This is a conversation I have with so many of my clients, around how they present
themselves online
What do I call myself? Coach? Mentor? Consultant?
What if people judge me?
What if I don’t have the correct certification/experience/accreditation?
What if they think I’m a charlatan?
What if I have no proof?
What if they don’t think I’m qualified to help them?
The list goes on and on and on and on…So I did some research (as ever!) I asked a
question in The Ambitious Introvert™ Network Facebook Group – do you care if
your coach is certified?
The responses were varied to say the least!
I got everything from…
“100%, I want to know I’m in safe hands, I look for certifications” down to…
“If I cared less I’d stop breathing” and even a…
“Certifications put me off! I want people with real world experience”
The important thing to remember is none of this is right or wrong – simply
different opinions & perspectives.
Certainly there may be coaches or people supporting your business in certain areas that
you absolutely do want to know people are accredited and certified – especially
say with finances or legalities. However in other areas, someone with zero
certifications could have such a high level of emotional intelligence and
empathy, combined with their own experience, that they are absolutely the best
person to help you get from where you are to where you want to be.
I have two clients who are healers – one has no certifications, but she is pure and
simple a healer since birth. She finds this a very difficult identity to step
into partly because she doesn’t always understand how she does it, it’s just
part of her natural gifts. The other client has certifications & experience
in many, many healing modalities and has been doing it for over 15 years. She
has no issues whatsoever in calling herself a healer, that’s absolutely what
she sees herself as. Who is right & who is wrong? Neither. Do people hire
them both? Yes.
In the same way, you may think you “only” have five years of experience in something.
Well let me tell you – someone else who wants to get where you are, who only
has six months experience, IS going to think that you are, in fact, an
expert.
Same way, if you “only” have one years experience doing something, but your client or
potential client has zero, you could absolutely be the right person to get them
to what they want to be. But are you too busy comparing yourself to the person
who has 2 years experience, thinking you aren’t ‘qualified’ enough yet? If so,
stop!
The main point I want to get across here is that you cannot be right or wrong in how you
present your experience and qualifications online. If you have a long list of
qualifications and you want to share them, that’s great! Some people will
absolutely love that and that’s why they’ll hire you. Other people won’t care
at all, and apparently it will put some off – and that’s absolutely fine!
Or maybe you have zero qualifications at all, but you have innate natural ability, or
the right experience, or the client results as proof that you are absolutely
the expert in your field – the right people would not care in the slightest
that you don’t have a piece of paper proving it. They want to hire you because
of everything that you have done, so share that!
Rather than worrying too much about labels or words, or overthinking how people see
you, or worrying about their judgement – just know that the right people
will like you for exactly who you are, exactly what you’ve done, exactly what
you share and exactly what you can bring to the table for them. So get
comfortable with being all out you, own your expertise (whether that’s
qualifications, experience, natural gifts, client results, or whatever else)
& share it with pride!
