How to Build Your Village of Experts
Invaluable Resources From Those Who’ve Gone Before You
I recently got the chance to pick the brain of an expert academic coach. Beth Peterson is not related to me, however we do share a last name and we both use Fons to automate the client-based side of our businesses. Beth is a veteran of her craft. She’s spent decades teaching others how to be a better student. My question to her was…
“What advice do you have for new business owners?”
Beth’s response was this:
Tap into your village of experts. I felt I could build my own website because I’m pretty creative and techy. After a couple of months of going nowhere, I got smart and hired Jodi to build it and I don’t regret it one bit. She took my ideas and launched it in no time. I also don’t care to crunch numbers that much, so I reached out to Nanette who does a fantastic job doing my monthly reports and helping me prepare for my tax accountant. If I had to do all of this work on my own, then I wouldn’t have the bandwidth for my clients. Reach out, ask for help and then do what YOU do best!
Tapping into a village of experts?! This idea lit me up like a fully decorated Christmas tree.
- I wholeheartedly agree with Beth Peterson.
- I agree because I’ve built my own village of experts. It’s been crucial to my own success and dedication. But I don’t know of many colleagues who have intentionally done this. I wish they would!
If you’re just getting started or want to build your own village of experts, here’s what I suggest:
4 Steps to Building Your Village of Experts
Step 1: Find Your Zone of Genius
Gay Hendricks, NYT bestselling author (The Big Leap and Five Wishes) talks about this concept a lot and I will gladly chime in agreement: Do whatever you can to spend every minute of every day within your “Zone of Genius.” Your business, your clients, your bank account, your family, your spouse will thank you a million times over.
Your Zone of Genius is the thing that makes you unique at what you do. Something no one else can do just like you can. Your clients might’ve signed up to work with you because of your design skills or because you’re the town’s expert on french horn, but they stay with you and your business because of your Zone of Genius. Design skills and music education aren’t a novel idea or service, but the community you’ve built or the warm fuzzies your clients get, those point towards your Zone of Genius. Watch for those bread crumbs to find your Zone of Genius.
If you’re struggling to discover and clarify what this zone is for yourself, I recommend asking your colleagues and clients. In asking my own colleagues to write endorsements for my recently published book, I learned so much about my own Zone of Genius. These endorsements confirmed what I suspected, my personal Zone of Genius is delivering tough-to-swallow information in a way that makes a listener want to hear more of it and do something life-changing with it. Here’s what Becky Mollenkamp, a fellow business consultant, said:
“It takes bravery to talk about subjects that may make others uncomfortable, but Emily Ann has the chutzpah to do it. Best of all though, she is able to tackle those tough subjects in a kind, loving, compassionate, tender-hearted way. That’s a special gift.”
If words like “special gift” and “unicorn” aren’t frequently used to describe you and your work, another great way to identify your Zone of Genius is to observe which parts of the day you aren’t watching the clock. The moments when you forget what time it is and instead get super focused on the work-at-hand are also the moments when you get lost within your Zone of Genius.
Step 2: Identify Your Zones of Assistance
It takes WAY more than one person’s Zone of Genius to keep a business running. What I love about Beth’s advice above is she immediately acknowledged how important it is to rely on other folks’ zones of genius!
I do the same for my own business. For example: I have a podcast called Bare Naked Bravery which I *could* spend 20+ hours/week executing poorly or I could hire my killer production team to complete the job for a fraction of the time and overall cost (thereby alleviating me to make more money with all that extra time not poorly editing audio!) I also have a bookkeeper, several teachers, assistants, and other project-based experts. They all work within their zones of genius and most days it feels like a miracle.
Step 3: Create an Advisory Board
This step could be formal or informal. Basically, you’ll look at your business with a bird’s eye view. What’s going really well? What’s going okay? What’s going not well at all? Based on those answers, what kind of advice would you love to have at the end of a phone call or email? What kind of questions would you love to ask over coffee and get reliable, confident, but sometimes brutal truth and advice?
For me, this was getting a high-level coach who I text every week. We do a weekly back-n-forth to strategize my business’ long-game. I also have TWO seats on my “Advisory Board” for finances. One I meet with every month on a formal basis while the other one is available if I need her. I’ve got a couple lawyers who are friends. They’re informally on my advisory board, but I know I can hire them if needed in the future.
For your business, this might mean taking a more advanced, more experienced colleague out to coffee every quarter. Maybe it means attending an annual retreat where your idols and mentors will be. Maybe it means calling up a college buddy to ask them if they’d be willing to occasionally offer some advice to you.
Note: Even though you’re not obligated to take every word your Advisory Board says as the rule book, this step only works if you’re willing to listen and absorb their suggestions and advice. Often, the ego needs to take a step back in business.
Step 4: Automate Asking for Help
You’ve probably already seen hints of this from the above steps, but automating this assistance and mentorship is crucial. Not only am I such a huge fan of automation (I automate as many parts of my business as possible, including the billing and scheduling with the help of Fons.com!) When it comes to automating help and wisdom in your life and business, in some cases this means a standing monthly or weekly appointment with your advisers. In other cases, it’s hiring someone’s assistance to keep that consistency accountable.
This trick helps me a lot: I’ve set a monthly reminder (via Google Calendar or Siri) to reach out to various members of my advisory board. When I get a reminder, I’ll send off a quick text or email to my mentor to check-in regarding the latest thing I’ve been working on. This works like a charm, especially for those tribe members who I don’t have a standing engagement with, but want to stay in touch with them.
A final quarterly task I will often do is to take an afternoon to get a bird’s eye glimpse of how everything in my career and business is going. I use this time to specifically acknowledge which areas need more support from my advisory board or future advisory board members.
What do you think? Do you have a Tribe of Experts or Advisory Board?
I want to know all about it! What have you gained as a result of these experts? How have you created a mutually beneficial relationship with them? How have you automated their assistance?
If you’re looking for additions to your Tribe of Experts, please join the Fons Family facebook group! We want to be there for you!
Emily Ann Peterson is a singer-songwriter, creative consultant, and #1 bestselling author of the book Bare Naked Bravery: How to Be Creatively Courageous. It’s a rebellious how-to memoir which lays out the definition of bravery and tools for building it on a daily basis.
Download book bonuses, free music, coloring books, and more by visiting emilyannpeterson.com
