Christoff Oosthuysen reviews “Own Your Industry – How To Position Yourself As An Expert” by Douglas Kruger, published by Portfolio Penguin (2014).

When you are known as “the expert”, clients will line up to do business with you.

This is what Douglas Kruger exclaims in his recently released book “Own Your Industry”.

But, that is not all he offers with the book. He also goes on to give 50 practical techniques on what you could do to achieve the status of “go-to expert”.

“Experts are never experts by accident. While it is true that they may have built up a considerable body of knowledge, there is also a significant public relations element to their stature,” he says.

This is so because they have “crafted” their positions over time so that they can receive the recognition they deserve. So how can you craft yourself to be recognised as an expert?

Douglas Kruger

Some of the tips offered in this book are fairly obvious. You, for instance, won’t become a recognised expert if you have not chosen a niche, or specific sub-topic of a niche, as your expertise.

Kruger says, the narrower you define your focus, the better the chance of you being seen as the first person to approach.

Other techniques, like developing a unique framework philosophy, are less obvious and really do make you think about your own approach to positioning yourself in your industry.

Such a framework is something that you can refer back to over and over in your media, blog posts, or presentations, which you will eventually be known by. Another piece of advice is that you need to produce. And lots of it. You will not be recognised as an expert if you keep your thoughts to yourself. You need to produce on all fronts – including publishing a book – so that your expertise is recognisable, and in producing, you should not shy away from controversy.

In fact, the clearer you are in distinguishing yourself from the old and known norm, the more likely you are to stand out as an expert.

As a South African motivational speaking expert, Kruger offers advice that we can well associate with as entrepreneurs. Each of the 50 techniques are presented concisely on two pages or so, which makes this an easy read. I, for one, managed to keep to my aim of finishing the book!