When most people practice, they focus on the things they already know how to do. Deliberate practice is different. It entails considerable, specific, and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well—or even at all. Research across domains shows that it is only by working at what you can’t do that you turn into the expert you want to become.

– Harvard Business Review

Being the go-to authority in your industry has powerful effects on your business and expands your influence far beyond your company. Becoming an expert in a specific field means that you become the authoritative voice that media, consumers, and other businesses turn to for quality content and information. It opens the door for opportunities, networking possibilities, and could significantly increase your professional leads.

However, becoming an expert in your field takes hard work, dedication, and lots of research. There are so many benefits to becoming an expert that if it were easy, everyone would do it (which defeats the point).

How to Establish Yourself as an Expert

Produce valuable content on your subject. Write articles, publish problem-solution guides, and communicate effectively. If you have a website, start by publishing blogs about your subject. Marketing guru Seth Godin has authored numerous best-selling books and maintains a successful blog on his website. These channels succeed in attracting traffic across publishing platforms and driving sales. Beyond that, write articles for magazines, journals and other professional publications and news sites. Your authorship of published content won’t go unnoticed.

Stay current on industry trends. This means make sure you’re working with current knowledge and training. Outsourcing training is a good way to ensure this, as you will be working with educated and experienced trainers. Learn from multiple relevant training sessions, combine their knowledge, and you’ll be another step closer to becoming the expert in your field.

Refocus. Whether you refocus your goals and perspective daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, you need to refocus regularly to make sure you’re still on the right track and doing the necessary tasks to reach your goal. You may need to rebrand yourself, switch

Be consistent. You must give excellent information, provide excellent service, or produce a consistently excellent product each time you set out to create.

Be unique, and better. Your expertise can’t be replicated, and no one can do what you do better than you. If you are at the same level of expertise as your peers, you aren’t an expert.

Teach a class. Educate and advocate for your clients. Teach a class to share some of your knowledge, word-of-mouth will spread about your class, and you will begin to fill the “educator” role for your industry. At least in the eyes of your class participants and whomever they speak to about it.

Get interviewed. You don’t have to get interviewed on a talk show or live news to expand your influence. You could be interviewed on a podcast as an expert on your subject. Podcasts typically cater to niche audiences, meaning it could help you get exposure in your field, directed to your target audience.

Sculpt your personal brand, continue to improve your expertise, and you can establish yourself (or your business) as an expert and thought leader in your field.

About the Author: pickjohn9@gmail.com