Expertise is relative

I’m feeling imposter syndrome these days because I’m reading a book about how to sell expertise. I’ve started to wonder…am I really an expert? I’ve only been in business for nine and a half years. There are others who have done more than me, made more money than me, and have been working longer than me. 

The more I think about it, the more I’m drawing the conclusion that expertise is relative. There may be a best-selling parenting book written by someone with two kids. What if you have six kids? Wouldn’t the author of a book about parenting big families be a more relevant expert for you? 

The secret to selling expertise is defining it first. If I claim to be a “marketing expert,” then you might look to other, better-known marketing experts for general marketing advice. But if I tell you I’m an expert in teaching people to develop a daily creative practice, that’s a pretty tight definition. Someone may run a bigger agency, and work with bigger brands than me, but they almost certainly haven’t published more blogs than me. This is my area. 

Maybe you don’t know much. But you do know a lot about your specific scenario. The more vivid and clear you can be about who you are, what you believe, what you’ve done, and who you serve, the more likely you are to be able to leverage your expertise to help people.