So you want to call yourself an Expert?

Here’s what you need to do first…

In the gig-economy, being an expert in something has become extremely important. Even if you just use your expertise for a side-hustle, being able to establish authority and know-how can be all the difference in the world for your bottom line.

So how do you actually prove you’re an expert?

Starting from Scratch

If you are brand new to social media or just starting out in your business journey, you may not be an expert right now, but there’s a path to get there. (If you are already an established professional skip ahead to the next section).

Let’s explore what makes someone an expert, so you can follow this path to excellence. Here are X tips for becoming an expert

1. An Expert Knows Their Field
2. An Expert Know How to Ask the Questions No One Else Can Ask
3. An Expert Can Hear What Others are Saying and No If They Will be Successful or Not
4. An Expert Knows How to Help Others Achieve the Same Results or Success

This should be your game-plan. First, learn everything you can about your chosen field. Then start dissecting your field or profession and discovering the problems that most people either ignore or can’t figure out. If you can find solutions to those problems, that will prove your level of expertise. And lastly, experts help other people. What good is it to be an expert and not share your knowledge to help others?

Communicating Your Expertise

Once you have followed the path to excellence, you are ready to communicate your expertise to your audience or to the world, if you use social media.

This is not going to be easy. So when you try and fail a few times, do not get discouraged. Finding the right way to say what you want to say takes time and patience. Don’t give up. If you are an expert, people will want to hear what you have to say — they just may not be able to hear you because of the “WAY” you are saying it.

Case Study

It’s sometimes better to use an example to learn from, then just trying to think of a hypothetical on your own. So we will use my learning curve in explaining to people my area of expertise. This was and still is not easy. And the biggest reason is there aren’t a lot of experts in my field.

I am talking specifically about education. There are a lot of highly educated people in education. There are a lot of highly intelligent people in education as well, but not a lot of people go all the way and try to become experts. And the simple reason for that is — there is no money in it.

You cannot make more money in education if you become an expert — so why bother wasting your time?

But here’s what you can learn from my experience. Since there are not a lot of experts, when you call yourself an expert, people are going to disagree with you.

Tip #1 — Don’t Argue with Them

It’s very easy to sit there and try and argue with people about the fact you are an expert. But who wins? You certainly don’t. And you aren’t converting that person into a follower. If someone wants to throw shade or negativity on your parade, just ignore it and move on. Especially in the beginning, when you have less than 100 followers, NO ONE will ever see their negative comment or care. So you shouldn’t either.

Tip #2 — Promote Your Knowledge

If you are an expert, then focus on showing what you know. Once I stopped engaging with people who disagreed with me, I started to find other people who were interested in what I had to say. For example, through my expert research I found a report that proved teaching leadership and problem solving skills was important in school. So I shared that research and how I used it in my school to help kids succeed.

Tip #3 — Team Build an Audience

This might be the single hardest skill to master, but if you want to be an expert that helps many people, you need to build an audience. The only way I’ve seen people build a powerful and engaged audience is to use team building skills. Yes, you are just the leader. That means, you need to empower your audience to follow your lead. Provide them with expert tips and tricks. Be helpful. Be positive. Be empowering. More people will hear you if they can benefit from your expertise.

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About the Author:

D.Scott Schwartz, M.Ed. is the CEO and Founder of Leaf Academy and an education think tank. He provides consulting to schools and businesses who are looking to become 21st century organizations.For more information, visit the bio and follow the link to the Leaf Academy website. Click on the Programs page for consulting services.