If you're an expert and you know it, raise your hand

Someone once told me that it was inevitable that I am occasionally apologetic and embarrassed about my expertise. She cited two very simple reasons: (1) I'm a woman and (2) I'm Canadian. On hearing this I immediately apologized. I blurted it out before I even realized what I was saying. After a moment of stunned silence we both burst out laughing as I had proven her point.

When you know that you are an expert, your confidence will grow and you will be more effective at helping your clients and attracting more clients. There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but it only takes 8 steps to be able to say with confidence, "I am an expert."

1. Write a list of the things you're good at. Be bold. Be brave. Be truthful.
2. Make a second list of what's missing from your skill set to be a "master." Keep it focused. Think about how narrow a PhD is and figure out what your personal PhD is going to be.
3. Build on your strengths in the first list and fill in the gaps from the second list. This may take a bit of time, but if you narrow your definition of what you're an expert at, you will probably find that you are already an expert at something!
4. Write a position statement. (More about this in The confidence to be a master.)
5. Find (famous) people who've written similar things to what you say in your position statement. Do the research. If you find no one, that says you're either brilliant or .. wrong. If you find lots of people, you already think like an expert.
6. Document your experience in case studies. Write about the ways you have been successful and/or helped your clients realize success. Things that may seem trivial to you can be mind blowing to someone else. Describe each accomplishment no matter how small you think it might be.
7. Create a new "pattern" document that describes the patterns you have seen in your industry and in your business. Refer back to the expert reports (Step 5) and your case studies (Step 6) to show the patterns really exist and are not isolated cases.
8. Write and publish a summary of what you've discovered. It doesn't need to be a New York Times bestseller—a simple article on your Web site is enough to get you started.

Following these simple steps will help you to feel more confident about your expertise. The next big thing is to learn how to communicate your expertise. Rikki Kite has a fantastic talk called, Her PR Problem. The link takes you to a detailed set of notes from the talk. If you ever get a chance to see Rikki give this talk in person, go! She's a wonderful presenter and has a lot of valuable information to share.