If you think being an expert means you have to know EVERYTHING about your industry then think again.
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Hi, this is Jack Mize with JackMize.com and the Online X-Factor Podcast. You know, one of my favorite quotes is: In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is King. The reason is that puts such a spotlight on the fact that as an expert, as a business guru in your field you have to understand that being an expert doesn’t mean that you have to know everything about your industry or your business. That’s really a big psychological roadblock that a lot of folks have when they think about wearing that badge of expert or guru.
Sometimes they feel that they’re not deserving of this title or not deserving of people looking at them as an expert or guru because they really don’t know everything. There is still more they need to know.
The fact is there are no experts or gurus that know everything about their field of specialty. It’s just not possible.
What I want you to do is shift your thinking and your mindset around what an expert is and what the criteria is for being a guru in your business or industry. That is you meet a few criteria. (1) You generally know more than your prospects do about your business and industry. I’m talking about the breadth of knowledge. You probably feel okay about that. You probably feel that you do know more than probably 90%, 95%, 99% of the population about your particular field or your specialty.
Knowing more than your prospect is one of probably the easiest criteria for you to meet. You probably feel okay with that.
Two is that you’re able to help your prospect. That’s very important because just knowing more isn’t enough. You have to really be able to help them with the information that you have. Also, you have to be willing and able to share that information in order to help them.
Then there are the parts that you don’t know. You really have to be okay with saying: I don’t know. If you’re asked a question, if you’re presented with a problem or someone is looking for a solution and you don’t have the answer, one of the first things people think is: Let me create something. Let me come up with something for now to let them know or tell them.
That’s really where you start feeling bad or doubting yourself as that expert or guru. It’s okay to say: I don’t know. But as that expert or guru you have enough passion around your business – your industry- that you are willing and able to go out and find that information and then come back and share it with the people who are following you and looking for that solution.
When it comes down to it…think about that. You know more than your prospects, which you probably do. (2) You’re able to help your prospects. (3) You are willing to share that information to help your prospects. (4) If you don’t know be okay with not knowing, but be willing to go out and find the answer to share with your prospects.
When you do that you should really feel good about your position as that expert or guru. Remember it’s not about you calling yourself the guru or expert. It’s about positioning yourself as that educator and advocate for the success of your customers and prospects.
When you’re an educator and an advocate for the success of your customers and prospects then they are going to be the ones that are going to call you the expert or the guru in your industry.
I’d be willing to bet that you know more than you think you know and when you really get around and start talking to others that are outside of your industry you start to realize that.
Being an educator and advocate isn’t about just spewing out technical details and little bits of information and trivia about your business. It’s about sharing solutions to those common problems that folks have.
When you can share those solutions that then gives you the ability to help your prospects which is exactly what you want to do as that expert or guru.
I want you to think about it. I really want you – if you have that problem of the psychological roadblock of ‘I don’t want to get started with this’…or ‘I don’t know if I want to start a book. I don’t know if I want to put out press releases positioning myself as this because I don’t know everything about it’… I really want you to go back, re-examine and think about how much you do know.
You know more than your prospects. You’re able to help your prospects. You’re willing to share that information and you’re willing to find out information that you don’t know the answer to. You’re willing to get that information to share with your customers and prospects.
If you meet that then you should absolutely feel good about being looked at and wearing that badge of expert or guru because that’s exactly what your customers and prospects are going to look at you as when you become their educator and advocate for their success.
Go ahead. You know more than you think you know. In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is King. This is Jack Mize of JackMize.com and Online X-Factor Podcast.