Why You Do Not Need a Ph.D. to Become an Expert in Your Field

Photo by Pang Yuhao on Unsplash

For the purpose of this article, dear reader, I am asking you to indulge me in an exercise. Imagine you are in a book store.

Imagine you are browsing for a specific book (in my case could be very likely an old classic or a cookbook), a few things tend to occur.

Let’s use the cookbook example, as it feels much more relatable for most people.

When spotting someone browsing in the food section, they’ll mostly find first and foremost the cuisine / dietary lifestyle relevant to them. Secondly, they look at the author’s name — as this will easily stand out instead of getting each and every single book out of the shelves for examination.

Finally, the quality of the content will be the decisive fact.

This theory was proven in the book The Art of Influencing Anyone with the example of a professor who, for the sake of experimenting, submitted a completely random article to a magazine — an article that did not make any sense at all.

Despite the content itself, the article was published just because of his Ph.D. This gives people reassurance about the quality of the content, despite the actual content itself.

In the book Make an Impact, a stellar 92% of highly influential people consider, as part of their mission, to “educate as many people as possible”.

Not too surprisingly, even the social influencers seemed to agree with the statement, despite being much less suspicious than highly influential people when online personalities without any certification give questionable advice on the internet (a staggering 35% versus 78%).

This clearly reflects the stance the general public has been taking recently when it comes to consuming content online and clearly shapes the way we approach information in a fast-moving world.

Can you fake expertise?

However, don’t be fooled by the idea that expertise is just a mere “trend” related to our sociological landscape.

Expertise, to different extents, is part of the validation leaders have been harnessing for centuries before, making sure that also skills, charisma as well as creating a trustworthy image of themselves has been supporting their argument. Indeed, you can fake it.

So much so that an actor pretended to be a renowned professor and presented a talk for an audience of experts, jeopardized it with repetitive and contradictory statements.

By the end of the talk, the audience considered his talk highly informative. How did he manage to deceive a full panel of experts?

He was faking, as well as acting: he appeared warm and friendly, sharing funny anecdotes whilst creating a charming yet fake professor character — this was enough to distract the audience.

This is not to want to put the seed of mistrust in you.

However, it comes to show that trustworthiness and expertise are not mutually exclusive, and do actually work together symbiotically.

Depending on what you want to specialize your influence, there are different avenues to boost your expertise.

Most influencers I interviewed for Make an Impact have a certification of some kind, and therefore tend to state that it’s important to own certification to provide the best information possible.

I am here to challenge this slightly — obviously.

Despite the fact that degrees and PhDs are an incredible asset and should be always considered, I do believe there are so many ways to keep on learning.

• You can follow yourself people with great influence and expertise
• You can listen to podcasts and watch TED talks
• You can read books, attend seminars and read studies
• You can write essays, studies, and research
• You can embark a new journey with a new degree, course or study path
• You can network, head to a conference or a workshop

What you also should do is surround yourself with people that can complement your expertise.

Let’s be honest, we do not and should not be 360 experts in the subject that is life. Most of us decide to focus on a specific area.

In order to showcase expertise as well as inherent trustworthiness, having a solid network of people with better knowledge in some topics than you do is such a key aspect of harnessing your expertise — and recognizing your own limits.

This is something Wellspoken’s standards address as content in or out of remit. If you are looking to discuss something outside of your area of expertise, providing recommendations that have been validated by a registered and credible professional or specialist is basically putting the consumer’s safety and wellbeing first.

How to create credible content

“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” — Jeff Bezos, CEO at Amazon.com

Lastly, though, if you are using your influence through the medium of content, you will have an added bonus — because you thought you’d be done, didn’t you?

Content and the way content is presented are as important as your footnotes, especially as you do not want to alienate people who are coming to you with a problem to solve or an issue to resolve.

I call this the “triple-whammy of credible influencers” (I know, I do have a talent for catchy names):

• trustworthiness (how believable the content is)
• clarity (how easily the content can be understood)
• accuracy (how well documented the content is)

If you feel lost or overwhelmed, I recommend looking for codes of conduct and ethics within your niche and industry.

I am a very strong believer in the power of reliable content and continuous evolution through the medium of learning.

In the last 5 years, we have seen an incredible change in what is the way we consume, read and react to information.

In a study from my buddies at Wellspoken 73% of UK media reporting in general of the wellness industry and wellness brands, it was negative in sentiment.

From the same study, we learned that 74% of respondents identified that the least trustworthy wellness information was found on social media, shared by wellness brands and consumer health magazines.

Influencers are very aware of this as well, as in my study for Make an Impact over 60% of them agree that they are likely to challenge people who give misleading information online.

It’s a very important aspect of credibility, as it allows you to step back before producing any content or making any sort of judgment, and really think about you are about to say.

I want to highlight this because it’s such a good practice to carry also in your everyday life. You know, the good ol’ “think before you speak” habit we have been taught since very little.

This also links back with another good catch-phrase “never argue when you are angry”.

This is actually quite obvious, but so many of us do not seem to be able to follow it.

The truth is, if you really want to showcase expertise in a professional manner, emotions cannot be what shapes your argument.

Emotions should be the fuel of any discussion (or piece of content, in this case), however, as soon as they take over what the rational argument appears to be, you quickly end up being in the wrong, quite literally making the all argument vacuous.

How to find credible sources

There are so many ways to shape your content and make sure it’s as credible and transparent as it can be (she says, with a bibliography as long as the Divine Comedy). Be excited about creating content you can learn from.

Challenge yourself by thinking about people you can tap into that can support you in areas you do not know, and find reliable resources for your articles and posts.

Here I have listed my top five tips to make it easier for you to create credible content:

• Create a list of blogs, publications, and websites to consult when discussing a very specific topic you want to support with further reading.
• If you have been taking a course or a degree, make sure you have saved the links to online resources and studies that your course provided you with — most courses and universities nowadays will have some to share with you.
• Take some time to choose how you are going to clearly list resources in your writing (may that be your articles or any online content). There is no right or wrong, just make sure people can clearly refer back to them.
• Build a list of contacts in topics and areas that are not your expertise, who are willing to help you out with quotes, articles or information when relevant.

By simply starting with these four tips and hacks, you’ll be able to up your content game and save loads of time for yourself. By making it a habit, it will slowly become second nature to you — and reflect everything you talk about.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” — Warren Buffett

Who thought that learning how to harness your influence could also turn you into a better human?

Influence is something that surrounds us on a daily basis, and we all influence so many people around us — from the Starbucks barista to the people following us online.

Being able to grow as individuals and shape our journey is what can also make us better influencers and help others getting there.

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