Back when I was working in the corporate world, I was asked to manage a type of project that I’d never managed before. Being the ambitious, career-driven guy in my early 30’s, I quickly said out loud, “Bring it on!”

Then I went back to my cubicle and said, “How in the hell am I going to do this?” I didn’t know anything about managing that type of project. So, I called up a mentor of mine and told her I had no idea how I was going to do this! She said, “You’ll be fine. You know more than you know.” I know more than I know? What does that mean? What I ultimately figured out (after hanging up the phone, wondering what the hell kind of advice that was) was that all I needed to do was to apply the basics that I already knew well.

This reminds me of one of the biggest things I’ve learned about being an expert. You know more than you know. You know so much about a topic that most of it just seems like common sense to you.

BUT IT’S NOT COMMON SENSE TO THE REST OF THE WORLD!

What you take for granted every day as part of your job, business, or whatever you do, could be life-changing for someone else. They have no idea what the first step is to prepare a tax return, sew a shirt, cook a healthy meal, or open an ice cream shop.

That’s why we have to constantly remember that we are EXPERTS! If everyone knew what we know, we wouldn’t be experts!

Here is an idea to get you started. For your area of expertise, type a search into the Internet like:

“most important thing about…”

“First step to…”

“How to…”

Fill in your area of expertise where the elipses are. You’ll probably get a bunch of results! What that means is that it’s not common sense.

Congratulations! I hereby appoint you an expert! Yay!

Now, here is the interesting thing. If you look at those google search results, you will probably see things you don’t agree with. Wow, now you have a way to differentiate yourself! You are the expert who does’t agree with some common point!

Do you think you have to agree with the common consensus on your area of expertise? Hell no! In fact, I hope you don’t! I hope you have something unique to say about it. Having a unique way to talk about your expertise is a great way to get your name out there AND build credibility.

Experts don’t agree with each other and that is what make them unique. Nobody is right or wrong, they just have different viewpoints. If yo udon’t believe that, just watch the news! They frequently have two experts who offer different viewpoints on a subject. It gets them ratings. 🙂

So, no more worrying that you don’t know enough. Go be an expert. Tell me in the comments below what you are an expert on!

Image Credit: Photo by Iñaki del Olmo on Unsplash

I think one of the key things that separates successful people from unsuccessful people is simply the ability to GET STUFF DONE.

My years of project management experience taught me the fundamentals and logistics of how to get stuff done and manage numerous other people working toward the same goal, but nothing taught more about getting stuff done than a half-marathon I ran back in. . . well sometime in the late 90’s.

I was in my early 20’s and that’s when I feel like my character really started to take shape. I was struggling through college and not really having any sort of feeling of accomplishment. I was, like many people that age, drifting from one thing to another, never finishing anything, never putting my all into anything. For some reason, I identified the need to FINISH SOMETHING and I knew it needed to be a challenge.

I HATED running. I had tried it a few times, but just found that it simply bored me, I got winded and tired and could not stand it. But, for whatever reason, I decided to run a half-marathon. I think I gave myself about eight months to get ready. I drove down a rural road near my apartment and noted landmarks at various mileage intervals. I knew there was a farm at 1/2 mile, a school at 2 miles, etc. All the way up to about 10 miles.

Not really knowing how to train for something like this, I just did the best I could, putting one foot in front of another (kind of literally!). I knew I would have to build up to it, so I just started running a few times a week, starting with a half mile, then a mile, then 2 miles, etc. I think just over 10 is all I actually ran before the half-marathon.

Then the day came. I ran that sucker in something like 3 hours. Horrible time for a half marathon! But it didn’t matter. The important thing was that I finished it. I finished it and it taught me a very important lesson:

I could do it.

I finally accomplished something.

It was really a great feeling even more importantly, it was a great lesson. There was no reason to believe that I couldn’t or that I did not have the skill or ability to do things. It taught me that I had it in me all along. It was a challenge and I was able to rise to it.

It was a huge turning point in my life. I think that may be when I got addicted to getting things done! I loved the feeling it gave me so much that I went on to do several more things like that.

After a few races and cycling events and eventually a triathlon, I shifted away from accomplishment for the sake of accomplishment. I still do things like that, but not just for the sake of accomplishment. I now try to ensure that my smaller accomplishments are leading me in the direction of my larger aspirations and use things like running and cycling purely for enjoyment. Yes, I actually love running, now!

I also won a trophy for that first half-marathon. Even though my time was abysmal by any standards, I took second place in my age division (I think it was 19 to 24 or something like that).

Some would say I just got lucky. I prefer the position that while my time was abysmal…

I’m the one who finished.

I get really annoyed when people say they want to just “get away from it all”. It’s not that I don’t like to travel; I actually do. The part that irritates me is what I call the “vacation mentality”. It’s the mentality that life blows and then we go on vacation and that is where we have fun and enjoy life. In other words, we spend most of our lives being miserable and then a few weeks a year really enjoying life. If you are really lucky, you end up with 3 or maybe 4 weeks of vacation a year in most corporate jobs or as an entrepreneur. I think that whole idea is just ass backwards.

I have a different idea. I think that the key to a happy and successful life is to actually build a life that you love so much, you don’t want to go on vacation. Do things you enjoy; find a way to make a living doing something you absolutely love and be done with it. There are a crapload of books written on that subject. I wish I could say I was “there”, but I’m certainly not. I have a long way to go to get my life completely structured in such a way that I love doing everything that I do. Hell, I’ll probably never get there, but I’ll damn sure never stop trying.

When you love your life, you don’t want to get away from it. But! . . . when you do it is immensely refreshing and inspiring. I’ve had the opportunity to be removed from my normal circumstances twice in the past two months. I am astounded by the amount of perspective that I come back with. There is simply something about being out of my normal element that puts everything in perspective and just makes me think more clearly. I spent a good part of April in New Mexico visiting some family and taking care of some business. It was not really a vacation, but it did place me outside of my normal environment and routine and I came to a huge realization while there. I was thinking about the things I had going on in my businesses and realized that I was completely unfocused. I was trying to do too many things and not making enough progress on any single one. So, I used some of the time to re-organize my priorities. It was great to really get focused again and I’m making great progress toward those goals since then.

Image Credit: Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

OK, I’ll admit it. I’m a perfectionist. I’ve actually been called a lot of things, but that’s not the worst one.

I used to think that was a good thing – it’s not.

Being a perfectionist is the best way in the entire world to get absolutely nothing done.

I spent years trying to learn how to get recognized as an expert; in my case a Do It Yourself Home Improvement expert. I was so concerned about doing it “perfect” that I never became widely recognized as a DIY Home Improvement expert. I studied and studied and studied and began building that brand, but it never went anywhere. Why? Because I tried to make everything perfect!

Ultimately, my quest for perfection lead me to become an expert on becoming an expert! I then basically abandoned the DIY Expert route and started a company that makes other people experts. So, I made good on that situation, BUT, I recognized that I cannot keep doing that.

Now, you might say, “But that actually turned out really well.” It did, but imagine what would happen if you always did that. What would happen if everything you do leads you down another path? You would NEVER get anything done, because you would keep changing paths.

I work really hard on being “good enough.” For me, sometimes I think it’s actually harder than being perfect! I’ve realized that when I do something, I have two choices:

1. Good Enough
2. Not at all

When I say good enough, I’m not talking about putting out crap. I’m talking about focusing on what actually matters.

Perfectionism is a theoretical construct that doesn’t exist in reality. So, I’m going to leave it to the academics.

I also believe that perfectionism normally means you are actually focusing on the wrong things! Like the comma versus the m-dash. Like the blue that is 2 shades lighter versus 2 shades darker. Crap that JUST DOESN’T MATTER!

When I’m working on something, I’ve started asking myself a question when I start second guessing something or laboring over something. That question is:

Does it really matter?

In other words, does it really take me further towards my goal in whatever I’m doing. For example, as I write this blog, questions, ideas, etc. pop into my head and I respond to them by saying, “Does it really matter?” In this blog, I’m trying to get the idea across that being a perfectionist is not a good thing and you have to focus on what really matters. So, as I was writing the question above, I began thinking about what font or size it should be. I then asked myself, “Does it really matter?” Hmmm, prolly not! “Just shut up and figure out how to make your point!” is what I said to myself.

In the case of this blog posts, “making my point” is what is actually appropriate for me to focus my energy on. Not the font, not the color, not the music I’m listening to while I write it.

I have a goal to make a point and my effort should be focused on that goal.

So, before you set out to do something, make a goal. That’s why in my system for getting known as an expert (get the free 5 part training series here), we write an expert mission first. It outlines who you are and what you do as an expert. You set your goals up front. Then as you work on your brand, you have those goals right there to refer to.

Since I think I’ve made my point by now, I’m going to stop writing and tweaking and just post this!

Are you a perfectionist? 

Image Credit: Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

Have you every asked yourself, “How could I make money with the knowledge in my head?”

I did!

I’ve always wanted to be financially free, too. Who doesn’t?

Well, a few years ago, I started really thinking about how I could make that happen. I started doing some serious research on how I could get to that point of financial freedom. The big limitation (or perceived limitation) that I had was that I worked a fairly stressful, and very well paying full time job. But, I wanted more. I wanted control of when I work, where I work and probably most importantly, HOW I work. By the way, I also had a giant mortgage!

I was at the bookstore and a book by Yanik Silver called, “Moonlighing on the Internet” caught my attention. I read it in about 5 days (that’s fast for me). The book is all about making money on the Internet, with one of the key ways being to sell the information you have in your head, in the form of Information Products. That just means eBooks, online training videos, audio, etc. It requires very little (usually 0) staff members, profit margins are 90%+ on electronically delivered products and it’s very flexible, meaning if you have a laptop and an Internet connection, you can do this.

So, I asked myself what topic I know the most about. Being kind of an information and hobby junkie, there was a lot. Not to mention I had learned a TON in my 15 year career working as a manager of large technology projects.  Ultimately, I decided that the best thing for me to publish information about was Do It Yourself home improvement. At the time, I had completely redone my first house and was well into the (MAJOR) renovation of my second house. So, I set out to be the Do It Yourself Expert. Kind of like Tim Allen without all the grunting. Or like Bob Vila without the flannel shirts.

As I set out to do that, I found out it’s a whole lot of work. AND there is a lot you have to learn. There is a tremendous amount of information available, but it very quickly becomes overwhelming. But, I wasn’t discouraged, I dug in.

That’s when my business shifted. . .

Suddenly, I realized that when I combined my Technology background with the two years of research I had been doing, my expertise was not home improvement, it was creating experts.

With that, my company, Braveau Experts was born. Braveau Experts partners with experts to build a brand and create product and services based on that expertise.

Image Credit: Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

I’m currently vacationing in St. Barth’s in the Carribean. It is amazing. It’s been a great time to reflect on things and look at my business ventures from a different and more holistic perspective. When I’m out of my normal environment, I always get to reflect on things and I find it to be very invigorating.

Yesterday, I was on the beach and decided to take a swim along the shoreline. Now, I’m a strong swimmer, but haven’t really swam any distance in the ocean before, so I thought I’d stay along the shoreline to be safe. As I got in the water, I realized I have a bit of a fear of sea creatures. The beach was fairly rocky, so each rock outcropping had a swarm of fish around it. I’m not talking about sharks, here, I’m talking about tiny little colorful fish! For some silly reason, the fish were really freaking me out! I have learned over time that I HAVE TO face these things head on, or I simply end up with a roadblock in my mind and my life in the form of a fear. So, fearful as I was, I then knew I MUST swim that shoreline.

I know this is a blog about an entrepreneurial journey. . . hang with me; I’m getting there.

As I got into the water, I saw what I thought was a turtle, it was probably either a rock or a dead turtle, based on it’s lack of movement. So, I moved away from it a little bit, tightened my goggles and started swimming. There were small rocks about every 10 feet or so, so I was having a minor freakout each time I passed one of them and the surrounding fish. The strap from my goggles would hit my face occasionally, making me think I was being attacked by a goldfish. Every now and then, I would drift either in so far that my arms hit the bottom, or I would drift out fairly far, and come back in. But, fairly soon, I make it to the other end, and back. The total distance, I’d estimate around a quarter to a third of a mile, so it was not PHYSICALLY challenging for me, only mentally. I made it back to the other end pretty easily and it was done.

As I was swimming along, I was thinking about why the situation was so frustrating. I really enjoy swimming. There I was, in a beautiful setting, with beautiful fish, great weather and sunny, cloud-free skys. For someone who loves to swim, this was a DREAM COME TRUE! But, the unfortunate part was that I was struggling through it because of an irrational fear. What bullshit!

As I was reflecting on this, I got to thinking that this is sort of metaphorical for a lot of things in life, particularly entrepreneurship. It’s some scary stuff. And good entrepreneurs are always pushing themselves through some sort of fear; if they aren’t, they’re not growing. I would even argue that if you aren’t pushing through some sort of challenge, you are not an entrepreneur. But it’s just like me swimming with those man eating goldfish, the fear gets in the way of the enjoyment of the process. I hope to use the fish analogy as a metaphore for my experiences as I continue on my business-building journey. The lesson I’m taking from this is to stop being so scared and just DO IT.

Not being scared of new things is a skill like everything else. It takes practice. By the way, I swam that beach again the next day. It was easier.

Image Credit: Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash