Owning Your Expertise with David Newman – Ep. 46

Mostafa Hosseini  0:02 

And we’re live Welcome to daily confidence for entrepreneurs. My name is Mostafa Hosseini, and I’m your host for the show at daily confidence. We share tips, strategies and actionable advice that you can use to boost your confidence on a daily basis when it comes to running your business. And today, I have an amazing guest and an amazing topic, David Newman, and we’re going to talk about owning your expertise, which is a very important topic, and we’re going to dive into it.

And so one way that we actually help our audience to boost their confidence when it comes to running their business is by helping them create and implement their Simple marketing plan in three days or less through our bootcamp called simple marketing formula. And if you want to create an implement your Simple marketing plan and make your focus your energy and your intention, laser focused and create more results, join us.

I’m going to put the link here in the chat comments and in the descriptions of the show, so you can join us anyway. So I’m going to introduce my friend David, and we’re going to talk and dive into a very important topic and hopefully help you boost your confidence.

David Newman is a member of the NSA million-dollar speakers group. He’s the author, author of the business bestsellers, do it marketing and do it speaking 77 instant action ideas to market, monetize and maximize your expertise.

David is also the creator of the expert profit formula mentoring program, where he helps thought leaders market their smarts and make a bigger dent in the universe. Welcome, David.

David Newman 1:48 

Thank you, Mostafa. It’s great to be here.

Mostafa Hosseini  1:51 

Great to have you, my friend. So how’s your day going? So far?

David Newman  1:54 

It is going great. Thank you for asking. Had a great client group energized, hydrated, and ready to drop some value bombs on your peeps. Beautiful.

Mostafa Hosseini  2:05 

So David, what is your story? How did you get into what you’re doing

David Newman 2:10 

these days? Well, So believe it or not, I started out college pre med failed out of pre med. Went into theater. It’s majored in drama. I have an I have an MFA in stage directing from the City University of New York, I did professional theater directing stage managing in New York City for four years. Really tough way to make a living.

A friend of mine says to me what David, you’re you’re teaching at your graduate school, you could do that for companies. And that’s called corporate training. So I started at my 10 year corporate training career from 1992 to 2002. Went out on my own literally January 1 of 2002, as an entrepreneur had no idea what I was doing no following no clients, no, no nothing, no niche, no specialty, no literally made every mistake in the book, made the good ones twice.

And I found out how hard it is to be an entrepreneur, and how hard it is to maintain your confidence. First of all, to get some confidence and then to maintain your confidence. Because here’s the other surprise that I learned Mostafa prospects and customers and clients, they don’t buy from people who are not confident. So if you don’t know what you’re doing, if you don’t believe in what you’re doing, if you are not the best possible messenger for your company’s message, no one’s gonna believe in you more than you do.

So the first things I had to work on is my self confidence, my self esteem, my self worth, and we can dig into all of that.

Mostafa Hosseini  3:47 

Yeah. So I’m with you, 100% If you don’t believe you’re in yourself, and if you’re not confident in yourself and what you what you sell, why should I believe in you and what you sell, right? So we’re gonna get we’re gonna get into that. Now. What do you do with these days? And who do you serve?

David Newman 4:07 

So these days fast forward to today, I run a company called duet marketing, and it’s a mentoring and coaching company. And we work with thought leading executives and entrepreneurs, so people who are consultants and coaches and speakers and even corporate executives who are looking to make the leap to become a consultant or a coach or a speaker or some sort of solo professional marketing, their smarts, and we help them with everything around messaging, packaging, positioning, vetting and validating their ideas, helping them with a sales training program.

We have a course building program, we have programs on speaking and coaching and consulting. So it’s really the entire portfolio of thought leadership strategies to help them build a thought leadership business.

Mostafa Hosseini  4:57 

Love it. Love it for those of you who are joining later, my guest, Debbie Newman and I are talking about owning your expertise. So if you have any questions about how to own your expertise or about the stuff that we’re talking about, feel free to pop it in the chat box, as a comment below, if you have or know a friend who could benefit from this conversation, tag them on any social media platform that you’re watching, and we’re going to be doing a draw. So the more you comment and ask questions and stay engaged, the more you are likely to win something. So let’s dive into a David, what keeps people from owning their expertise?

David Newman 5:37 

Well, it’s a lot. It’s a lot. So partially, it’s it’s the things that hold every entrepreneur back in any kind of business. I think there’s a level of imposter syndrome. You know, who am I to claim this expertise? And I’m not that smart. I’m not that worthy. There’s lots of other people that have been doing this longer than I have. There are lots of other people that are smarter than me. There’s lots of other people that are cheaper than me.

There’s lots of other people who are more expensive than me, how am I ever going to make it? And you know, Does the world really need another marketing consultant? Does the world really need another wellness coach? Does the world really need another sales trainer? Does the world really need fill in the blank? And the answer is, yes, yes, yes. And yes, the world needs you. And here’s why. The reason why the world needs you is if every entrepreneur looked out on the landscape, and said, Oh, well, there’s other people doing what I want to do.

I guess I’ll go back and work at McDonald’s. I guess I’ll go back and put on the green apron and Starbucks, sorry, that territories already been claimed, there is no territory that has already been claimed. And again, I know that Mostafa, you teach this, you preach this, you share this with your audience, in almost every episode, that we need to have the belief system, that fosters the confidence that we have something to add to the conversation.

So before you can own the conversation, before you can own your expertise, you have to you have to participate in the conversation that’s already going on. So this is about thinking, right thinking through and then following through on the kind of expertise that you want to share with the world for for pay.

Mostafa Hosseini  7:36 

Love it. Yep. And I think people usually come up with those excuses that you just talked about, to not do what is necessary. Right. And and in a lot of cases, were with the people that I’ve talked to or you know, worked with over the years, it’s a matter of self worth. You have anything to add to that on? How do you overcome that? Like, I don’t feel good about myself? I’m not I don’t feel worthy. Is there a process? Or what do you think

David Newman 8:16 

there is? My friend? I’m glad you asked that question. So I look at this as a two step process. The first is really about self esteem. So people say oh, you know, you’re having a hard time in your entrepreneurial business because you lack self esteem. Most of us actually do not lack self esteem. Self esteem is how you see yourself in terms of yourself. So think about this, like when you’re in the shower, you’re you’re soaping up, you’re singing opera, or rock or whatever, you know, you’re feeling good, you’re looking good, you’re totally fantastic. So self esteem, most of us don’t really have a problem with that. However, you step out of the shower, you dry off, you sit down in front of your computer.

And now Oh, it’s not me in terms of myself. Now, it’s me in terms of the world. Now it’s me in terms of external validation. Now, it’s terms in terms of how are other people looking at me, and my expertise and my business. And so the self worth is in the marketplace, right? But again, the worth in the marketplace starts with self worth with you.

So one of the things that I always tell people when they’re running an expert business, I say, How comfortable are you being called an expert? And they go, What do you mean, as some people shy away from that? Oh, I’m not an expert. I really don’t know more than the average person. I’m like, Well, then why should people pay you?

So we need to get and there’s a whole different conversation about the word guru or Ninja or thought leader. Don’t worry about being called a guru. That’s up to other people. It’s not up to you. Don’t worry about being called a thought leader. That’s enough to other people. That’s not up to you. If you don’t have some sort of expertise, expertise simply means specialized knowledge.

 If you don’t have some sort of expertise, and you’re not comfortable with that label of expert, I’m going to challenge you on to say, Well, why should people work with you? Why should people hire you? Why should people buy from your company? Right? So why go to companies like Google? Trust me, they’re experts in online advertising, they’re experts in search. When I go to companies like Apple, believe me, they’re experts in building beautiful functional electronics.

When I buy a car from Ford Motor Company, trust me, they are experts in automotive safety and performance. No one should be shying away from this label of expert, we need to embrace it, and we need to own it. And we need to put it out in the marketplace loudly, proudly and consistently.

Mostafa Hosseini  10:57 

Love it. So we need to do that. And it’s it’s something that needs to happen for any successful business owner. And I’ve you’ve touched on this already, but why do people shy away from calling themselves a thought leader or an expert?

David Newman 11:11 

I think it’s partly it sounds like it’s ego. It sounds like it’s bragging. So I don’t look at it as some honorific. I don’t look at it as Oh, well. You know, someday, Mostafa is going to be called a marketing expert. Right now. He’s just a marketing coach, marketing trainer, marketing teacher, he’s not really a marketing expert on day one.

When you claim your expertise, when you own your expertise, you have to be comfortable. You know, in our programs, we call this owning your mountain top. So what is the mountain top that you want to own? What what little circle of the universe? Do you want to call it your circle? Right? What corner of the universe? Not? What circle of the universe? What corner of the universe? Do you want to circle with a red sharpie.

And go, this is where I’m setting up shop. This is where I want to live. This is the people I want to serve. This is the problems I want to solve. This is where I want to spend the rest of my professional career. Another thing that holds us back then, is not making that decision. So there’s really three, three central things that are blockage points.

And I know Mostafa, you talked about this with a simple marketing formula. And it’s absolutely brilliant. Its clarity, its focus, and its decisions. Are you 100%, clear, crystal clear on who you want to serve, and what problems you want to solve. Have you have you focused in on that specific mountain top that you are totally comfortable owning and living there and inviting people to play with you on that specific mountaintop, and have you made the decisions.

And sometimes these are hard decisions. I know that when I started out, I was afraid of leaving money on the table. So when we when we fear making the decision to niche when we fear making the decision to declare a target market, we’re not only people say, Oh, I don’t want to do that, David, because I’m afraid of leaving money on the table, you are blowing money out the window, forget about leaving money on the table, money is leaving your business in droves.

So we need to be brave in making these decisions on we’re not brave, we don’t make the decisions. And that’s what holds us back.

Mostafa Hosseini  13:30 

Tell us about the fear of missing that someone has about going from serving or trying to serve everybody in anybody to a niche market and specify what they do for them and the problem they solve. How do you overcome that fear?

David Newman 13:48 

So this is of course FOMO, right? Fear Of Missing Out. And what typically you see from a marketing standpoint, is you see people hedging their bets. They’re trying to cover all the bases. You know, I tell a story in my do it marketing book, and it was about a catering company that’s here in my neighborhood in suburban Philadelphia, and on the side of the catering company truck, it says specializing in corporate and private catering.

Now think about that specializing in private and corporate catering. What else is there? That’s everything. It’s not corporate catering, it’s private catering, it’s not private catering, it’s corporate catering. And in my book, I say okay, let’s say that you’re a proud father, and you’re about to pay for your daughter or your son’s wedding. And you’re looking in the phone book or you’re looking online.

We remember phone books because you know, we’re old, but you’re looking online, and that you see this generic catering company that says we specialize in corporate and private catering versus you find another company called West Belle’s catering. We cater unforgettable weddings, right? That is number one. That’s a private catering event.

And it’s one specific kind of private event when the company’s called wedding bells, catering. We cater unforgettable weddings Period End of sentence full stop. Can you come and do my office party? No. Can you come? And do we haven’t? We’re having a retirement party for Aunt Sally. No. Right? Deep Dive specialist. So the joke, of course, is when you say, Hey, I specialize in everything you specialize in?

Nothing. Exactly. And that’s the fear of missing out well, what if there’s a big corporate catering gig? What if there’s a big private catering gig? Shouldn’t we specialize in everything. And of course, that means you specialize in nothing, and you become what I call a CMO. Lemo. commodity.

Mostafa Hosseini  15:56 

Love it. Love it. So when you try to specialize in everything, you’re specialized in nothing, when you try to serve everybody, you end up serving nobody. When you try to do everything for everybody, you end up being poor, at a lot of things.

Yes, and nothing is really done perfectly and professionally. And you can’t claim the market and saying, you know, I own the market for these 12 different things. Now, I love your example of corporate and private specialization. Love it, love it. Love it. So Should people call themselves an expert? And is there a danger or a side effect to it?

David Newman 16:41 

I don’t think there’s a danger. You know, I think I think these days, I mean, look at the way that we buy things. Look at the typical buying cycle of a b2b customer who’s looking for some sort of business or entrepreneurial service, there’s a million choices, right? Everything looks like a Chinese menu to most buyers, until they come to a website or a LinkedIn profile, or someone forwards them an email. And in that piece of content, someone loudly proudly and clearly declares what their expertise is. What is the context of that expertise, meaning in what arenas they like to work? Right.

 So one of the things I tell my clients almost from the beginning, you got to fall in love with the word for fo r for so let’s say they’re a leadership consultant, leadership coach of some kind, leadership coach for healthcare executives, right? That is very different than leadership coach across the board. anyone, anytime, anywhere, right? The word for is a is a targeting tool.

It’s a targeting tool. So I had a client, for example, who worked in health care. And our topic did happen to be leadership. And she exclusively worked with hospitals and health care systems, almost always nurse managers and nursing departments.

But the name of her program was leadership essentials. One of her biggest clients, she was on a long term, like two year agreement with them. It came time to renew this agreement. And she says, David, I really want to keep this business has been a great client long standing client. What should I do to make sure that I win this program renewal, this contract renewal?

I said, well show me your proposal. And she sent it to me and it says leadership essentials, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, very generic language, no mention of health care, no mention of nurse managers, no mention of nursing staff and nursing teams, all generic language. You as the leader, your team, your staff, the word nursing wasn’t even in there.

So we got to change this. First of all, change the title to leadership essential for nurse managers, put in your hospital, put in your nurses put in your nursing leaders put in words like nurse recruiting nurse retention, nurse, you know, keeping good nurses, keeping them resilient, keeping them strong in this crazy time. Yeah, she sends it in. The client said, you know, I wanted to let you know that we were really close to not choosing you.

I love you. I love you. I wanted to work with you. But we were looking at these other companies. And then I saw your proposal. Your proposal said leadership essentials for nurse managers. Literally Mostafa. Here’s the next quote straight from the clients mouth. I didn’t even know you had a program like this name program with the word for it was the same exact program that she’d been doing for two years, except now she loudly proudly and clearly said this is for hospitals.

This is for him. for healthcare systems, this is for nurse managers, this is for your nursing team. This is for your nursing staff, and she won the project renewal.

Mostafa Hosseini  20:07 

Yeah, yep. And that gank, for those of you who are watching is the formula and the strategy to talk about your business with more clarity and confidence. And that is, this program is for this specific group of people. So it’s not for everybody in anybody.

That way you you kind of specify who you serve what you do for them. And you eliminate, and you also identify, and you point to who you don’t serve. Right. And that’s one way to differentiate in the market, which a lot of people have a hard time differentiating, how do I differentiate?

Right? So, David, you’re speaking my language like, like, it’s beautiful, right? It’s like the words coming out of your mouth are like poetry to me. So much. So what was how do you how do you what is the formula is that this program is for this group of people is that the formula?

David Newman 21:16 

Well, that’s it, that’s one way to do it. That’s sort of a very obvious, very externally focused way. I think it’s also about the vocabulary. Let’s talk about this for a minute. Because it’s also critically important vocabulary and context of what you’re doing as an entrepreneur.

That’s another way to own your expertise. For example, we can go to a company, we can say the word customer, yet on that company immediately says they’re speaking my language, you go to that same company, take out the word customer put in the word client.

 They have no idea what you’re talking about here. Right? There are types of companies, there are types of industries that have clients. And there are other types of companies and other types of industries, where they have customers, a grocery store does not have clients, a grocery store has customers. A law firm does not have customers, a law firm has clients literally make a deal or break a deal on one vocabulary choice. Right?

So either that says, Oh, they know law firms, they’re only using the word clients, or they know grocery stores, they’re only using the word customers one little misstep like that, and they go, Oh, they’re just posers. They’re just faking it, they don’t really know our business. And you will lose 10s of 1000s, if not hundreds of 1000s of dollars.

Because, again, you’re trying to hedge your bets. Here’s another thing, another soundbite for people to really marinate and think about every client that I’ve ever come across. And my staff, I think you would agree every client you ever came across had a very specific set of problems. There is no such thing as a generic solution to a specific problem.

And every one of your prospects, every single one of your prospects is coming to you with a specific set of problems. If you try and blanket that in generic language, generic context, generic vocabulary and generic type of services and programs, they will suit see through that in a New York minute. That’d be like, oh, yeah, we’re moving on.

We’re not gonna hire these people. They don’t know what they’re talking about. They don’t know our business. They don’t know who we are. They don’t know what we’re about. And that disconnect is instant and permanent.

Mostafa Hosseini  23:44 

Hmm. Love it. Love. I’m taking notes here, too. As you’re talking, I’m taking notes on things that I’m going to apply to my marketing material, like we serve coaches and consultants. And I just realized that I don’t have the word coaches and consultants are repeated enough on my landing page and in my funnel.

And another thing that I’m going to add is talking about their uniqueness, and how their business is unique, and they need a unique solution to so there’s no you know, one solution plastered for every problem. Top Up approach, right. Love it. Love it. So, gang. Again, we’re talking about owning your expertise here with my friend David Newman.

If you have any questions, comments, feedback, put in the chat box. And if you’re listening to this later, leave a comment on Apple or Spotify or Google with your question, and we’re going to get back to you. So what are some ways to build confidence in our marketing rather quickly?

David Newman 24:52 

I think one mistake that people make and it shows up lots of places but it’s one central mistake is when We end up using jargons, buzzwords and consultants speak. Even if you’re not in a consulting business, you’re still using consultants speak these big $5 words that nobody understands. So what I want everyone to do is go to your website, go to your homepage, go to your services page, go to your LinkedIn profile, and read, read it out loud with your voice.

If you wouldn’t say that to someone, if you wouldn’t say it to a friend sitting in a coffee shop, because it comes out stilted or wordy or even you’re tripping over the language. And it’s your website. You’re tripping over the language. And it’s your LinkedIn profile is a boo, boo, boo. Dough. Boy, this is a jumbled mess. Yes, it’s a jumbled mess.

We need to be speaking, visceral, plain English kitchen table language. Yeah. People sometimes ask me, I’m not sure if this is a regional term. But they David what’s what’s kitchen table language? So I’m sometimes guilty of using a jargon term for kitchen table language, kitchen table language is plain English that you’d use around your family kitchen table. Right?

How would you explain this to your seventh grader? For people that have a seventh grader at home, please borrow your seventh grader? Read them your homepage and ask them? Do you know what Mommy does? Do you know what Daddy does? Based on what I did? No, no, I did. My kids. Here’s what’s funny. My kids, when I started my entrepreneurial business, had no idea what and they were like, you know, seven years old, 10 years old.

Finally, at one point, you know, so there were there in elementary school. And they have a guidance counselor. And so it occurred to me one way I could explain what I do is, well, daddy is a guidance counselor for businesses. So you know, like the bookstore we go to and this place and this place and the plumber that comes to our house? Well, these are all businesses.

And sometimes these businesses need a guidance counselor. They Oh, okay, I get it. So you help them you talk to them, you solve their problems? Yes, I help them, I talk to them, I help them solve their problems. For years. That was the joke around our house is that, you know, dad is a guidance counselor for businesses.

Mostafa Hosseini  27:27 

So I always talk about how if if your family members and friends around, you have no clue what you do, you’re in trouble. If your mom doesn’t know what you do, you’re in trouble. Like, you know, his or her son is an accountant. And when they asked the mom, what does your son do? She says, you know, he works with computers. Right?

And your mom could actually be a very strong referral partner for you, because she talks on the phone all day long. Right. So train your friends, family, and everyone around you with this with the formula that David is sharing, which is very specific with focus.

And he’s laser focused to get referrals and, you know, train people around you.

David Newman 28:11 

I’m gonna share one more quick story about the

Mostafa Hosseini  28:14 

disabled English. Yeah.

David Newman 28:17 

This really struck me completely by accident. Most of the smart things in my life struck me completely by accident, frankly. But I was at a networking event. People remember networking, it’s back when you went out and you know, talk to people face to face.

 But this was early, early on. This was like, probably 1516 years ago. And I was going to a Chamber of Commerce event. And it was held at some bank and this bank had this nice big conference room and there were snacks and drinks and so forth.

So I’m walking in, I’m getting out of my car, and I’m walking in. And I see these two women also professionally dressed holding a briefcase looking like they’re going to a business event. So I joined these two women, and I say, are you going to the chamber event? And they said yes, we are. And they turned to me and they say what do you do now?

Here’s the What the What do you do question? That’s the real litmus test, just like you were saying there. Mostafa is fine. Oh, he’s an accountant. He’s a doctor. He’s the lawyer. I was so tired of hating my answer to that question. Because whatever left my mouth people were like, just glazed over. They had no idea what I did.

I finally I just spontaneously in that parking lot. Here are the words that left my mouth. I work with small business owners who love the business of their business and they just hate the marketing and sales part. Both of these women like clockwork, their heads pivoted, they turned to me in in sync and said I need to get your card. And I was like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what just happened there?

What what left my mouth I work with small business owners who love the business of their business. They just hate the marketing and sales part. I’m a marketing coach. I’m a marketing consultant, I help you with leads, I help you build your business, I have none of that. It was the who the love and the hate.

Think about that three very powerful factors in the success of your business and another way to own your expertise. Do you know the Who do you know the love? And do you know the hate? Right? I work with fill in the blank, who love fill in the blank. But just hate the fill in the blank. That’s your exercise. My friends. That’s your homework from this episode of The Daily confidence show.

You probably have more homework from Mostafa, but that’s the homework I’m going to give you is can you fill in the who the love and the hate, that’s going to be such a clarifying activity for you. And you will start to attract people into a conversation that previously had no idea what you do none.

Mostafa Hosseini  31:05 

So when you said we’re going to do a value, drop, what was the word the term value bomb dropped value bombs? Yes. Well, you bomb so you, you were not joking. So the formula is I work with blank who loves to blank and hates to blank, right?

If you fill in the blanks in there, you people aren’t gonna understand you a lot better. Right? And you don’t have to say anymore. And this will avoid, you know how when you ask some people what you do, and they dive in a five minute speech and they never, they never shut up.

This one line will replace that all that thing. Another thing that I want to re emphasize that you mentioned earlier that is absolutely amazing is reading your website, your lending, landing page, your LinkedIn page and all social media profiles out loud, and see if it makes sense. Does it sound like a textbook? Is this something that you would say to someone and if not turning internet into day to day conversation that people can read and understand that one exercise there.

And then the formula that he put forward on how to introduce yourself to Game Changers so far, on top of everything else that we talked about? So how do you how do we become confident with pricing and talking about fees with customers and prospects and clients?

David Newman 32:37 

Well, I will let’s start with how to totally not have confidence in your pricing. The way to not have confidence in your pricing is to price it hourly, never have an hourly rate hourly rates instantly and permanently commoditize what you do. So an hourly rate means I’m a laborer, and I might be a highly paid labor, but I’m still a laborer.

And I’m not an expert. And I’m not a thought leader. And I’m not a trusted advisor. I’m a hired pair of hands. And we never want our clients to see us as a hired pair of hands. My least favorite word in the business and marketing and sales universe is the word vendor.

I never want anyone listening or watching here to ever be considered a vendor of vendor is the lowest level I think it’s the most insulting thing that you can call someone that you’re doing business with. Vendors are interchangeable. Vendors are nameless, faceless commodities, right.

So you don’t want to be in that vendor status. One of the key indicators of a vendor is hourly pricing, hourly pricing. So that will ruin your confidence that will make you go back to the drawing board and say, Well, why did I get into this crazy business anyway?

Yeah. So value based fees, value based pricing, meaning that figuring out what are the outcomes that people are really buying from you. And outcomes come into three categories, personal, professional, and financial. Everyone focuses on the financial and you say, oh Mostafa, you’re in an easy business because you know, you’ve got a marketing value prop you help people make money, you help them, generate revenue, grow their business, grow the top line, grow the bottom line, this must be an easy calculation for you.

By the way, it’s not easy for any of us, but it’s easy. Or if you’re in marketing or sales or revenue growth, like like you and I are. Let’s talk about the most important calculation that people make. And it’s not about time. It’s not about money. It’s about ego. People buy things to satisfy their ego meaning everyone that you talk to no matter what you sell.

Anyone that you talk to, always wants to seem taller. smarter, sexier, thinner, more hair, they want to feel like they’re ahead of the curve. They never want to feel dumb. They never want to feel left behind. They never want to feel blindsided. They never want to feel vulnerable. They never want to feel ambushed. So let’s go back to that leadership coach and that leadership consultant example that I gave you earlier, you could talk about all the ways that leadership builds the bottom line, and recruiting costs and retention and ROI and dollars and all this stuff.

And many people do that, and it’s fine. The way to sell leadership to a leader is talk about never be blindsided, again, get the ability to see around corners, understand trends before they become trends, so that you can ride the wave and that you’re ahead of the competition. Imagine if you had x ray vision into the future, because with our strategic planning, our strategic leadership, you know, that’s what we give you is that you are not any longer tied to the agenda of your industry, you are setting the agenda of your industry and you are seen as a leader in your industry.

Notice everything I just said ego, ego, ego, ego, I want to be seen as a leader, I want to be seen as going ahead, moving ahead, being the head of the pack, I want to be seen as smart, I want to be seen as capable. I want the respect of my peers, right, you will get much further no matter what you sell, no matter who you’re selling it to.

By tapping into this ego the human needs that we satisfy of making people feel able and smart and attractive and handsome and beautiful. And never being bushwhack never being ambushed, never being surprised, taking out the brick walls, taking out the minefields smoothing out their path, and being seen as a leader among their peers. That’s what sells. So whatever that is in your world, figure that out and start having sales conversations around that, because that’s where premium pricing is hiding. Right? You sell a leadership program. Well, how much is it?

How many hours? How big is the binder? How how, you know, do we get videos with that? Is there an online course? That’s a commodity discussion, right? Can I put 20 of my leaders in this program and actually do mind devices it in? Because I’m the CEO, and I kind of want this to? And Mostafa, how soon can you start? Wow,

David Newman 37:33 

no mention of price. No mention of how long? How much how many videos how big is the binder, because we’re not selling the inputs, now we’re selling the outputs, were selling the results, were selling the outcomes. That’s where you can start to get 5x 10x 20x of what you previously used to earn. Because your pricing is now tied to their outcomes. It is not tied to your hours or to your inputs.

Mostafa Hosseini  37:59 

So again, that was the third value bomb. And I’m just gonna I took some notes here, no hourly rate, or pricing, do not downgrade yourself like that. Talk about the outcomes and what they can avoid and what they can get no commodity discussions, right. A

nd if you’re watching or listening to this, go back. Listen to this part, like 20 times. That was a master class on pricing and how to become confident. Right? So that was really good. Really good stuff. Huh? So what are some myth that people have around establishing themselves as an expert?

David Newman 38:48 

So many, let’s start with the most common ones. I think there’s this myth of specialness, that you need to somehow have some special magical powers bestowed upon you. You know, you need to have five PhDs, you need to have written seven books. Here’s the real truth. And here’s how to instantly debunk this myth, in your own mind and for your own business. Do a competitive scam. Look around at other companies and other people doing what you do?

What you will notice is there are people that have shiny your websites that have fancier you know, fancier marketing, and they are nowhere near as qualified as you. They are nowhere near as smart or dedicated or prepared or educated.

And there are people that are charging two times three times five times what you’re charging, and you’ve got a better service and a better program and you hear more about your clients success like Mostafa cares about his clients success, and like I care about my clients success. There are people who do not have integrity.

They’re charging more simply because they’re not blocked by this imposter syndrome. And I see this over and over and over and Mustaf, I’m sure you see it a lot as well. We send clients out on this competitive scan exercise. And they come back and they say, David, you wouldn’t believe I found three or four other folks that they’ve done nothing.

They have no track record, they have no credibility, they have no nothing. And they charge three times what I do, and they’re getting it, they’re getting it, and I went to their LinkedIn, and they have all these recommendations from all these fortune 500 executives, and people think that they’re wonderful and amazing and marvelous. And I know my stuff is better.

And I know that my service is higher. And I know that my value is deeper. What’s wrong with me? I said, nothing. It’s time to get busy. Let’s go saddle up. Let’s go. So when you do this competitive scan, you will be amazed at the people who are ahead of you who are at your level and who are a couple of steps behind where you are.

And you will also realize most times, almost always, but most times oh my gosh, I’ve been wrong charging. I’ve been under charging.

 I’ve been undervaluing my work. Why? Because you didn’t know any better. You didn’t know what the market will bear. You didn’t know what the, you know, this is the biggest mistake people make with everything with positioning with pricing, right? How can you position yourself against the competition? If you don’t know the competition? How can you have premium pricing? If you’re not even sure what premium pricing looks like in your market? Right?

How can you have distinction in the marketplace when you don’t know what you’re distinguishing against? So you know, this is like the leadership expert who says, Well, I’ve written a leadership book, I think it’s really good. Oh, how many leader leadership books have you read? And they go, Oh, none. And you then you you go read their book.

And it’s all the cliches it’s all the nonsense. It’s all the stories that have been recycled and rehashed. It’s like, wow, you never have read a leadership book. But you decided to write one. And this were bad books and bad consultants and bad coaches. And bad courses come from is people don’t do the work.

They think they know it all. And they’ve never done that competitive scan to see where they can Zig where everyone else zags.

Mostafa Hosseini  42:23 

Mm hmm. I have I have an approach so far. I call it Mostafa inverted approach. And that is, if you’re really worried about something and you feel like you don’t have it, you probably have it. If you feel like you’ve been at something for a long time, and you feel like you’re not you’re not an expert, you’re probably an expert.

And if you don’t know squat about something, and you feel like you’re an expert, you’re probably not an expert. And so, to David’s point, if you’ve been at something and you know it inside out, you’ve read books, you have attended seminars, webinars, you know, you worked on this, like David said, there are people that read a book. over a weekend, on a Monday morning, they call themselves a coach, an expert and let thought leader on the book that they just finished, or the topic, so I really liked what you just said there.

So, David, share with us some some ideas and tips on how business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, and rest of the rest of us can confidently present ourselves online and offline.

David Newman 43:40 

Well, I think the first important thing is not to stop sharing information. That’s right. Rewind the podcast, rewind the video, stop sharing information because here’s the truth. The internet doesn’t need any more information from you.

 It doesn’t need any more information from me. It doesn’t need any more information from anybody. What the internet needs and what your prospects need to see online is your insights and your opinions and your slant and your biases and your recommendation. So don’t play it safe. Be contrarian, be bold, be opinionated. Tell the world what you think.

So in my do it marketing book, for example. I have a chapter called branding is BS. Branding is BS, because the way most branding consultants do branding is BS. Now do I really believe that you don’t need a brand than the branding is a total waste of time? No. Do I have my own way of branding like Mostafa, you just said, I have got the Mostafa formula for doing this right and doing this wrong, what’s right and what’s wrong with the world from your expertise, right.

 If you can’t be for something, if you’re not against something So think of this as, what’s the canvas of the story that you’re painting about your expertise in your industry? Who’s the hero? Who’s the good guy? Who’s the bad guy? Who’s wearing the white hats?

Who’s wearing the black hats? What’s the drama? What’s the tension? What’s going on there? So I always tell people, as professional coaches and experts, our job is to be a professional, irritant. Professional irritant, meaning that we’re like that little grain of sand that’s in the oyster that makes the pearl. Furthermore, you say, Oh, well, what if I offend somebody?

What if I turn somebody off? What if I say something wrong that they don’t agree with? Here’s the soundbite, my friends, you will know if you don’t earn anybody on. Let me repeat that one. If you don’t risk turning some people off. You will never turn anybody on. Right need to be polarizing. You need to be for some things and against some others, you need to believe in your recommendations. Right. Another plain vanilla expert is not an expert at all.

Please remember that if you’re a plain vanilla expert, you’re middle of the road. Nothing good happens in the middle of the road. Roadkill is in the middle of the road. So you do not want to become roadkill. You want to have an opinion, bold, contrarian, loud, proud and clear about what you stand for and what you stand against. You almost need a personal manifesto. And that’s what’s going to get you noticed. That’s what’s noticed online and offline.

Mostafa Hosseini  46:45 

Love it, just to reiterate, you need to turn people on or off. You need to have people with you or against you. They either love you, or they hate you. No middleman. No vanilla approach. No one solution for everybody. And based on what David says, Do not try to please everybody. That’s like the surefire way to fail, basically. Okay. Pick a group of people love them, have them love you.

And if everyone else on the planet hates you, it is perfectly fine. Right now, it is perfectly fine. So, David, I really, really like what we talked about, it feels like that. We could talk at least another couple hours without getting bored, right? Oh, gang, if you’re watching or listening again, if you have questions, comments, feedback, put them in the chat box and put them as a review on Google or Apple.

And we’ll we’ll get back to you. Now, David, I understand that too. You are sharing a gift with people that are watching or listening. Could you please tell us about that?

David Newman 47:55 

Sure. It’s the do it Marketing Manifesto. And it’s a little bit of everything. We talked about a little bit of marketing, a little bit of sales, a little bit of mindset, about really running the kind of entrepreneurial business that you want to run with confidence, with clarity and with control so that you are in charge of your destiny. And there’s some marching orders in there.

There’s some things to stop doing. There’s some things to start doing. There’s some things that go a little bit deeper on some of the topics that we talked about today. Mostafa, so that’s it, do it marketing.com/manifesto And that’s a free download my gift to you

Mostafa Hosseini  48:36 

love it. So I was doing my kick Marketing Manifesto. And you could download that do it marketing.com forward slash manifesto. And the links are links are gonna be are in the show description. And in the chat box now. David, what are some of the books that you have read maybe two or three books that have made a massive difference in your life or in your business?

David Newman 49:03 

One really great book that it’s sort of a hidden treasure, and not a lot of people know about it is called the business of expertise by David C. Baker, the business of expertise. And what’s cool about this book Mostafa, it really draws a demarcation point between having an expert based business versus that vendor based business that we talked about.

So I think people could get huge, huge insights from that book, whether you’re, you know, coaching, consulting, training, speaking. I mean, I think every small business owner needs to read it, but especially our audience of consultants and coaches, the business of expertise by David C. Baker,

Mostafa Hosseini  49:51 

any other books, any other recommendations?

David Newman 49:54 

Was there another book that you and I talked about that I recommended, or am I forgetting

Mostafa Hosseini  50:03 

I have my list of say a top 10. Well, let

David Newman 50:06 

me give let me one

Mostafa Hosseini  50:08 

of my favorites, your life and your business. Yeah, yeah.

David Newman 50:10 

So The War of Art, The War of Art, Steven Pressfield really profound, profound, amazing, fantastic book, it’s a short read, it will literally change your life. I try and read it at least once a year. And stuff I know you have your collection of favorite books that you always read and reread and condition yourself. So the art of I’m sorry, the The War of Art, I said it right the first time, The War of Art, Steven Pressfield. It’s about it’s about owning your expertise, only it’s really for artists and creatives and also for for entrepreneurs.

But it’s about overcoming resistance. And it’s about stop playing small. And it really unpacks why we sometimes sabotage ourselves, and how to stop it how it would be great Oh, well, here’s why we sabotage yourself. No, no, there’s a toolkit in the book that says, Listen, this doesn’t have to be your life. This doesn’t have to be your future.

You can short circuit that impulse and do the work, do the work that you need to do engage in the conversations that you need to engage in, overcome that resistance and earn the success that you deserve.

Mostafa Hosseini  51:25 

And that’s all in the War of Art. The War of Art a short read? Yeah, I want to pick it up today. All right, well, now at David, if you had an ad, had an ad on Facebook or and Google and on the web, where everyone on the planet could see. What would your message be for the world?

David Newman 51:48 

The world of the sun? That’s such a great question. By the way, the world needs your expertise and your time is now that’s what the ad would say the world needs your expertise, because it does. And your time is now there is no more delaying no more stalling. No more waiting. It’s time to step up and get going.

Mostafa Hosseini  52:12 

David, if you saw a Facebook ad, from me with that line on it, don’t be surprised.

David Newman 52:17 

If you know what I’m gonna click on it, buddy. I’m gonna click on it. So be careful. It’s gonna cost you money.

Mostafa Hosseini  52:23 

Gray light. I love it. Love it. Now, my next question, what’s one piece of advice that you received, that made a massive difference for you?

David Newman 52:33 

This was in 2014. And it was it was a precursor to our very first six figure month. And the mentor that I was working with, he gave me very specific marching orders. Just like you give your clients very specific marching orders and soda wine. And he said he gave me this list of things to do and things to think about. This was November of 2015. I remember it very clearly. His his sign off on that email was David just do these things.

 Don’t think, don’t think. And what he really meant was he knows I’m a thinker, and I I overthink, I overthink, I overanalyze, or at least that we all do that in 2014. I did. The email was great. The email was very specific, very instructive. I could do all of the things in the email. I wasn’t sure I could do the last line. I wasn’t sure I could do the part about I don’t think so. I call them back. And I say so when you say don’t think what what do you really mean?

Because that’s exactly what I mean. Don’t think, just do these things, and you will be successful. And we’d have like a 50k a month and a 60k a month and so on and so forth. Long story short, because I didn’t think November of 2015 was our first six figure month not by a little but by a lot $147,000 Because we did three promotions back to back for three different services. me thinking sounds like this, oh my god, I’m going to be a spammer. Everyone’s going to unsubscribe, no one’s going to buy three different programs.

I’m going to be seen as Scattershot and mental chatter, the best advice ever don’t think what that really means is I’m a huge believer in thinking, don’t overthink don’t overthink your way into failure. Right? Get into action. One of my favorite quotes by the way, Mostafa is action eliminates fear. Action eliminates fear. So when my coach said to me, David, don’t think what he really said was get your button to action, make these things happen and you will be successful the way that I mapped out for you, and I did the things he recommended.

I ran those three promotions and we made $147,000 in in November of 2015 So it works. It works. But you once you have a system, once you have a mentor like Mostafa, for example, don’t think, follow the plan, follow the plan, follow the system. Any good mentor, any good coach will have done the thinking for you.

You just need to implement your recipe, have it your version of it. But don’t overthink don’t fight back Don’t second guess don’t sabotage yourself.

Mostafa Hosseini  55:28 

Absolutely. So the two things that I picked up was, Don’t think just do it follow the proven process that someone has gone through has tests that it has thought about it, and they’re just sharing their knowledge and expertise with you do it, don’t think about it. Because you’re gonna, you’re gonna do analysis, paralysis, do too much thinking next thing you know, two years has gone by and you’re like, still wondering whether you should write a book or start a website or a business or not.

And then action eliminates fear, love that. Love that. Because that the fear comes from the unknown, usually, but when when we take action when we take when we experience the things from mentors, and experts like David and what they’ve been doing forever, and that eliminates your fear. Another piece, if I made a bet, is when you do it with a group of people. There’s less fear when you work with a coach or mentor who’s done this before.

There’s less fear when you’ve got support and accountability. There is less fear, right? So tap into the wisdom and knowledge and expertise of other people to make your life a lot easier. Now, David, what advice would you give your 20 year old self?

David Newman 56:47 

Well, it’s funny my my 20 year old self goes three careers ago, remember? So it was pre med, theater, and then consulting and then entrepreneurship. And it was like three, three or four careers ago. My 20 year old self needs the theme of this show, which has confidence. So the advice I would give to my 20 year old self is you’ve got this going on. We don’t know where the road is leading.

But you’re on the right path. And if I look back, people say well, do you regret wasting all that time and premed? Do you regret working in the theater? Do you regret your 10 year consulting career? I say no, no, I wouldn’t be where I am today, if I hadn’t followed that path. But I just wish I had the confidence. I wish I had the clarity that you know I am able I am ready.

You know Put me in coach, let’s do this thing. I don’t know where the road is leading. But I know that whatever is coming, I can handle it.

Mostafa Hosseini  57:53 

Love it. Love it. Love it. David, is there anything that you’d like to add that perhaps we didn’t talk about?

David Newman 58:03 

You know, this, this is so important because the the confidence concept that you have put onto this show and that you teach with your clients. Three things that every entrepreneur, every coach, every consultant needs, a sense of confidence, a sense of clarity, and a sense of control, that they know where their business is going. They know where to find good leads, they know their marketing plan, they they know their simple marketing plan.

If you follow my friend Mostafa, they know that they bring value to the marketplace. So they have this deep inner confidence, clarity and control that they are in the driver’s seat of their business. And know we don’t ever know where the road is gonna lead. But we know that we’re going to get there safe and sound

Mostafa Hosseini  58:49 

loving. So you need a sense of confidence, clarity, and control. And for those of you who are watching and listening, as you can tell David as full of experience, years of expertise and professionalism under his belt, go reach out go to do it marketing comm forward slash manifesto.

Download the do a marketing manifesto, tap into it, show up to his class. If he offers anything, take it. The guy knows his stuff. And I filtered the people I bring on the show. And so if he wasn’t good, he would not be here. So if you’re watching and listening again, the website is doing marketing.com forward slash manifesto.

 David, I really appreciate our conversation. You know, part of me wants to keep going so maybe we’ll we’ll we’ll come back again maybe next year or this year. And continue our conversation because you just dropped so much value and it was amazing. Thank you.

David Newman 59:53 

Thank you my friend. Great to be here. Can’t wait to come back.

Mostafa Hosseini  59:56 

Thank you for those of you’re watching or listening Again, if you like, subscribe, leave a comment tag a friend, and you will enter your your name for a draw. And if you also review the show on Apple, Spotify, Google or whichever channel you’re watching, you’re listening or subscribe to the channel. Again, you enter the draw. Thank you for joining us.

 Thank you, David. Really appreciate your time and expertise. And I look forward to seeing you on our next show of mine and Mostafa Hosseini, and see you later. Bye now.