You Are Already an Expert: Valuing What You Have To Establish Credibility
If you are a business owner, you want to establish credibility as an expert but defining ‘credibility’ can become a mindset trap. I have been coaching entrepreneurs for the last 9 years. In that time, I have learned to identify one of the most common mindset blocks. This barrier is what I call “imposter syndrome.”
When my clients are making the transition from employee to business owner, they are exposing vulnerable parts of themselves. Everyone wants to put their best self out to the world. A business is personal and can be close to the heart.
How can we be seen in the best light? Many people are afraid of being seen as an imposter or a fraud; they fear putting ideas or products out there that aren’t real.
“Don’t I have to go back to school?”
When a client is passionate about their work, when they want to build a business about or relating to their own personal story and journey, often they ask me if they need to go back to school. “Don’t I need to have some sort of certification in order to be taken seriously?”
I tell them, “Your experience is your credibility.” Society trains us to believe we need ten advanced degrees and decades of experience in order to teach. In reality, you generally need to be only one or two steps ahead of your clients. I also find that most of my clients under estimate the amount of credibility they have.
Your experience is your credibility.
For example, I have a client who is starting a sustainability and home organizing business. She has trained herself to live a sustainable, organized lifestyle — weighing environmental and organizational impact in every choice.
She and her family have become very knowledgeable, through the meetings and trainings she has sought, and they live these practices every day. Yet, when we first started working together, she questioned whether she needed an organization-coach certification. Or did she need additional education before taking on clients?
Then we looked at her years of experience and the money she has invested teaching herself how to live a sustainable and organized life. Clearly, she had plenty of information and guidance to share. In fact, when we started to create a program for her clients, she had so much material we had to cut things out!
Being an expert is 90 percent mindset.
Being an expert is 90 percent mindset. The remaining 10 percent of your expertise lies in valuing your own experience and credibility. Your story and journey are important.
When you look back at all you’ve accomplished, like bringing someone through a journey you have taken successfully, your experience alone is enough. The other part is communicating your credibility to your client, showing that you can lead them to the result they want. This is where marketing and copywriting help come in handy.
Of my many clients who have left their nine-to-five jobs to become full-time entrepreneurs, not a single one had to go back to school in order to make that transition. They simply tapped into the value of their genius — into the skills and talents they already possess — and shared their meaningful, impactful gifts with the world. And they attract plenty of ideal clients.
Stand in your value.
Here’s a simple exercise if you’re considering starting a business, or you’re already in business and sometimes have doubts about your own credibility.
Step 1
Write down all the hours of classes you’ve taken and all the books you’ve read. This could be as simple as your college classes; your degrees and any certificates you’ve earned; even if it was a yoga training or two hour social media workshop, include them all here.
Step 2
List your accomplishments, everything from having run a marathon to buying an apartment or losing 20 pounds. Whatever your accomplishments, these point to your credibility and expertise in leading other people through similar transformations.
Often we pigeonhole ourselves with the lie that all the experience we have must be only related to our specific business and industry. Business is holistic and who you are as an expert is also holistic. It is important to advertise all of you — people buy all of you.
Step 3
List your experience. Say you want to start a business teaching workshops for health but you haven’t yet taught that kind of workshop. You have taught workshops in yoga or trained employees in your company.
Since all of this experience matters, you can say you are a teacher and you’ve been leading workshops for five years. It doesn’t matter if the workshops are health related. That you’re looking to transition to a new industry does not matter; you have teaching experience.
When you add the above classes and accomplishments, you can see that you’re absolutely qualified! Stand in your value as the amazing expert and human being you are. You have everything you need to lead your clients in the same transformation.
