This time experts, not businessmen, make big money

“The Millionaire Messenger” by Brendon Burchard Simon  & Schuster, FP, 2011

Chances are  you have attended a seminar by renowned leadership expert John Maxwell. Or you might have read Al Ries who wrote “Positioning”—a popular buzz word now by a PR or advertising man worth his salt.  I have met these two guys and heard them share their experiences and insights before a spell-bound and happily paying audience.

What about Stephen Covey with his “7 Habits for Highly Effective People,” a long-running series of lectures on work mindsets and habits. How about “Chicken Soup for the Soul” and all its variants for golfers, teenagers and wives—whose author is life coach expert Jack Canfield?

In the area of wealth creation and affluence, Deepak Chopra leads the list; while in the intimate field of man-woman relationship, we have the book of “Men Are from Mars, Women are from Venus,” by John Gray.

The books, videos, lectures and webinars of these authors have been bestsellers. We call them many names, and identify them with an industry which has had no name—at least from our point of view. They are definitely “experts,” “resource speakers,” “world class “consultants”—and, yes, gurus.

This book, titled “The Millionaire Messenger,” authored by Brendon Burchard, introduces an interesting industry. Burhard calls it “The Expert Industry.”

Author Burchard defines it: “The expert industry is a caring community of people who share their advice and knowledge with the world and get paid for it. These are the people you see on television and online sharing advice on how to improve your life or grow your business.”

Who comprise this “economy”? The names I mentioned earlier and, according to the author, “these experts are just average people who have synthesized their life experience and have created products and programs for sale to the public.”

Burchard who?! You may ask. In the book’s introduction, this is Burchard: He is a best selling author (Life’s Golden Ticket), a $25,000 per speech keynote speaker, a seminar leader who sells out every event ($10,000 per ticket), a life coach, a small business consultant, and an online information marketer who     moves hundreds of millions of goods and services—and makes money in return.

We have had consultants surrounding us in the businesses we are in or even in our everyday lives. We have had many “thought leaders” whose thinking is followed by the intelligentsia. Do they belong to the “expert economy”? Strictly speaking, based on the definition of Burchard, they are not.

He made this distinction to drive home a point:

“The college professor creates and shares information, just as all experts do. The realm of the professor generally lies in sharing concepts and theory about a given topic.”

He continues: “The professional consultant approaches education in a very different manner. Consultants focus their process to helping learners move directly and efficiently from point A to point B—and develop an ability to achieve a specific outcome.”

You will know if you have “Expert Calling” when you read the earlier chapters, and you might already adopted an “expert’s lifestyle.” Or you may be on your way to become an “Advice Guru,” even if you are below 40, so long as you have a following through your books and videos.

The chapter on “10 Steps to an Expert Empire” gives a would-be expert to master the “The Millionaire’s Money Map”. Burchard’s advice will spare some of our rising experts the sad experience of being a one-book legend or one who enjoyed only 30 minutes of fame.

He quickly adds that he is not too interested in money. He is more interested in “improving lives and enabling fellow experts to realize their dreams. “If you have some money, you can grow your business—and so you can help more people,” he explains.

The business of being an expert is in only two things, he says. It is either a

“relating” business or a “creating” business.

If you are an expert in improving relationships, enhancing partnerships, expanding your customer base, you are an expert in “relating.” On the other hand, if you are an expert in building a business, creating a new product, introducing a new design, you are in the “creating” business.

The book is well organized, with “Expert Signposts,” which are really a series of questions which the reader himself must answer—so that he/she can discover what expertise he wants to focus on. The author’s advice is simple: “Find where your passion is.”

To make sure you won’t miss a thing, the book details “Ten Steps to an Expert Empre.” Some of such steps are as follows: (1) Claim and master your topic, (2) Pick your audience, a buying base of customers; (3) Discover your audience’s problems with the “Customer Insight Formula,” and (4) Create a solution –  a how-to program or system to sell to their audience.

This expert economy is also “undergoing a sea change,” and the author cites some shifts which he calls “resets.” Some of these “resets” are  renewed focus on innovation and distinction, better branding—meaning experts need a facelift,  a shift from sales communication to value communication, and “honor more, expect more.”

Burchard waxes with eloquence when he speaks of saying goodbye to  the “greed is good” mantra of Wall Street (according to him) to “giving honor to the experts’ platform.”

“Our work (as experts) changes people’s lives for the better, and that is extraordinary,” he exudes. ”

I have checked Burchard’s website, The Expert Academy, and I viewed a video of him speaking of improving lives. A side slide shows people giving testimonials about life-changing events in their lives, while there is singing, jumping and dancing. I thought it was a Pentecostal gathering’s time for rejoicing or Mike Velarde’s El Shaddai crowd.

I could not make out the lyrics of the song being sung— full-throated—by so enthusiastic a crowd, but I know Burchard’s brand of “expert economy” is really bringing  hope, joy and a sense of grace and power.

This expert has found the best of both worlds—bring meaning to people’s lives—and make some substantial cash in the process. [email protected].