SkillCasting

Small Business Consultants are often asked “What do you do?” To help spread my message, I created an introductory video about SkillCasting. I explain the four key areas where I focus: online video, screencasting, e-learning, and online webinars. The power of video is that your customers and prospects, get to see you and get a feel for the type of person you are.

Could video offend some people and make them NOT like me? Sure. But that’s okay. If they don’t like me from the video, odds are they wouldn’t like me after they spent time with me. And worse, I would have wasted my time too. I refer to this as “compressing the acceptance cycle time.” Besides, the best testimonial I receive is when people see my videos, call me, and tell me they just feel like they trust me. When you’re first starting a relationship, can you really ask for anything more?

That’s the power of video.

I added this video to the SkillCasting.com homepage as an introductory video. And to help spread it even further, I embedded this video on my LinkedIn profile. I’ll put together a tutorial on how to add a video to your LinkedIn profile. It’s pretty easy.

Use video to introduce yourself. Remember, it’s about building trust.

Today over at Freelance Switch, there is a post on 5 Passive Income Opportunities for Freelancers. Idea number 4, Sell Subscriptions caught my eye.

The author, Thursday Bram, states that it may be the least passive but it offers the most potential for growth. I concur.

Creating a membership or subscription site does take a lot of work. And lets face it, most of us have years of experience in our industry – not in online video, payment gateways, and websites. If you’re a freelancer, a consultant, or even laid off executive, odds are you don’t have the technical knowledge to pull all this together. What are you to do?

You partner.

Lets face it, you can’t know everything. And if you’re going to be good at something, you have to specialize in it. Why would you expect your online endeavor to be any different? You could find a vendor to sell you an application or a hosted solution but it’s not the same. If a subscription site is going to work, you need a partner and you need to leverage each others strengths.

You need someone who has a vested interest in your online business. Most companies are just all too happy to sell something and then move on. A subscription site isn’t a single traction type of business though. It’s a relationship between you and your subscribers. It’s a long term contract with the potential of substantial reoccuring monthly revenue.

Subscription sites are a great model for passive income streams. Just find a partner to help create the content, help manage the site, and perhaps most importantly, to hold you accountable to actually get it done.

On May 8th, 2009, President Barack Obama said:

“In a twenty-first century economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, education is the single best bet we can make – not just for our individual success; but for the success of our nation as a whole.”

Now first let me state that this isn’t a political post. It doesn’t matter how you feel about the current or previous administrations. I thought this was interesting because it’s true, the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge. And while it’s important for a country at a macro level, I think it’s incredibly important at a micro level to the individual.

Getting new training, a new certification, or even a college degree doesn’t do us any good if we can’t demonstrate and sell our competency to prospective employers though. And worse, if we do a poor job demonstrating or presenting we’ll look incompetent. I think this is what holds most middle-aged people back. They’re risk adverse and not comfortable with the technology to do a good enough job and therefore, they don’t do it at all.

We have to continue to sell ourselves. We have to take chances and put ourselves out there. We have to learn the new tools and we have to apply them.

If you’re not comfortable doing this yourself, I encourage you to find someone who can help you put together a “good” presentation, to narrate it, and then post it online. Get your name out there and demonstrate your knowledge, your competence, and your expertise.

It truly is the most important thing you can sell.

The Simple Dollar has a great post [via LifeHacker] about 50 side-businesses you can start. In these tight times, who isn’t looking for a little extra money? However, only 3 (exercise teacher, teaching music, and tutoring) came close to what I consider to be SkillCasting.

In our day jobs, we’ve built an amazing amount of knowledge. It may not seem like much to you because you’re an “insider.” If you consider what people who are “outsiders” need to know, you all of a sudden realize you know quite a bit more than them. Would “outsiders” be willing to pay for “insider” knowledge? In a lot of cases the answer is a resounding yes!

Here’s a perfect example. My roof leaks right now. I’ve spoken with a couple of different roofers and I’ve gotten quotes. I’ve done some internet searches but I really haven’t found anything on how to prevent getting ripped off – from an insider. In other words, if you’ve worked on a roofing crew, been a foreman, or sales rep for a roofing company, what are the key things to ask when evaluating a provider. Better yet, based upon your experience, where do most roofers try to cut corners? How do you negotiate for the best deal? What are the other tricks of the trade we should know about?

If you’re an insider to the roofing business, you have an opportunity to “productize your knowledge” and create a special report, a tutorial, or even a video to help others like me.

So while roofing may not be all that glamorous, there is a need for outsiders to get inside knowledge. Can you provide it? And wouldn’t this be an easy side business if you’re already in the business?

Let’s take this a step further. Lets say that you own a small roofing business. What if you created a tutorial that answered these types of questions and provided it for free to your prospective customers? Educating your customers pays off big time. If you provide this as a free service, you begin to gain your customers trust. And trust on a $10K+ purchase is pretty damn important.

As you look at side businesses, consider what you already know. Rather than learning all the ins and outs of a new business, take what you know and turn that into a business. You may find the perfect side business right under your “knows.”

(Corny I know but I couldn’t resist…)

I was meeting with a client the other day. I think he is a perfect candidate for SkillCasting. He has the credentials, the experience, and the “street cred” to turn what he knows into his own training products–but he’s not doing it.

I shared this mindmap with him as I discussed why & what he could be doing. You can download a PDF here.

I suggested a membership site where he could host his training modules and sell access to them. In addition, I suggested a forum where members could post questions and he could answer them. When I said this could all be passive reoccurring monthly income, that’s when the lightbulb went off.

Let me ask you, after working all these years, what specialized knowledge do you have? Would other people find it valuable? Are you currently working but find yourself spread too thin? What if you supplemented your “time for money” consulting model and created online products to sell? How does this passive revenue stream impact you?

There are so many ways to productize your knowledge these days. My mindmap mentions a few of them. I know, I can almost hear you saying “yeah but Scott, I don’t know how to manage a website and build all those things.”

I’ll tell you the same thing I told my client. You partner.

Over at the JibberJobber blog, Jason Alba asks “Is there an expert in the house?”

He raises a very good point in that it’s time to build your expert status. It resonates with me because that is exactly what I’m working to achieve. His subsequent post “How to be a recognized expert“goes on to say the best way to establish yourself as an expert is to write a book. This is very true and parallels Robert Bly’s thoughts in his book, Become a Recognized Authority In Your Field.

Writing a book takes time though. Are there other ways to establish yourself as an expert without you having to wait months or years for a book? I believe in a word, YES!

Creating videos, online training, or short tutorials establishes credibility and builds momentum. These tools help get your name out there. They help you build a following and increase your exposure. Feedback from these efforts help you refine your message. They allow you to put a face on your brand, to establish rapport, and perhaps most importantly, they compliment a book by leveraging new media that printed text on paper just can’t touch.

No doubt that writing a book can really kick-start your expert status. But while your prose is waiting to be published, don’t overlook these other productions.

For years, perhaps even decades, the only option to really consider when trying to productize your knowledge has been a book. It’s still the defacto requirement if you want to launch a speaking career but it’s not the only option out there.

This interactive diagram explains some additional solutions you can use to turn what you know into a product.

I’m often asked what exactly do you mean by SkillCasting. I thought I’d put together a little presentation to outline what I consider to be SkillCasting. Before we view it, here is my definition:

You’ll have to share with me your thoughts on it.

So just what is SkillCasting all about? This quick video gives you an idea.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.