Book Review: How to Position Yourself as the Obvious Expert

How to Position Yourself as the Obvious Expert
In 90 Days or Less Without Spending a Fortune on Advertising

by Elsom Eldridge Jr. and Mark L. Eldridge

ISBN-10: 0972094164
ISBN-13: 978-0972094160

PROS: Straightforward, information-dense.  Has quotes, ideas, and examples from a lot of professionals.

CONS: Focus limits the book.  Some exercises not as useful as others.  Erratic consistency.

SUMMARY: A must-read book on self-promotion that is useful to anyone looking to promote themselves, network, and connect.  It is focused on consultants and coaches, but is actually useful to most any professional.



"How to Position Yourself as the Obvious Expert" is a book aimed at consultants and coaches who want to promote themselves and their business.  The approach they take is simple – if you want to promote yourself, you need to position yourself as an expert, the obvious expert, people will want to go to you.

This book is on how to make sure people think of YOU when they want someone to fill a need, consult, or otherwise help them out.

The book is broken into highly specific chapters focusing each on a different method of establishing yourself in people's minds, hearts, businesses, and even communities as an expert.  Each chapter stands on its own, and ends with an exercise or series of exercises to help you out.

The chapters are more than exercises and general advice.  Almost every page contains a useful bit of specific advice culled from a consultant, coach, or other business/career expert.  These bits and bites of information take the book from useful to indispensable – they bring the basic advice alive by making it personal and giving specific ideas.

The end result is an impressive book – you've got basic advice that's useful and well categorized, and additional advice and ideas from nearly 200 other people the authors talked to.  It's hard NOT to find something useful to your career.

Despite this being a book on promoting yourself, it's also got a strong and deliberate element of ethics to it.  There's an entire chapter on giving back and how it's good for the business and the soul.  This isn't one of those win-at-any costs books, it's one with heart.

There are a few flaws.  The exercises are of varied quality and usefulness, and are most likely useful depending on individual knowledge and inclination.  The depth of advice can very from general to specific.

The book is meant for coaches and consultants, but frankly, its useful for any professional – because professionalism IS about establishing yourself as an expert.  In these days of personal branding, it dovetails nicely with business trends.

This one is going into the "must read" list for Fan To Pro. There's just too much in this book for you not to read it – if not outright own a copy. It also is a fantastic gift for professionals you know.

– Steven Savage