I was frustrated.
I just couldn’t get through to him.
To me, his path forward was obvious. To him, he was stuck because of one big fear.
He just didn’t feel qualified enough to help other people.
He was afraid of being ridiculed because he wasn’t a medical professional, didn’t have any ‘official qualifications’, so people would not trust his advice and thus no one would buy from him.
I could see his value, the wealth of knowledge locked inside his mind from all that he had lived through.
He had suffered for a long time from an illness, then through a process of study, visiting various people for help (some medical professionals, some not) and a thorough self-experimentation process, cured himself.
To make matters even more frustrating, I knew he could help thousands of other people experience relief from their suffering from the same illness, if only he would get out of his own way and release his knowledge into the world.
All he needed to do was share. Share his stories, teach through his experiences, and open doors to ideas that other people didn’t know.
He paid me to teach him how to translate his knowledge into an income stream.
I could show him how to use a blog and an email list to set up a business, where he could then sell his ideas through various digital products like ebooks, courses and coaching.
But first, we had to get over this one big hurdle.
How could I instill the necessary self-belief and help him to break through the fear barrier because he didn’t feel qualified to teach others?
Are You Good Enough?
The situation I just explained is one I have faced over and over again when coaching people to start their own online teaching business.
While at first it is a frustrating scenario, I know there is an incredible opportunity to make a difference, if you can just move past the fear block.
I love meeting people who have done something significant and have a desire to help others. These people can make such a positive impact, and earn a good living as a byproduct.
For me, one of the biggest ‘wins’ I enjoy is seeing someone finally break through their own limitations. Once they realize their ideas are good and they experience real feedback from their audience telling them so (not to mention making sales of their products), I feel my biggest job is done.
The problem is how can someone who has never taught anyone before, who doesn’t feel like an expert and is fixated on their own lack of qualifications, become convinced of their own value?
From my viewpoint self esteem issues are superficial blockages.
What really matters is whether you can actually offer genuine help. If you have knowledge and skills that can help others — are you good enough — then all that is left to do is untap the value locked inside you.
Your Lack Of Qualifications Does Not Matter
In 99% of situations online, for you to teach and help others, official qualifications do not matter.
The legal profession and the medical profession are two areas where qualifications are important. However, since we’re not planning on performing surgery over the internet, or defending a murder trial, these sorts of qualifications are not mandatory for you to succeed online.
Don’t get me wrong – qualifications help.
Having some kind of stamp of authority is a classic marketing psychology trigger. Flashing your PhD credentials, mentioning awards, and calling yourself a qualified expert from some form of institution can help convince people to trust you, but they are not mandatory labels required before you start.
This problem frequently arrises in health related subject matter. We’ve learned that health advice should only come from doctors, qualified specialists, or some person who has a certificate or two hanging on their wall.
We’re afraid if we don’t have these qualifications, no one will listen to us, buy our products and worse still — they will attack us as a fraud and we won’t have any medical credentials to defend ourselves with.
Yet despite this, there are people online who are making millions of dollars teaching how to lose weight or gain muscle, fix a sore knee or crook back, cure acne, stop chronic headaches, get better sleep, help with sexual disfunction, and countless other health issues, who have zero medical qualifications.
These people make so much money for two reasons –
- They offer real advice that delivers a result
- They make the decision to not hold back and share what they know
What these people have is knowledge, practical real world experience — and the big one! — a desirable result.
They’ve achieved something other people want badly, and they’re willing to spend the time to help others do the same.
The Most Important Business Lesson A New Entrepreneur Can Learn
One of the most important business lessons I can teach you is this:
If you can figure out exactly what people want and then give it to them, you can make a lot of money.
Knowing exactly what people want, and being in a position to help them get it because of your experience, is a formula for a profitable online teaching business.
You might be saying, that’s great, but how can I convince them to buy my teaching products without qualifications?
While your qualifications do not matter, your RESULTS do.
People need to see that you’re living proof of what you propose to help them do. Not only do you need the knowledge and experience to help others, you need to have actually done it.
Results in your own life and being able to demonstrate these results in specific and tangible ways is a powerful marketing force, much more powerful than qualifications.
If you combine your own results, with specific and tangible examples of results you have helped others achieve, you have all you need for a thriving teaching business.
Answer These Questions And You Have Yourself A Business
Hopefully, by now you’re feeling more confident and you won’t let a lack of qualifications stop you from helping others.
However, you might still feel lost about what you can offer to the world, and how you can earn a living from selling your knowledge online.
When you can confidently respond to these questions, you will have your answer…
- What do people really want?
- Where can you deliver genuine value that helps them get what they want?
- What can you demonstrate you have done, in specific and tangible ways, as proof you have what they want?
And for bonus points… - Do you have case studies from people you have helped, who can show specific and tangible results and you can connect their results to the help you provided?
These are BIG questions, which won’t necessarily be easy to answer.
In order for you to answer them you will need to have lived.
Experience comes from living, knowledge comes from experience, and your potential to help comes from sharing your knowledge.
Without time spent solving problems, educating yourself, being devoted to a cause, interest or passion, you will struggle to figure out the answers.
Hopefully, you already know your specialty, your area of expertise because you’ve achieved something — a result. Now, all that you have to do is collect up examples of your results and use them in your marketing, then get busy and build your online teaching business.
If not, your task is to pick a problem and go solve it. Throw yourself into the challenge and start to deliver results. It’s the result that people care about, and can lead one day to a profitable teaching business, selling your knowledge through digital products and services.
Yaro
BlogMoneyFinder.com
P.S. My new introductory course, The Blog Money Finder, is now available.
Its purpose is to help you find and refine a money-making topic to build your blog business around. If you’re currently seeking a profitable topic, this is the course for you.
Hardwork is all that’s needed.
This is so very true, and it actually affects me quite often.
I’ve had horses all my life. I’ve worked with horses, for some incredible people, and I now train my own horses. I offer lessons to friends, but don’t charge- in fact, I actually teach qualified instructors. But as I’m not a qualified instructor (despite getting much better results than those that I teach), I hold back.
I’m glad I’ve read this article, because I’m actually in the middle of setting up a new website to help people with their horses- so it’s nice to hear that I’m heading in the right direction!
Thanks for the inspiration.
Chloe
You really have a clever way to explain your point regarding acquiring results in everything that we do, may it be in our personal lives or for business. Though for some qualifications are required in a job, in the end, they will still look for a result of your work. If you are not showing any positive result or progress, then all qualification of yours are forgotten and doesn’t matter anymore. So it’s better to have efficient and effective idea on what you do rather than having all the qualifications but not giving any good result your customer wants.
Most people are hard on themselves. They feel inferior over other people who they deem confident and qualified to go out of their way. Due to this inferiority, people fail to show their true potential and in turn missed out on opportunities.