The Difference Between an Amateur and an Expert

We all experience feelings of imposter syndrome sometimes. 

“Who am I to launch this?” 

“I don’t know enough to be teaching this.”

“All the people around me are experts on this topic.” 

“What am I doing?!”

I actually posted a question in my free Facebook community recently: 

What is the difference between an expert and an amateur? 

Not surprisingly, most of my audience said something similar to…

 “An expert is someone who has tons of experience and knowledge.” 

And girl. That could not be further from the truth.

The only difference between an amateur and an expert is a DECISION. 

An amateur sits in fear, overwhelm, and stuck-ness. 

An expert chooses action, makes decisions, and chooses to move forward, EVEN IF it’s uncomfortable. 

Basically, no one will see you as an expert unless you can see yourself as an expert.

Let me tell you a little story about the first course I (should’ve) launched… 

About 4 years ago, when I first discovered the entrepreneurial world and found Amy Porterfield, she encouraged us to start building a business off of the things that we were already good at.

At that time, people were coming to me for help with social media. So, I did what she taught and started to create a course ready for launch.

I was fired up. I was ready to go and nothing was going to stop me.

I’ll never forget the night that I sat down with my husband and told him that my launch goal for this course was $250,000. 

He looked at me and said, “I love you, and I love that you are a high achiever, but babe…..let’s be real.” But I was convinced.

But suddenly, as I started to explore the social media space more, I started to feel like everyone around me was teaching it, too. 

And all of the sudden, I felt so small and insignificant. 

I tricked myself into believing that I didn’t have enough followers, fans, or content to be launching something like this — I wasn’t even close to an ‘expert’ compared to those people.

It was that impostor syndrome and insecurity that took everything from me…

The belief.

The dreams.

The desires.

…and I didn’t even launch the damn course. 

Thankfully today, I’ve learned to overcome those feelings when they surface, but there are moments when I kick myself for not jumpstarting my business YEARS ago.

Because it’s less about the amount of experience or knowledge we have and more about stepping IN to expert status and making a commitment to do it messy. 

When you’re first getting started putting yourself out there into the world, there’s no doubt that you’ll have those feelings creep in.

It’s time to reframe those thoughts and understand that you are EXACTLY where you need to be in order to take your business to the next level.

I want you to step out of your comfort zone, step into courage & make the decision TODAY that you are the expert.

Hear more about the difference between an expert and an amateur in the Launch It, Girl! Podcast here.