Four Simple Steps On How To Become An Expert

I heard a cool thing listening to a GetAltitude interview of Brendon Burchard by my business partner Eben Pagan in my car this week– Brendon mentioned four things an expert needs to do to be successful.

I love frameworks so I’ve listed the four items that Brendon mentioned below along with my take on each.

Listing just the framework felt dull so I decided to give an example of each step using the topic of “Social Media? (since Social Media “Experts” are high in demand these days).

Enjoy!

Four Steps On How To Become An Expert:

1) Tell People What to Pay Attention To

An expert needs to break down the abundance of information available to most people into just a handful of key bullets.

For example, if you’re an expert social media, you might suggest to your listener that the four social media tools to focus on are:

• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter
• Your blog

2) Tell People What Things Mean

You need to tell customers what things mean and why they are important.

Continuing on the Social Media example, you would tell your audience that social media is critical to their business because it can generate half of their Web site traffic.

And this traffic can be unpaid (i.e. you don’t have to pay direct advertising costs to do it).

3) Tell People How Things Work

Experts should focus on how different pieces of something work…as well as how they all work together as a whole.

For example, you might tell your customer that the different Social Media platforms work in the following ways:

• Facebook helps your business by allowing you to offer product launch information and discounts to your Facebook “Fans.”
• Twitter is most useful in terms of listening to what users are saying about your brand and having a conversation with them when appropriate
• YouTube can help grow your business through a channel you create with Web video commercials
• Blogs are most useful for your business as a content delivery platform through which your team shares medium-length content about the direction you see your business and industry heading.
• Overall: All four of the above can work in concert with your blog acting as your centerpiece promoting your Facebook Fan page, Twitter address and URL for your YouTube videos.

4) Show People The Future

A good expert shows their audience the future.

E.g: You can tell your audience that you predict that their Web site will have the following as the top five traffic sources by the end of 2010 if they follow your advice:

1. Facebook
2. Google (the current #1 traffic generator for most Web sites)
3. Twitter
4. Blog
5. Facebook

If you work on these four things, there’s no doubt you’ll improve your reputation as an expert in your field.

Thanks for the idea, Brendon!

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Facebook's Revenues & Highlights From Wall Street Journal Profile

It’s amazing how much momentum Facebook is generating these days. The press is certainly going wild.

Earlier this week, InsideFacebook shared some revenue estimates.

Based on their estimates, as well as one mentioned in the Wall Street Journal today and past ones from Starup Review and Don Dodge, here’s a very rough estimate of Facebook’s revenues since its founding in 2005:

Facebook Revenues for 2005 to 2010 (Estimated & Projected)

Today’s Wall Street Journal cover story had these highlights about Facebook:

CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Management Style

• He is short on praise and believes that getting the product right should be its own reward
• He is clear and purposeful on vision: believing that Facebook’s promise has to do with facilitating people’s ability to share almost any and everything with anyone at any time via Web sites, mobile phones and even videogames
• He is a micromanager
• In Facebook’s earlier years, Zuckerberg ended meetings by pumping his fist in the air and leading employees in a chant of “domination.”
• Zuckerberg believes he has a special capacity for delaying gratification (and that will be helpful in holding out on an IPO)
• Good listener: He’s met with Intel CEO Paul Otellini and Oracle President Charles Philips and keeps a long list of advice on his Blackberry
• Zuckerberg controls votes for three of the five board seats

Facebook passed up on two acquisition offers:

• Yahoo’s $1 billion offer in 2006 and
• Microsoft’s offer of $8 billion or more sometime later

Facebook Financials and an IPO

• Facebook’s revenue could hit $1.2 billion to $2 billion this year (2010)
• It has been cash-flow positive (enough to pay its 1,200 employees and overhead) since 2009
• Timing of an IPO: Board member Jim Breyer told a German audience last month that an IPO would not happen in 2010

Zuckerberg is clearly in control of the business

• Zuckerberg owns more than a quarter of Facebook’s stock
• Zuckerberg has control over 3 of the 5 board seats

I expect Facebook’s press to escalate further leading up to a likely IPO this year or in 2011; in what would likely be the largest Internet IPO since Google.

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