A professional is someone who can accomplish things within their field above and beyond the average person. Unfortunately, in the digital age, anyone can Google how to do what you do and do it themselves.
I’m not suggesting that by searching the Internet for instructions, anyone can do what you do well, effectively, properly, or legally. If I wanted to learn how to perform heart surgery, had the aptitude and means, I could figure it out. I could find the needed equipment online and — dare I suggest? — the heart, too.
Please don’t interpret this as permission to break the law. I’m merely pointing out that you are not alone. Many professions have been affected by advances in technology. While this is not new, the pace has increased substantially. Professionals are finding it hard to adjust.
What can a professional do?
The answer for most is to develop a plan to render the competition irrelevant.
How to you do this?
One way is to employ the and. Combine your specialty with another craft, technique, philosophy, or technology and become the inventor, guru or go-to expert on the topic. In the past, this was hard to do on the small-scale most professionals are engaged. If the development of an and becomes too narrow of a niche, there would not be enough clients to sustain a career.
Most professionals of the past were also limited by geography. Today the world is open to everyone with an Internet connection through social media and digital marketing. If you develop an expertise in a niche area by combining two disciplines, you can test the idea in your hometown and then share it with the world. Even if there is only one person in each town who can use your service, you now have a much better chance of gaining access to them.
The new professional is a specialist.
Not every new professional creates a niche using the and. Some professionals limit their specialty to a narrowly defined niche within their profession. However you develop your niche, average will not work. Today there is too much competition to just be an everyday accountant, financial planner, photographer, writer, designer, printer, or business coach.
