Everyone is an Expert
One of the great things about this amazing life we live in is everyone is an expert at something. And there is someone else out there who will pay for your expertise.
One of the things I’ve always loved about being a college professor is how much I learn from my students. Regardless of your educational background, experience, age, or environment you will always know something the person next to you doesn’t.
Like when I explained to my friend Sheri, who is an attorney, that cows have 4 stomachs and they regurgitate food. And that’s where the expression chewing the cud came from. Can you believe she had no idea?? I mean what law school did she attend??
And now you’ve learned everything you might ever need to know from this blog.
Lately, I’ve worked with a two people who are starting blogs and want to use their blog as a platform to launch a side business. One of the things they both said is “I don’t know anything special. No one is going to learn anything from me much less pay me for it.”
While I know that’s completely false I also know I’ve felt that way before when launching products. As have many other bloggers/authors I know. It’s normal to feel the information you have in your head isn’t worth anything to anyone else but that is NOT TRUE.
There’s a reason there is more than one outstanding motivational speaker on earth, or business guru, or astrophysicist.
There could be 10 people in a room talking about the same topic, but there won’t be 10 identical talks. Everyone will bring their own spin, have their own personality infused into the topic, or look at it a completely different way. And one method may reach a person whereas another won’t.
We all have so much to offer the world out there. When you have a skill you love, one you’re good at, and you want to share it, be confident that if we lined you up with 100 people there would be some who knew more than you and some who didn’t. The ones who don’t know what you know are your target audience. Your niche. The people you can focus on helping. I mean that’s why we blog and create products, isn’t it? To help people?
If you don’t know what your super power is and what you should be sharing with the world, you just know you want to share something, then start by making a list.
I love lists, don’t you?
List out everything you like/think you’re good at. I know this is a hard exercise. Most of us have a hard time talking about ourselves this way. But you owe it to yourself to do it. Not only because you want to define your expertise but because you want to remind yourself how absolutely fabulous you are.
Because you ARE fabulous my friend!
If you’re feeling super frisky, ask a couple of your friends to list the top 5 things they feel you’re good at. I know that can be a scary question to ask, but you might be surprised your friends admire you for reasons you never knew. Your ability to drink a bottle of wine in one evening might not even make the top 5.
When you have your list, and I bet you’ll be surprised that once you get going, you’ll have a lot more items on there than you expected, you want to review it and see out of those skills you’re truly passionate about. What out of that list do you like to talk about, tell others about, what excites you to discuss? What could you talk for hours about and getting paid to do so it a bonus?
If you want to parlay your expertise into a product or even a blog post you must enjoy talking about it. Or it will get old and boring for you really quick, and your audience will be able to tell.
When you’ve narrowed down that list, then the real fun begins. How do you take that information and share it with others? If your goal is to turn your expertise into a business how do can you monetize it?
It could be an ebook, an online course, webinars, live training, or videos. There is an endless list of ways to convey your information to the world. It’s about picking what you feel comfortable with and what your audience wants.
Regardless of your medium, taking your chosen topic of expertise and brainstorming the millions of ways you can talk about it is your next step. Again don’t assume that people already know a certain piece of information because someone out there doesn’t.
These ideas within your topic are what you will use to start creating your content. You might think you will run out of ideas but you won’t. You will continue to find new ways to do things. That’s why if you Google Red Velvet Cake you will get more than one recipe. Over time hundreds of people have put their own spin on it.
Be confident. You ARE an expert in what you do. Your information is valuable and you owe it to the rest of us to share so we can learn!
