“People do business with people they know, like and trust”.

You've heard it a million times.

It's true. Of course it is. But it's also a lie.

The lie is in the implication that the only way to win business is for people to know, like and trust you first.

Now that used to be true.

The traditional way of doing business in the professions was to get out and network. Build relationships with people who could be clients for you or who could refer you and vice versa.

Knowing, liking and trusting came first. Then when you had a need you asked the people you trusted for their opinions on who could do the best job to help you.

It's a style of doing business that favours the extrovert. The person comfortable socialising and schmoozing. Making those initial know and like connections.

Plenty of people still do business that way. Perhaps even the majority.

But more and more people don't.

You're probably not reading this email because you knew me, liked me and trusted me right up front.

You probably subscribed because you thought there'd be value in one of my free reports. And then hopefully I built credibility and trust over time.

Value came first. Then liking and trust.

It's a way of doing business that people like me who aren't extroverts can master. Maybe you fit into that mould too.

If we're experts at what we do, we can share our expertise up front and find an audience who then grow to like us and trust us over time. And we don't need brilliant social skills to make it work.

We just need to take what we do, what we're passionate about, and turn it into a form that can reach our ideal audience.

Maybe it's a presentation. A book. A series of videos, a podcast or free report.

Form is less important than what we put into it and the value we share.

Value first.

Most people struggle with marketing not because they don't know what to do. There's no shortage of advice on marketing tactics.

Most people struggle because they don't enjoy doing what they're advised to do. So they don't do it well or they don't do it at all.

But giving value first by sharing what we love doing is a strategy almost all of us can enjoy.

I hate giving elevator pitches. But I love sharing my knowledge and experience.

I get much better results doing the latter than the former.

And I think probably you will too.