How to Be A Highly Paid Authority - With Melanie Benson

Tom Bailey, founder of Succeed Through Speaking, interviews Melanie Benson.

Melanie Benson, Authority Amplifier for Expert-preneurs, shows you how to stand out in a crowded market and attract high paying clients and opportunities. Melanie has a proven track record of accelerating results for her clients (it's not uncommon to see 3-5x revenue increases in the first 6 months.) She’s host of Amplify Your Success Podcast, is author of Rewired for Wealth, co-author of the best-selling Voices of the 21st Century and Entrepreneur.com’s Start Up Guide to Starting an Information Marketing Business, and has been featured in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Woman’s Day, and Parenting. Melanie served on the Women Speaker’s Association Executive Team.

Why you've got to check out Melanie's episode:

- Discover how Melanie helps business owners who are building a business around their expertise - and how they are working really hard but feel invisible from their clients.

- Understand the biggest challenges of being unable to market and sell what you do as well as you can deliver what you do and how you can overcome this challenge through re-designing your irresistible messaging.

- Realise the impact invisibility can have on a business that is trying to get in front of it's ideal client audience. And why you need your clients to recognise the relevance of what you do.

- Why you absolutely need to pick a lane, a niche, a speciality and stick with it in the early days so that you can laser focus on your message for the clients you most want to work with.

- How to get access to Melanie's FREE guide and bonus training with her 8 Proven Steps to Eliminate "Best-Kept Secret Mode" and Be A Highly Paid Authority...Now!

Resources / Links

https://MelanieBenson.com/SucceedSpeaking

Transcript

Tom Bailey: Hello, and welcome to succeed Through Speaking the place for experts and entrepreneurs who want high value ideas to boost business results.

Hello, I'm Tom Bailey and in today's episode I'll be getting to know Melanie Benson, who is the host of the amplify, your success podcast, and the author of rewired for health as well as the co-author of the best-selling the voices of the 21st century. So, Melanie, hello, and a very warm welcome to today's episode.

Melanie Benson: Thank you. Happy to be here.

Tom Bailey: I really appreciate you coming along and whereabouts are you based?

Melanie Benson: We live just outside of Los Angeles in the Hills above what many people know is Malibu, California, with all the beaches.

Tom Bailey: Amazing. Thank you so much. And I'll try to share a little bit more about you before we do get started. So Melanie is an authority amplifier for expert, entrepreneurs , and she shows you how to do that, or stand out in a crowded market and attract high paying clients and opportunities. And has a proven track record of accelerating results for all her clients. The title for today's episode is How To Be A Highly Paid Authority And Melanie is going to show us how to do that in just seven minutes. So, no pressure at all and question number one for you today is who are your ideal clients?

Melanie Benson: No pressure at all. Right. So, my ideal clients are people who are building a business around an expertise. It could be a service, could be a program, oftentimes are coaches, consultants, and they have one thing in common. Yeah, they're working really, really hard, but they feel invisible to their ideal clients and they are searching and seeking for ways to be the most logical choice to their clients and be the person that gets chosen. So, we moved them from being invisible, to being a highly paid and sought-after expert.

Tom Bailey: Fantastic it's so, so important. And when you think of your ideal clients, what's typically that one big challenge that they're facing, or the biggest challenge that they're facing.

Melanie Benson: Yeah, I think they face several challenges. I've been doing this for 21 years. And one thing I've noticed is that when you have passion and a lot of heart around what you want to do, one thing is a pretty common is you're not necessarily as good at marketing as you good or as good at delivering what you do. So, you may be an expert in an authority in what you do, but you're not visible. And you're not seen in the market as being the expert because other people are better. Marketers. So, you're constantly fighting the, I don't like to market, or I'm not as good at marketing as everyone else. And so, I think one of the most important things that we have to look at is the problem of messaging. Yeah. I don't know how to create a message is compelling and attractive and irresistible to my ideal clients. And so, the best message tends to win and a lot of the marketing games and that's where we often see.

Tom Bailey: And, and I guess it may seem like an obvious question, but if they don't get their messaging right, or they're not getting better at marketing themselves, what impact will that ultimately have for them or their business?

Melanie Benson: Yeah. Well, I mean, I have experienced that I've experienced being a very visible, highly paid authority, and I've been through times when I felt really invisible and most of my clients do too. And that's what happens if your message isn't relevant? I teach a method in my amplify, your authority programs If your message isn't relevant. If it's not clear what your outcomes are, if it's not clear your credibility and there, if you're missing that specificity, it's called my rocks method. What ends up happening is people don't recognize your value. They just recognize that you're there. Like if they can see you at all, and that's where, why you're invisible, they don't recognize the relevance of what you do and why they need you.

Tom Bailey: Yeah, fantastic. I'm sure a lot of people listening to this will be stuck with that challenge. So, what's the one piece of advice that you'd give them to help them move.

Melanie Benson: You know, it's interesting. I was given and this advice early on in my career and I fought it for a really long time. And I'm sure you, you hear that this too is I'll pick a lane, pick a place that you want to specialize. I have a class right now, I'm working with an Australia who he's so talented. He so many different things that he can do. And he solves a lot of problems. So, he's like, I don't know, like how do I limit myself? We're not limited. What we do, we are starting with a really important message that solves a costly problem for the clients you most want to work. So, it's the old adage of start with what they want and then give them what they need. They need all the other stuff, but they're want this. And if you can get really good at solving that problem and being visible and have a great message that reveals that in the market, then you can move people into the other parts of your solution. So that's the place. I often start my clients because it's the fastest way to start seeing results.

Tom Bailey: I love that it's so powerful. And you know, they say, if you try and be everything for everyone, you end up becoming no nothing for no one. Exactly. So, given that then what is one resource or what is something that you can offer people to help them get started?

Melanie Benson: Well, I think helping people make money and be chosen, you know, in the market is a big problem. And so, I like to start with what's the roadmap, like what are the pieces you need to have in place to help you focus on solving the right problem in your business? And having studied what works for 21 years and then having my own business, you know, skyrocket several times I found there are eight common things. Highly paid authorities do well. And so, I put those in a guide that I call how to become a highly paid authority. And I would be happy to give that to everyone here. It's a free resource that I'll make available to everyone. I dunno if you have that URL handy or you want to put it in your show notes.

Tom Bailey: Yes, absolutely. I'll do that for everybody. So, it is Melaniebenson.com succeed speaking. And what I'll do is I'll put that into the show notes, like you said, and people can click that and they can dive right in and download that guide. Yeah.

Melanie Benson: And there's a little bonus training that goes with it that I think is really helpful where I talk through how to put all those puzzle pieces together and really prioritize the thing that's going to move the needle first fastest, and a first for you.

Tom Bailey: Incredible sounds incredibly useful. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. So, I've got another question now, obviously, like you said, you've been through lots of different changes or different routes that you've taken your business over the year. So, given that, what would you say is one of the greatest either mistakes or values that you've made either in life or business and what did you learn from it?

Melanie Benson: Well, I've made several you know there's two things I would say one was not having my own really specific starting point. Like I started there and then I grew and grew and grew and got good at a lot of things. And I started offering too many things in it. Honestly, a confused market doesn't buy in my out. My market got confused and I got confused. Like, I didn't know what I wanted to be, but the other side of that equation was I stopped listening to my own. Oh, my own wisdom, like my own intuitive hits on things. And I started making choices that were serving everybody, but me. Got it. And so really learning to hone that inner voice and listen to it is a skill that I didn't adopt until about 10 years in, but now it serves me very well.

Tom Bailey: Exactly. And also serves all of your clients very well as well from the sounds of things.

Melanie Benson: Yeah. Great. Does it have a payoff for them?  

Tom Bailey: Yeah, of course it was perfect. Thank you so much for the last question from me then is what is the one question that I should have asked you that will also bring some great value?

Melanie Benson: You know, I always like to ask my client my interview my interview guest on empire success. Like what is the boldest thing they ever had to do? Because I think people forget, it takes courage to have their own business. And honestly, the boldest thing I ever did was invest money in the business. I was becoming. Not spend money to take like that very next step. And I have done that over and over and over again, every time I wanted to accelerate my growth and I know a lot of people are afraid to invest in their business. They're afraid to spend money and changing my mindset about investing in my business was a radical game changer for me. And it's, it does require being bold, but you have to do it if you want.

Tom Bailey: All right. Great lesson, great advice. And that, that is probably one of the best investments you can make. So, I completely agree with you. So, Melanie, thank you so much again for your time today. I really appreciate you coming along and sharing such great value with our audience

Melanie Benson: yeah. Thanks for having me, I look forward to connecting with everybody.