It was about 2007 and I had been a member of a high end mastermind coaching program for about a year when I finally decided that I just might then be able to have a little bit of information to be able to give back to the community. Back in those days, we did not have Facebook groups to post questions and get interactions. We had online forums. (Those of you who have been around for a while, you know what a forum is.)
People would post questions in the forums and others would answer those questions. I would be reading all of those answers that people would be giving and I’d go, “Well, I knew that. I could have answered that. I could have given that advice. That advice is wrong.”
Even though I already had huge success building my own e-commerce business from scratch with just the help from a course… even though I had been a member of the community for a year, attending four live events… I still felt kind of intimidated. I felt that I wasn’t able to contribute and give back.
After about a year, the membership program had another launch with new people coming in. I began to think that I could probably help these new people. I could probably answer a few of the new people’s questions. I knew that while I’m definitely not where these gurus are, I could definitely help the new people.
So, I began to contribute to the community. No one asked me to. I wasn’t a paid moderator or on the faculty. I began to contribute by answering questions. As I began to participate, people began to interact with me. I began to build credibility and authority. Then, people actually began to ask me specific questions. After a while, the people in charge of the membership group asked if I would teach a webinar about the things that I was doing in my business.
That was when things really began to change for me. I started to put together this material to simply give back to the community, wanting to help other people. I basically taught everything that I was doing. I didn’t hold back anything, not even secrets for myself. I didn’t try to sell a program. I just put together simple information explaining from A to Z how they could do what I had done in their own business.
Then a funny thing happened. Once I shared this information, my phone started to ring and there would be someone on the other end of the line asking, “Is this Nicole? Are you really Nicole? I just called your business number and you’re answering! I was just watching your webinar and everything that you were teaching is so valuable. But it’s just way too much work and I don’t want to do all that work. Can I just hire you to do that for me?” I was like, “Absolutely!”
One of the other things they taught us in the high end coaching program is that you shouldn’t leave money on the table. I don’t believe that today but back then the thought was, whatever opportunities you have, you should take them. Don’t leave money on the table! Take up these opportunities and say, “Yes.” You’ll get the sale and you’ll figure out how to do it later.
So, that’s what I did. I said, “Absolutely! We’ll help you do that!” Really, however, I had no way of knowing how I was going to do it all on my own. But, that’s what I decided to do. We went forward and that’s basically how Start Ranking Now launched. It started with me first giving back to the community.
And that’s my challenge for you today. You may think that you don’t have enough knowledge or that you don’t have enough information to teach the way the gurus teach or to teach a course, but you’re at least one step further than the person right behind you. Look for those people.
You can help those people and bring them along so that you not only help them but, in turn, you will be viewed as the expert you are. This is how you grow your business.