerts.

I'm just hearing some noise. If you can mute yourself, that would be great.

Oh, you want to mute?

Google. Oh, so it's just, um, I don't want to step.

Not sure who's— it's just Todd.

Okay, can I mute? Can I mute somebody?

You should be able to.

I can do it. Yeah, I can. Yeah, I think I got it. Okay, cool. Um, now I think because I'm in Canada, maybe it's, it's defaulting to google.ca/alerts. If you're in the US, then go google.com/alerts. But what you can do is you can set up and to monitor the web for interesting content in your industry. So, if you are in the, I don't know, the keto industry, like you're in health and you specifically teach people how to lose weight with ketogenesis or something, is that what it's called, ketogenesis? You might want to put an alert for anything to do with keto. So, whatever your industry is. So, for me, you can even see the alerts that I have set for myself. I have an alert for my own name. Yes, it is my ego talking. No, it's because I want to know when people are talking about me, if they are talking about me on the web. I kind of want to know about that. One, because let's say, for example, um, maybe someone picks up something I said on YouTube, and I want to know because I want to be able to contact them and say, hey, thanks so much for featuring me in your blank blank article. Maybe I don't know that they featured me in the article. So, I have an alert for my own name. I don't think that's a bad practice. Even if you're not a big influencer yet, that's okay. Um, doesn't hurt. There's no, from my understanding, no limit on this. But I do have alerts for social media video, video content marketing, and video marketing, because that's my industry. So type in the chat, what are some alerts that you think you could set for yourself using Google Alerts? And while you're doing that in the chat, Um, the reason why it's good to do that is because if you put alerts in there and art— you, you're going to get alerts from Google about articles of that nature, periodicals, articles, um, you know, videos and things like that. And it's an— it's a way to get, um, be alerted to what's going on in your industry. So really, when I talk about, like, how do you be seen as a leader, it has to do with being an industry leader and knowing what's going on in your industry, starting there. So type in the chat, what are some words that you might put in a Google Alerts? OK, so Anne says personality theory, personality dimensions, temperament. Great. That's great. So start with, you know, set up some Google Alerts. You don't have to have, you know, Ziegler coaching. Great. I have research stuff regarding encaustic techniques, other encaustic artists. And the beautiful thing about, you know, being in the industry that you're in, and the more specific it is, the better, because now you're not going to get bombarded. You know, if you put in a Google Alert of something really general like health, that's not really going to help you. It has to be narrowed down to something more specific, right? So that you can get articles and information and anything that's published, you'll get alerts for if it's running through Google, which of course the whole world runs through Google, right? So Victoria, real estate, I would be more specific than that. What kind of real estate or specifically geographically what real estate? Because I think if you just put an alert for real estate, you're going to get bombarded. You're going to get thousands of results. So it does have to be more specific than that. Coaching, life coaching for women, work-life balance Coaching, Maura, might be too broad, but life coaching for women, that kind of thing. Yeah, goal setting, habits, productivity. Yeah. Okay, good. So, this is a great start. This is a great start. Working from home, healthy aging, starting a new career. Yeah, I like that better. Yeah. Small business lending, small business healthcare, small business payment processing. Great. Okay. So, The next tip is identifying some industry experts, authorities, resource leaders in your space who you can follow. Now, not for the purpose of imitating them, not for the purpose of copying them, not at all, but from the perspective of following them to see. So, so, because if they're leaders, they're likely publishing content as well, and I think it's just a good practice to be on the, um, to understand what kind of content's being put out by people who are leaders in your industry. You know, don't copy them, but consume some of their content so that you can be up and on top of what's going on from that perspective. So type in the chat, can you think of— you don't have to come up with 5 right now, but what is— who is one person in your industry who is publishing content that you should be following, or maybe you already are following? Who is a person in your industry who you can follow or do a better job of following, who is publishing content and that you might— yeah, Michael Hyatt is great. I love Michael Hyatt. You know, so I think about my industry. I love a lot of people, but just off the top of my head, um, Amy Porterfield, Brandon Lucero, Sunny Lenarduzzi, um, Russell Brunson, you know, like there's a whole host of people, right? So Sandra, Sandra Summerhays, okay, I don't know her, but obviously your industry, that would be somebody to follow, right? Diane says Luxury Masterclass. I'm guessing that's a brand name, so that's great. So follow 5 experts in your industry. Now the, the thing to be careful of here is when you're following these people, you want to consume some of their content, but you don't want to get so heavily ensconced in their content that you're negating and not doing the work that you have to do to build your own, right? So, there's a fine balance. I think sometimes in this space, what happens is people start following other people and then obsessively do that to the point where they're not getting their own work done or not creating their own content or worse yet, comparing themselves to the point of, of paralysis. So you don't want to do that. We're doing this to just be cognizant of what's going on in our industry, understand what is happening, maybe being tipped off to some things that are going on so that you can formulate your own thoughts and ideas around that, which leads me to my next point. We have to get out there and be seen and be visible and be willing to speak about your topic, right, your thoughts, your ideas, and formulate— and this is the most important thing about being seen as a leader and takes more courage in many cases— is to, um, to speak about your, your own original thoughts and ideas. Your own original point of view, your own methodologies, developing those, developing your own systems, developing your own formulas and checklists, and sharing your point of view, and ultimately showing off your expertise through content. Because we live in the attention economy and content is the currency. So it's always through the lens of content, showing off your expertise and being of value and putting goodwill into the world through content creation. And ultimately, all of those things that I just mentioned leads to, equals to thought leadership, right? It's really challenging to be seen as a leader if you don't have your own thoughts and ideas about your industry, or some type of new way of thinking about it, or a singular point of view on something, or a twist or a spin on your industry. Because there are a lot of people— let's say there are a lot of people in your industry— you get— you can't stand out from the competition without having something that sets you apart from them. And that's going to stem from your own ideas, your own creativity, your own thought process and point of view. And that ultimately is what's most important. These things like Google Alerts and following experts in your industry can help you to, to develop those things, but at the end of the day, that's really what it is. It's, it's developing your own thoughts and ideas. I actually have, um, so I'm in the process of turning this bedroom into a little video studio, and I'm trying to organize and things, and I actually found these. So I was cleaning the other day and I had a big— what's that called? You know, like, um, we call that like a board, you know, to write on, uh, like a writing pad, but like a big one, you know, whiteboard, like not a whiteboard, but like the ones that you write on with like markers. Flip chart, that's it, Emily, thank you. So I had this big flip chart and, um, papers from like a year ago, and I I ripped all the flip chart pages off of it and I didn't want it in here because it's just not going to fit. And these are my flip chart papers. Okay, there's a ton of them here and I'm not going to show you, but like, like, look at all the stuff that I write. This is how last year I was getting my ideas out of my head, and many of the things that I sketched onto these pages on my flip chart last year were what became my ideas and point of view and formulas and methodologies that I've been teaching you in 2020, right? So it starts by getting it out of your head and putting it somewhere. Now last year I was using this handy-dandy flip chart with all kinds of colored pens and stuff, but you know, now I have— where is it? Over here, you know, now I have this thing called a Rocketbook. It's a little bit more convenient, but now I have a Rocketbook that does something similar, and, you know, you, you can take the pages and erase them, but same idea. You know, if you were to look through my Rocketbook, you see, like, this is where I'm just, I'm just jotting ideas and thoughts and ideas. See, Mora's got one too. And then, um, when I write something down and I come back to review it, I go, I don't really believe that anymore. Erase, start over. So it's an— it's always a work in progress. It isn't something like that, you know, just falls in your lap and then— and it never ebbs and flows or never becomes, you know, something else. So it's always a work in progress, but need to get those ideas out. Okay, um, yeah, okay, so let's get into some Q&A around this. Is this all making sense? Just show of hands on the screen if this is helpful for you to hear. Okay, good. So I know I'm on the right path. Okay, so let's just go back and look and let's just have a conversation about this. Okay. Um, I have email marketing. Okay, so let's see here. Michael Hyatt. And so you're going to say Galway Academy, the company I'm affiliated with. Yeah. Losing confidence in what I can provide. Okay, so let's, you know, so the thing with confidence is that it's, uh, confidence is not one of those things that just falls in your lap and then one day you go, oh, I'm confident now. It's the, it's the thing that the confidence comes from the imperfect action that you're taking day in and day out, week in and week out, and every time you put something out there that is of your own doing, your own thought leadership, your own ideas, and you get one person who is impacted by that or one person who likes it. I'll tell you something, it's nothing quite like that, right? To go, okay, okay, I helped someone. And the great thing about being a coach or consultant, which is really the majority of the people that are on a call like this, right? Coaches, consultants, small business owners, mostly you are purpose-driven and mission-driven people. We want to help people. That's why we're doing what we're doing. We're in this to help people. There's nothing more rewarding than knowing you've helped even one person through the content you create. So that's where the confidence really comes from. But you have to have the courage. And I often talk about the 3 C's, right? The courage, the commitment, and then the confidence. But you have to have the courage to put it out there knowing that there may be people who don't like it. And that's what holds a lot of people back. They're not willing to to put that methodology out there or that graphic or that visual aid with your own ideas on it because it's like, oh, what if people don't like it? That may happen, but you have to be okay with it. Not everyone is going to love everything that you put out there. Well, they're not meant to be your audience. It's okay. You have to still do it and find the courage to put it out there. There will be likely someone who is impacted positively from the content you create. Cheryl? Yes, Maura.

Can I add to that or sort of challenge it a teeny bit?

Sure.

Okay, because I hear you and I think I understand what you mean by that, but on the other hand, I also feel sometimes we get stopped because we don't think we're original enough. Yeah. That we feel that because it's an idea that's been around for a while that, you know, that's an old song, we don't need to sing it too. And so we don't think our voice matters when in fact the way you say, speak it into the world gives it meaning right away. And you will attract the people who resonate with your style. An artist is often confounded by the fact that they think, well, geez, it's just another painting. Look, so many other people are already doing that. It doesn't matter. It's your voice. It's your way. And so that's where confidence comes in is just trust that someone out there is going to like the way you say it.

Yes, that's exactly right. And to your point, you know, no one is you. And so even— let me use this example. You know, I live here in Chatham, and in Chatham, there's not just one pizzeria. There are a lot of pizzerias in Chatham. Right. And each of those— so what if the next person who wants to open a pizzeria said, oh, you know what, I can't open a pizzeria in Chatham because there's already a pizzeria and a whole bunch of them there. Yeah, but what if they have a special sauce? That nobody else in Chatham has that makes theirs unique? Or what if they have a way of doing it that is, you know, they make their dough a special way that's absolutely delicious? Wouldn't it be a travesty to think— I'm just using pizzeria as an example, but it would be a travesty to hold that back from all these people who could benefit and love this type of pizza if they just didn't put it out there because there are already pizzerias out there., right? So it is, yeah, absolutely. It's always about your own voice and putting your own spin on it and having it come through your, your being and your voice makes it unique in and of itself. So I love that. Um, so, uh, let's see, I can feel, feel like a little fish in a big ocean. Yeah, it's, um, is it just as good to promote others' ideas or art? Absolutely. You know, I don't— I think when you are first starting out you're going to feel that way because it's true. You don't know, you don't have a big audience yet, but you still have to persevere and you've still got to move on and share your ideas. And that's what being a leader is about, is doing it even when it's inconvenient. Being a leader is doing it even when you— when it seems like no one's listening. It's finding the courage to do it despite not having millions of people liking your videos yet. The people who you follow, who you love, have all gone through those painful periods. So it's imperative for you to dig deep in those times when you're first starting out and to be, you know, to grow and to commit to doing the process. Maura?

Thank you. One more point, something one of my mentors said to me, because another thing that will stop consultants is not thinking they've got enough expertise. Susan Haffner put something in here, what do you say when people, you know, challenge why they should believe you? That was a good, a good question to put in there. What I was told is it's not about your credentials, it's about who you are being in the manner of whenever you are with them. It's that art of that essence of you that comes through. That people will resonate with. They will feel you as much as they will hear you. And it's about what attention you're paying to them. And then what value you bring in the conversation, which if you allow it to simply flow through you, it will come. So there's that. It's not about what you've accomplished in this world and how many credentials you are. It's who you're being with what you do.

Yeah. And the fact is that you can, No one can tell you that your point of view is wrong because it's your point of view. It's singularly yours. No one can tell you that your story is wrong because it's your story. It's through your eyes and through your experience. So don't— so, you know, think about that. It's like if you're sharing your ideas through a story or through your own point of view, no one can— they can say it, but it's not— it shouldn't affect you because it is— they can't tell you that it's wrong. So, it's important to think that way and to have the confidence to know that, okay, this is my experience. This is how I'm seeing the world. Here's the thing though, I think over time as your audience grows, which, hey, by the way, I just wanted to say a big thank you. I just crossed 15,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel yesterday. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for sharing my content and viewing my videos. I just wanted to put that out there. But As you grow your audience or you grow your platform, you are going to find haters, just so you know. They will come out of the woodwork. It's just part of it. My view is that when that starts to happen, you have to view that as a success. That when the haters are coming out of the woodwork, that's a sign of growth because it's going to happen, just so you know. Goodwill content.

Yes.

Warriors instead of warriors. I love that. Confidence ebbs and flows. Or what if people steal other people's stuff? I'm not really sure, Carolyn. Is this COVID world people are commenting off topic and doing so in intense ways? Yeah. Something I learned recently that I can develop Delete comments. Yeah, you know, here's the thing. The world is very, um, it's, it's, um, I don't know what the sensitive right now, you know, there's a lot of sensitivities out there. Let's just look at, you know, what's going on in politics, what's going on with COVID all these different things. Um, you know, you can delete comments. Certainly I see comments sometimes on my YouTube channel or other places where I just water off a duck's back, you know, I just don't even let it bother me kind of a thing. So yeah, definitely it's one of those things. So I think that how do you be seen as a leader? Just to recap our training today, being seen as a leader means being an industry leader. It means being a thought leader in your space. The most important thing you can do in that area is to develop your own point of view and share it, develop your own content and share it, Develop your own ideas, methodologies, systems, formulas, graphics, and share it. You know, put it out there for it to be visible, for people to consume. Finding the courage to do that can sometimes be challenging, but that's what's required if you want to grow your business because it's about visibility. It's about exposure and putting it out there despite your insecurities around your thought leadership. You know, you have— that's how it works. You have to develop it and put it out there, you know. Does it have to be earth-shattering? Not necessarily. It doesn't have to be earth-shattering, but it has to be uniquely yours. And that uniqueness can be just by virtue of the fact that it's coming out of you, coming out of your mouth and to other people. If you can develop methodologies or ideas or formulas that are specifically, you know, yours, then that's awesome. Yeah. I'm just going to mute Keith there for a sec. So thoughts, questions, any final questions about this? Is this helpful for you? Okay, here's what I believe. 2021 is— was just around the corner. I love that, and I'm not like a big New Year's person necessarily, but I love the idea of starting off a new year, clean slate, fresh start. It's just something invigorating about that. So, there's not a better time than January 1st to just start on a new course, to start off in a new way and say to yourself, I'm drawing a line in the sand. 2021 is going to be the year that I'm going to step up and I want to be seen as a leader in my industry. I know I'm not creating enough content. I know I can do more. I know I can be more strategic about the content I create. And 2021 is going to be the year in which I do it. If you do it through video, that makes me even happier. But content marketing— I happen to specialize in video, which is a part of the content marketing bucket. But content marketing is truly what it is. You might decide that you want to do, you know, a podcast. You know, you might decide that, okay, I'm just going to be doing, you know, blog posts or captions on my Instagram or whatever the thing may be. My belief is video is a non-negotiable thing anymore, but I hope to be able to support you in 2021 as you embark on being seen as a leader throughout the year. And we do that through a variety of different ways. Again, community@sherylplouffe.com is where you can go to connect with our community manager and get a hold of our 6-month, our free 6-month publishing plan. We have challenges every month. That we're running. We have coaching programs. We have all kinds of different videos on my YouTube channel that are there for you. We could even send you links to specific things. So reach out. We'd love to be able to support you as you become seen as the leader that you already are. And that's the thing, you know, the thing to keep in mind is that you're already a leader by virtue of being a coach, a consultant. Like, you have something special special. What's maybe holding you back is you don't have the online presence or the content to support that, to support reaching more people and having a bigger impact, more influence, and more income with what it is that you do. The world is digital now. It is digital. It's going to remain digital. That's not going anywhere. So you have to question your strategy to digitize your ideas and your thought leadership and put it out into the world.

Cheryl, can you take a question?

Of course.

It's not quite the same thing, but it is about making yourself look professional. It's about creating a Gravatar, not an avatar, but a Gravatar. Okay. And I figured you might be able to teach how to do that. I know it ties in, it's free if you have WordPress and stuff like that. And then that Gravatar can be used on multiple platforms. Is that something you can speak to?

Yeah, I have one. I don't use it very often. In fact, I think it was last week. There was something I was updating and it asked me for my Gravatar. I have it set up. I don't use it a lot, to be honest with you.

I'm just trying to figure out how to set it up because I have a platform that they're asking me to put it in and I want to be part of that community.

I think, I think you just Google Gravatar and it will bring you to a website and then you just go through a process of setting it up. Yeah, it has to do with WordPress. And memory serves me, I did set up my Gravatar when I was using WordPress.

Yeah, I've been working on it all afternoon and I've been in WordPress. Obviously it's not something you use a lot, so I won't waste your time on it, but I spend a lot of time trying to figure it out and I was hoping you might know.

Yeah, I don't. I have one, but I rarely use it. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions? I'm looking at the names on the screen here now. Todd, Christine, Carolyn. Great to see you, Paul. Luana, Luana, I'm so happy you're doing the challenge. It's gonna be great. Brett's here. Cool. Lena, you're doing the challenge, which is great. Um, I see a few faces there. That's awesome. So awesome. Great to have you here. Um, I plan to do these trainings, Q&A trainings, Q&A, uh, every Wednesday at 3 PM. So come back. If you know someone in your network who should be here, let them know that they can get in touch with us, community@sherylplouffe.com. We'd set you up. It's free. We're going to continue to do these for free going into 2021. Yay. But we also are— Yeah, I know. I'm excited. We're going to continue to do that. And also, the 6-month publishing plan, if you don't already have that in your hands, that may be something you want to get where I lay out what a 6-month plan should look like if you want to use video marketing to grow your business. The order in which it's happening and what I suggest, the order in which I suggest that you attack it, is something that I believe is really coming out of COVID You know, it's really coming as a result of COVID and what I'm seeing in the industry. Again, this is my bid to be a leader. What I do is to say, hey, this is what I'm really seeing. If we were, if you were to do it this way, I think you'd get a lot better results. You're very welcome, Anne. Thank you so much. So remember, if you are interested to join the challenge, it's starting in 2 days from now. Send me a DM, send me a private message, comment below, community@sherylplouffe.com. By all means. Yeah, you know what, Diane, just email me at— here, I'm going to just put it in. So just email community@sherylplouffe.com and we'll hook you up. We'll just send it to you. Okay, so just email that, that address and our community manager can get it to you, no problem at all. Thanks for being here, I really appreciate it. I hope that, you know, over the course of 2021 you'll start to see some— you know, I'll start sharing what's going on with this little office and, and some of the tools. Like, I just ordered a bunch of stuff on Amazon. I've got smart plugs over here and Amazon Alexa and all these RBG lights and really cool things that I've ordered. So I'll be sharing some of that stuff with you over the coming weeks and months as well. And I really appreciate you being here. Thank you so much. Have a great rest of your day and Happy New Year. Susan, I love your hat. Gotta get a— Happy New Year. Connect with us and we'd love to have you in the challenge. Bye. Okay.