In my travels as an “Expert at making Experts”, I have been asked several recurring questions. I thought it would make a good blogpost. So here are the questions followed by my “Expert” answers:.
Q. What is the first step I should take to become an expert?
A. Proclaim it! If you want people to believe you are an expert, you better tell them you are first. If you present yourself as an expert, most people will assume that you are, unless or until you prove otherwise. 
Of course if you don’t really know much about what you are claiming to be an expert in, it probably won’t take much or long to prove you are not, and you can quickly go from expert to boob. A firm grasp of your industry’s buzzwords and name dropping will get you started and, for many experts I know, that can actually take you a fairly long way. However, I would spend some time back-filling your expert claim with real knowledge.
Q. How do I know if I am really an expert?
A. A lot of people consider an expert as someone who knows everything there is to know about a topic. While that would certainly qualify someone, few people actually know everything, and experts seem to pop up daily regardless. Most experts simply know more about something than who they are speaking to. How much more? That will vary depending on who you are talking to and your ability to speak to their problem. For example, if my car won’t start and my roadside assistance service sends out a guy who tells me he is an expert, I will assume he is. If he is able to get my car started, it will confirm my assumption that he is the expert he claimed to be. The fact that anybody who knows anything about cars may have been able to easily fix my problem, is neither known to me, nor relevant as he is the one who did. On the other hand, if he was unable to fix my car, I would determine that he is clearly a boob, even if it ultimately took 15 technicians and 2 months to diagnose the problem and fix my car. So my point is, that expertise, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Q. How do I establish myself as an expert to others?
A. First… Scrub your face. Not your actual face, but your public face. Your website, your profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Wherever you can be found online. 
What are you scrubbing? Anything that does not support your proposition that you are an expert. For example eliminate any recent past jobs that do not relate to your expertise from your resume. Eliminate, or minimize any services you may offer that do not relate to or support you as an expert. Delete any recent testimonials or recommendations that paint you as something other than the expert you want to be. You may notice that I said “recent”. The fact that you may have been a waiter twenty years ago, does not lessen the odds that you are an expert in your chosen field today. But, if you were a waiter last year, well you probably don’t want to mention that. But Steve, you say, what about gaps in my time line? Who cares? Unless you are applying for a position somewhere that has a bored HR department, I doubt anyone will notice.
Q. Okay, I am proclaiming my expertise and feel that I am enough of an expert to my target audience and I scrubbed my face, now what?
A. Get out there and start expertin’. Write an expert blog, start an expert podcast, answer LinkedIn questions like an expert and look for opportunities to speak to groups. Start small, like asking to speak at some Meetup groups first, they always need speakers. This way you can get used to not only speaking, which is the easy part, but also responding to questions which can be the hard part. Many a so-called-expert has been exposed by the Q & A. I wrote about this in a prior post. Nobody will let you speak? Speak for yourself. Start your own darn Meetup group. Create your own webinar, or go all out and create your own workshop. (My next post will be “10 Secrets of Workshop Marketing”…maybe 9 secrets, I haven’t decided yet).
Q. How do I protect my expert status?
A. Never answer any questions.. just kidding…sorta. The dome of expertise is under constant assault. It’s not that most people want to bust your bubble, but if you are successful in establishing yourself as an expert, people are going to start asking you questions. 
These questions are not put forth to challenge you, but rather to pick your brain matter for expertise that the questioner can use. Fair enough, you asked for it when you put yourself out there. So here are some rules for answering questions. First, don’t try to fake it. Many times experts who don’t know an answer, assume the questioner doesn’t either and will try and blow some B.S. by them. But the questioner may know something about the topic and is just looking for your expert take. Use a phrase or term that the questioner knows is not applicable and you will see his face change as his brain moves you over to boob land. Better to say something like “You know, I haven’t thought much about that aspect, let me chew on it and get back to you”. I prefer this approach to the “I don’t Know” suggestion that so many people these days say is perfectly okay. While not knowing may be a honest assessment, it does not promote expert status and my suggestion will prompt you to come up with an answer after you have done a little more homework. Look at that, you’re becoming more of an expert already.
That’s all for now, please comment!
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