The Business of Expertise by David Baker guides you through the process by which entrepreneurial experts convert insight and experience into impact and wealth. It is a book that really strives to help those who want to help others through some knowledge or experience they have and to bring together that expertise in the form of a business.
The author, David Baker, says that “The best business relationships are comprised of distributed control. The only control you have is to withhold your expertise.” In other words, many people who are experts at something often give away their expertise at no cost. This could be in many forms, whether in casual conversations with friends or potential clients, or even through hobbies. The more knowledge and experience someone might have, the more their advisement is sought, perhaps without monetary compensation. This often puts the expert in a position where they are fielding a lot of requests for their time and knowledge. Baker emphasizes the ability of saying no.
He also gives us a lot of reasons to establish ourselves as experts, which elevates you and your brand. Clients are drawn to confidence. The goal post is not how big you or your firm can be but how impactful you can be. “You will be successful with belief which comes from childhood or lots of opportunity which comes from marketplace acceptance.” He adds that, “Ultimate control stems from withholding that expertise which is only meaningful if your expertise is difficult to replace.” Saying no from time to time will make your yes stronger and more confident.
While experts might be able to work in a lot of areas, Baker spends some time emphasizing positioning. “Good positioning allows you to recognize similar situations and then noticed the patterns that lead to expertise,” he says. “Most of us need more marketplace acceptance which comes from good positioning which comes from more opportunity to attract it.”
So how do you decide what to be an expert at? “You can start by viewing your expertise as a hobby, a job, or an enterprise,” says Baker. “A hobby cost you money, a job trades expertise for a monetary compensation, and an enterprise is bigger than a person.”
This book is a great starting point for helping someone understand how to monetize their expertise. “Money is the currency of respect,” says Baker. “Expertise is treated higher the more they are able to charge for their time.”
He also drills down to our purpose. “Values are who we are that manifest themselves throughout our lives. Purpose may be the specific reason why our current business exists.” However, he adds, “The idea that you should follow your heart and success will find you is a fool’s errand.”
Bakers says he believes expertise is important because he’s tasted competence and he doesn’t want to go back to the alternative. “The power of actionable insight is what drives me to never stop learning and to always find more interesting ways to slice through the clutter,” he says. He also emphasizes to “be an expert, not a guru.” Expertise is hard work, but he emphasizes to actually “do the hard work of expertise.” It will be rewarding.
Baker says that to be an effective leader, we should try to master the timing of our decisions rather than the effectiveness of our decisions. There are four key times to make decisions. The first is when there are opportunities that are small enough to pounce on. The second is when your people are looking for direction, when they are not able to draw a dotted line from what you’re asking at where they need to be. The third is when you need to fill a vacuum that an effective leader won’t leave empty. And the fourth is when you need to correct a bad decision. “If you are leading, you’re constantly making decisions, which means you’re going to make bad ones as well,” he reminds us. “An effective leader learns how to quickly correct their bad decisions. This gives you confidence to make decisions more frequently.”
Baker also helps us take the leap of using our expertise in an entrepreneurial way – and that really is the core concept of this book. He reminds us that “Experts need to be right, but entrepreneurs need to take a risk.” Balancing these two sides of being an entrepreneurial expert is key.
“Life is not about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself,” he says. “Many experts have a similar pattern: they find something, they do it really well, then they cross over to do something else, like a Venn diagram, it has some relevance to something they previously did, but it is new and really beautiful. They set new paths.”
Baker suggests that we concentrate on impact and revenue. “The more you try to force yourself into meeting all your clients’ needs the less effective you will be and the sooner they will leave you,” he says. He also goes back to not always having to be available or provide a need for everyone. “Clients want to work with experts who are in demand.”
To emphasize our positioning and what area of space we should occupy in the mark, Baker uses a line from Jack Welch: “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.”
Baker outlines the six best ways to deliver your expertise to a client who needs and wants help: (1) start with questions, (2) answer those questions differently, (3) do some research in their behalf (4) find opportunities to be interviewed as an expert, (5) write all the time – not just to say something, but to figure out what you think, and (6) do some public speaking.
“The only way to further your knowledge is to articulate it, whether that is on stage or in writing,” says Baker. “Being an expert is knowing you can answer any question about the narrow field you serve.”
“Experts don’t do everything. They do a few things really well.” This is an important concept because experts often have a vast array of knowledge and experiences, however it is the niche they occupy that makes them a true expert – knowing a particular field so well that it sets them apart from everyone else – and that’s the true competitive advantage an entrepreneurial expert wants and needs to find.