Predict Your Industry’s Future

A media expert is not only someone who knows the facts and can discuss them with confidence, but is also one who is willing to make a prediction or offer a forecast as to what those facts can mean in the near or distant future. Everybody makes guesses about what the future will bring. Experts are just more courageous—they have learned the fundamental facts about a situation, and they are willing to come up with what they consider plausible predictions. The courageous and interesting expert will be rewarded with media interest. If that is you, you can enjoy reaping the rewards of lots of free publicity.

The downside is that from time to time, the predictions you make will be wrong. Never mind. Throughout the recorded history of humankind, so-called “experts” have been making predictions that were sometimes wrong. Didn’t some highly placed authority figure once say that the earth could not possibly be round? Or that no airplane would ever get off the ground. Or that nobody would listen to that talking box called a radio? I could make a list as long as this book, and then some, of experts who missed the boat. On Black Thursday, October 29,1929, if we looked back at the newspapers that day, there was probably some pundit quoted in one of the papers insisting that the market was about to turn around.

The media exposure you get as an expert is usually well worth it. That means that you will need to make time to develop strong sound bites. A good publicist can also help you with this. We at IRG help form these sound bites and news angles for our clients daily, along with opinions, as we help them practice sounding authoritative. Again, if you’re proved wrong, which will usually be long after you’ve made your prediction, people will not remember that so much as they will retain a positive impression, recalling that they saw you, heard you or read about you—and hopefully all of the above.

I can tell you that the extensive free publicity I received as an expert helped me launch myself into many productive business relationships, and ultimately led to my founding The Investor Relations Group. I have only the best memories of my years in front of the camera—and now, let’s make it your turn!