Monetizing Your Knowledge for Greater Impact

Are you ready to transform your academic expertise into a thriving personal brand? Learn how to break free from the traditional academic path and create a six-figure income by listening to our latest Power Your Research episode. 

Follow Dr. Sheena Howards' socials:
@drsheenahoward | Power Your Research

Chapters

• 0:00 Building Your Brand as an Academic
• 7:40 Building Your Academic Brand Strategy
• 11:23 Creating Sustainable Academic Brand Equity

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

you to get clear on what amplifying your platform means for you Not somebody else, not your peer, not this other person you see online doing it well, but for you. Understand that you will have to get out of your comfort zone in order to build your brand. But also you can do it in a way that best resonates with you. I don't want my work to be stuck behind an academic paywall. I want to leave a legacy, I want to reach my potential and I want to change lives. This podcast, power your Research, is my attempt to help the smartest people in the world do that very thing. My hope is that you use the lessons I share to make more money than what your higher ed job can ever pay you. I've done it, my clients have done it, and so can you. My hope is that you'll apply what you learn here and one day join the Power your Research program where you can work with me one-on-one.

Speaker 1: 1:13

The topic of this video the PhDs blueprint for building a brand in the attention economy. Wow, that's a mouthful, but I'm excited about this because I'm going to walk you through the process for PhDs to go from where they are today to building a brand, becoming a notable and confident public figure that makes an income of six figures plus just off of your brand. So I'm going to go through this nine-step system with you. I'm going to talk about the stages of this system that you can implement, and the attention economy means, you know, getting someone's attention is very valuable. Your attention is valuable because if you're not paying attention to my content or someone else's content, then I can't provide value to you, and there is a lot of competition out there. So if I want my target audience to pay attention to the things that I'm sharing, there are certain things that I need to be doing and I need to be doing them well. So we're going to go through these steps and you can always jump on a 30 minute call with me to talk about your brand building goals, or you can jump into the five day challenge to get the first part of this system. And so you know the power of your research process is all about protecting your future.

Speaker 1: 2:40

A lot of PhDs are either in academe and not making the money they thought they would make, or they realize they've reached their pay ceiling right After you get tenure. After you get full professor. There is no promotion. After that, you can either go administration to make more money which a lot of people do even though they don't want to or you can just rely on, hopefully, a cost of living raise every year. But I'm giving you a third option which, in my opinion, is much, much better, and that is building your brand. You already have the academic credentials. You need to be out here changing lives and making an impact at scale. So the other thing about the power of your research process is that the average academic is not the one with the microphone, and what I mean by that is you are a subject matter expert that doesn't have the audience, is not getting the media coverage and visibility you deserve. However, there are people out here who are not subject matter experts, who have not put in the time you put in in your field or area of research, and they do have the microphone. They are getting the media coverage and visibility, they are publishing best-selling books, and I happen to believe that society is a better place when my subject matter experts, my PhDs, actually have the blueprint to being the one with the microphone, so you can actually disseminate the information that is true and correct and that will actually change people's lives.

Speaker 1: 4:05

This blueprint is in three phases. So there's the build phase phase one, there's the engage phase phase two and then there's the publicize, monetize phase, which is phase three, and so that's how the system is broken up, and so there are three steps in each phase. The first step is mindset. We all have our own unique mindset issues that are holding us back, but there are some themes that I see working with my academics, which is why this process is specifically for academics and those with PhDs, because we have a unique set of challenges and indoctrination, because we have a PhD and imposter syndrome comes with that. You know, we learn things that are completely opposite than the entrepreneurship world, that we have to either unlearn or learn entrepreneurship side by side with the academic success and skills that we have. So the first step is mindset. We don't want to be pouring water in a cup with holes, so mindset looks like helping you understand that you need to increase your speaking engagement rates, consulting rates and reframing the way you think about self-promotion. A lot of my academic friends are scared of self-promotion and they're scared of trolls. One of the number one objections I get in this first mindset step is you know what are the ramifications of people online saying nasty things to me, and so we have to overcome those limiting self-beliefs. If you can make it out of your limiting self-beliefs, you can make it anywhere. So the first step is mindset. The second is vision.

Speaker 1: 5:40

A lot of my PhDs, either because they're in academe or because they tried to be in academe, or you know, they have one foot in, one foot out, especially my tenure track folks. All of your goals are connected to academe in some way. Right, all of your professional goals are connected to getting a tenure track or getting tenure or just some way connected to academe. You need to have the space to think about what you want your life to look like, not always connected to academe. A year from now, five years from now, what do you want your life to look like? Could look like a lot of a little bit of teaching. You know, I don't teach that you should just completely abandon your academic job, but I do teach that you need to build your brand in a way where academe can be an option where you can say, hey, I can leave this job if I want, because my brand is paying me more than what any institution can pay me anyway. So give yourself the space to create a vision and don't keep it in your head. Write this vision down what you want your life to look like six months from now, a year from now, five years from now. And then I want you to get clear on what amplifying your platform means for you, not somebody else, not your peer, not this other person you see online doing it well, but for you. Understand that you will have to get out of your comfort zone in order to build your brand, but also you can do it in a way that best resonates with you. That includes choosing the social media platforms you want to be on and all of that good stuff. Get the clarity you need because you can be intentional about building your brand in a way that best resonates with who you are. Hey, everyone, real quick. I don't run any ads on this podcast, so I have to rely on word of mouth. If this podcast has helped you in any way, please share it with a friend and follow me, dr Sheena Howard, on LinkedIn, where I give more free content on building your brand as an academic. If you tell me you came to my LinkedIn from the podcast, I'll make sure I accept your request.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Third step is brand building. You need a brand statement, you need your brand adjectives and you need your brand archetype. These are your brand assets. So before you go out and do the cosmetic stuff of spending money on a color scheme and logos and brand style guide, you need to have this first phase of clarity figured out. You need your brand statement, brand archetype and brand adjectives. Think about it A lot of us don't do the steps in order. So you're going to a freelancer to get your logo kit. You're just like, ah, I kind of want it to look like this, I kind of want to look like it like that, but you don't know who you are as a brand. Imagine having your brand assets and then saying, hey, I need you to design a logo. This is who I am, this is who I'm trying to help. They can then match the colors up with your brand, your brand adjective, brand archetypes right. So you got to do things in the right order. So phase one, that building phase, is about clarity. Right, go in the steps in the right order. Phase two engage. This is the media coverage and visibility strategies. Now I'm going to go through this phase quickly only because I don't have enough time to give you the specifics of what you need to do in each step, but I'm going to tell you what the steps are.

Speaker 1: 8:49

To get you started off on the right foot, so you need a media strategy. Get you started off on the right foot, so you need a media strategy which we teach you empower your research. You need a media placement strategy which we teach you empower your research. No-transcript, and we teach you that in the program. And so these are all the things that are going to cut out the fluff and just get you the the results that you need when someone types in Google the key terms that represent the field or area you want to work in. Because here's the thing on Google, people don't scroll past the first or second page, right? And so when someone types in the keywords related to your field, you need to be coming up on that first or second page, whether it is within an article, whether it is an article that you wrote, whether it is an op ed that you wrote. You need to be coming up on a media blitz, which is just kind of part of your social media strategy, and letting people know, reminding people that you're getting all of this media and visibility coverage Right. Some of you are only posting an interview or an op ed once, and then you're like, oh, a couple of people liked it and that's great, but you actually have to post multiple times.

Speaker 1: 10:02

And so we talk about that in phase two, with that engage phase and incorporating your social media strategy in there. Right, social media is a strategy, it's not something that you just do haphazardly. And then phase three is monetize. So publicize and monetize. This is all about that six figure roadmap.

Speaker 1: 10:20

My roadmap is documented on my brand strategy guide, and so monetization looks like implementing a system to get consistent speaking engagements, and by consistent, I mean consistent based on your lifestyle. Some people have little kids. They're not trying to fly all over the place for speaking engagements. Some people can do more, some people can do less but implementing a speaking engagement system where you're actually respecting your time and charging what you're worth and seeing your knowledge and your presentation as valuable enough to charge at least $3,500. None of this honorarium stuff. We need to cut that out. And you need to have a system for when and why you will do free speaking engagements. And when I say system, I mean you will do free speaking engagements. And when I say system, I mean these things need to be documented and you turn it into an objective process. If the opportunity matches items one, two, three and four, I can do it for free. If not, I cannot, and so you want to learn more about what that looks like, jump on a call with me. Okay, so that step seven is monetize.

Speaker 1: 11:23

Step eight is build equity, and this is just helping you understand that you don't need 50 streams of income. You don't need to be considering building your brand as a side hustle. It's actually something that's connected to your mission, vision and purpose. Otherwise, why are you doing it if you're not trying to help people and make an impact? So building equity in your brand, which is step eight, means the money you make is not just about you do something and you get money in return. It's about the long-term equity in your brand. Your brand should be worth more than just the single transaction that you're making to do a speaking engagement or a consulting gig. This has to do with adding value. This has to do with doing two things really really well.

Speaker 1: 12:06

Okay, so for me, I have my writing business, I have my power, your research business. Those are the two things that I monetize, and it's all funneled through Dr Sheena Howard, my personal academic brand. Step nine is about protecting your future, so when you get to the end of this blueprint, you need a documented brand strategy guide which basically documents everything that I just told you, and it is personal and unique to you. And so that is the blueprint for building a brand in the attention economy, specifically for my PhDs, and I truly hope this helps. If you're new here, my name is Dr Sheena Howard. I'm the founder of Power your Research, an academic branding company where I help academics and educators increase their visibility, authority and income without the expense of a publicist, and I hope you have an amazing day.