Have you ever had these thoughts?…

I’m not an expert. I have no formal qualifications. I’ve never studied any official course about this subject.

How am I meant to go out there and charge money for my coaching or training products without being an expert?

I’ve thought these thoughts too.

I remember the first time I contemplated selling a training course.

It was 2007. I’d blogged for two years and had a nice little audience built up – about 3,000 people on my email list and reading my blog.

Prior to this I’d made money either through advertising, selling other people’s products or selling services delivered by other people.

I was the entrepreneur and marketer. I was good at building basic websites and audiences but I’d never gone out there and charged money for something of my own creation.

It was a daunting idea to think people would pay money for my ideas, for my expertise.

What if they didn’t like what I had to say? What if everyone who bought my product asked for a refund, or no one even bought my product in the first place?

I wasn’t sure my self-esteem was up for the potential rejection!

Reframing My Expectations

If you have fear of something it’s usually about a possible future outcome.

I was afraid no one would buy my product, or if they did, they would tell me it was terrible and request a refund.

The fact is these outcomes are always possible. Maybe not likely, but my fear made them seem like much bigger potentialities then they were at the time.

This is especially true when you are doing something for the first time.

If you’ve never sold a product of your own before, no matter how much study and preparation you do beforehand, there’s always that little element of self-doubt that is born from lack of experience.

To deal with these fears I reframed my expectations.

I decided that my goal was simply to complete the process. I’d do a launch, make an offer of my product for sale and see how it goes.

I reframed what I considered a positive result to simply experiencing the process rather than whether or not I made a certain number of sales or people loved my work.

Of course, I still cared about making sales and I wanted people to benefit from my training, but I didn’t turn those outcomes into paralyzing fears.

This reframe allowed me to push through the fear knowing that the only way to fail was to not finish.

People Pay For Results, Not Qualifications

Since that very first experience selling a training product I’ve gone on to sell over two million dollars worth of coaching, courses and training programs…

…and I still do not have any formal qualifications for what I teach!

What I have learned during this time is people will pay for training when it comes from someone who has results.

This is why I believe you should never worry about your lack of qualifications or formal training to believe you are an expert – what matters is whether you have genuinely helped anyone and/or achieved a result yourself.

If you have lost weight, or made money buying antique cars, or are exceptionally good at finding cheap flights online, these are valuable results, things other people want to know how to do. If people have come to you for help in the past and you’ve contributed in any way to them experiencing a positive change, that is all the qualifications you need.

I’ve noticed over years training beginners, those who are very new to the world of online business frequently make two very different mindset mistakes:

1. People who have no formal qualifications have a huge fear about presenting themselves as a so-called “expert” online
2. People who focus only on making money don’t even think about their ability to provide value to a market

The irony is that the first group often have a lot of value to contribute, but they let their fear of being “qualified” — or the real deep-rooted fear of being worthy, of being good enough — stop them from doing anything.

The second group play a game of copycat, setting up websites to replicate other successful people thinking they will make money too. These people tend to only see one layer of the process — the surface — and lack the depth necessary to make a business work. They don’t worry about not being an expert because they don’t think about helping others. This group just believe by having a website they can magically make money.

It’s my job as coach and trainer to give the people who do have value to offer the positive reinforcement and support they need to push through the fear. I also help reframe the money seekers to look at where they can genuinely provide value, rather than just where can they make money.

What Results Do You Have?

I suggest you consider your answers to these two questions…

1. Has anyone ever benefited from your advice?
2. Have you personally experienced a story of success?

If you’re contemplating a future built around a lifestyle business where you sell digital information products and services that you personally create that are designed to help others, your answer to these two questions play a huge part of whether you will succeed.

Don’t worry about your qualifications or you lack of formal training, instead spend time actually helping people get a result.

Is Your Fear Holding You Back?

If you are ready to build an online business based on sharing your knowledge and experiences to grow an audience, and you plan to make money selling your own digital products like ebooks, membership sites and online courses, then I have some important news.

My flagship course Blog Mastermind 2.0 is closing on the 26th of September 2018. I’m running it one more time this year before I move on to other projects. I don’t expect to teach it again for at least a year, or maybe even longer depending on what I focus on in 2019.

Blog Mastermind 2.0 teaches you how to take your knowledge, the experiences you’ve lived, and turn them into content you share online via a blog, podcast and email newsletter.

Using these tools to attract and build trust with your target audience, you then make money by packaging up your knowledge into more structured training, like an online course, and selling it to the audience you’ve grown.

Over time you can build a thriving and stable online business using this model. It’s been my main source of income for the last ten years!

You don’t need to be an expert, you just need to have something to share and learn the system to deliver and sell it online. That’s where Blog Mastermind 2.0 comes in.

I’m running four live coaching webinars for Blog Mastermind 2.0 members, so you get direct access to me as your coach to ask questions. This is your last chance to access this, so join before the deadline.

I’ll see you on the inside,

Yaro
BlogMastermind.com