How to Build Your Authority Online - What to do When You Don't Feel Ready

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 249. Today, I'm walking you through how to build your authority online. When you don't feel ready or when you feel new, here's what to do. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance in movement, package and position their products and services, and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast.

What's up, coach? Thank you so much for joining me on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and in today's episode, I'm walking you through a process to help you start to build your your authority online. Especially if you feel new, especially if you feel like I have a small following, who's going to listen to me? Why me? Especially if you feel like I just need one more certification and then I'll be ready and then I can help people and. Or if you feel like I'm more of an expert than so and so, why is it that so and so gets to be the number one expert in the space? And how can I start to set myself apart? So this episode is for you. If this is the first time that you're hanging out with me today, welcome. I'm super pumped that you're here. Thank you for pushing play. If this episode helps you in any way, please screenshot it, share on your social medias tag me so I can support you. And let us know what your biggest takeaway aha moment was. And of course, if you have time, please leave us a review. It helps us help more people. So help me help you. So let's go ahead and dive into this episode because it's the number one thing I hear from my clients so so much. Why purchase from me when they can buy from someone else? How do I build my authority? I'm more qualified than so and so. Why is it that I'm struggling when so and so seems to be crushing it? And I know that I have more of an expertise, so I want to go ahead and just dive into here because I'm using two words and I'm using them interchangeably. And actually the truth is that they're not authority and expert. So what that means is an expert, in my opinion, is when somebody has a level of skill and they're able to transfer that skill to make an impact and help other people. So your expertise comes from your education, comes from your clinical experience, comes from your ability to take something that you've learned and actually implement it and transform it and transfer it to someone else and then create your own context, your own process, so on and so forth. That's your level of expertise which can continue to grow. You don't just become an expert in the ride. Your expertise can continue to grow through your certifications. As science changes, as you start to take on more clients, and as your passions change, your expertise doesn't just land and then it's done. You can continue to grow. Now, authority is different because people use the words interchangeably. But how many times have you known or been introduced to an authority in a space where their level of expertise is actually doing more harm than it is good? Authority comes first from the decision that you are one, stepping into the fact that you are an authority based on your current level of expertise. And now here's the truth of the matter. It doesn't matter where you are in terms of your level of expertise. You can step into being an authority because the person that you're going to help is just one step behind you in whatever area it is that you're helping. So that's number one. Now, one of my clients, she shared with me that it was interesting because it was in this study and I need to, I need to ask her where she found it. But someone had said that they had, that someone had done a presentation that said 3% of you in here are creeps. And it's always the people who are the creeps that don't think they are one. And then everyone else was worried, oh, maybe it's me, maybe it's me, maybe it's me. So I'm willing to bet that if you're sitting here thinking I might be a fraud, I'm an imposter, I'm not enough of an expert that you might actually be doing yourself and your clients and the people that you need to help more of a disservice than you even realize, because it's that dunning Kruger's effect. This is beginner's luck explained. People don't know what they don't know, so they don't know that they're not yet a level of expert. This is the coach's curse. This is the smart coaches curse, knowing that there's always more to learn. Have you ever wondered why was I a better person at conversions when I, you know, Back in the beginning. Sometimes experience is a double edged sword. Our brain is designed to automate things, so we tend to like, oh, I know what this person's going to say, let's make this go faster. Experience is a double edged sword. So number one, we need to step in to knowing that you are an authority based on your level of expertise. Now that's number one. Then number two, we need to go all in on you and we need to know that wherever you are right now is okay. And you sharing from a place of how I did it, this is how I did it. You being fully transparent and present to where you are now and communicating from that place is going to be how you deepen your sense of authority because you are sharing through your context and then being okay with knowing that it's okay to be there. So now we get to start talking about, okay, well, how do we share from that context? Well, you know, and then we start to get into ways and things of like, well, if I'm new and I'm beginning, why me? Well, why not you? So that's number one. So let's just, why not you? Have you ever wondered the desire and ever wondered why you care to do this and not something else? I mean, because, hey, especially if you're new or especially you're in the thick of it, you probably can point to a Starbucks manager who's making more than you are right now. Especially if you did that exercise from my previous episodes where I was like, are you clear on the math behind your six and seven figure business? Does it actually make sense? So have you asked yourself, why not you? Okay, and then what we also need to look at is we need to remember that your people need you. And if I had to work out with Arnold Schwarzenegger and that was my only option, I probably wouldn't be where I was today. And have you ever had the experience before where someone says to you, or your client says to you, oh my gosh, I heard this podcast and blah, blah, blah, and now I get it. And you think, think to yourself, yeah, but that's because you had the compounding effect of hearing me say it over and over and over again. Or if you're a parent and you tell your kids to do the thing over and over and over again and they don't do it, but then someone else comes in and says, hey, can you do this? They actually listen. That's not because they weren't paying attention to you or because they weren't listening to you. It's because they Heard what they needed to hear at the right moment, and there was a compounding effect of skill acquisition that was at play. Have you ever been trying to nail a pose, or you've been trying to nail a lift, or you've been nailing a squat and you just can't do it, and then all of a sudden it just drops? That's the compounding effect skill acquisition. That's what is happening for you, for your client, as you're starting to build your authority and also build your expertise. So now that you know that you're an expert and that you can live in the and where you can continue to grow and deepen your sense of expertise. And then. So now we make a decision that we are an authority, and now we go all in on ourselves and know that we can trust that the desires of our heart are safe guidance. Then now what we're going to do is start sharing through our context. So this is where I like to say, give credit and give context. So what that looks like is, is I went and I learned this cert, and now I tried it on, and this is what I learned. This is what happened. And remember that context and experience is 100% uniquely you. You and I could go through the exact same experience. But because of our context, because of our level of skill ability, our level of where our accessibility options were, because nobody's starting from the same point, a nobody where our level of skill, adaptability, where we are in our phases of business growth, it's all gonna vary. And all of it's good. Sure, it's easy to get into the. Well, they have more resources than me. They. It's either. It's easy to get into the comparison trap. I know that. And I'm not saying don't. I know that intimately, actually. And I'm not even saying let's throw some toxic positivity on it. I'm not even saying, like, let's not, like, feel what you're gonna feel and then use that process that rewire the brain for success because there's someone out there that needs you. Because representation matters. They don't wanna hear my story from me. They want to hear your story from you. They want to hear your context. They want to hear what it's like to be. To step into the room and be the only woman, to be the only person of color, to be the only whatever it is, to be the person that came from nothing and rose to the top. And if you're sitting here thinking, but I don't have that, I'M I'm not invalidating you either. I'm going to say, well, maybe you do have that look for that. Maybe they need to hear I'm an average person with an, you know, average experience. I've, I've done, I've had. It's not too hard. I've been the Goldilocks, where it's not too much and it's not too little. It does not matter what the context is. If you're experiencing it, someone else is also experiencing it. And you can be the leader of that, the authority in that. It comes, it comes from a decision, your content. So when, when I say average, you know, listen, I'm speaking of this as in terms of, like, fact. This is what this is. This is not what this is. And I know that there's a whole layer of complexity and nuance in interpretation and deciding where you are in this case. So, you know, and whatnot. So I just want to go ahead and say that whatever you think you're right. I'm just going to go ahead and say that. Okay. And I want you to just listen to this podcast through that context. So what I'm saying for me, and from my perspective is that I used to think, well, I don't have such amazing, you know, I don't have rags to riches story. I don't have this amazing transformation. I'm just an average person who averagely fell into this because I loved it. And then I start getting into that story. And when I operate from whatever you say to yourself, you're right. Okay, so how can I shift my perspective in the way that I'm telling the story? There's someone else out there who feels like I don't have that great, powerful transformation. I wasn't living in my in, you know, on the street, and now I'm a millionaire. I don't have that story. Great. But what story do you have? Because every story does matter. Your story matters, your context does matter. And it's just about getting present to that story, to that context. So give credit to where you learned it and then give the context around. Okay, well, I learned this from Sally. Sally. I took on Sally's method, and when I tried it on, this is what happened. And now I put it on my client. This is what happened. And how many times have you had that experience where you're like, okay, well, I learned this in the certification book and it didn't work. Nobody learns how to swim by reading a book. You got to get in the water. That's going to give you context that's going to give you experience. And when you share from that place, it will also deepen the sense of authority for the people that you need to resonate with and who need you. And if you're sitting here thinking, well, why me? You know, they can learn from Andrew Coates, they can learn from whoever it is, they can learn for me, you know, I could say they could learn from my mentors. Why me? There is a reason why. You just get present to that. And then here's something that I find very interesting. What I've noticed recently is that a lot of people will sometimes feel insecure or concerned or nervous because they feel like they teach what they think about all the time. And likely what you think about all the time might be a point of struggle for you or might have been a point of struggle for you in the past. And what ends up happening. And what I notice is that a lot of people will, you know, those neural pathways in your brain, they're still there. And. And we're having human experiences. So a human experience means that maybe it hasn't necessarily completely, like, disappeared for you. It means that you are consistently, every single day, making the choice to go right instead of go left. So sometimes we'll think, oh, I've already thought I handled that and then didn't, and then start to feel like, who am I to help because I'm having a human experience. Well, that is going to be your work to remember that we get to live in the and so give credit. You give context. Live in the and and go all in on you. That's how you start to build authority, turn your how to content into how I content, how they how we content. I tried this on my client and now we did this. That's your context. No one's going to take that away from you. You separate yourself when you do that and you go all in on you. So step into being an authority, knowing that you are 1. Know that you can live. In the end, you give credit and you give context and you go all in on you. That's how you start to build authority. And then you unapologetically show up as who you are. Because when you do that, you can handle the fallout because you are coming at it from a place of conviction and compassion. And when people come and throw hate at you, it's okay. You'll be able to handle it, even if you feel like you can't. Why? Because you'll be able to look at it through a lens of compassion. And then your community of people who you've been serving and serving and serving will come to your rescue. They will come to your help and you'll be able to look at it through a lens of compassion. And then also to remember lastly, that you're not going to be able to resonate with everyone. And that's a good thing. You don't need to help everyone. You need to help your people. And there's going to be someone else out there for that other person. And that's a good thing. We need that. And that's a good thing. We need that. So if this episode helped you, be sure to screenshot this, share this inside of your social and let us know how best we can help you. And if you're ready for the fast track and you're ready to go all in on you and you want to set up these systems and structures inside of your business, then go ahead and book your free custom profit plan. We'll link that up in the show notes so that you can learn more about how to make the impact you want to make so that you can raise industry standards. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I'll catch you on the next episode.

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