Your expertise is real. Does your online presence reflect it?
It was 4:30 on a Wednesday afternoon and I was having one of those days.
The kind where everything feels heavier than it should. Where you start questioning things you normally don't question. I was walking near the ferry, one of the busiest transit points in New York City at that hour, when a man sitting on the ground asked me a question.
He asked me to buy him a hot dog.
I said yes.
Then he asked if I could get him a soda too.
I thought, I already got him something to eat, why not something to drink? So, I said yes to that as well.
As I walked away something stopped me.
Wait. What just happened? Did a homeless man just give me a masterclass in positioning?
The more I thought about it, the more I couldn't shake it.
He understood traffic.
It was 4:30pm. Not 10am. Not noon. 4:30, the exact moment when thousands of commuters were flooding toward the ferry to get back to Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. He wasn't sitting on a quiet corner somewhere hoping someone would pass. He had placed himself at one of the highest-traffic locations in that area, at the highest-traffic time of day. He knew exactly when his audience would show up, and he made sure he was there first.
He knew his audience.
These weren't tourists or people in a rush with nowhere to be. These were commuters. People who had just finished a long day, who were in a human moment, who were more likely to feel generous at the end of the day than the beginning of it. He read the room. He positioned himself for the most receptive audience possible.
He made a specific, frictionless ask.
He didn't ask for money. He didn't hold a sign with a vague message. He asked for something specific — a hot dog — from a cart that was sitting right next to him. The friction was almost zero. I didn't have to go anywhere, figure anything out, or make a complicated decision. The ask matched the environment perfectly.
He knew how to upsell.
Once I said yes to the hot dog, he waited. Then he made a second ask. Logical, reasonable, easy to agree to. By that point I was already invested. I had already said yes once. Of course I got him the soda. He didn't lead with both requests. He built trust with the first yes before making the second ask. That is a sales strategy most professionals never master.
I walked away genuinely humbled.
Here is what I want you to sit with.
Far too many talented professionals, coaches, consultants, attorneys, advisors, local business owners, specialists, have no real online presence because they don't think it's necessary. They believe their work speaks for itself. They rely on referrals. They assume that being excellent means people will find them.
But being excellent and being visible are two completely different things.
The opportunities that should be going to you are going to someone less qualified but more visible. Not because they are better. Because they showed up where people were looking, at the right time, in the right place, with a clear and specific ask.
You cannot fix what you cannot see.
That is exactly why I built The Authority Advantage Assessment.
In five minutes, you will know exactly where your visibility stands, and receive a personalized Visibility Report, a 90-Day Action Plan, and a done-for-you LinkedIn Rewrite built specifically around your expertise, your profession, and your goals.
See clearly. Then fix it.
With warmth,
Heather