How do you Make a Name for Yourself (in your industry) Part 2

Whether you're just starting out in your industry or you've been in it for many years and are quite established, how you make a name for yourself is important. 

Last week, my blog was about making a name for yourself at work. That blog is great for those of you who have a nine-to-five or working for someone else.

While there are many, many ways you can make a name for yourself in your industry, I'm going to focus on five specific ones that I really like. They are ones I have done myself when I was getting started in my industry, things that I continue to do today, and strategies I share with my clients. 

You’ll love that they are actions you can do, no matter how much time, energy, or your skill level. In some capacity, you can do each and every one of these five activities. ​

First: Be Active in Your Industry 

This means attending industry specific events and being in online communities. You can speak up in those. When you go to meetings, events, and conferences in your industry, make yourself known. That means working the room, chatting with people, and connecting with others.

Online that means giving great support, help, advice, or your two cents on whatever the topic may be or sharing resources with other people in your industry. In this way, ideally you're doing it in a way that doesn’t just shine a light on you, but supports other people. 

When I started networking as a coach, I attended a lot of different events. I was really trying to find out where my community was and which one was going to serve me best. I didn't necessarily go to a lot of industry-specific ones just for coaches, just for speakers, or just for podcasters.

I had moved here from Ontario so I didn't have any network in the business market here, so I went to general networking events at first. What's interesting is that even though I was new and hadn't been around for very long attending these events, people got to know me quickly. 

What I found was that by just being consistent in attending, I was meeting the same people, meeting similar people, and connecting with them over and over again. I was building relationships, I was building connections. I was building a name for myself to the point where people would say, “Wow, Diane, you're everywhere.”

Sometimes just showing up (not even being the speaker, a presenter, or an expert at that event), and being pleasant to others is all it takes to really make a name for yourself. 

Second: Speak at the Industry Events

Check on the organization, association, and conferences website and see if they have a monthly event with a speaker. You can apply to be the speaker, put it in an application, or just see what the call for speakers is for that particular event. When you speak at that industry and you share your knowledge, you share your expertise, you share tangible content people can apply or would be happy to have the resources, then you start to make a name for yourself because you're positioning yourself as the expert. 

Also what happens is in your industry, you’re getting a promotion from an organization, association, or conference that already is speaking to your industry. Whether you're in marketing, podcasting, sales, or whatever it may be, being the one on the stage already makes a name for yourself. 

Plus when they promote you, even if people don't attend the event, they see that they trust you and think you're capable. They might read your bio and read the outline of what you're going to speak on. I've received speaking engagements just from speaking at an event that the person hiring me wasn't even at. They just saw the information online. ​

When you're speaking at an event, teaching an event, or whatever it may be, the cool thing is, it already shows that trust has been placed in you and your expertise. ​

Third: Be a Published Author

If you don't want to write a book, maybe you can be published in:

• a magazine
• a literary journal
• an industry journal 
• an industry magazine
• be in someone’s anthology/collaborative book

Think: What are the leading publications in my industry and how do I get on those? 

Now, I'm not saying strategically that you want to be in all of them or that it even makes sense for whatever your goals are. But it is an opportunity to make a name for yourself because when people see that you're published, it means there's some confidence in your ability and in your ideas, your research, in how you teach, or in how you train. ​

It increases your credibility and positions you as an expert. That's how you want to be seen, especially if those in your industry start referring to your materials, whether that be your published materials, or when you were speaking at industry events. Having them refer to your work or think about the materials that you taught them is huge for making a name for yourself in your industry. 

Could you imagine if a university or college that is in your industry started using your book as their textbook for one of their courses or even as a book club by someone else in your industry? Putting focus and shining the light on the work you do definitely create a name for yourself. 

Fourth: Connect with Other Industry Leaders & Offer to Help

Offer to shine a light on what they're doing. Offer to connect them with someone. Showing up with an opportunity to share with them and to help them to connect them with someone is really going to get yourself far in your industry, especially when they're already the leader in the industry. That's showing respect and honor. You should always really show up to try and serve those that you connect with. But this way, those in your industry could very well become spokespeople for you. They could share about the connection that you had together. 

If someone in your industry is launching a book, buy their book. Then when you receive their book, take a picture of it and put it online. What better thing to do for someone else than to promote and share the work that they are very passionate about. 

Another action you can take is reaching out to the industry leaders. You can offer to interview them if you have a podcast or if you have a newsletter or a magazine or a blog, something where you can get the word out about them. If you interview them, then you get to know them in the process. Plus, you're promoting them. That's going to help build connections and get your name out there. 

Fifth: Collaborate, Joint venture, & Affiliate with Others

When you work together on a project or you offer to support another person on their project, that is definitely a win-win. It's how you make a name for yourself. If you were to begin as an affiliate by sharing someone else's program, share someone else's book launch, or if you were to collaborate on a launch, you build a relationship and your name gets associated with them. 

As long as they're a person of good character and you want to be associated with them, then it really is a great way to make a name for yourself. ​

When I started out, I jumped into a book to be a co-author on a project and it was a really cool experience. I learned so much plus I was able to connect with a lot of new people and make a name for myself by connecting with the person who put the book out. Now, I love that I get to use my platform to promote the stories and the secrets of other women in the Dynamic Women Secrets Series. 

This photo shows me and some of the women who collaborated for the Dynamic Women Success Secrets book during our launch party! 

First, we did the Dynamic Women Success Secrets book then the Dynamic Women Confidence Secrets book. With both of these, we have almost 100 women who are part of the process and part of promoting each other in the book. Everytime we sell a copy of the book, we're carrying the stories, secrets and the bio of other women and that is such a great way to make a name for yourself in your industry and other industries as well. And we are now working on the third one called Dynamic Women Trailblazer Secrets.

Think about how you can collaborate, joint venture, or affiliate with other people in your industry. Strategy-wise this might not be the best for everyone, if you have the exact same target market and you're offering the exact same thing, it might not be the best strategy for you. ​

Or it might be a fabulous strategy for you. You really have to look at this idea for making a name for yourself and the other four ideas, and just really work it into your marketing and your strategic plan for your business. 

There are so many other ways that you can make a name for yourself. These are just five of them. Other things you could do are:

• be on a board for an organization in your industry
  
• host a fundraiser for your industry
  
• volunteer in your industry
  
• set up your own award system for the industry
  
• do a podcast for your industry
  

Do you have other ideas? I'd love to hear them in the comments. 

Read my other blogs here: 
1. 7 Tips for Selling Without Being Salesy
2. 5 Things that make YOU dynamic
3.  The #1 Way to Know if You'll Get What You Want
​