More about Expertise Laryngitis
Expertise Laryngitis affects way too many people who have the goods to share valuable information and expertise for any number of reasons including, but not limited to, not know how or where to do it, lack of personal confidence, having no idea of how to get started, etc. You can literally create an endless list of reasons rationalizing your non-decision decision to sit on the sidelines.
Back in the day of media scarcity, that made a fair amount of sense. If you didn’t own a printing press, radio or TV station, newspaper or magazine, it was terribly difficult to build a personal brand. But now, with blogs, podcasts, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, et al, the printing press, radio station, TV network, and much more is all yours. And you can create content for any or all of the above, whenever you want, for a placement cost of $0.00. When you think of it that way, just how much opportunity are you going to leave on the table by doing absolutely none of it.
All you have to do is pick it up by putting in some work.
You know that day job you have? The one you love to hate? Where all your energy and vitality is traded away for the comfort of a steady paycheck? Who really benefits from all that? Not you. All that accrues to the person signing that paycheck.
Another favorite axiom of mine hurts a little bit (truth always does), but learning it early in your career is a whole lot better than discovering far later when you have a bigger mortgage and fewer options—
If you don’t own it, it’s not yours.
One of the reasons I’m sorry passionate about this personal branding thing can be explained by that simple sentence. The deal most people make with their careers is that ‘if you take the majority of my waking hours, you’ll pay me for said hours, and generally do right by me.’ In fact, there was a time when our grandparents, and even some parents, could start right out of school, put in 30 years or so with the same company, and retire comfortably. Guess what? That was then, and it sure ain’t now.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently estimated that the majority of people in their study had held an average of 11.7 jobs between the ages of 18 and 48. Sure, hopped jobs like rabbits (27% held 15 or more jobs), and 10% stayed put (0 to 4 jobs), but it’s pretty clear that the days of the graduation all the way to retirement job is gone. And that brings me back to ‘if you don’t own it, it’s not yours.’ The company you work for, if you don’t own it, it’s not yours, and you can be gone at any time.
So what do you own, that no one else does?
Now you’re asking the right question. What is completely yours? All that stuff mentioned above (your voice, experience, expertise, point of view, etc). That’s not only uniquely yours, to a segment of the global population, it could be, and probably is, incredibly valuable. These are your unique assets, and they could be being shared right now to an entire globe hungry for the goodness you have to offer. Question is, are you? Second question is: Why not?
But Experience Laryngitis is deadly.
Wanting to make sure you’re adding value and providing good information in everything you share proves you’re not an imposter (even though some days it might feel like you are). And to selfishly—yes, selfishly withhold the very best of what you have to offer by not sharing your voice, experience, etc., is a self-deadening disease. But the cure for it is just so easy. Convinced? Then lets fill this prescription and get your personal brand therapy started.
…and there’s much more to come.
BOOKWARD BOUND / Daily Build is just what it says: the writing I did today in order to get my book a little bit closer to its publication. It is presented here exactly as written and complete with all the misspellings and grammatical errors you’d expect of a rough draft. Don’t worry, it’ll be edited later. The above was written during a livestream video of BOOKWARD BOUND that you can find on my YouTube BOOKWARD BOUND playlist any time you’d like. – DP Knudten
@2020 DP Knudten LLC – all rights reserved.
