What is an ‘Expert’ anyway?

Listeners to the podcast would have heard Phil and I discuss the importance of establishing your expertise in a particular area, preferably a niche.  But does it mean to be a so called ‘expert’?  It’s not as difficult as you might think.

First, let’s establish what the word expert means.

As a noun the word expert is define as:

a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority

Used as an adjective the word expert means:

possessing special skill or knowledge; trained by practice; skillful or skilled

Some synonyms which are often used for the term expert include:

connoisseur, master, experienced, proficient, dexterous

So you can see that there is no requirement that you possess a Ph.D in the subject, there is no limitation to the number of years of experience you must have to qualify.  Too often we place these unnecessary barriers for ourselves when we say, “Oh, nobody would EVER want to hear what I have to say about THAT subject.”  We’ve defeated ourselves before we have even started.

The Importance of Relativity

Here are a few things to keep in mind when establishing your expertise in a particular subject or business area.

1. There is plenty of room for experts of all kinds in any market.  No one has a monopoly on ‘expertise’ in any subject.  True some people know more than others but some who know less may be better at communicating their expertise to an audience.  Which one do you think gets more business?
2. Expertise is often geographically relevant.  It’s great that you are an expert real estate advisor in Chicago but that has nothing to do with someone carving out expertise in Miami, better yet…South Beach…still better is an expert on properties in a specific 10 block grid.  Over time you can be the ‘expert’ of a niche which is virtually unassailable by others trying to enter your small but heavily defensible kingdom.
3. Expertise is always relevant.  Look, I am really good at changing the snow tires on my car.  I have the process down to less than 30 minutes.  Among my neighbors and my family, I am ‘the expert’.  My mother knows more about planting, raising, pruning and tending to roses than almost anyone.  It’s not her business and she does not have a degree in horticulture but it is her passion and her hobby and people from all over come by to ask her advice and to get tips and insight.  In their mind she is an ‘expert’.

Make a list of all the things you are actually good at.  Start off with a general list but but then specify.  Here is an example:

• Baking
  • Baking desserts
    • Cakes
      • Chocolate Cakes
        • German Chocolate Cakes

You may be able to ‘establish your expertise’ on a very specific subject.  But it’s not a big leap for other people who have eaten and enjoyed your German Chocolate Cakes to believe that you can also bake other types of cakes as well.

So, start with what you’ve got and build on it.  We are all experts at at least one thing…

Giving Back Feels Great

One of the best parts of Lifestyle Investing is that it allows you time to give-back to your local community or wherever you happen to be in the world.

As we have discussed before the concept of Lifestyle Investing has 4 aspects:

• Income (we need finances to support ourselves)

• Time Control (flexibility to devote our time to our highest priorities)

• Longevity (to live a long, healthy and productive life)

• Giveback (to ensure that our life makes a positive impact on others and the planet)

I was just thinking this morning about how much of my time I have been able to devote recently to giving back and it feels great.  Here are some ways that I am finding to give back and maybe it will spark some ideas for you as well.

There are an unlimited number of ways to give back to your neighbors, your local community or the to world at large. Volunteering, even if it’s only 1 hour per week or even per month is a great way help others and meet new and interesting people at the same time.  Most retirement homes love it when people come to visit the residents.  The wisdom that comes with age is a treasure of incalculable value.  Spending even a few minutes per week with an person confined to a retirement home will make their entire day and you are guaranteed to learn something new from every engagement.

Having a spring or a fall cleaning can produce lots of items around the house which are no longer in use but may be of great value to others. Clean out the garage and your closets and donate as many items as you can. You’ll feel great having the additional space and knowing that someone else is getting use of something which would have only collected dust one more year in your attic.

Books are also a great thing to donate. I have many books which are near and dear to me and those I treasure and would not give away but each year I easily have dozens of books which I donate to the local library. It’s pretty cool so walk down the stacks at the local library and see some books that used to be on my shelf at home. They are not gone, I can check them out anytime I want and read them again but now so can anyone else.

Walk along a roadway somewhere in your neighborhood an pick up trash. My kids love doing this. Occassionally you will find something of value so they think it’s like a treasure hunt!

Coach a little-league sports team or help out with a dance club or another activity at a community center.   Big Brothers and Big Sisters, The Boys and Girls Club, the ideas here are limitless.  If you don’t have a club chapter in your area, chances are you need one.  Look into starting one part time such as only on Thursday afternoons from 4-6pm and see how many show up.  Even a few games of kick-ball can provide great exercise and memories for kids and it take nothing more than an open field or park and a $5 ball.

Building a balance lifestyle includes giving back in some way. Do something that helps others while simultaneously making you feel like you are making a meaningful contribution.

My advice to others is to budget this amount of time and prioritize it like any other necessary activity. If you plan to spend 45 minutes per day at the gym or working out then you should also plan to spend 1 hour per week or every-other Saturday morning giving back. When you plan it you will do it. When you do it you will enjoy it! When you enjoy something you will do it again!

The Importance of Measurement

I know that Phil and I are always talking about the importance of ‘getting started’ when it comes to Lifestyle Investing. That’s probably because getting started is the hardest part. Once you do get started, though it does become easier, you need to check your map and compass periodically to make sure you are heading in the right direction.

One of Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s seminal contributions to the post WW2 advancements in the field of continuous improvement was his Plan, Do, Check, Act or PDCA cycle. This method remains to this day an integral component in the ISO Quality standards which today are so prevalent in the business world.  But…all of that is a story for another day.

Yet there is a lot we as entrepreneurs and even solo-entrepreneurs can learn from this simple approach such as: Planning to do something, Doing it, Checking how well it worked and taking Action to fine-tune it.  This simple process is how success is ultimately achieved.  No matter what we do in life it’s vital that we measure our performance in order to gauge your progress.  This mentality and approach has its roots in the ROLI Calculator.

I remember I had an old car when I was in college and the fuel gauge did not work.  I knew it was broken so I would try to make a note of how many miles I had driven so that I could fill up before running out of gas.  But, as I apparently had more important things on my mind, I managed on more than one occasion to run out of gas and was forced to walk a few miles to rectify my mistake.

If you think about it we take gauges like these for granted all the time even though they are crucial to our success.  Yet we will often take actions in business or in our private life with no clear way of measuring the degree of success or failure.

Nowadays no matter what I do I try to measure it.  Even on my mountain bike I have a speedometer which gives me a readout of my speed, distance traveled, etc, etc.  I also use a heart rate monitor to see what my effort is doing to my pulse.  The same thing goes for business ventures, whether it’s a Google ad campaign or a split-test on a blog page I must know what is working and what is not so I can make the necessary changes to keep improving the performance.

So just remember, no matter what you are doing, make sure you have designed a way to measure the effectiveness of that event or activity.  As the old saying goes, “You can’t manage what you cannot measure.”

Leave a comment with your examples of something you’re measuring in you’re life or work…

What’s Your Strongest Asset?

In traditional investing the term ‘asset class’ has a well defined meaning.  The three main asset classes are equities (stocks), fixed-income (bonds) and cash equivalents (money market instruments).  Increasingly though assets such as Real Estate and commodities are also referred to as their own class of asset.

You know the drill here at Lifestyle Investors, we don’t look at the world in a traditional way.  So what are your asset classes?  How would you group your assets?  Wait…before you answer that let me make sure we have a common definition for the term asset.  An asset is something that you own or possess (or can get your hands on legally) which is of value.  When something is of value that means it can be converted to something else.  Cash can be converted to groceries.  Cars can be sold and converted to cash, etc, etc…

So as a Lifestyle Investor what are your assets?  Money…certainly.  Cold hard cash or even equity in your home represent a significant asset and one which you need to nurture and protect.  But what else?

How about knowledge?  That’s right…all those years in school or on the job have filled up a lot of that space between your ears.  What you know and specifically what you know how to do is a serious asset.

Ever heard the saying, “It’s not always WHAT you know but WHO you know.”?  That’s right…your personal network, the people you know and equally as important all the people THEY know are a significant asset in your portfolio.  Calling in, or exchanging a favor can be the difference between success and failure in any business venture.  Having a wide network is a huge asset.

Here is a hint for you…tick tock, tick tock…that’s right TIME.  Time is perhaps our most valuable asset of all.  Having time to focus on what is most important in life is what Lifestyle Investing is all about.  And having the time to focus on lucrative business ventures is what will help you separate from the 9-5 rat-race in cubicle hell.

So take a few minutes today to jot down all of your assets and rank them in terms of their present day value.  If you have more money than time then find a way to use one asset to gain another.  If you have no money but a huge network, then think of a way to harness the power of that asset to create some financial payback.

Leave a comment and let us know what you think…

What is your Return on Lifestyle Investment?

What is your most prized possession; your house, your car, a piece of jewellery or maybe a family heirloom?

The paradox of time is that, generally speaking, spending it in one endeavour usually comes at the expense of another.  For most people, spending time at work (in exchange for your pay check) means directly sacrificing the opportunity to spend time with your family or your friends or enjoying your hobbies.  Sure there are always a few exceptions but for the vast majority of us this unfortunately holds true.

If you agree with this premise then the next logical question becomes; what kind of return are you getting on your investment?  More specifically, how satisfied are you with your lifestyle?  Is the way you spend your time generating income consuming too much of the time you would like to spend on other pursuits?  What are your thoughts regarding the value of time?

Listen to the podcast on the Return on Lifestyle Investment.

Speaking of time, I am using too much of my own writing this blog post…see ya later.