Credentials – Do They Matter?

Posted on March 17th, 2009, by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D.

Recent question during a Life of E’s Email Extravaganza:

Do you truthfully believe those of us without PhDs, a university teaching career, an established speaking reputation, and published books can actually draw a large enough audience for teleseminars and webinars to even cover the costs of producing them (i.e., shopping carts, Adobe subscription, etc.)? And I am not being sarcastic here.

This is a question that so many people have and I’m VERY glad that you asked it. This may be a long answer, so get ready, readers. (and you may need to scroll down a bit)

1. Yes.

Oh, you wanted more than that…Maybe an explanation as to why the answer is yes (and why the answer would also be ‘yes’ to those who wonder if they are ‘worthy’ of being a speaker if they don’t have a boatload of credentials).

First, you can start out ‘cheap’ with teleseminars, which I usually think is a better place to start than a webinar. You can get a free conference line (I use www.allfreeconference.com) but there are a bunch of others – and you can just do a Google search for free bridge lines and find more listed). Nearly all services will also record the call for you. There are limits of course to these services, e.g., if you had the free bridgeline service record the call, as far as I know, the only way you or others can access it is to call back in to a special line. And guess what, I have taken a BUNCH of teleseminars, especially in the ‘earlier’ days where I knew that if I couldn’t be ‘live’ on the call, then I had to make sure I called in within 14 days or whatever the cut-off time was. If I wanted the information, then I made sure to call in and get it.
People want information. We are a hungry, hungry nation (and world) and of course, I mean hungry for information that will either help us make money, relieve some type of pain or stress, provide an answer when we need it, know how to raise our children or get along with a spouse/partner, or any number of other topics or concepts that anyone can come up with. If you have information (and YOU DO!) then there is someone who wants to learn it from you.
Just like car salesmen say, “There’s an ass for every seat,” there are learners for every topic. I see articles, for example, on EzineArticles.com that I think, ‘Wow. Not only do I not want to know about that, I can’t imagine who does.’ Yet, they are getting readers for their articles. It’s the same with infomercials, TV shows, radio shows, magazines (hello! How many crazy genres of magazines are there?! I wouldn’t buy some of them, but then neither do some people buy the ones I buy, either). For your teleseminars or webinars – and the incredible knowledge you have to share (and I can say this because I know exactly who wrote the question) there are a multitude of learners. Note: I think others who are reading this could think the same thing about whatever their special areas of expertise and interest are.
Learners, by and large, really don’t care whether you have a credential. They care about whether you can help them. Certainly, having advanced degrees, various certifications, awards, books, and so forth might intrigue some people – but if you don’t deliver the ‘goods,’ then those things don’t matter. If you can solve my problem, then that’s all I care about.

So, with these things being said, it becomes a marketing issue doesn’t it. I think I’ll do a second post about Prep H as a reminder to everyone….

But to answer your question, can you be successful with teleseminars and webinars. Absolutely. Spend what you need but don’t spend more than you have to. If you’re trying to decide what is worth spending money on, I’d start with a decent headset if you’re doing teleseminars (Plantronics has wonderful ones but so do others) and AudioAcrobat ($19/month) so you can record your teleseminars. But you can still get started without these things.

Heavens knows you have knowledge, skills, and expertise that others do not have and they won’t get it if they don’t learn it from you. Please don’t withhold what you know.