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Patrick Schwerdtfeger is a motivational speaker who can speak about self-employment and how to build an ‘expert’ reputation at your next business event. Contact us to check availability. The full transcript of the above video is included below.
 

 

Full Video Transcript:

 
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Strategic Business Insights. Today we’re going to talk about becoming a recognized expert in your field, building credibility online.

Now, I want you to consider two different situations. In the first situation, you’re curious about a particular keyword phrase. You go to Google and you search for that keyword phrase. You click search. You see the listing of all the results. One of them appears to have the answer you’re looking for. You click on it. You end up on a blog, and sure enough it has the answer that you’re looking for. But this blog only has two posts on it. Now, you have found the answer you were looking for, but the blog only has two posts.

Now, same situation – keyword phrase, go to Google. You press search. You see the listing. You see one that appears to have the answer you’re looking for. You click on it. You end up on a blog. Sure enough, it has the answer you were looking for. So far everything’s the same, but this blog has 200 posts on it.

So the only difference is—in both cases you got the answer you were looking for. You got the answer you were looking for. In the first case, it had two posts. In the second case, it had 200 posts. How are those two situations different? How does a website visitor… What’s the difference in how they respond to those two situations?

People study this kind of stuff, and it’s fascinating. I’ve been through this three different times. Over here they found what they’re looking for, but subconsciously they make no notice of who you are, of who this blog is. Let’s assume it’s your blog. They don’t even notice. They got the answer, they’re like, “Perfect!” they hit the back button, they’re gone.

Over here it’s totally different. Over here, people make notice of the answer and they’re like, “Wow, I found a resource.” This is very important. “I found a resource. Holy smokes! How did I not know this existed before? Look at this person.” Let’s say it’s a she. “Holy smokes! This is a resource. She’s got blog posts. She’s got YouTube videos. She’s got maybe a podcast. She’s got links to her social media platforms.” So this one’s really built out.

Totally different reaction. The visitors that come here immediately realize that they have found a resource. And what do they end up doing from there? They start looking around, saying, “Gosh, what else does this person provided? Is there somewhere where I can subscribe? Is there some way I can follow this person?”

And so if you have a hundred people who get to this blog post, maybe one, or not even one, will engage and find a way to connect with that person, that blogger. Let’s say it’s you. But in this case, maybe five, six, seven, maybe 10 or even 20. I don’t know what the number is. It’s going to depend on the topic. It’s going to depend on how engaging the writing style is. There are a lot of factors that contribute to this. But the bottom line is that when it’s built out like that, you get a much higher percentage of people saying, “Wow, this is a resource. I want to stay connected. How can I stay connected with this person?”

So where’s the tipping point? And again, this is going to vary by topic. It’s going to vary by person and writing style and so on. But in my experience, it’s usually taken about six months of consistently delivering good-quality content. About six months and you start seeing traction. That’s the beginning. I’m not saying that’s the end. That’s when it starts.

Some people are like, “I’m going to blog five times a week,” and they burn themselves out in three months and they’re tired, they hate it. They’re like, “It didn’t work because I didn’t start seeing traction.” Do one blog post a week or two blog posts a week or videos or whatever it is you’re doing, and do it for six months and you’re going to start to see that traction.

I’m doing this again with this video series called Strategic Business Insights. I’m delivering consistent value, and I’ve told myself at a minimum I’m going to do this for six months to see if the traction comes again. Because it came the first time when I did podcasts, it came when I built my Twitter profile, it came when I built my blog, and now I’m doing it again with YouTube. So this is something I’ve done many times, or at least this is the fourth time around, and every time the traction starts around six months. Now, after a year, two years, now you’re really going to start to see a difference in the number of people who are engaging with you.

So I want you—this is very important, by the way—to understand that every 200-post blog started as a two-post blog. You can’t skip this step, guys. You have to go through this. Even the most popular blogs, people don’t realize. They’re like, “Oh, they had success from day one.” That is not true. They built it. They went through this stage. Everyone goes through this stage online. Everyone does. You don’t get to over here without going through this first.

I want you to consider a brick building. Say it’s five stories tall. It’s made out of brick. That building was built one brick at a time. It was built one brick at a time. And think about, what’s three bricks on the side of the road? It’s nothing. It’s garbage. Nobody even notices it. What’s a hundred bricks? A hundred bricks is a half-built wall. There’s no functionality. It’s basically garbage too. No one even notices it.

But what happens when you keep stacking them and you keep stacking them and you keep stacking them, and you build and you build and you build more and more bricks? After a while it starts taking shape, and before you know it you have an actual building that does functionality. It’s a building. It has structure. Everything starts to make sense. But that building started as just one brick, and then a second, and then a third.

Blogging is the same way. It’s like building a brick building. Just keep stacking them. Don’t stop. Understand that every blog post adds just a little bit more, until you start getting to a point where people land on your blog or your video blog or your podcast or whatever it is you’re building, and they land on it and they say, “Wow, I found a resource.” That’s where the tipping point is, is when more people start saying that. And when you build it beyond that point, it just increases the percentage to higher and higher percentages of people who land on your content and think to themselves, “Wow, I found a resource.” And they start engaging.

And that’s when you start getting phone calls where people—or emails or whatever—contact you and they’re not contacting anybody else. All they want to know is can you do it and what do you charge. What a great feeling that is. It does come. I’ve been through this a few times myself.

So keep doing it. Keep stacking those bricks one step at a time and you will get to critical mass, and once you do, you’re going to become a recognized expert in your field. You will get the credibility that comes with massive content and consistent good-quality massive content. Keep doing it. It’s a good journey. It’s worth it when you get to the end. Believe me, it is. It’s a lot of fun.

This is Patrick thanking you very much once again for watching this video, and reminding you, as always, to think bigger about your business, think bigger about your life.
 


 
Patrick Schwerdtfeger is a keynote speaker who has spoken at business conferences in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.