Discover the Expert In You

The myth of the expert has been debunked. Gone is the perception that an expert is one of the elite few enlightened beyond the limits of the rest of us mere mortals. That’s not to say we’re all experts as that is certainly not the case, nor should it be (you know what they about too many cooks in the kitchen). Expertise is a kind of power that can be developed and used as a tool to fulfill life’s objectives. Like any other power it as effective and good as the person wielding it. Who has the ability to develop this power?

The answer is easy. . . . anyone.

Is expert power created over-night? It most certainly is not. Does it take time, energy, and resources to develop? It most certainly does. Does the average person have sufficient amounts of time, energy and resources to develop this power? Yes, and if not the effort to gain sufficient levels is relatively easy.

Let’s look at a common definition of the word expert. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines the word as “having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience”. There are four key words from this definition to focus on right now; skill, knowledge, training, and experience. Note that there are no qualitative or quantitative descriptions surrounding these key words (and I challenge you to find any such descriptions in any definition of this word). It is therefore logical that you can be an expert in anything and what it takes to become an expert in terms of training and experience is largely open for interpretation. Clearly, interpretations have been made in lots of different domains. I will use a commercial airline pilot as an example. The pilot is, without a doubt, an expert and there is a very rigid process one has to go through to attain the skills and documented experience to achieve the expert status of a commercial airline pilot. However, this age of the Internet has seen experts pop up in all kinds of different fields from Russian kettle bell training to designing your Facebook profile installing and configuring your home theater system. These folks claim expertise just like the airline pilot does and they come at us from every corner of the media. So, what really makes an expert an expert?

The answer is perception. I will go so far as to say it’s more about perception than anything else. This is not something to take advantage of but it is something to plant firmly in the front of your mind. The actions to be perceived as an expert are clearly definable and should be taken right along side the actions of actually becoming an expert. Once you are perceived as an expert you will harness expert power (relative to other types of power such as formal, referent, etc.)

What does this mean for us? It means that path for you to become an expert is not insurmountable, and is, in fact, very achievable. The first step is to figure out what you’re an expert in already or can be very soon. Create a list of your potential expertise areas categorizing them as skills, knowledge, training and experience. This will help make sure you think about as many different things are possible.

- What specific skills do you have?
- What specific knowledge have you gained throughout your life?
- What special training have you had?
- What kind of experience do you have?

Brainstorm your list, leave it alone for a little while and then come back and go over it again. If you have multiple possibilities you need to prioritize them based on what you like.

Next, we need to discuss how to develop and refine this expertise but that is another topic for later!

What is an ‘Expert’ anyway?

Listeners to the podcast would have heard Phil and I discuss the importance of establishing your expertise in a particular area, preferably a niche.  But does it mean to be a so called ‘expert’?  It’s not as difficult as you might think.

First, let’s establish what the word expert means.

As a noun the word expert is define as:

a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority

Used as an adjective the word expert means:

possessing special skill or knowledge; trained by practice; skillful or skilled

Some synonyms which are often used for the term expert include:

connoisseur, master, experienced, proficient, dexterous

So you can see that there is no requirement that you possess a Ph.D in the subject, there is no limitation to the number of years of experience you must have to qualify.  Too often we place these unnecessary barriers for ourselves when we say, “Oh, nobody would EVER want to hear what I have to say about THAT subject.”  We’ve defeated ourselves before we have even started.

The Importance of Relativity

Here are a few things to keep in mind when establishing your expertise in a particular subject or business area.

1. There is plenty of room for experts of all kinds in any market.  No one has a monopoly on ‘expertise’ in any subject.  True some people know more than others but some who know less may be better at communicating their expertise to an audience.  Which one do you think gets more business?
2. Expertise is often geographically relevant.  It’s great that you are an expert real estate advisor in Chicago but that has nothing to do with someone carving out expertise in Miami, better yet…South Beach…still better is an expert on properties in a specific 10 block grid.  Over time you can be the ‘expert’ of a niche which is virtually unassailable by others trying to enter your small but heavily defensible kingdom.
3. Expertise is always relevant.  Look, I am really good at changing the snow tires on my car.  I have the process down to less than 30 minutes.  Among my neighbors and my family, I am ‘the expert’.  My mother knows more about planting, raising, pruning and tending to roses than almost anyone.  It’s not her business and she does not have a degree in horticulture but it is her passion and her hobby and people from all over come by to ask her advice and to get tips and insight.  In their mind she is an ‘expert’.

Make a list of all the things you are actually good at.  Start off with a general list but but then specify.  Here is an example:

• Baking
  • Baking desserts
    • Cakes
      • Chocolate Cakes
        • German Chocolate Cakes

You may be able to ‘establish your expertise’ on a very specific subject.  But it’s not a big leap for other people who have eaten and enjoyed your German Chocolate Cakes to believe that you can also bake other types of cakes as well.

So, start with what you’ve got and build on it.  We are all experts at at least one thing…