Be A Contributor, Not A Guru

When you’re first experimenting with building your authority, it can feel awkward. You might struggle with what to say or be hyper-critical, editing yourself into oblivion or never pressing SEND.

Luckily, there is a solution—Jonathan and I took a deep dive into how to put yourself out there without feeling like a fraud:

Shifting your mindset from “I must be a guru” to “I want to contribute to the conversation”.

Battling imposter syndrome and perfectionism by thinking about expertise from your prospective clients’ point of view.

Adopting the consulting mindset of “I’m here to help” vs. “I’m awesome at this”.

How to speak up and contribute to your ideal audience long before you feel like an expert or an authority.

Quotables

“I try to point out to people that if you know way more about your area of expertise than your ideal buyer, then as far as they’re concerned, you are an expert.”—JS

“If you’re earlier in your career when you go out on your own, you can think ‘Oh, who am I to call myself an expert?’”—RM

“The reason I started thinking about perfectionism along with imposter syndrome is because you can combat those things by helping.”—JS

“Is the guy who does my WordPress site the world’s expert on WordPress? I doubt it. But I don’t care because he gets whatever I need done.”—RM

“’I’m here to help’ versus ‘I’m awesome at this’ is like automatically going to put you in more of a service posture, more of a consultative mode.”—JS

“If you never say no, you’re not a consultant.”—RM

“When you show up, it’s not about pitching or seeing how smart you are or anything like that. It’s about finding out if you can help.”—JS

“If you don’t have a comparable level of expertise with somebody else—say the “guru”—that doesn’t mean you don’t have plenty of value to add to the conversation.”—RM