When it comes to growing your business, building your list, putting out content, or any other marketing activity, entrepreneurs often struggle with feeling “expert enough.”
You may wonder: “How am I credible? Can I really call myself an expert?”
This is a common roadblock that comes up, especially earlier on. I’ve dealt with it and everyone deals with it at some point.
You may think you don’t have a lot of expertise yet, and that may be true, but here are a few ways to reframe this for yourself:
You are an expert and you are credible if you actually have lots of personal experience and success in the area you are helping others in.
Maybe it is something that you did in corporate, or maybe it’s something that you have lots of experience dealing with and helping people with.
That’s one way you can begin establishing credibility.
You can also use the “before and after” scenario method. Were you in your ideal client’s “before” scenario but now you are on the other side?
This would describe my business, because when I started I struggled with getting clients, making money, figuring out marketing, and doing it all. I was lost.
Then I made it my mission to learn as much as I could about marketing, about mindset, and about being a successful business owner.
Now I’m on the other side, and I can show my prospects that the view from here is really, really good.
Another way to lend yourself that credibility is if you have soaked up the knowledge and expertise of other people.
Have you learned a lot from other people who are doing what you want to do? Have you taken lots of courses and read blogs and worked with coaches or whatever the case may be? Have you soaked up and studied the knowledge of other leaders?
We all do this at some level and it’s a way that you can establish credibility. Don’t take that for granted!
Most of all, you have to believe that you are credible, that you have expertise, and that you are able to get people results.
Believe that you are credible, that you have expertise, and that you are able to get people results. Click To Tweet
That’s the bottom line requirement, because if you don’t believe it, why should anyone else believe it or see it?
The good news is, you only need to be a few steps ahead of your audience.
I’m not a genius, I’m just a little further than you are in the journey or on the path.
Now I can look back and say: “I have been where you are and I know what it takes to transform this situation.”
Keep that in mind for yourself, ok? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
To make things easier for ourselves
To remember that we, ourselves, are an important part of what we offer our clients, our audience
How about starting from there?
Content and communication seem more manageable, by both business owners and clients, when built around some small, core elements pertaining to expertise, instead of a majority of such elements. With the rest being the story told and how we tell it. And for that, confidence may not need much support from our field knowledge.
The concept may even be stretched as far as to become the idea of one taking good storytelling related to any topic and just replacing that with the topic of one’s professional interest… In any case, what makes storytelling good, in general, is the passion we can put into it. Passion, that great involvement in what we offer, in what we exchange, fuels confidence much more than expertise. Don’t you think so?
And passion seems to belong to a level preceding belief. A level of our sense of identity, of a place in the world; and of our energy, as well. But what if we lack clarity around those matters?
For small term goals, the example of others, hope and the use of all sorts of little self-management tools can serve us in moving forward with just enough strength. But your closing words, Christine, inspire me to think of more: if we can define our next step on the competence/success curve, then we have a little more strength available from being convinced of the value that step has for us, and from focusing on it. And we may gain even more from seeing ourselves as taking part in an adventure!
Besides, the more we appreciate our steps, the more we can learn from them, and being just a few steps ahead may take on a new meaning if we specialize.
And a conclusion: Confidence in our abilities and credibility, as we begin in entrepreneurship, may well have to be delegated to a general sense of self-reliance and to a vision of our future success. Being expert enough is, after all, something we have to grow into. On the way, it serves as better to seek value in what we already know and can do, and in what we work with at one time, rather than to let the awareness of a lack of experience dominate our approach to business.
I wrote quite a lot this time. I hope I have not taken too much advantage of your hospitality 🙂 Your reply to my first visit here made me feel welcomed. And I like writing, especially when I get to be a little creative. It was an opportunity to explore associations of thoughts that were new to me. Thank you, Christine!
Andrew
Andrew, I am so glad you feel welcomed, and it’s great to hear your thoughts! You write very well! I agree that passion breeds confidence for sure. And, as Seth Godin often talks about, marketing IS storytelling! Thank you for stopping by!
Thank you for this article and the reply. I found a lot of value in both parts and it was just what I needed to hear at this point in my entrepreneurial journey. I will no longer allow what I haven’t learned yet to crowd out all that I’ve already learned and experienced.