5 quick tips for building confidence and expertise as an online business owner

It can be tough to show up and own your expertise when you're surrounded by other experts in your industry. But, there will *always* be someone who knows more than you—and if you wait until you know “enough”, then you'll be waiting a really long time! In today's episode, I'm sharing 5 quick tips you can use to build your confidence and expertise.

– Why taking imperfect action before you feel *ready* will help you to learn and quickly course-correct as needed.
– How investing in your learning and growth can boost your confidence and your expertise.
– The benefits of reading books—and not just business books.
– Why *not* sharing your expertise is doing others a disservice—after all, you have the solution to someone else's problem!
– How sharing your experiences is more important than what others *may* say or think about you.

 

 
Five quick tips for building your confidence and expertise as an online business owner. I know that showing up and owning your expertise can be tough when you are surrounded by other people in the online business world who probably feel like they are more experts than you are.

And especially in your industry, if you're a little bit newer, or you are only just stepping out into doing this, as your main gig as your business then comparing yourself to other people who feel like more of an expert can start to hold you back and stop you from showing up and owning that expertise and being confident in what you have to offer.

So today I'm going to share a couple of little tips that can help you to step into that online business owner that you are, step into owning that expertise, and feel confident in showing up with your knowledge and your expertise online.

 

Tip #1: Take imperfect action.

In case you hadn't realised by the name of this show, I am a big fan of taking imperfect action towards the things that we want to achieve. Imperfect action means doing that scary thing before you are ready and just trusting that you will figure it out as you go along the way.

It's like jumping out of a plane and building your parachute on the way down when you jump, suddenly you can't go back. Now I'm out of the plane. How do I build my parachute? How do I make this happen? And you will figure it out, ─ but it requires a little bit of trust. When you have that skin in the game, it stops being, maybe I will do this. Maybe I can do this. One day I will do this, to suddenly, how can I make this happen? And that's an awesome place to be. 

It also means adopting a mindset of curiosity, of experimentation. What will happen if I try this? If I step out there and share this piece of expertise that I've never shared before, ── who is this going to resonate with? What might they say? ─── Is this going to land? And that's really fun. 

By taking that imperfect action, you can start to see where things aren't going to plan. And you can course correct a lot quicker than if you're sitting there planning, but you have no real-world experience about what works and what doesn't work.

So you can move forward a lot faster than if you're just waiting for the right time to begin. 

 

Tip #2: Invest in your learning and growth. 

You are already most likely an expert in what you do, but there's always going to be a place to keep learning, keep growing, and keep adding more to your toolbox that you can share with your audience.

Now, the fact that you are already listening to this podcast, tells me that you are somebody who does value learning and growth, and listening to podcasts and consuming other free content is a great way to invest in your learning and your growth, but free content can also only get you so far. My students will be the first ones to tell you that what I talk about on this show doesn't even scratch the surface of what is inside my paid programs and it's the same with most other people's paid offers as well. They tend to focus more on action and implementation rather than just giving you more knowledge, which then can lead to you feeling a little bit overwhelmed, right? 

A lot of the free content is knowledge. It's more information, which then you pocket in your little toolbox or your pocket of knowledge that you're going to one day implement, but because you have no action plan or no implementation plan, it ends up feeling overwhelming and you don't move forward. 

Now, when I say investing in your learning and growth, it might be investing in working in a coach. If you have the budget for it, it might be investing in a course or a group program. It can be any kind of thing that you are investing in and feels a little bit painful.

You're like, Oh, This is maybe a painful investment, but that encourages you to show up because now that you've made that investment, you're going to put the work in and get the results. 

 

Tip #3: Read books and not just business books.

Now, in my first couple of years of business, I was devouring all of the practical business books. You know, all of the how-tos, the strategies, the frameworks, the profit firsts, the pumpkin plan, all of those kinds of books that gave me a framework that I could apply to my business, and these served me to a point, but now I don't read them anymore because most of the time they just overwhelm me a little bit more, or they give me shiny object syndrome where I'm like, Ooh, this framework is completely different or this strategy is completely different to what we do. Let's pivot completely. And that's not serving my business. 

So now what I read is I read a lot of memoirs. I love memoirs where the author has overcome some massive kind of adversity to succeed. It's a bit of a reminder of the power of taking imperfect action, right? Being open to failure. Allowing the journey, the adventure to unfold in front of us.

 

Tip #4: Remember that you have the solution to someone's problem.

When you are showing up, you have the solution to a problem that your ideal client is experiencing, right? You have that solution. You can't help them if they don't know about the solution and when you think of it like that, it becomes you helping them. It's not about you at all. It's about how you can help these people by getting in front of them. 

If you make it more about the value that you are sharing or the impact that you are having, then any of the doubts that you have about yourself become secondary, they're not as important. So maybe by being a little bit closer to where your audience is or where your ideal clients are, you can relate to them a whole lot better, right?

 

Tip #5: Remember that you are going to be your harshest critic. 

You are probably going to be at least 10 times harder on yourself than somebody else would be on you. When you start to show up and share your expertise online, you are the only one who is going through it with a fine tooth comb, second guessing yourself, thinking about how much you don't know your audience isn't thinking, oh, wow, this person doesn't know much. No, they're thinking, wow, this is new. This is interesting. I hadn't thought of it like this before besides, right? 

The content that you share online isn't about proving how much of an expert you are. It's not about proving how much, you know. And I do sometimes see this. People will start to put out all of their expertise to try and prove how much they know. And that's often coming from a place of insecurity. It's coming from that place of self-doubt where they feel like they don't know enough so they have to prove how much they know. It's not about proving how much you know. It's about helping someone. 

It's about maybe showing them a different perspective or a new way of approaching something. It's about sharing your experiences, your stories, client's stories. Stories of people that your ideal client can relate to. 

 

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