You Don’t Have to Be An Expert to Offer Expert Advice

The world doesn’t need another expert. It needs you.

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I know, I know. This one sounds like a total contradiction.

But let me explain.

The creator’s self-denial

As content creators, I think we have a tendency to deny ourselves permission to share the things we’ve learned, simply because we don’t consider ourselves to be “experts” in our various industries.

For instance, you might have a pretty solid handle on how to build an audience on social media. You might know some killer engagement methods, or the best way to construct an irresistible post. You might’ve developed a foolproof system for growing a following on a particular platform, and you know for a fact that it works.

But because you don’t consider yourself to be an expert in audience growth, you keep that information to yourself.

Another example: as an author, you could be the MVP when it comes to writing dialogue. Your character interactions leap off the page, grab your readership by the scruff of the neck and pull them into your story. You might have dialogue down, but because you refuse to think of yourself as having an expertise in it, you don’t share your skillset with the outside world (ie. the internet).

That’s a damn shame if you ask me.

Out with the old, in with the new

We live in an age of near-limitless access to information. Anyone can pick up new skills online, sharpen them with practice, and put them to use in a casual or professional sense.

At the end of last year, I cooked a monstrously-huge Christmas dinner for my in-laws for the first time ever. I learned everything I needed to know about the process from YouTube videos and blog articles, and it was freakin’ delicious.

Professionally, I’ve learned how to start a business, grow its online presence, build a following to support it, and automate the systems that nurture its development, and I did it all by treading the trails blazed by those who went before me.

I’m not an expert in anything (although I can cook a turkey to perfection) but that doesn’t stop me sharing what other people might consider to be expert advice.

Many of the old pathways to expertise are fast becoming redundant. Before the modern internet age, the only way to become an expert in something was to attend university for several years, get a degree, get a job related to that degree, and then work your way up the ladder of experience.

You probably wouldn’t be considered an expert until you were in your seventies and no longer had the energy to care about the thing you were supposed to be an expert in.

(All of this is coming from the perspective of someone with two Masters degrees he no longer needs).

Shout it from the rooftops

If you’ve worked your butt off developing your skillset in a particular area, tell other people about it.

Trust me, the knowledge you now take for granted could be an absolute revelation to someone else. It could completely transform their life, if only someone would share it with them.

Be that person. Reach back and offer a helping hand to those following in your footsteps.

• Start a blog and share your best discoveries

• Create a YouTube channel and walk people through what you’ve learned

• Get a podcast going and line up a few guests

• Offer coaching through Zoom or Google Meet

• Heck, write a book and sell it on Gumroad

Give the world what it needs

I’ll say it again: you don’t have to be an expert to offer expert advice.

Don’t wait patiently for someone to slap an “expert” label on you after decades in your field. Don’t chase the expert label at all, in fact.

Just take what you know, make it available to others, and carry on learning.

The world doesn’t need another expert. It needs people like you.

Do you consider yourself to be an expert in anything? What’s holding you back from believing in yourself?

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The Get Rich Quick and Get Rich Slowly Mindsets Are Damaging Your Potential — There’s a Better Way.

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