The moment I realized experiences matter more than expertise

Your experience matters.

I just got back from a wonderful breakfast with an amazing friend.

And our conversation today, paired with a Netflix documentary I watched last night, and a months-worth of little breadcrumbs have brought this concept into focus for me.

Experience vs. Expertise

I’ve found so much of this online space to be focused on being the expert, the thought leader, the one who's known for just one thing.

• And I’ve also found that content to be very prescriptive.

You’re supposed to talk about what you know and lay out the steps for people. And as a creator, I feel like it's become very constrictive and limiting.

And so I came to Tuning In and this platform to try something different.

Answering the question: What would it look like if I just authentically shared?

(Which I’ve come to realize, has been sharing my experiences.)

• Not my way or the highway

• Not trying to tell you what to do.

  • But by journaling and sharing the questions that are prompting me, I could then offer you a prompt too.

Once I started to see that distinction, my client Melissa and I then started to recognize, huh, what does it look like even in an interview?

To go from:

• How do you do this?

• Or what do you do?

Which focus on expertise.

To phrasing questions from the experience lens:

• Like- tell us about a time

• Or do you remember what that felt like?

Asking more about those feelings.

What’s your currency?

Then more recently I was listening to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and there was a very specific line that catapulted this concept more:

She talked about how she came from nothing, and in Hollywood, she found her currency, unfortunately, in her body.

There was something about the way that she phrased it, where it made me think:

Huh, when you don't have physical currency in the way that you want, how can you look and see what currency you do have?

• When you have a lived experience that you can help other people through too.

• One’s that you’ve felt in the depths of your soul.

Wow… how important it is to share and lead from those experiences.

I feel like there's such a greater depth and intentionality when you lead from your life. When you’ve lived it and felt it and had visceral reactions to these things.

You understand the importance of the why and some intricacies that pure knowledge don’t seem to touch.

And of course, it's impossible for us to have the same lived experiences, right? Every millisecond of our day, even if you live it alongside your partner or kids, is all viewed through a different lens and so it's never going to be same-same.

But overall it made me realize: The gravity of people creatives like us to find our spot, our hub, our medium to share our experiences through so we can inspire, create community and lead people when they’re going through those same experiences.

It's not that they need to know how it's that they need to feel seen and understood and not alone, right?

Connection is at the core of everything we need.

And what a gift it is to not only better connect ourselves to our experiences but also to support others through them too.

And so maybe this prompt can help you recognize the power in sharing your experiences. That you don't have to come from that expertise world.

But that your stories are the potency and your connection is where the depth, weight, leadership and transformation happens.

And that your worth doesn't have to be in teaching people how to do something, but that your courage and showing up in that space, in that experience, in those people being able to see themselves. That's where the magic and the gold happens.

That’s why I’ve found it so important to share my experience on Substack with creative moms like you.

Because your experiences, your words, your stories are SO powerful and this hub/medium/platform I’ve found has been that missing link for me.

So many amazing women I talk to want to:

• talk and share

• or write a book

  • but are unsure how to get started in a holistic way that supports their lives, time, livelihood and unrestrictive creativity.

That was my experience too. But since stepping into my creative side with Substack I’ve found that missing business model I've been searching for.

So if you want to share your experiences and create a community that cares…