Module 3: Identify Your Signature Expertise

As we mentioned in the last module, your signature system can become the core of your business around which you build other elements. But you need to clarify what that system is before you can go any further.  

Once you lay out your solution as a clear process, you can package it into a program to offer to people who have the same challenge and need the same results.

• You’re an architect working with homeowners wanting to remodel their homes. You’ve devised a system to take them through a simple process enabling them to makes decisions that are appropriate to their lifestyle and budget. You could offer this to other architects and home remodelers to save them time with individual clients.
• You’re a writer who has published several ‘how to’ books for business people. You devise a book planning system for would-be authors which takes them from their initial idea, through the structure they need, to the point of publishing.
• You’re a color consultant for women over 50. You devise a system that involves color testing, shape and style so that your clients can be confident they know the most flattering colors and shapes for their personal style. You offer your system as a program to others in your field and those starting out.
• You’re a professional musician who has taught yourself how to play jazz piano. You lay out your process in a video program for others who want to play jazz and don’t want to hire a teacher.  
• You’re a busy, working mom who has figured out how to simplify and declutter your life and reduce your stress. You put your tactics into a step-by-step process that other busy moms can implement to gradually tame the same chaos and achieve balance.

You’ve experienced many challenges in your business, but you’ve overcome them. Sometimes it may have felt like one step forward, two steps back, but you’ve persisted and achieved your goals.

As a result, you may be working with customers and clients on the same topic to help them overcome similar challenges. But you’re doing so without a structured process.

Or, you might have kept your success system just for yourself, not realizing that you could use it to help others and bring in new revenue.

You may have solved a problem that isn’t directly related to your business at all. For example, if you have adopted disturbed stray dogs all your life and successfully trained them to be less aggressive and more sociable, then there’s a system in there you could tease out. If you were to offer this to others like you, they too could succeed and there would be fewer stray dogs on the street. If your situation is in any way similar and you’re stepping outside your normal business environment, then devising a signature system around your solution may be the start of a new direction for you.

Whatever your current circumstances, you have the opportunity to turn your expertise into a way to help more people and increase your revenue.

First, you need to choose a specific issue in your business or your life that you’ve solved. You probably won’t have to look too far to find this.

Then, you have to work out how you achieved results so you can map your current process/system/solution for this problem.

If you’re having difficulty analyzing your process, look at the outcomes you’ve got and work backwards.

It’s sometimes easier for someone else to identify the process you follow than you can yourself. If you’ve already helped customers and clients with similar issues, look at what they’ve said in their testimonials. Or talk to them and ask them exactly how you helped. You could use some of the questions from earlier.

Explore what people are saying about your approach on social media – there might be some gems of information there.

You could also try out your system on a friend or colleague and get feedback from them.

• Your signature system is based on your own expertise and the solution you devised for a specific challenge, whether your own or a client’s, so its success is proven.

• Once you lay out your solution as a clear process, you can package it into a program to offer to people who have the same challenge and want the same results.

1. Quick Win: Choose the one area you want to turn into a step-by-step system and write it down in your Action Guide
2. Map out your process by answering the questions in your Action Guide